Smitten Polish Update - New Collection Info and More

Hi folks! I have a bit of business to mention, then we'll get on to the new collection.

As Smitten has gotten more and more successful (beyond my wildest dreams, really), it's gotten progressively more difficult for me to keep up with trying to update both the blog and Facebook pages. Facebook is honestly much easier for me to update on the fly, especially when I'm away from home. For that reason, the vast, vast majority of Smitten updates will be via the Facebook page, which is here.

That being said, I know that not everyone likes Facebook. I know that not everyone wants to be on Facebook. So for that reason, I'm also starting a newsletter that will feature restock information, new collection and new release information, and information on sales. I promise I won't spam you. and I'll never, ever sell your information. The link to sign up for the newsletter is below!

Now that that's out the way, on to the fun stuff. =) My newest collection is called Wickedly Smitten, and it's inspired by the musical, Wicked. Here are the swatches and the inspirations for each polish.

The first is Traveling by Bubble, inspired by Glinda.

In the musical, Glinda's dress is blue rather than pink, but I wanted to have some pink in there as a nod to the movie version of Glinda as well. Pink and blue circle glitter, along with a bit of small pink and blue hex glitter, in a milky blue base with a touch of blue shimmer. This is shown at three coats.

This is the inspiration: Glinda arriving by bubble. =)

 

 Image Credit 

 

Next up, we have Pink Goes Good with Green!, inspired by the part in the musical where Galinda decides to make Elphaba her pet project and teach her to be popular. One of the things she does is put a pink flower in Elphaba's hair and exclaim, "Oooh! Pink goes good with green!"

Pink Goes Good with Green! is several sizes of light green and light pink glitters suspended in a milky green base. And here's a shot from the musical to give perspective to the polish:

 Image Credit

Next is the other polish pictured in the above swatch, I Feel... Wicked. I won't give away what leads Elphaba to this realization. This polish is based on Elphie in all her green glory. Green jelly base with several sizes and shapes of green and purple glitter, including some green holographic glitters.

Elphaba, as portrayed by the incomparable Idina Menzel.

Image Credit

 

Look to the Western Sky is a line from my favorite song from Wicked, Defying Gravity. "So if you care to find me, look to the western sky! As someone told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to FLY!" This is my vision of Elphaba flying off into the sunset.

 

 

Purple jelly base with the colors of the sunset - pink, yellow, purple and orange. 

 

Image Credit

 

And lastly, but certainly not least, we have Who Steals a Dead Woman's Shoes?? Which, if you think about it, is exactly what Dorothy did! The shoes in the original book by L. Frank Baum and in Wicked aren't red - they were made red for the film. The shoes were silver, and this is my interpretation of the silver shoes.

 

 

And here's Elphie's sister, Nessarose, with the jeweled shoes.

 

Image Credit

 

 

So that's it. This collection was a real labor of love for me, and I hope it shows. This collection will go live on my Etsy shop, www.smittenpolish.com, on January 30, 2013. I will list half my shock at 1pm CENTRAL TIME and the other half at 7pm CENTRAL time. See you there!

USPS Price Increases

A note to my international customers regarding USPS price increases:

I'm not sure exactly how it's going to shake out because I can't find the list of which countries are in which zones, but right now it looks like the lowest cost for one polish to ship internationally will be $7.35, and the highest zone is $9.15. Two to three polishes will be between $8.55 and $12.15. And, of course, the costs just go up from there.

I may need to suspend international shipping for a bit while I figure all this out. =\

Smitten with the Holidays Stock Info

I will be stocking the Smitten with the Holidays collection in my Etsy store on November 26, 2012. I'll put half the stock up at 1pm CENTRAL TIME on November 26, and the other half up at 7pm CENTRAL TIME on November 26, so that as many different time zones as possible will have access to the stock.

Also, I'll be running a special for Cyber Monday, 20% off your order with code CYBER20. That code will be valid starting with the 1pm restock and will be good until midnight CENTRAL TIME the night of November 26.

