Hi guys! Welcome back to yet another week of Nibs & Nails where we ask indie makers to dupe (or just be inspired) by popular fountain pen inks. Don't forget, last week's giveaway from Heather's Hues ends tonight at midnight so enter now! Tonight I welcome one of my favorite brands, Great Lakes Lacquer. If you haven't seen my swatches of her 1-year anniversary collection called The Great Ones from this past Sunday, you can see those here. Obviously she can rock a blue polish, so I asked her to work on 2 inks from the Diamine Shimmertastic set called Blue Lightning and Shimmering Seas. Stay with me to the end of the post to see how you can win these polishes (you will also be able to purchase your own set from Great Lakes Lacquer next week)!
As always, my husband has his reviews of the inks on his blog (Inkdependence), so feel free to click here for more about Blue Lightning and here for Shimmering Seas.
Great Lakes Lacquer Lightning Streaks Blue
Top: Ink Swab of Diamine Blue Lightning
Middle: Lightning Streaks Blue (matte)
Bottom: Lightning Streaks Blue (no topcoat)
Like Majestic Blue last week, Blue Lightning has some nice dark shading around the edge of the ink swatch that you just can't recreate with nail polish. The matte topcoat seemed to lighten the polish a bit, but you can still see the silver shimmer throughout. My husband got a little crazy with the amount of ink he put down which is why there is a massive amount of silver shimmer. Either way, Mariah did an amazing job with color-matching here. The polish may be a little lighter on the shimmer than the ink, but that's pretty much it.
Great Lakes Lacquer Lightning Streaks Blue (2 coats)
Lightning Streaks Blue is a deeper turquoise blue with subtle hints of silver shimmer. Gorgeous! It dries just slightly darker than the bottle color and the formula was perfection in just 2 coats. Is it just me, or do indies generally have a better formula than most mainstream brands these days?
Great Lakes Lacquer Lightning Streaks Blue (2 coats, matte)
The matte version is definitely lighter and dries to the bottle color. Weird, huh?
Great Lakes Lacquer The Shimmering Gold Sea
Top: Diamine Shimmering Seas
Middle: Great Lakes Lacquer The Shimmering Gold Sea (2 coats, matte)
Bottom: reat Lakes Lacquer The Shimmering Gold Sea (2 coats)
Again, Mariah did a great job duping these inks! Unsurprisingly, the gold shimmer stands out more in the ink, but that's due to the vastly different bases between inks and polish. If I'm being super analytical, the polish is just slightly more purple than the ink
Great Lakes Lacquer The Shimmer Gold Sea (2 coats)
Squee, I love this one! I was in constant contact with Mariah throughout the process and there was a bit of an issue in the beginning with certain gold shimmers looking a bit green (blue + yellow = green, right?). I didn't even think about that being an issue! It makes me admire these indie makers even more. Just think of all the pigments, shimmers, glitters, and flakes they have to deal with when making new colors! Anyway, they call the ink a blue-black color, but I think it's more of a navy blue with gold shimmer.
Great Lakes Lacquer The Shimmer Gold Sea (2 coats, matte)
The matte version looks very similar to the ink, right? I think it tends to bring out the shimmer more.
Giveaway and Info:
And yes, there's another giveaway this week! There will be 2 winners, 1 for each polish. If that's not enough, Mariah was kind enough to offer these polishes to everyone. You will be able to get them for $8.50 each or $15 for the duo. They will be for sale next Friday, July 22nd on her Etsy site and will be up until August 15th.
Giveaway Rules:
1. Open to the US Only (I'm so sorry my lovely international readers...I hope to have a non-polish giveaway for everyone so it will be easier to ship)2. Please do not use giveaway or empty accounts. Winners will be checked for verification.
3. You must be at least 18 years old to enter
4. The giveaway will end on July 22nd at midnight (EST)
5. A winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter. They will have 48 hrs to respond before new winners are chosen.
6. Please do not immediately unfollow after the giveaway ends. :-(
a Rafflecopter giveaway
*These polishes were purchased by the company or PR representative with a blogger discount. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*
10 comments:
I like both indie and mainstream brands, but if I have to choose, I'm still a drugstore polish kind of girl myself. There's nothing quite as immediately gratifying as "I see I want I get" :).
I have an indie on my fingers and a mainstream on my toes right now, so I'm proof they can live together in happy harmony :).
Since I would give them to my niece, I prefer indies. Others she could find on her own.
I buy indies almost exclusively. Every now and then I find a mainstream color that appeals to me but the variety and inventiveness that you see in indies is missing in most mainstreams.
I only buy indies anymore! And I LOVE Great Lakes Lacquer! As a fellow Michigander it feels good to support a local business, and besides, she makes awesome polish!! Lol!! Mainstream brands just don't make anything near as awesome as our indie makers do, so I don't even bother looking anymore... No thanks! I'll stick with my indies, thankyewverymuch! 😀
I love indies, and have the collection to prove it!
These are gorgeous! For the last four years, it has been indies all the way for me! So many finishes that mainstreams just ignore can be found in indie-land.
I prefer indie brands - I love the options and the relationships I have built and I also really like the idea of helping support small businesses.
These are beautiful!!
Always Indies. All.The.Time.
Indie polishes are my favorite polishes by far!
Indie Polish for sure! I'm all about supporting small business and eliminating products that do any sort of animal testing, or that are part of a parent company that does animal testing. I know I don't have to worry about that with my indie brands!
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