Restock today at 4:30PM EST!

Le Big Party, Seppuku (With A Frisbee), Don't Drop That Spoon, Mrs. White, Glitter Food, plus a few new colors will be stocked. PLUS I Believe I Can Fly will be BACK!

Bloody Hollow

A great name for a haunted house...or the story of "Ignition (remix)".

Once upon a time I got this idea for an all-holo rainbow hex glitter polish so I ordered holo-hexes in every color.  So confident was I in my supplier and the good luck I'd had with their previous glitters that instead of doing my usual testing of each color, I got excited and impatiently threw them into a bottle with some base.  It looked amazing(!) so I took some pictures, and still excited and impatient I even posted on Facebook.  By now you might be able to guess where this is going....next stop Bloody Hollow!

It took a few days, but eventually some of the glitters started to bleed turning my masterpiece into brown crap.  The problem was that I had mixed them all together so I couldn't tell which.  I knew it was more than one because the base was turning brown, but I could also see that each color was still vibrant within the brown muck.  It was time to do what I should have done in the first place and test each glitter individually.

Once I did that it was obvious that my problems were red, orange, and purple.  I've now replaced those with non-holo versions and honestly, I can't tell the difference. Crisis averted!

It's time for another giveaway!

Two big things happened today:  I hit 100 likes on Facebook, and I shipped my 300th bottle out this AM! 

I know 300 is comparatively small to some of the other indie brands out there, but I'm savoring this early success.  It's big enough that I'm starting to think bigger and order more, which hopefully means more stable supply and more new colors.  It's also small enough that I can still include handwritten thank you's with each order, accommodate custom listings and international shipping, and generally ship each order in a day or two.  It's a good spot to be in!

To celebrate, as promised, I'm having another giveaway!

The Prize:  Full Size bottles of Glitter Food, Cosmic Debris and Red to Green color shifting topcoat

Open to:  Residents of the US and Canada

Enter until:  August 6th, 2012  2PM EST

To enter leave a comment on this post answering the following question (and a way to get in touch with you if you win):

How do you feel about limited edition polishes?   Would you rather see a smaller variety of colors that are consistently stocked, a bigger variety of ever-changing colors, or some combination of the two?

Thanks everyone for your support so far!!

And the winner is...

Today is the day!  As promised I have drawn a name at random from all the comments left and am pleased to announce that the winner is:  Emily!

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to leave a comment, I read and enjoyed every one.

In other news, I have stocked up on Glitter Food ingredients and expect to be able to keep it in stock for quite some time to come.  I'm even thinking of investing in a more industrial-grade mixer!   The etsy shop will be re-opening later today and I'm expecting to be able to continually restock from this point on.

Finally, please like me on Facebook!  You can find a link in the tabs at the top.  I'm planning a special giveaway when I hit 100 followers (I'm at 69 right now).

A few sneak previews...

Here are some bottle shots of upcoming colors and works in progress:

Mrs. White from the Clue collection:



We're Having A Baby from the R. Kelly collection (this one may need more glitter):



Double Up from the R. Kelly collection



I've also updated the Restock page.  I hope to have a few more colors ready before Saturday!

BB Couture Dragon's Breath

Such a vampy color for summer, but I love it! Application was easy and dry time was great.

NPB is on Facebook!

I have to warn you, I'm not "good" at Facebook but now that I have a page, I hope I'll get better!

I'll post updates there (as well as here) so you can keep up with restocks, new colors, etc. however you'd like.

Check it out and let me know what you think and what you'd like to see me post there!

NPB is hitting mail boxes all over the country!

...and ladies with gorgeous nails are blogging about it!

Nicole at Nail Polish Wars is flipping out hard!

Emily has a great post about layering with Purple Rain.

Jen at Lavish Layerings has some beautiful swatches of Seppuku (With A Frisbee) and Le Big Party.

Tini at Narcissistic Nails does an awesome job showing off Le Big Party and Don't Drop That Spoon.

Pryanka writes an excellent review of I Believe I Can Fly.

In the frenzy of sales and shipping and emails I hadn't anticipated how awesome it would be to connect with all these polish lovers out there.  This is so much fun!  Thanks everyone!

A Few Lucky Experiments

After I've finished testing various glitters, I'm left with tons of little bits of glitter in suspension base.  I have a hard time wasting anything, so today I gathered up all the ones that I was done with and starting combining them.  Here's what I came up with:

These are SO unlike anything I've made before but I was really feeling it as I went and I'm pleasantly surprised at how these came out.  I might even try to re-create them. 

And now, my first giveaway!  I had enough to fill mini bottles of these as well, so I'll be giving away a trio of minis (1/8th oz)! 

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment saying which of these is your favorite and an email address that I can contact you at if you are the lucky winner.  My apologies to anyone international but this will be limited to the US only.  The winner will be announced in two weeks on 7/21.

Good luck!

When Good Glitters Go Bad

Part of the work of developing nail polishes is testing the glitter. Here are a few examples of things that can go wrong.

Bleeding:

 

Curling (these are .062" hexes):



I'm not sure quite what to call this, it's like pitting.  These were originally irridescent pink



More curling, except these are square, and they are surprisingly very tiny.




Most of these failed right away, with the exception of the pink hexes which took over a month before they showed any sign of curling. 

China Glaze I'm Not Lion

This is two coats with one coat of NPB's Glitter Food and one coat of Seche.  This was really hard to photograph - my camera didn't want to focus!

I was able to get ALL 70+ orders shipped out on Monday AM with the exception of one Canadian order that will be going out tomorrow.  Phew!  I've already placed an order for more glitter, so that should be coming in soon and I'm also working on some new polishes!  Of course you'll see pictures here before they are for sale so stay tuned.