Today I have a nail polish filled with drama. And not that it gives a dramatic look. It just has a lot of history.
Lynnderella created this polish with black and white glitter. Bars, hexes, squares, shimmer, etc. It's got it all. It makes for an awesome layering polish that transforms any base color. She's a clever woman, right? Well this polish (as well as any other original Lynnderella's) are nearly impossible to get your hands on. She stays as the sole producer of her polishes and simply cannot keep up with the demand for them. They are for sale through the website Llarowe, but they sell out within minutes of being posted. And they sell for $15 a bottle when they do.... They go for crazy prices on eBay, if you're willing to pay that.
Well we all know that there are many other creative ladies in the polish world, that figured out how to make a "similar" nail polish. It is not an exact dupe, but it's got the mix of black and white glitter in all shapes and sizes. One for example is Sticks and Stones from Cover Band on Ninja Polish. And it sells for only $9. (It's currently out of stock, but they have a way you can sign up to be emailed when it's back)
Lynnderella was highly offended by this and posted an ugly blog post about it (which I think has since been deleted) and has pretty much shut down. So the entire twitter & facebook polish world has gotten heated up about it.
I don't know how I feel about it personally. I would hope I could take it as a compliment that my polish was so highly sought after.... but I can see the reality of being hurt at the same time. I just hope she takes time to think things through, but continues to make gorgeous polish.
Enough with the drama, and on to the pretty pictures!
This is 2 coats of CTD over Sally Hansen Insta Dri Blue Away.
Closeup bottle shot
It suprised me at how thin it was. It didn't have that thick suspension base you sometimes get with heavy glitters.... That's not to say it won't thicken up after several uses, but it was suprisingly manageable. It wasn't rough. 1 coat of topcoat smoothed everything out perfectly, and wear time was standard for me, 2 days.
Sigh, Connect the Dots is a real lemming of mine, but oh so hard to get.....
ReplyDeleteI understand her being hurt but, like you said, I would hope she wouldn't stop making polishes because she makes some real beauties and it should be a compliment. Time will tell I guess.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful mani as always!
I have mixed feelings about this drama in general. On the one hand, I really do feel for her. To get burned by success and have it be so public really has to suck. But on the other hand, all aspects of the cosmetology/beauty/fashion industry can be really brutal if you aren't thick skinned. It's just a part of being in the business.
ReplyDeleteOops, and the mani is awesome too. jeesh, this is what i get for trying to do too many things at once.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings. I understand her polish is very unique and she probably spent a lot of time and energy designing and perfecting the mix. But on the other hand, it's just black and white glitter. I doubt it was the very first time anyone has used black and white glitter before.
ReplyDeleteSticks and Stones did admit to outright duping her polish, but frankly, if you made something so simple, that so many people wanted... would you really be surprised when people start making it for themselves? Who was the original creator of any glitter in a clear base? Why do we keep ripping them off with our frankens?
Besides, from what I understand (I very sadly, do not have CTD OR Sticks and Stones), each bottle is meticulously created and mixed by her, which is why she can't sell as many as we'd like and why she needs to keep her price and volume where it is. Something that special wouldn't be able to be truly duplicated. So give us a cheap imitation to hold us over until we can get our hands on the real thing.
i've been seeing alot of this polish lately and was just thinking i need to buy this! i love the affect it has on nails, so great mani!!! however i didn't realize how hard it may be for me to get. thanks for the background. it's very sad that someone who was so creative and worked hard has others copying her polish. i do feel for her and can completely understand why she would be upset. hopefully she can use her frustration to quickly whip up some nail polish!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the few Lynderella's I would be willing to buy. That's so sad all this drama is going on ...
ReplyDeleteI've never been fast enough to buy a bottle of Lynnderella's polish, but I'm sort of amused that there's any drama surrounding this at all. I don't mean to offend, and I didn't read her post, but really: it's not like she invented black and white glitter polish.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure she puts all her heart and soul into mixing her shades and making them special, and to cover her costs while making some money for herself she needs to charge $15. Her hard work deserves to be rewarded and guess what, it has been! The whole nailweb lusts after her stuff, and now some folks are trying to "honor" it (their words, not mine) by making something similar. I guess that can be perceived as a bummer, but there are LOADS of people who would rather fork over the $15 for a hand-crafted bottle of the "original" than pay $9 for a dupe. I know I would.
The nail polish world is chock-a-clock with dupes. People seek them out because they can't afford their more costly counterparts. Find me a polish addict who hasn't at least once hoped against all hope that a Wet 'n Wild could pass for a Deborah Lipmann and I'll show you a liar.
I sincerely hope Lynnderella keeps her chin up and keeps making polish, they're SO wonderful and I'd sooner buy hers than Sticks & Stones. The business world is littered with stories identical to hers. Look what happened when Urban Outfitters stole an Etsy sellers necklace design! After all that outcry it turned out that there was a long history of a similar design.
It's glitter. It's colors. It may stink, but it's fair game.