In addition, leftover stock of the Halloween collection will be priced at $7 each, and will be eligible for the Cyber Monday discount.

Happy shopping and, as always, thank you all so much for the support! <3

Smitten with the Holidays - Holiday 2012 - Coming Nov 26, 2012

Group shot!

The Smitten Polish Smitten with the Holidays collection will be available on November 26, 2012 at www.smittenpolish.com! Here are some larger swatches and descriptions:

A Midnight Clear - Blue jelly base with tiny blue flakes.

Adeste Fidelis - White jelly base with rose, pale green and coppery glitters.

Flurry - Grey jelly base with light blue and iridescent glitter, as well as larger white square glitters.

Frost Fairies - My favorite, and probably the most difficult to photograph. This is a semi-sheer white jelly base with blue and aqua shimmer.

Greensleeves - Teal-leaning green jelly base with green shimmer as well as tiny green and gold flakes.

The Holly and the Ivy - White jelly base with dark red and green matte glitters in two sizes.

Grinchy Claus - Warm leaning green with gold shimmer.

Nuttin' For Christmas - rich brown with tiny red-gold flakes and deep red shimmer.

Sleigh Ride - Bright red jelly base with pinkish-red shimmer.

Merry and Bright - Inspired by Victorian Christmas cards, this is a muted berry jelly base packed with various sizes and shapes of copper and gold glitters.

Smitten Polish Restock Info

Hi, folks! Thank you all for being so patient waiting for the new collection to be released. I ran into some delays with my new bottle supplier and bottles got here later than I was hoping. They're finally here, and I'll be opening the shop on Thursday, October 11. 

As I did last time, I'm going to split my stock into two batches to try and accommodate people across as many time zones as possible. Half the stock will be listed at 1pm CENTRAL TIME and the other half will be listed at 7pm CENTRAL TIME on October 11.

Shades that are currently scheduled to be stocked are:

Hocus Pocus

Spice Cake

Wicked, Tricksy, False!

ERMAHGERD, CANDY CORMS

Confection

Glass Elevator

I Want It Now

You're Turning Violet, Violet

Pure Imagination

Winter Is Coming

Candy Kisses

Hillary's Dream

Mint Chip

I know there are shades that people want that aren't on this list. Some of them are out of production for the moment because of supply issues with some of the colorants I was using, and some are out of production because they just weren't selling. I find it difficult to keep up with stocking more than about 15 to 20 shades total, so shades will come and go based on availability of ingredients as well as demand.

And lastly, thank you all for being the very best customers anyone could ask for. It really means the world to me. <3

Smitten Polish Halloween/Fall 2012 Collection

Many, many, MANY thanks to my sweet friend Cilucia for taking these pictures for me. I was out of town and I just had no time to photograph them myself. She's a lifesaver. ♥

So here's the Halloween and Fall collection.

From left to right: ERMAHGERD, CANDY CORMS!, Spice Cake, Hocus Pocus, Wicked, Tricksy, False!

Swatches!

ERMAHGERD, CANDY CORMS! - Three coats on its own.

Spice Cake - This is slightly more brown in person. Three coats.

Hocus Pocus - This leans slightly warmer and less blue in real life. Cilucia used four coats, but I wore it at three coats when I wore it myself.

And lastly, Wicked, Tricksy, False! This is three coats on its own:

Two coats layered over a black creme:

And one coat over a black jelly.

These will be available soon! I can't give you all an exact date yet as I'm awaiting a huge order of bottles and I can't make these until those come in. I'm expecting to be able to put them up for sale during the first week of October. =)

Restock info

I'll be restocking the store this Wednesday. Half of the stock will be put up at 1pm CST and the other half will go up at 7pm CST. Hopefully this will give people across lots of time zones a chance to grab what they want. =)

Smitten Update

Hi, everyone. =) There are several things that I wanted to let you guys know:

1. I plan to restock my store next week sometime, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll announce it here and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/smittenpolish) 48 hours prior to the store opening. I'm also sending out my first batch of inventory to Llarowe this week, so there will be a fair number of polishes available between those two sources. 

