CPNALV 2013: Indie & Blogger Dinner

Press Sample

To kick off Cosmoprof North America Las Vegas 2013, the ninjas at Ninja Polish set up a nice dinner for indie polish makers and bloggers Saturday night. Despite oversleeping and missing my flight, I was able to make it and boy, am I glad I did!  We had so many wonderful bloggers, e-tailers and nail polish creators and it was fantastic putting faces to names. I'm waiting for someone to post group photos so I can share but until then I have something equally fantastic.

So the ninjas really went ALL out this year in giving us gift bags. And I'm not kidding - we're talking little tote bags with a pocket that have the brand logo on the front. I will seriously be using this bag over and over again and not just for nail polish stuff!

This was all inside my "blogger survival kit"

I snuck away with a shirt too (I'm part ninja) but the bags included some amazing essentials like nail polish remover and candy (seriously, thank you so much) but also lip gloss for the dry Vegas heat, face wipes, REJUVACOTE AND SECHE VITE (since I forgot ALL my nail polish stuff at home this was a Godsend), and some amazing pretties from various brands!

From Dandy Nails [Etsy | Facebook] I received Bound to Fall from the Valentine's Day collection. While this polish is currently out of stock for international buyers, you can sign up for the "in stock emails" on the Ninja Polish website here. If you live domestically in the US, you can buy Bound to Fall directly from Dandy Nail's Etsy page here. [Thanks Sandy!]

Red Dog Designs [Big Cartel | Ninja Polish | Facebook] is a new brand to Ninja Polish and she included a wheel of her Neon Summer Sands collection. I originally received Sunny Shores, which you may have seen on Instagram.

 But I was sitting next Romy Raves and she was eying my bottle (we thought it was more green in the light we were in), so we swapped because Romy is a green fiend.  So now I have Coral Beach, which is a pretty orange.

Also included in the bag was a bottle of Serum No. 5 in Day Glow. This is a super bright yellow glow that you may have seen on the lovely Chalkboard Nails. I'm excited to try this out when I get home.

Finally in the Ninja Polish bags were five freaking amazing Ninja Polishes.  First, from the Enigma collection is Shillelagh, a color shifting green with golden shimmer.

From the upcoming Gemstone collection is Rubellite Dreams - a cherry red with red microglitter that just makes it look like a gorgeous ruby.

From the Spectrum collection, I received the amazing Glamorous, which is a rival to OPI DS Glamour (which I don't own but love).

And I also received Passion Shift - soon to be released. (Spectrum collection)

That's what I'm wearing on my top two nails in the photo - it's a crazy duochrome holographic.

Finally from the upcoming Dragon collection, I received Enter The Dragon which is this ridiculous glitter bomb with color-shifting glitter in a clear base.

But that's not all! KBShimmer was also on hand and gave us little gift bags that included two upcoming fall release polishes, scrubs and lip balm. I will be able to talk about them next month as they are currently embargoed.

Sea Lore Polish was also there and I purchased two of her polishes from the Spring Seas collection - 

That's Popping Parrotfish on the left and Springing Seahorse on the right.

And finally, Girly Bits Cosmetics brought two adorable minis. Pam, the owner, lives in the same city I do - except we're in different countries. This may not be cool to you but I am fascinated by it every time. Our cities even did like a sister-city program which is cute. We had never met before Saturday, so it was fun to say hi.

At press time, What Happens in Vegas .... Ends up on Facebook is only available in mini form for the ladies at the dinner but who knows!

Look at that beauty!

The other bottle is Visions of Sugar Plums, which is available in full size here for $10.00.

Whew. So I have my work cut out for me to show you lots of beautiful indies. I am very thankful for the opportunity to meet these ladies and grateful that they gave me gift bags. I also got to meet Llarowe and keep missing Harlow and Co but we're here together in spirit.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Sea Lore Adella

Image Courtesy of The Disney Wiki

This black haired sister of Ariel with her chartreuse green seashell bra and yellow tail was the inspiration for the golden glitter polish by Sea Lore called Adella.  I seriously need to go watch all the movies again because I don't remember anything about her sisters!

For good measure, here's the back of the bottle too:

I decided to put 1 coat of Adella over my LVX Livid manicure thinking black would be the best base for this golden green glitter in a golden green base.

Look how much polish showed up with just one coat!  I mean, it's like crazy a lot.  While this does remind me of a few China Glaze glitters that have come out, I don't think any have this greenish tint with them.

I topped all my nails with Cult Nails Wicked Fast for smoothness.  You can see that while it looks gritty, it really wasn't.

Finally in some indirect light, you can see that this is a very pretty gold and would be great to wear with other colors too - especially a blue and maybe even a gold!  I did not try layering this polish on its own but it looks like it could be fully opaque within just a few coats.

Sea Lore [Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram: sealorepolish] is sold in her shop in both 7.5 ml bottles for $5.50 and 15 ml bottles for $10.00.  She does ship internationally and offers gift certificates.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Sea Lore Attina

Image Courtesy of Sea Lore Facebook Page

I know I don't feature a lot of indie brands on PolishGalore but I'm trying to include more in my rotation.  Sea Lore was created by a woman in love with the sea and her first collection was named after the mermaids in The Little Mermaid.  I may not have seen the movie in almost 2 decades but I do recall the sisters in the beginning of the movie.  Today I have Attina, the oldest sister at 21 years young, who had an orange tail and seashell bra, brown hair in a up-do with a small crown.  

Image Credit: Disney Wiki

The bottles are sold in 7.5 ml and 15 ml bottles - this is the smaller bottle.  Attina is listed as a coral jelly polish with golden shimmer and golden iridescent flakies.  I thought maybe I could layer it over my LVX Ecru so the jellyness wouldn't be so sheer, but it didn't seem to be a good combination.  This is 2 coats of Attina.

After realizing that nude peach wasn't the best base, I decided to try over Sephora black, and then on its own (index finger).  Here in the sun, it looks more like gold shimmer and nothing else.

I flipped the bottle around here in the shade to try and show you more of the color.  Still a bad choice to layer it over nude - you really can't see all the color in the jelly.  However, the jelly is very sheer and not very buildable - best used as a top coat I feel.

Finally here in the indirect light you can see how well it covers in 2 coats over black but everything else just looks lost.  I'm not sure how much I'd wear this even though I love how unique the shreds of shimmer and flakies are irregular and place well on the nail - no need to fish them out.

Sea Lore [Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram: sealorepolish] is sold in her shop in both 7.5 ml bottles for $5.50 and 15 ml bottles for $10.00.  She does ship internationally and offers gift certificates.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.