Blue Beats and What it Means for Indie Nail Polish Makers

So today I have something for you that was inspired by the lovely Sarah over at Chalkboard Nails. About a month ago, she did a really pretty pink and blue gradient mani and added a matching glitter topcoat. The concept of the design seemed super simple, but really had a nice effect.

So I decided to use the same concept for my design. For this mani I used Milani White on the Spot (base) and China Glaze Aqua Baby to create a gradient.

But what really make this mani pop is the little beauty below from the Maybelline Color Show collection, titled Blue Beats. Hands down, the Maybelline Color Show collection is probably my favorite main stream brand of polishes. The collection has tons of unique polishes, this one being no exception.

Blue Beats is a glitter topper, so basically bits of glitter in a clear base. This polish contains small, medium, and large, black and aqua blue hexagon glitters, tiny black and aqua blue circle glitters and finally, small aqua blue bar glitters. That is a lot of fabulous in one bottle.

And with all that fabulous, it's kind of hard not to create fabulous manicure.

I think what really makes Blue Beats interesting is that, without the Maybelline label, it could easily be mistaken for an indie polish. For those of you who don't know (but really, who doesn't these days) an indie polish is a polish made by an individual person or small time company (i.e. made in someones living room and not by Revlon, Sally Hansen, etc.) From my own observation, a few years ago, the majority of indie polish makers focused on creating glitter top coats. Actually thinking back, the first indie polish I ever saw (and immediately fell in love with) was Connect the Dots, by Lynnderella. At the time, I remember not really understanding the concept of what an indie was. I started looking around, wondering why I couldn't find this polish in any store. When I finally found the polish, it was selling on Ebay for $22. Ouch.

Swatch from http://steffels.blogspot.com/

I know when I first discovered indie polishes, cremes and jellies and holo's weren't really for sale. But there was glitter everywhere. And they were selling like hotcakes (do hotcakes actually sell?). I think what made glitter indie polishes so unique and desirable was exactly the problem I had; they couldn't be found in stores. Yes, you had your typical gold glitters and silver glitters and other glitter colors made by Revlon and others,  but indie maker's offered us more. They gave us different shapes and sizes and color combinations, so of course, we fell in love instantly.

But that was a few years ago. Indie makers have certainly broadened their horizons and now sell a great variety of polish types (i.e. holo's, glitter, color changing), as most of us already know. And yet, there is something really conceptually interesting about Blue Beats.What makes this polish interesting is that it shows main stream brands (e.g., Maybelline) are finally starting to pay attention. It seems that main stream brands have noticed our obsession with indie glitters and are currently trying to snatch a corner of that market. So although 4 years ago when we walked into Duane Reade, we could only find cremes and shimmers, now we can find these...

While it is awesome to go into a regular drug store and pick up a unique glitter polish for $6 (instead of $22) I do wonder how it will affect indie sellers. Will indie's (which average $10 a bottle) have to lower their prices? Will they have to top, the glitter topcoat and come out with something completely new? Will indie maker's lose their popularity? Who knows.

But honestly, I doubt it. One of the things I love most about the nail polish community is the amount of support we give to each other. So yes, Milani may have a $4 FX glitter collection and Sally Hansen may make a $7 fuzzy coat, but there is something wonderful about buying handmade nail polish and knowing we are helping to support one individual. They are helping support our hobby/obsession, so why not show some support back? While we will continue to buy mainstream, my gut feeling is that, we will continue to buy indie as well. So I am not affiliated with any of these (and get no compensation for recommending them), but these are some of my favorites: ILNP, KB Shimmer, Starrily, LynBDesigns, Glam Polish.

What's your favorite indie brand?

Like what you see? Check out my other designs on pinterest.

Milani - White on the Spot
Maybelline Color Show - Blue Beats
China Glaze - Aqua Baby

*Maybelline Blue Beats, Maybelline Color Show Collection and Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat Collection images were found using google. These are NOT my photos*