Indie Spotlight: Pipe Dream Polish Swatches and Review

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to kick off another Indie Spotlight Weekend with a cute little Etsy brand known as Pipe Dream Polish. 

PDP is owned by April of Tennessee, lover of nail polish and all things paisley.
All of her polishes are hand-mixed and 3-free (no Dibutyl Phthalate, no Formaldehyde, no Toluene).

She was generous enough to provide a few polishes to me at a discounted rate for an honest review.
I'll admit, just by the bottles I could already tell I was going to love them, so I sprung for three full sizes of the following shades:



It's Not Sane

Pink Elephants and Lemonade

In Through The Out Door

It's Not Sane is a crelly, egg yellow sprinkled with golden microshimmer, and smothered and covered with "medium orange, royal blue, coral, fuchsia, and purple iridescent hex glitters.

(Anyone catch my Waffle House reference?)

The actual tone of this shade is quite the shape-shifter. 

Depending on the lighting, I noticed shift from a egg-yolk yellow, to a bright lemon yellow in direct sunlight as April describes, to an even softer banana yellow in the shade.

Either way it's deliciously beautiful.

The golden shimmer is just noticeable under bright sunlight or lamps, but it is there. I actually prefer that the shimmer only peeks through in the background, as it doesn't take away from the larger colorful glitters.

I've displayed a lot of yellow polishes in these recent spring months, and I've sounded like a broken record when describing the formula. Most yellows, especially bright and semi-sheer ones like this have a troublesome formula.

This may be a huge claim on my part, but as of right now I'm convinced that this may be one of the best yellow polishes EVER. 

Not once did I see any dragging, balding, streaking or otherwise uneven application. 

It did require two coats to reach full opacity, but without a more sheer formula the finished look wouldn't have as much depth as it does.

To add to my delight, working with the glitter was just as surreal. I didn't have to "dab" once.
Yeah, April deserves a round of applause for that one.

This polish also gets my boyfriend's seal approval.
He'd like me to put in his two cents quoting his exact words.
"I like that yellow. It's bright...very you."

Yeah, he's keeper...an so is this polish.

Pink Elephants and Lemonade is muted turquoise crelly with matte yellow and hot pink small and medium hex glitters.

This is one of my favorite glitter combos. I see the elephant, I see the lemonade. 

It holds a special place in my heart as it remind me of the childhood book I still have somewhere about a kid who found an elephant and tried to hide it under his bed. The book cover is an exact match for this dusty blue.

The formula was pretty close to It's Not Sane, but just a tad thinner. You can tell it has a squishier, jelly-like appearance on the nail. 

The glitter applied extremely well, but I did have to spread it out once or twice. 

The color takes a built more building depending on how deep and saturated you would like the base to be. I used two coats for my photos and it fully covered the nail, but an extra layer will darken the base closer to the shadier photo you see below.

This is such a perfect summery glitter, but has a subtle quality to it that can be flattering to a wider age range of polish lovers. I can guess it's one of April's best-sellers, and it's earned it.

In Through The Out Door is a densely packed, sparkly mix of "fuchsia, raspberry, gold, and gold holographic glitter" suspended in a clear base.

I'm glad April had a description for the colors of the glitters. On the nail I could tell there's two different tones of pink, but I just couldn't put my finger on what the shades were exactly.

Now you can't see the holographic goodness in these photos, but I promise, one turn of the nail and this combo sparkles like nobody's business no matter what lighting situation you're in.

I was expecting a much thicker consistency considering how much glitter was in the bottle. But this is a glitter bomb done right. 

It is thicker than the previous two and requires a bit of spreading to ensure you get in all the nooks and crannies, but it's very easy to work with and dried faster than the average glitter polish.

  

 I was quite surprised at how versatile this is and it made me love it so much more. 

You can use it as a topper or build it up to a full glitter accent without any undies.

Below I have In Through the Out Door shown four different ways:

Index finger - One coat over China Glaze "Turned Up Turquoise"
Middle finger - One coat over Julep "Debra"
Ring finger and previous photos - One coat over Julep "Millie"
Pinky finger - Two coats with no undies

Which one of these Pipe Dream pretties is your favorite?

 I am completely over the moon for all three that I purchased. If this is the quality you can expect from Pipe Dream polish, than I must own them all. 

There is not one shade in her shop that I would not love to have.

Want Pipe Dream Polishes for yourself?

You can find all of the available Pipe Dream Polishes on Etsy.
The prices differ from shade to shade but currently are priced at $7.00 or $7.25.

Bonus! Purchase three or more full size bottles and you get a free mini bottle of your choice!
I'm not sure how long this deal will be available but I'd take advantage now!
Her prices are already lower than the average indie brand and the quality is incredible.

While you're at it, take a moment and follow April and Pipe Dream Polish on Facebook, and Instagram!

And don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bloglovin' because I've got more indie brands coming your way! (Yeah, I splurged.)

Thanks for reading!

-Melody