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Your Guide to Buying and Swapping Nail Polish Online

Posted on February 10, 2013November 30, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

The internet is an amazing platform that provides us nail polish addicts with great ways to acquire nail polish from all over the world. With so many indie brands and Facebook swap groups to choose from, it can sometimes be confusing, and at times quite scary, to purchase nail polish online. After a recent, negative experience I had with an indie brand, I was reminded of the precautions we must take to protect ourselves and our purchases. I have put together this guide to help those in the nail polish community stay safe when buying and swapping.

Do your research! You’ve finally found that perfect polish you were looking for, but before you hit the “checkout” button, head on over to Google. Type in the indie shop you are hoping to purchase from and see what pops up. This simple step can provide you with lots of helpful information regarding a seller’s reputation that you can easily miss without doing your research. An indie’s name can bring up feedback, blog posts, online forums, and other useful tools to shed light on the product you wish to buy. Along the way you could find out that the quality of an indie polish is not what you want it to be, or that the seller simply does not ship items. If I did my research I would have found a Facebook post letting me know the seller I had trouble with is known for not shipping packages!
Pay with PayPal! Always ensure that you are protecting your money by using PayPal when shopping. Almost all indie brands sell on websites like Etsy and BigCartel that use PayPal, but if you are buying from a seller on Facebook or through a blog sale that may not be the case. Always request a PayPal invoice. An invoice will outline your purchase as an itemized list, and it is the only way you can file a claim for goods you never receive. If a seller refuses to create an invoice for you, that is a red flag that she is not reputable.
Get Delivery Confirmation! Almost all sellers provide delivery confirmation, otherwise known as a tracking number, with every purchase. If you are swapping, however, it is imperative that you and your swap partner use delivery confirmation. This is your “insurance” that your package has been mailed. Make sure your swap parter sends you the tracking number as soon as your polish has been mailed.
Keep your personal information private! This may go without saying, but do not give out your home address or other personal information if you do not trust the person from whom you are buying or swapping. If possible, get a PO Box to use when you are shopping online. You can also give out your work address if it is permitted by your employer. Otherwise, only give out your home address if you have done your research and trust the seller.
Be active in the community! If you plan on doing a lot of nail polish shopping online, join some Facebook groups dedicated to nail polish chat. By actively engaging with other nail polish aficionados you will soon learn which indie brands are great, and which to avoid. You will also learn who trusted swappers are. ~~If you would like to know of some Facebook groups I recommend, please email me at adventuresinpolishland@gmail.com.~~ I am not actively participating in any Facebook groups for buying/swapping nail polish that I recommend as of 9.9.15.
If swapping, invoice each other! This is a tip that I recently learned. If you are doing a swap, you and your partner should invoice each other on PayPal for the same amount of money. For example, if you are swapping a $5 nail polish, invoice each other for $8 to cover shipping. That way if one person does not follow through with the swap, you can file a claim on PayPal.

“I never received my polish! What do I do?”

If you followed the steps above and you find yourself without your purchase, you can still rectify the situation!

Contact the seller! If a few weeks go by and you never receive your polish, the first thing to do is to get in contact with the seller. Most sellers have an email address, but others can be contacted directly through Etsy or social media. Every once in a while, a seller can simply overlook an order, or something may come up in her life that causes a shipping delay. Whatever the reason, politely ask the seller why your order is taking so long. Usually this step will clear up any issues.
File a PayPal Dispute! If the seller does not respond to your message in a timely manner, file a dispute with PayPal in the Resolution Center. Doing so will alert PayPal that you never received your purchase, and will also contact the seller an additional time. If a seller does not respond to your dispute, your money will be refunded. If she does respond, your purchase will either be fulfilled, or the seller may choose to refund your money. If you properly used PayPal to purchase your item, you will always be protected!
Contact the admin of the Facebook group! Many sales and swaps occur in Facebook groups. If you try to contact the seller or swapper to no avail, message the admin of the Facebook group. She will be able to help you resolve the problem, and will warn others from dealing with that person in the future.

I hope you have found this guide to buying and swapping nail polish online helpful! I love indie nail polishes and will continue to buy them, but I will be doing my research from now on. Out of all the brands I have dealt with thus far, I have only had issues with one. Keep an eye out for the bad eggs and you will be good to go! If you have any questions, or would like to add a tip to this list, please email me at adventuresinpolishland@gmail.com.

Stay Safe & Happy Polishing!

Chick Nail Polish in Raven’s Egg: An OpenSky Score

Posted on January 2, 2013August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Happy Wednesday! Today I have a gorgeous blue nail polish to show you from the nail polish brand Chick. Typically a bottle of polish from this line costs $8, due to it being vegan friendly and chemical free. I was lucky enough to score a set of four Chick polishes on the website OpenSky for just over $6 when I joined and got a bunch of free credits. I got two sets of polishes from this one purchase alone. First I showed you Hello, I Love You! from ncLA, and now I will show you Raven’s Egg!