2. This next restock will not be a pre-order. I know you guys love pre-orders, but I'm going out of town to visit my family in a couple of weeks, and I just don't have the extra time that it takes to do all the spreadsheeting and invoicing that comes with a pre-order. I'm sorry about that. =\

3. I'm working on the final iterations of my fall and Halloween shades. My plan is to start mixing those after I get back in town and to start offering them for sale at the beginning of October. 

4. I'm running into supply issues with the colorants that are used in Bluebird, Pink Lemonade and The One on the Right. Those will be offered at this restock, but I can't make any guarantees about their future availability. I do plan to start working on reformulating those shades with other ingredients, but A) I'm not sure how well that will turn out and B) I don't know how long it might take. I apologize for that, but that's the nature of this business - sometimes suppliers just stop stocking things we've been using. 

5. For my customers in Australia - the issues with the post seem to have cleared up on their own. One of my friends in Australia who had ordered actually talked to AusPost, and they said that there was a large batch of mail from the US that had been accidentally diverted to the wrong state, hence the delays. All of those packages have found their way to their recipients now, so I think we're good!

And, as always, thank you all for your continued support of Smitten. It really does mean the world to me. ♥

News about the restock

I managed to mess up the listings for Candy Kisses and Glass Elevator. If you had placed another order and then want to grab either one of those after the fact, I will be combining shipping and refunding you the difference. I'm so sorry for the hassle.

Smitten News and Updates

Hello, folks. I have some important bits of info for you.

1. For my Australian customers particularly, and all my international customers in general - I have had three packages now that I've sent to Australia that have either gotten delayed, returned to me, or have vanished to parts unknown. As stated in my shop policies, I'm happy to ship internationally, but once the items leave my hands, I really can't be responsible for what happens in transit. I'll happily replace bottles that are damaged, as well as send the correct color if I make a mistake and send the wrong one. As far as I know, there isn't an economical way to ship internationally with full tracking. I'm about to send a package to Australia via Priority Mail (at my own expense) to see if that arrives there any quicker and also to see if there's some tracking info that comes with that. If so, that might be a viable alternative. I'm really hoping to find something that will work without you guys having to spend triple the cost on shipping. But mainly I wanted my Aussie customers to know that there appears to be a problem somewhere along the way, and to let all my international customers know that I'm trying to find a solution.

2. The following shades will only be restocked until the end of this month: Lovely Lilacs, Fire and Blood, Huckleberry Pie, Moonbeam Dreams, Aquarius and Strawberry Tart.

3. The next restock of my Etsy store will be on Wednesday, August 15, at 6pm CENTRAL TIME. It will include all existing shades, including the Confection Collection, plus two new ones.

This one is Hillary's Dream. This is shown at 3 coats, but it also works well layered over black.

And this one is Candy Kisses, shown here at three coats. This one is a white base with pink and purple glitters.

I think that's all the news. Thank you all, as always, for the amazing support you all have been!

Lilacquer The Diva Plavalaguna

I love duochromes. Loooove them. The Diva Plavalaguna from Lilacquer's Fifth Element collection is my new favorite.

This beauty shifts from a beautiful green to a gorgeous azure blue. I had a really hard time capturing the shift, I think because the shift isn't as dramatic as some, but trust me when I say this polish definitely shows off two different colors.

The formula is top notch. What you see here is two super-easy coats. Dry time was excellent. I should also say that this polish looks smoother in person than it does in these photos. Macro shows off every little flaw, but in person my nails look smooth and metallic.

The Diva Plavalaguna is simply perfection. And now I must order several of the others from the Fifth Element collection. So beautiful!

Lilacquer polishes are available on Etsy here!