Gorgeous manicure, even with all the drama surrounding the top coat ;-)
ReplyDeleteThis drama filled polish is my biggest lemming! I love your bottle shot & the base color you chose to use with it! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI agree that I love this as well, but it seems I'm alone when I say that I will never purchase anything from her after this (not like I would've before because of the price and how hard they were to get....but I digress). If she can't just be honored that people like her stuff so much that they are making dupes of it, then she shouldn't be a business woman. I understand that it can be frustrating to have people steal your ideas, but dupes happen all the time in all areas of the market and the fact that she got THAT pissed off about it really alienates me. Plus, if I had a polish duped, I'd take it as a huge compliment because in my opinion, it would seem like I'd really made it big.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. She threw a fit about people copying her and what awesome idea HASNT been copied?! Febreeze fabric refresher..the first car! I just love how the polish looks; I honestly don't care who I get it from. I'm never quick enough for lynderella's..so I'd actually get the dupe. I just think it's a cool look.
Deletewhat a story, but i have always loved connect the dots!
ReplyDeleteShe is over-reacting and that's all I'm going to say so I don't offend anyone lol.
ReplyDeleteThat being said I think it's great the ladies at Ninja Polish are HELPING the community get one of the polishes that is similar to one so many are lemming.
I still love CTD and I'm hoping to get it soon!
I believe she was advised by legal counsel to temporarily close up shop. Imitation is the best form of flattery, but when you feel you are being robbed, I can understand the hurt.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that there is so much drama surrounding Lynnderella polishes. To my knowledge, NerdLacquer doesn't have this same amount of issues.
I used NerdLacquer as an example because that is another handmade custom polish company that is pretty successful, IMO.
DeleteLegal counsel? Really? That's a bit much. If every nail polish company that got "copied" sought legal counsel or stomped their feet and had a temper tantrum because of something like this, there would be no nail polish. She should just suck it up and take it as a form of flattery. Like someone else said, her nail polishes go for $100 on ebay. She's gotta be doing SOMETHING right. IMHO, she needs to get over herself.
DeleteSuch a pretty combo. Really need to get Connect the dots.
ReplyDeleteI used CTD today, too! Mine is over a sparkly yellow base. It looks so good over any color!
ReplyDeleteI understand being upset, too (like most of you have said). I saw Lynn's hissy-fit posts and am shocked that someone running a business would say such things on a public forum.
The thing is, she duped other companies nail polishes herself. China Glaze Techno is the same as her Mercury's Rainbow. She has other polishes that are dupes of Lipman colors. So it's a pretty ridiculous thing that she's supposedly persuing legal action when she's done the same thing herself. Pot calling the kettle black. I personally will never buy any polish from such an unprofessional and overly dramatic "company". I'd rather my dollars went to places that conduct themselves in a professional manner.
ReplyDeleteamen!
Deletesoooo true. every company dupes other companies best colors. do you think chanel is going after opi for duping their colors? and most recently with opi's just spotted the lizard.
DeleteThanks for explaining the drama behind this. It's a load of crap, if you ask me (but since you didn't, I'm telling you anyway). Hehe.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why Lynnderella got so pissed about the damn dupe. Think about how many different variations there are of the Ruby Slippers type polishes. Heck, almost every indie polish creator is working hard to dupe someone else's polishes. Not to mention how many daggone fauxnads are out there!
It's all really stupid. I signed up to be emailed when the $9 version is back in stock, and I have an ebay saved search for Lynnderella. One bottle of Connect the Dots recently sold for more than $100. INSANE!
There's a lot of talent and creativity and there's also a lot of hurt waiting to happen at any provocation. This was not the first time and won't be the last. Some people have difficulty handling success. Or they may have personal wounds (don't we all?) that are easily triggered. They may put themselves under a lot of pressure or live in a way that wipes them out or is unsustainable. Who knows whether inhaling all the chemicals more than the average nail addict has created an imbalance? Whatever the case, it's better to admit a problem as one's own, and get support or help for how one is managing one's life, than it is to constantly blame others. An individual can be talented but still troubled. It makes me sad to see this because IMHO this is a person in pain and that pain is not caused by a polish dupe. It comes from prior life experiences. I hope she gets help and I don't mean the legal kind.
ReplyDeleteI love this! So pretty! Definitely following.. You've got some cool nail designs!
ReplyDeleteeclairecollier.blogspot.com
What you ladies said. This person sounds too unstable to run a business. That is very unfortunate as obviously she's also very talented. But people with these drama queen characteristics give me a huge pain in the arse and I'd never, ever voluntarily choose to deal with someone like her. It's a waste of time and besides, it encourages the bad behavior and that's probably not really a favor to her anyway. If she had any common sense at all she'd just work up the formulas and hire other people to make and distribute them. Then she could sit back, get rich, and work on her mental and emotional health. Oh well!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they just team up & stop crying about it. Obviously they are both passionate about nail polish. People love both .
ReplyDelete