Raven’s Egg is a navy blue polish with a shimmery finish. It truly shines in the light and has a duochrome feel to it. At times it looks dark purple, but Raven’s Egg is a true navy. This polish also reminds me of a metallic polish, but with a formula that is easy to apply and opaque in two coats. It did chip off in a couple days, but I did not apply top coat when I wore it. Raven’s Egg is a great blue polish, and is unlike any other polish that I own. I think it would be great as a base for nail art! Plus, I love the cute bottle. The rectangular shape makes it easy to store.

Overall, I love the dark blue of Raven’s Egg from Chick Nail Polish! It was a fabulous price on OpenSky, and I would recommend it if you can find it for a bargain, too. I do think $8 would be too much for this polish. You can join OpenSky HERE and you will receive $10 in credit when you sign up. Unfortunately you must spend $50 to use the credits, but you can still get a great deal. Happy Shopping!

P.S. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite manicure in my New Year’s Eve Manicure Contest on my Facebook page HERE!

Celebrating the Season with Christmas Tree Nail Art

Posted on December 7, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Happy Friday! Today I have a short post telling you about the Christmas themed nail art I did for a contest on Facebook. Many of my readers have been requesting more nail art, so ask and you shall receive! I am in no way a nail art expert, but I am super proud of my little Christmas trees. Let me show you the manicure!

Here are my two little Christmas trees! First, I started out with a base of Zoya Ziv. Once Ziv was completely dry, I used scotch tape to block off a triangle on my nails in the shape of the Christmas tree, and painted on Zoya Logan. (See Ziv and Logan alone HERE). Next, I took some yellow polish and carefully added a drop to the top of my Christmas trees for the star. As a final touch, a did some polka dots with red polish for some ornaments! I don’t have any dotting tools, so that’s why my circles aren’t perfect, but I think this manicure still looks really festive! I decided to go with polishes that all had a shimmery, metallic finish, but you can choose any polishes you like. I also did two accent nails just to keep it simple. I love the finished product!

What do you think of my Christmas tree manicure? It’s so simple that anyone can do it! Let me know what you think in the comments, and feel free to share your holiday and winter themed nail art, too!

Try it on Tuesday: Zoya America (Was it Worth the Hoopla?)

Posted on July 31, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

On the Fourth of July, Zoya had a promotion where if you spent $10 you could get a free bottle of their America polish. Well, shortly after midnight, a photo began circulating on the Internet explaining how you could get a bottle of America completely free without having to spend anything. I was extremely excited about this, as I had not tried Zoya before. I jumped on the chance to get my free bottle, and even shared the news with my Facebook followers. When I woke up the next day, I discovered that Zoya had cancelled my order, along with 14,000 others that had been placed. It turns out Zoya had a glitch in their system, and I would not be getting the polish for free.

This situation caused a lot of drama on the Zoya Facebook page, and throughout the nail blog community. Some believed that since the glitch was Zoya’s responsibility, they should have compensated everyone who ordered the free bottle. Others, however, felt that customers should not have abused the promo code, since it was made public originally that there was a $10 minimum to be spent. As for me, I was quite disappointed. I was unaware of the original promotion. I decided to go ahead and search for a $10 item on the Zoya website. Believe it or not, all of their polishes are $8, so in reality Zoya wanted you to buy two items at $16 to get the free polish. I was about to give up on the promotion, until a few of my Facebook followers informed me of another glitch in the system– only buy one polish and you can get Zoya America for free. Even though this was a glitch too, I received two polishes for only $8!

So after all that trouble, I finally got the chance to try Zoya America for today’s Try it on Tuesday. Not only have I been wanting to test out this brand, but we are the midst of the Olympics– go Team USA! This bright red cream is not usually my typical color, but I am always up for trying out new things. Zoya has a great reputation, and is a vegan nail polish brand, so I had high expectations. In the end I am not “wowed” by it, but it is definitely a nice polish.

Above is two coats of America. I could have gotten away with one coat, but I added a second one to be safe. This polish was a little hard to work with texture wise. I think it was a bit thicker than I was expecting. It did apply evenly, but next time I will know to do thin coats. America dried quickly, but was impressionable for a few hours after application. This red is not my favorite color, but if you do like red you will love this polish. It was quite hard to photograph accurately, so please visit the Zoya website HERE to view and purchase America.

In the end, I do think Zoya America was worth all the hoopla. Though it is not my favorite color, I got to try a new brand at a great price. I look forward to using the other Zoya polish that I purchased in the future!

What do you think of Zoya polishes? Were you included in the Fourth of July upset?

500 Facebook Likes Giveaway is now LIVE!

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Adventures in Polishland

To celebrate reaching 500 Likes on my Facebook page, I am giving away the Lil’ Shooters set from the OPI Texas Collection!

To enter, go to my Facebook page HERE! You will find the Rafflecopter widget in the upper right hand corner of the page directly under my cover photo. This giveaway is open internationally and will end on July 26th at midnight. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.

A big THANK YOU to my 131 blog followers and 745 Facebook fans!

UPDATE: Please note that I am verifying entries as I receive them. Any fake entries will be deleted & that person will be disqualified from winning. It is only fair that you play by the rules! That means if you say you are following the blog, you are actually following. Thank you for understanding!

My First Julep Maven Box!

