Black Friday Orders Shipping Update

This is long but please read it because I'm going to address several points of confusion. I want to explain about what's going on behind the scenes and I want to be upfront, honest and transparent about what's happening.

In order to speed up the shipping process I have printed postage prior to mailing. The postage is future dated so the mailing date in your shipping notification may not be the exact day of shipping. This change and switching to an assembly line type system has actually helped a LOT. It may not seem like it as a customer but this method has REALLY helped and if I were trying to process this amount of orders a month ago it would take a lot longer.

If your tracking hasn't updated it may be because the package hasn't gone out yet. I'm happy to let you know whether your order has been sent out but please email me. The majority of the time I don't get notifications about your comments on Instagram or the Facebook page or get notifications about messages sent to the Facebook page.  I really don't want your questions falling through the cracks in cyberspace so please, please email me. My email notifications are infinitely better and I can keep track of our conversation so much better.

Further on the subject of your tracking number, your tracking number may not update for several days after your package is sent out.  This isn't with every package but I want to prepare you because it is happening.  USPS is spotty at the best of times but it's even worse this time of year. I have supplies coming from the east coast being stuck in Kansas City, KS for several days while I'm on the Iowa side of Illinois (as in no where near Kansas City, KS). I have personally watched a USPS clerk scan a package I've dropped off and the tracking hasn't updated until it was out for delivery to the customer several days later.  Every single order I send out is added to the shipping app on my phone. I check it multiple times throughout each day so if, for example, I see a package that has been sitting in the same sorting facility for three days I call USPS. To be honest, the response from my local office's supervisor is pretty poor--I've given my name and number to the same woman multiple times and each time I'm promised a call back that of course never comes--but I still make the call because I truly care about you getting your package as soon as possible.  Believe me: I want you to get your order, I want to make opening the package a happy experience because this is nail polish--it's supposed to be an enjoyable hobby!

I was an indie nail polish lover long before I was a maker so I really do understand the frustration. I've been on the customer side of dealing with sites that crash from heavy traffic, site redesigns that promise no crashing or cart jacking, long processing times, frenzied restocks that sell out within literally 2 minutes, tracking not updating, the list goes on. I never wanted my brand to go through those issues so I've tried to run my business in a way I thought would prevent those issues.  Some methods have worked better than others.  I've already been working on ways to fix the parts that don't work but after these orders are completed, I'm going to take a little break to fully examine what I'm doing and how to make it more efficient.

Finally, I want to thank all of you so much for your patience and understanding. Lemming Lacquer has grown more than I could have hoped, especially in such a short time.  While I am immensely grateful, it's a lot for one person to handle and I'm truly sorry things don't run as smoothly as you and I would like.  I'm working extremely hard right now to get your orders out as fast as possible and I will continue to work just as hard to make the entire customer experience better in the future.

Again, if you have any other questions please email me and I'm happy to discuss them with you. Thank you and happy holidays!

Halloween 2015 Collection: The Vagantem Damnatorum Release

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages welcome to The Vagantem Damnatorum! 

Inside you will be enlightened by Madame Alina the Fortune Teller, hypnotized by Magnus the Magician, terrified by Levi the Reptile Boy, enticed by Serafina the Firebreather, and delighted by Stitches the Clown. A chosen few will even meet the Ringmaster himself! Can you face the temptations and horrors within?

Beware and take care while inside the carnival because not all is what it seems. If you find yourself wandering too long and forgetting the world you left behind, you have been chosen by the Ringmaster to become a pawn in his game. Will you face your fears and receive your prize at the end or will you succumb to wickedness and fall? Brace yourself and come inside.

Lemming Lacquer Try Us Sale

Fall is coming and with it a lot of new products will be added to the shop including new collections launching in September. Also, we now have a Facebook group called Lemming Lacquer Legion. Be sure to join for previews of upcoming releases, group exclusives, small batch prototypes and sample sales, and be the first to receive announcements about sales and promos!

Swatches courtesy of Ermahgerd Perlish

I would like to discuss something that has been on my mind lately. With so many great indie brands available, I know it can be difficult to support all the brands you would like due to budget constraints or you may only buy from one or two brands exclusively. It's with those thoughts in mind that I would like to announce Lemming Lacquer's Try Us Sale.

This is an opportunity for more people to try Lemming Lacquer nail polish and nail care products as well as experience our customer service and personalized packaging. Use code TRYUS for 30% off a purchase of $10 or more starting Friday August 21st - Wednesday August 26th.

Give us a try and see why reviewers and customers are blown away by how opaque yet squishy our jelly glitter polishes are, how quickly our nourishing cuticle oil sinks into skin and how silky your hands feel after using one of our mani bombs.

