Cyber Monday Packages

One final update on the packages from the Cyber Monday sale... The last of the packages went out tonight, though it was after the last pickup so they should get moving tomorrow.

Thanks again for the wonderful turnout for the sale! :)

Cyber Monday Packages

Quick update: any packages from Cyber Monday’s sale that haven’t already shipped will ship on Monday.

Thanks so much for the purchases and your patience! And as always, please email ContraryPolish@gmail.com with any questions. :)

Cyber Monday Sale

It’s time! From now until 4 pm CST, I will be accepting full-size and mini orders via email. The prices for the new winter collection are $10 for full-size and $5 for minis, and the prices for all older colors are $8 for full-size and $4 for minis (a discount of 20%).

I have bottle pictures of the new collection to share with you! However, if you would rather wait for swatches (or if you just miss this sale), don’t worry because there will definitely be future opportunities to get this collection. :)

Contrary Polish On the Rocks - Winter 2013

Tiger’s Eye (bronzy brown with metallic gold shimmer)

Graphite (muddled grey jelly with varied shimmer/micro-flakes - gold, silver, pink, grey)

Obsidian (purple near-black jelly with varied color-shifting shimmer - green and blue shifting to pink and blurple)

Almandine (oxblood red with gold to green color-shifting shimmer)

Fluorite (blurple with green to pink color-shifting shimmer)

Note: This polish is quite a bit more purple/less blue than it appears in these photos. The base color is similar to OPI Sapphire in the Snow, if that helps you to picture it. :)

Dioptase (bluish green with antique gold and green shimmer)

Please see the sidebar for details on how to place an order, and thank you for visiting my blog!

Cyber Monday Announcement

Hello! I’m excited to share the news of my Cyber Monday sale with you all. :)

Tomorrow from 12 pm to 4 pm (CST), I will be accepting orders at a discount of 20% off my usual prices. That will make full-size bottles $8 and mini bottles $4 (plus shipping).

I will also be introducing my winter collection at the same time, though the winter polishes will only be available at full price: $10 for full-size, $5 for mini. 

This new collection is called Contrary Polish On the Rocks, and the shade names and base colors were inspired by various minerals.  

I will post bottle pictures of the new polishes at noon tomorrow, but to give you an idea of what’s coming, here are the shade names and descriptions:

Tiger’s Eye (bronzy brown with metallic gold shimmer)
Graphite (muddled grey with various shimmer/micro-flakes - gold, silver, pink, grey)
Obsidian (purple-tinted black with various color-shifting shimmer - blue and green shifting to blurple and pink)
Almandine (oxblood red with gold to green color-shifting shimmer)
Fluorite (blurple with green to pink color-shifting shimmer)
Dioptase (bluish green with antique gold and green shimmer)

Please see the sidebar if you're not familiar with the email ordering process, and please feel free to send any questions to ContraryPolish@gmail.com.

See you tomorrow at noon! :)

Mini Bottles: No Place Like Home

I'm having trouble updating the sidebar, so I wanted to write a quick post confirming that the No Place Like Home collection (The Plaza, The Boulevard, Westport, River Market, 18th & Vine, West Bottoms) is now available for mini bottle orders. :)

Preview: No Place Like Home

My fall collection launches tomorrow on Llarowe, so I wanted to give you guys a small preview of the inspiration behind the collection.

The collection is called No Place Like Home and the polishes are named after different neighborhoods in my hometown of Kansas City.

The Plaza (concrete grey with ruby red, bright blue, and yellow shimmer/microglitter)

This shade was inspired by the Court of the Penguins fountain on the Country Club Plaza.

Besides its amazing shopping and restaurants, the Plaza is also known for its many fountains, statues, and mosaics. This fountain in particular stands out to me; I really love the juxtaposition of the dirty grey of the concrete with the bright colors of the mosaic.

The Boulevard (muted navy jelly with orange shimmer/microglitter)

This shade was inspired by the wall painting at La Bodega on Southwest Boulevard.

Southwest Boulevard is known for its many wonderful Mexican restaurants, but my favorite place on the Boulevard is a Spanish restaurant. La Bodega is a tapas place with fantastic ambiance, tapas and sangria. It's a longtime favorite of mine for happy hours with friends (who could turn down half-priced tapas and sangria??). :)

Westport (dusty olive green with varied gold shimmer)

This shade was inspired by the sign painted on the outside of Kelly's in Westport.

Westport is an entertainment district with plenty of restaurants, bars, and shopping. I suppose it's a little like a grittier version of the Plaza. And while it's older than the Plaza (around 150 years compared to the Plaza's almost-100, if I recall correctly), it tends to attract a younger crowd.

Kelly's is an Irish bar at the corner of Westport Rd and Pennsylvania Ave. One thing that makes it stand out is the small pizza place located in the rear. A slice really hits the spot after a long night out!