Posted on June 15, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

For those of you that like my Facebook page, you know that I have been dying to receive my first Julep Maven box in the mail. It arrived yesterday, and I got right to painting! I’m typing this sporting my new Susie nail polish, and I couldn’t be more excited to tell you about this fabulous website. Get ready for some photos!

For those of you who haven’t heard of Julep before, it’s a great brand that typically sells for $14 a polish. The polish was created specifically for Julep nail parlors, but now it can be purchased at Sephora or on the Julep website. The Maven membership is very similar to ShoeDazzle, when each month stylists pick products for you based on your answers to a style quiz. You can either choose to purchase a box for $19.99 each month, or you can skip the month. Though the price tag is a bit expensive for me, I had a promo code for the website that allowed me to get my first Maven box for just one penny! That’s right– I only paid one penny for this box of goodies.

As a Julep Maven there are many benefits. First off, Mavens get 20% off anything at the Julep website. Plus, each Maven box contains at least $40 worth of products. There are also special freebies and discounts throughout the year. Julep really takes care of its members! Here’s what I saw when I opened my first box:

I do admit, the packaging was great. But let’s get to the products themselves! This month I got the Classic with a Twist Intro Box. It included 2 polishes, Susie & Niecy, and The Best Pedi Creme Ever. I love the colors I got, especially Susie, which is a light mint green. Niecy is a beautiful pink, but I didn’t try it out yet. Susie was meant to be on my nails first! I do admit, I got nervous with the first coat of polish, because it came out streaky, but the second coat covered up all imperfections and looked beautiful! I just love this cream polish. At the end of this post there are some swatches of it.

Doesn’t it look great?! I can’t wait to try out Niecy, too. The best part about all of this is that I got this box for just a penny! You cannot beat that deal anywhere. If you like what you see here, you can join Julep Maven, too and get your first box for a penny. Simply sign up HERE and enter the code COLOR2012 at checkout. The best part about being a Maven is that even if you don’t want to purchase a box each month, you simply hit the “skip” button and you aren’t charged any money. So even if this is the only box you get from Julep, how can you go wrong? You only paid one penny! So what are you waiting for? Go get yourself your first Maven box!

An Ocean of Ombre

Posted on June 11, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Two hot trends this summer are ocean hues and ombres, showcased on nails, accessories, and apparel. I decided to combine both of them on my nails using a variety of polishes from my collection. You can buy an ombre kit at Sephora right now for $22 (click HERE for details), but by using polishes I already owned, and a sheet of white scrap paper, I didn’t have to spend any cash. Plus, each of the colors I used was purchased at a drugstore and would total under $17 anyway– about $5 in savings! Here’s how I achieved the Ocean Ombre look.

First, I picked out the five blue shades I was going to use. Luckily I currently have exactly five blues! To ensure that I would achieve light to dark shading, I painted two light coats of each polish on a piece of white scrap paper, cut out each sample, and rearranged the order. Once I was happy with the colors, I got painting! I started off with the lightest color on my pinky, and ended with the darkest on my thumb. Lightest to darkest, I used Empire State Blue by NYC, Blu by Sally Hansen HD, Blue Me Away! by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Plenty of Fish in the Sea by Spoiled, and Party Palace Blue by Confetti. Even though each of these colors was from a different brand, with some being cremes and others metallic, they all looked great together.

What do you think of the finished product?! I received many compliments on this manicure from my coworkers and from customers at my retail job. And even though it looks fancy, it was so easy to accomplish! The ombre trend can be perfected with any color palette. If you don’t have 5 shades of one color like I did, try sunset colors– pink to red, red to orange. You could also use neutrals with white, cream, grey, and black. Or, if you’d like to stick with the ocean hues, but only have a few shades of blue, alternate the colors. The key is to use the polishes you already own in a new way. You don’t always have to spend money for a new look!

Try out one (or both!) of these trends and let me know how it turned out in the comments section or on my Facebook page!

Bigger and Better

Posted on June 9, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

I’ll admit it. For the past week I’ve been a bit obsessed with all things nails, including nail blogs. After sifting through dozens I’ve realized I have so much to learn! As this blog is for the average girl on a budget, I’m not worried with reviewing all of the top notch brands out there (though I will with the right opportunity!), but I am still focused on building a blog that is accessible and in touch with its followers. With that said, I’ve done some upgrading!

I now have released a Facebook page for Adventures in Polishland! With this page those who are not subscribed to my site through WordPress will know when I have posted new entries. It will also allow me to make more frequent updates about sales and bargains that I find, and give sneak peeks on my manicures. Please go HERE to like my page, or click “Like” on the Facebook badge on the right side of my blog.

Here are a few other cool things I’ve learned about my blog:

Click the “Follow” button at the top of the right hand column and you will receive an email whenever I update
Not a WordPress member? You can still comment on my entries using your Twitter or Facebook
If you like something I’ve written about, let me know! You can click the “Like” button under any entry or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

I am so excited about this blog, and I hope you are enjoying my Adventures in Polishland! Of course, while I was upgrading my blog I also upgraded my last manicure. What do you think?! I underlined the glitter in my manicure with a hot pink detail.