As a reminder, polishes from the My Lemming Tis of Thee 4th of July trio will be discontinued at the end of August so get yours before they're gone!

Lemming Lacquer Launch!

Helloooooo and Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in your various forms and circumstances!

I know I haven't posted in a long time but that is because I had to get everything set up for the launch of my brand, Lemming Lacquer.

Our first collection, Curiosities From Wonderland, is based on Alice in Wonderland and the various books, movies, video games, and other media inspired by Lewis Carroll's characters and fantastical world. The collection of polishes, 7 in total, includes one glitter top coat, three crelly/jelly glitters, one thermal crelly/jelly glitter and two holographic polishes. Our polishes are all 5-free and are a true 15ml/.5 oz full size.

Curiouser and Curiouser! is a delicate pale sky blue holographic with gold shimmer that captures Alice’s iconic dress, naivety, and her well known blonde locks.  Modest, sincere, and girly this polish personifies the innocent female protagonist we all know and love.

Her Imperial Viciousness is a jewel-toned red with different sized copper, red, and black glitters, color shifting iridescent glitters and a generous helping of black heart glitters. It is inspired by the character Redd Heart in The Looking Glass Warsseries by Frank Beddor.

Ravens and Writing Desks has a teal-leaning green colored base with different sized holographic gold, lime green, and turquoise glitters and black hex glitters. Inspired by a combination of Hatter Madigan of The Looking Glass Wars series and the 1951 Disney Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter.

Eat Me is packed with small and medium sized matte glitters in all the colors of rainbow sprinkles. “Eat Me” is written on the cakes Alice eats to grow large after tumbling down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.  This polish is inspired by the colorful baked treats in Alice in Wonderland and multi-colored sprinkles.

Drink Me is a lush purple jelly nail polish with small holographic hexes and medium and large holographic circle glitters.  Inspired by the suspended “Drink Me” bottle and the subsequent purple bubbles Alice hiccups in shrink mode in the video game Alice: Madness Returns.  Alice uses shrink vision to view hidden pathways and clues on upcoming enemies, puzzles, and invisible platforms.

I'm Not All There Myself is a velvet purple to vibrant pink color changing jelly polish with various sized round and hex fuchsia glitters and purple hex glitter.  The jelly finish allows the lower layers of glitter to show through to offer a multidimensional look as complex as the mischievous feline it's named for.

Whooo R U? is a smoky, duochrome gray holographic polish with pinkish purple hazy overtones and bright blue sparks of shimmer. This polish embodies the Caterpillar’s languid smugness and captures the image of him taking long, cloudy drags off his hookah.

Check out a few reviews to see what bloggers had to say about our polish!

Cosmetic Sanctuary - Curiosities From Wonderland collection

Iced Lacquer - Ravens & Writing Desks

Ana's Manis - Drink Me and Ravens & Writing Desks

Manicured and Marvelous - Curiosities From Wonderland collection

Polished and Caffeinated - Curiosities From Wonderland collection

St. Patrick's Day Manicure with Lemming Lacquer

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm really excited about the mani I'm going to share with you today but first I wanted to give a little update. I missed the past couple weeks of posting because I broke my ankle!  The whole thing was a huge mess, not because of the actual injury but due to the hospital's increasingly insane recommendations--one of which was sending me to a rehabilitation center in Iowa City or Peoria, each more than 1 hour away. Yeah, total insanity. I've been having a really rough go of it gimping around and doing even the most simple of tasks plus the pain meds like to make me dizzy and knock me out so going outside (my preferred swatching method) just hasn't been in the cards. I was ordered to take it easy and keep it elevated so I've been stuck in bed for the past few weeks. I've gradually been able to be more active and that includes getting these swatches in time for St. Patrick's Day.

Read and see more after the jump!

Nail Crazies Unite February Week 3: Candy

Heyyyyy,

This week's prompt is "Candy," another one that stumped me.  I wasn't sure what to do until I was mixing last night and thought this would suffice.  Although not exactly candy it is candy adjacent and definitely makes me think of sweet things.

I applied 4-5 thin tricky coats of the pale pink China Glaze Something Sweet (ha, appropriate).  Formula was streaky, little bit of balding spots, and wouldn't self-level.  Maybe it's because I'm choosing pastels lately or the weather, dunno.  I added one coat of Lemming Lacquer Eat Me.

Eat Me is made up of every color sprinkles can be in various sized matte hexes and is inspired by the colorful baked treats in Alice in Wonderland.