River Market (dark purple jelly with raspberry shimmer/microglitter)

This shade was inspired by blackberries and raspberries at the City Market farmers' market in the River Market.

The River Market is another historic neighborhood in Kansas City, and the anchor attraction is the City Market farmers' market which is open year-round on Saturdays and Sundays. The farmers' market is certainly an easy place to draw inspiration from! Between the fruits/vegetables and the flowers, it is a riot of color. There were plenty of options to choose from, but I ended up most inspired by the color combination of the blackberries and raspberries.

18th & Vine (deep periwinkle with pink shimmer)

This shade was inspired by the color of the walls at The Blue Room in the 18th & Vine district.

The Blue Room is a jazz club in the historic 18th & Vine jazz district. I was there earlier this summer and as soon as I saw the walls I knew I wanted to create a polish with a similar color combination. The walls are a blue-purple and the trim is a red-purple, and the overall effect is striking. My red-purple shimmer leans more pink than I intended, but I think I captured the general idea. :)

West Bottoms (fluorescent yellowish green with gold to green shimmer; glow in the dark and UV-reactive)

This polish is pretty different from what I usually do, but I wanted to have one polish in this collection be a "Halloween" polish... and this is the perfect polish for that since this shade is inspired by The Beast Haunted House in the West Bottoms area. :)

The West Bottoms is known for its haunted houses that open for business every fall. I've been going since I was a teenager and honestly, they creep me out almost as much now as they did then! They're the perfect combination of creepy and cheesy. :)

This polish is both glow-in-the-dark and blacklight/UV reactive. Naturally the glow is at its strongest when it's worn alone, but it's still pretty darn strong when layered! When layered one coat over black, the effect under blacklight is very strong (though you have to be careful to make the layer very even during application if you're only going to do one layer; otherwise the blacklight effect can look patchy), and the glow-in-the-dark effect was strong enough to creep my husband out the first night I wore it to bed. ;) As far as longevity goes, I charged my one-coat-over-black mani in the evening before bed (around 15 seconds with a flashlight) and I could still see a glow when I woke up the next morning.

I have daylight pictures to share of this polish so you can see a bit of its layering potential. (I'll leave the glow-in-the-dark/blacklight pictures to the bloggers, because my attempts to capture it in the dark were horrendous!) The first two swatch pictures show one coat West Bottoms over black, and the second two swatch pictures show two coats over black.

For swatches of all the colors in this collection, please see Vampy Varnish. Sometime tomorrow, I think The Polishaholic and Chalkboard Nails will have swatches up too. :)

This collection will be available on Llarowe starting tomorrow at 1:00 pm CST, and mini bottles will be available on my blog starting this Friday. Please see sidebar for details on how to place an order, and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Small Change to Friday Orders

Happy Friday, guys! I have a small announcement to share.

As most of you know, I take mini bottle orders via this blog every Friday (details in sidebar). From now on, I will also accept some full-size bottle orders every Friday, but only for the shades from my holiday collection from last year: Mystery, Candle Light, Adorned, Bauble, Frozen, and Spruce. Full-size bottles are $10 each.

I'm making this change because my main etailer (Llarowe) no longer carries that collection, and I'd like my customers who prefer full-size bottles to still have easy access to those shades. :)

Please email me at ContraryPolish@gmail.com if you have any questions, and thanks for reading!

Giveaway Results

The giveaway has ended and we have a winner - congratulations to Joyce R.! I just emailed you to get your shipping information so I can send the new trio your way.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway! The new trio will be launched on Llarowe today at 2:00 pm CST, and mini bottles will be available via the blog tomorrow. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Results

The giveaway has ended and we have a winner - congratulations to Michelle H.! I will email you now to get your shipping information so I can send the new trio your way.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway! I'll be posting more about the new trio in the next few days. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Mini Sales + More

Hi all! I'm doing my usual Friday mini sales, plus I have a small announcement about Contrary Polish Bonfire. 

Some of you may have read this elsewhere, but Bonfire has reached the end of its LE run. I've provided the final restock to Llarowe, and I have a limited amount remaining to offer here on the blog. So today in addition to the usual orders for mini bottles, I will also take orders for full-size bottles of Bonfire ($10) from anyone who is interested. This offer is first come, first serve. 

Please see the sidebar for details on how to order. 

Thanks and have a great day! :)

No Mini Sales This Week

Unfortunately I won't be able to take orders for mini bottles tomorrow (Friday, March 8). I have several large etailer orders that will be occupying my time this weekend and next week.

I apologize about the inconvenience, but I promise I will be open for orders next Friday, March 15. :)

Thank you for your patience!

