Sunday, August 30, 2015

#ITRUSTINDIES - Indie Nail Polish Swatches

Hey there!  As I'm sure most of you know, the nail polish world has been all abuzz with drama due to some unsavoury behaviours by a certain indie nail polish brand.  I've stayed quiet about the issue because I knew I couldn't do it the justice that other blogs like Ashley Is Polish Addicted and The Mercurial Magpie have.  Unfortunately, when larger sites like Cosmo, Jezebel and Seventeen got wind of the story, the indie nail polish started coming into question.  People are now questioning the practice of all brands but I'm here with a group of other bloggers this week who still and always will love and trust our indies.  The Crumpet has put together a link up for us to share our love indies so I spent all my spare time this weekend swatching just a few of the brands that I know and love.  I wish I could do this for all the indies I trust but alas, there wasn't time so today I just have a small sampling of some amazing indie brands.


A England was probably one of the first three indie polishes I bought and I have never been disappointed in her formula and the colors she comes out with.  She doesn't have a new collection every time you turn your head.  She waits to release new polish until the collection is perfection.  I'm come to trust her decisions so much as soon as I hear about a new collection, I know I'm purchasing the entire thing (something I never do with other brands since I'm not made of money).

Below is two coats of one of her more popular polishes, Saint George of The Legends collection - a gorgeous teal green with scattered holo but applies like smooth butter.  


Cirque Colors is based out of New York and makes all 3-free polish.  Her collections are all well thought out, for example the cremes inspired by New York with the Metropolis collection or the bright holos with the Juicy Collection.  I have all the respect for this brand.  

This is three coats of Love Stone, a pink creme with gold flakies from the Awakening Collection.  So pretty.  


Check out those gold flakes *drool*


Emily de Molly is the first Australian brand I'm showing today.  All her polishes are "Toluene, Formaldehyde, TSF Resin, Camphor and DBP Free. They are also cruelty free and vegan friendly."  She has awesome jelly/glitters, holos, shimmers...pretty much everything you might want.  Here are my Emily de Molly posts.

The polish I chose to showcase Emily de Molly is 2 coats of Cosmic Forces - a purple jelly filled with holo glitter including the big circle glitter.  Her Forces collection was one of my first times seeing circle glitter and I NEEDED it.  Unfortunately in my swatch my top coat had bubbles so you'll have to trust me when I say this polish can look even better than this!  


F.U.N. Lacquer is a brand out of Singapore that has the most amazing holo microglitter polishes you will ever see.  They also do multichromes amazingly.  You can see all my FUN Lacquer posts here.

To show off their glitter, I used two coats of Galaxy over a black base since I hadn't tried this one yet.  This mani was mind blowingly sparkly in the sun.  


Look at all that tiny holo glitter!  


Next up we have the Canadian kid, Girly Bits.  Her polish is 3-free, cruelty-free and handcrafted.  Pam's collections always come with a fun theme and a little story about the inspiration of the polish.  She also works with bloggers to come up with collaboration polishes like this one.

This is two coats of Get Weaponized, a teal holo with tiny bits of purple and magenta.  This is my favourite Girly Bits polish!  But I have others that I love as well.  


I always love how it looks in macro too.  


Up next is another Australian indie - Glam Polish.  Glam is another brand that makes me drool over entire collections.  I wish I could get my hands on everything she makes but I have to wait until they get to a Canadian stockist to order and things go quick!  She lists all her ingredients for those of you that are concerned following the Mentality fiasco.  

WHAM! is a silver holographic with silver micro flakes.  I hadn't tried this one before today and I'm in love with it.  And then my sister fell in love with it and put it on tonight too.  


It's another one that I really love close up.  Yay, holo glitter!  


KBShimmer is a tried and true brand for a lot of us nail addicts.  One coater cremes, glitter jellies and crellies, holos - she makes it all.  AND she makes the most delicious lotions, soaps and scrubs that I have ever tried.  I swear I will never be without a bottle of Chai Tea lotion ever again.  Just look  at how many posts I have using KBShimmer polishes if you have any questions about my dedication to this brand.  

Since it's getting fall-like outside, I wanted to try Leaf of Faith again.  This is only two coats.  Again, my top coat left bubbles but it's still fall in a bottle.  


Lastly, we have the lovely Superficially Colorful Lacquer - a handmade 5-free indie brand.  I've swatched for the oh-so-sweet Jinjit before but before that happened, I had bought this stunning thermal polish.  How could I resist a polish with my name on it.  This should give you an indication of how great her polishes are.  This bottle is years old but it's still thermal-reactive.  Cool eh?


That's all for tonight.  I hope anyone that reads this recognizes that one bad apple can't ruin the entire bunch.  Most indie brands properly test their polishes months before they go to market.  We should all #TRUSTINDIES!

'Til next time...



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