I would have taken more pictures but my camera is just not very cooperative lately but hopefully that can be fixed soon!

As always please check out the awesome manis from the others in the group!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite February Week 2: Love Song Nail Art

Hello, hello!

This week's prompt is "Love Song." At first I couldn't come up with anything so I decided to go the literal route.  I went through my music library and looked for love songs, finding more songs about losing love or being physically addicted to someone.  While that's all well and good it's not what I wanted for the prompt.  Luckily I found the perfect song and three runner ups I'll also share with you.  The song I chose to use for this week's prompt is "Closer."

Shopping My Stash: Illamasqua Superstition Swatches and Review

Hello, hello!

Today's post is a little different.  I recently joined a group on Facebook centered around supporting each other when going on a low or no buy.  The reasons to limit spending on polish or to stop it entirely are varied but some of the more common ones I've heard are:

• I have too many untrieds
• I've spent way too much lately and I need to reign it in
• I have too many polishes! 

^I know that one may seem unlikely--I mean how many memes have we seen like this?

Source

But it's true.  Some people reach a number of polishes they're uncomfortable with and until that's addressed they won't buy any more.

While I'm not officially limiting or cutting myself off from getting new polish, my polish buying has gone way way down in recent months.  That doesn't mean I can't still enjoy my hobby though!  One of the ways you can get yourself through a low or no buy is shopping your stash--go through your collection and rediscover the gorgeous polishes you may have forgotten you had.  I bring to you one such polish in my collection: Illamasqua Superstition.

Superstition is a purple leaning fuchsia.  This is 4 thin coats and NO top coat!  This shined almost as much as a jelly it was so impressive.  Application is smooth perfection as always with Illamaqua.  This is why you spend $14-$17 per bottle for these.  I may have gotten this back when they were $14 at Sephora, I can't remember.  The formula is great, I love the bottle shape

While the polish is opaque in 2 coats, less coats definitely lean more pink but the more I applied the more purple-y fuchsia it became.  I had a particular mani in mind when applying this so I wanted a more purple leaning look.

I liked this color so much I even painted my left hand which is a rarity for me, as strange as it may sound.  Usually my non-swatch hand is a mix of whatever polishes I wanted to try out really quickly.  I could also see this as being a great pedicure color when I'm taking a break from my classic favorite red.

Have you ever gone on a low or no-buy before?  What are some of your tips of getting through it?

Nail Crazies Unite February Week 1: Anti-Valentine's Day Nail Art

Hey guys!  I've been trying to get more into nail art and stamping lately (I've only got a ton of plates, maybe I should use them huh?) so I joined a group on Facebook called Nail Crazies Unite to get me more into it.

Each month there are weekly prompts and week 1 for February is Anti-Valentine's Day.  I'm not a gushy Valentine's Day type and I'm not an Anti-Vday type either.  I prefer genuine moments of romance and affection over the course of the year so I guess I'm in the middle?

Lemming Lacquer Metallic Antique Gold Holographic Nail Polish

What a mouthful of a title!  Sorry, it's unavoidable because I don't have a name for this one.

Normally when I make a nail polish I have already thought up what I want it to look like, I have a certain collection in mind and a name all picked out.  However there have been two times so far when I've just thrown ingredients together to see what I came up with.  I showed you one of these polishes here (also on Super Bowl Sunday, ha!) and now I have another one for you.

Storenvy, Stripe, Paypal: Questions & Answers

Hey guys! So this is a bit of a follow up to my previous post about the great Stripe integration with Storenvy.  If you didn't read it, here's the breakdown after the jump.

Storenvy

Elevation Polish Pic de Sotllo and Doctor Who Cybermen Manicure

Hello, hello!

I've had this mani in mind for a long while and while I couldn't use all the components in my head I like the way it turned out.

For my base I used Elevation Polish's Pic de Sotllo, a gorgeously vivid deep blue similar to Revlon Royal. I actually own several polishes in this category of blue: Revlon Royal, Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Pacific Blue, Pure Ice First Kiss, Sinful Colors Endless Blue and who knows how many more are lurking in my melmer drawers!  Elevation's the only indie brand of this blue I have and the only one I use consistently. Pic de Sotllo has an opaque jelly finish. I wouldn't call it a crelly because I feel like a crelly has a weightier base that happens to be sheer.  My bottle is full on delicious, juicy jelly but can be built up to opacity in about 3 thin coats.  In my manicure I'm using 3-4 really thin coats to deepen the color. The formula was really easy to work with, self- leveling and non-patchy which can be a problem with some jelly polishes.  Pic de Sotllo is probably my favorite Elevation Polish!