Mini Sales Closed

I'm happy that I was able to stay open longer today! I had time to do some prep work beforehand so I felt comfortable increasing my limit of mini bottle orders this week. :)

I do need to close orders now though. Everyone should've received a reply to their order request by now, so if you haven't, please let me know.

Thanks, everyone!

Mini Sales Closed

I'm so sorry, but there was an influx of orders after my last post, so I've now reached my limit for mini bottles this week. Everyone who already sent in an order should have received a reply from me; if you emailed an order and have not heard back, please let me know.

I'll be accepting mini bottle orders again next Friday. Thanks so much, guys!

Mini Bottle Orders

Hi guys! Quick update... Starting today, I will be accepting mini bottle orders on Fridays only. I've been getting a bit overwhelmed with orders but I'd still like to have mini bottles available for those who want them, so this is the solution I'm going with for now! 

I will post here closing orders early if needed... but hopefully it will not be needed. :)

As always, please email me if you have any questions! Thanks!

Mini Sales Closed

Unfortunately I'm going to have to stop accepting orders for mini bottles for this weekend. Today I received so many orders that if I continue taking new orders I will have trouble fulfilling them in a timely manner. 

If you've already emailed me to place an order, you should have received your invoice by now (or a reply if you inquired about a shipping estimate). If you've emailed me and haven't heard back yet, please let me know.

Thanks for your understanding! Hopefully next weekend I can stay open longer. :)

Update

All packages from the weekend sale have shipped!  Thanks so much to everyone who placed an order.  :)

For anyone who missed this sale, the new polishes should be available on Llarowe soon.

Thanks again!!

A Couple Announcements

Change to the sale of mini bottles:

I'm very happy to report that sales have been going really well!  :)

The slight downside to this is that I'm starting to have trouble keeping up with demand, which means I need to adjust how I take orders for mini bottles.  From now on, I will only take orders for mini bottles on the weekends (Friday through Sunday), and I will ship those orders during the first half of each week (Monday through Wednesday).  Hopefully having this more structured schedule will allow me to dedicate more time to working on upcoming collections and to filling full-size orders for Llarowe.

What to expect in the near future:

In the next week or two, you should start seeing more blog posts than usual.  Highlights will be: swatches of the holiday collection, another chance to buy full-size bottles via this blog, and the move to a new and improved blog/website.  

I can't wait to share all of this with you guys! 

Please see sidebar for details on how to place an order, and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!

The Big Day is Here!

That's right, Contrary Polish will be available on Llarowe today!  Leah Ann will be adding stock at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM (Central).  I'm so excited and grateful for the opportunity to have my products featured in the Llarowe webstore.  :)

Blog Sales

The blog will now be temporarily closed to full-size polish orders, in order to make sure I have enough time and materials to fill orders for Llarowe.  I plan on periodically opening the blog for full-size bottle orders, and I will announce any openings ahead of time, both here and on the Contrary Polish Facebook page.

I will continue to take orders through the blog for mini polishes, since those will not be stocked at Llarowe and I'd like my customers to still have them as an option.

If you have any questions please let me know, and please check out the Contrary Polish page at Llarowe beginning today at 2:00 pm Central!

Cosmetic Sanctuary Swatches

Lisa from Cosmetic Sanctuary just posted her Contrary Polish swatches, and I'm absolutely loving them!  Check them out here:
http://www.cosmeticsanctuary.com/contrary-polish-spam/

Also, I wanted to let you all know that I've upgraded the full-size bottle labels to a professionally-printed laminate label, so it looks blacker/glossier, and it shouldn't smudge if it gets wet.  All full-size bottles purchased/shipped anytime after August 18 have the new labels.  If you purchased polishes from me prior to that date and would like me to send you replacement labels, please email me to let me know, and I'll be happy to take care of it for you.

I'm looking into upgrading the mini bottle labels as well, but it's a little trickier since the label is so small.  I will post again once I've been able to find a printer who can do them for me.

Thanks for reading!

Exciting News!

Leah Ann from Llarowe announced today on her Facebook page that she will be adding Contrary Polish to her site later this week.  I'm absolutely thrilled to be offered alongside the other amazing brands Llarowe carries!

What this means for blog sales

I will continue to sell via the blog this week.  After that I will be closing blog sales in order to ensure that I can continue to produce enough bottles for Llarowe.  I will periodically open the blog for sales whenever I'm able.  Those openings will be announced here and on the Contrary Polish Facebook page beforehand.  

One exception: I'm considering leaving blog sales of mini bottles open at all times, since Llarowe will not be stocking the minis.  I know sometimes people aren't ready to commit to the full-size bottle right off the bat, so if at all possible I'd like to make sure my customers still have the option to order minis. 

Please feel free to comment or email if you have any questions, and thanks so much for visiting my blog!