Guest Post - Pied Polish Piper and Glimmer by Erica

Ooh speaking of guest posts.  Here is my most Bestest BFF in the whole of the land.  Miss Moxie herself the Pied Polish Piper.  She is doing a review of six polishes from Glimmer by Erica.  I love glitter!  I also love Mox <3  She is the glitter that runneth through my veins.  Enjoy!

Ahoy hoy folks! Reece, the lovely owner of this blog, recently asked me if I'd like to do a guest post on Spit & Polish...I jumped at the opportunity! So thanks, pal, for having me here; I am honored!

I would like to take a quick moment to apologize in advance for any gnarly and/or stained cuticles. I don't usually do swatch-a-thons but I did a swatch-a-thon today for this post and my nails aren't used to this kind of abuse lol. My hat's off to the MANY bloggers out there who sit down and swatch entire collections at a time, you are far more patient than I ever could be.

I first caught wind of Glimmer by Erica on More Nail Polish's blog this past summer. I was intrigued, so peeked around on GbE's etsy shop because I was in a hauling mood. I picked up the following polishes: Punky Patty, Shrinking Violet, Rainbow Star Sprinkles, Trick or Treat, Spicy Pumpkin and Spectral.

 Before I review these polishes, I just want to speak for a moment about etsy and ebay sellers and "shipping and handling" charges. Now, I understand that many online sellers/retailers make the bulk of their profit from charging an additional premium for "shipping and handling" of items. However, I don't care to be blatantly ripped off when buying an item online. I realize there are certainly costs associated with creating/bottling/etc a hand-made polish; however, if there were no profits to be made simply by doing so, no one would be selling indie polishes. When I placed my order with Glimmer by Erica, I noticed that the initial shipping and handling cost for the first bottle of polish was $6.00 USD. That's pricey, but fine, right? Each additional polish I ordered was slapped with an additional shipping and handling fee of $2.50 USD PER bottle. I paid $18.50 USD on a $60.00 polish order. It is not difficult for me to go to usps.com and weigh 6 bottles of polish to estimate how much shipping to me should actually cost (hint, not $18.50). I misplaced my shipping box but the USPS sticker indicated that the seller had paid $6 - $8 USD to ship these polishes to me. I was charged an additional $10 - $12 USD for shipment. My question is...why? As I said, I understand it takes time and resources to make and bottle polish; however, shouldn't that be reflected in the cost of the polish not the cost of shipment? I did some digging around on other etsy sellers and their shipping rates seemed far more reasonable. For example: HARE Polish charges $6.00 USD for the first bottle of polish and $0.25 USD for each additional bottle of polish purchased. Pahlish charges $3.00 USD for the first bottle of polish and $1.00 USD for each additional bottle of polished purchased. I could go on as I found other example of etsy sellers whose shipping charges were more reasonable, but I think I've made my point.


So, in light of the shipping costs, I expected these polishes to knock my socks off. Did they though? Read on to find out....


Spectral Ok, now this polish I do LOVE. Spectral is a beautiful mix of large and small purple, blue and silver hex glitters. This is 2 coats of Spectral over 3 coats of China Glaze Recycle.

 Spicy Pumpkin This polish was a last second add-on to my order; an impulse purchase, if you will. And I ended up LOVING this one as well. A pretty mix of large, medium and small orange and red hex glitters. This is definitely a fall polish! Pictured is 1 coat of Spicy Pumpkin over 1 coat of OPI Chatters Me Up (dupes for Chatters Me Up include Orly Rococo-a-go go and Zoya Valerie).

Trick or Treat I was surprised by this one. I wasn't sure I would like it, but I do. I dig it. Very Halloween, as its name indicates! It is an interesting mix of small orange hex glitters with medium sized purple hex glitters. It also has large yellow hex glitters and large red square glitters thrown in for good measure. Pictured is 1 coat of Trick or Treat over 1 coat of American Apparel Hassid (amazing black one-coater, fyi).

Rainbow Star Sprinkles Man...I loved Rainbow Brite as a kid, such a great show! Anyhoo, this polish IS Rainbow Brite in a bottle! I really do like this one. I know that multicolored glitter polishes are/have been kind of overdone lately (Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday and its bajillion dupes comes to mind); however, Rainbow Star Sprinkles really catches my eye because the glitters in it are so bright and vibrant compared to the other multicolored glitters out there! I do enjoy the fact that Erica ensured to put every color of the rainbow in to this polish. It has red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple hex glitters with smaller silver holographic hex glitters. This is 1 coat of Rainbow Star Sprinkles over 1 coat of American Apparel Hassid. I like the result; however, I do feel it would look even better with a second or third coat of Rainbow Star Sprinkles.

Shrinking Violet is also part of Erica's Rainbow Brite collection. This polish consists of purple hex glitters and smaller silver holographic hex glitters. While this polish isn't as complex as some of the other polishes I ordered, I quite like this one...it's very pretty. Pictured is 1 coat of Shrinking Violet over 1 coat of American Apparel Hassid. This is another polish that I feel would have benefitted from another coat and/or maybe better underwear selection on my part.

Punky Patty Punky Patty was another polish part of the Rainbow Brite collection. This was the polish I was most excited to order from Erica initially. It is a nice polish, but I was a bit let down with this one. In the bottle, you can see there are green, yellow and blue hex glitters and smaller silver holographic hex glitters. When I went to apply Punky Patty, it was mostly only the green glitters that transferred on to my nails. I was really hoping for more of the blue and yellow glitters to transfer as well. I tried a couple of tricks I've used in the past for getting out stubborn glitters but nothing was working. I was bummed! I'm wearing 1 coat of Punky Patty over 1 coat of China Glaze Glittering Garland (which stained on me something fierce).

Overall, I am pleased with the quality of these polishes. The color combinations are unique and the application is smooth compared to other glitters out there (no thinner required). I still dabbed these polishes on because it is my preferred method of applying all larger/denser glitters, but I think one could certainly get away with swiping them on. Are these polishes worth the additional shipping and handling fees? I'm not sure. While I absolutely adore Spectral, Spicy Pumpkin and Rainbow Star Sprinkles, I am uncertain whether or not I would be willing to place another order in the future simply due to the higher-than-average shipping costs. I wasn't as blown away as I was hoping to be. Anyway, thanks for taking a moment to read my loooong guest post! And thank you, once more, to Reece for having me!


To which Reece replied: No thank YOU my lovely for being a most welcome guest on the old blag!

I must add that the Pied Polish Pier is also a Canadian; thus, the no bueno shipping costs were to Canada.

Go visit my Mox on her blog, the Pied Polish Piper.