Indie Spotlight: Spellbound Nails, Bully For You & Bear Down Duo

*Spellbound Nails products provided for honest and unbiased review.  All other products mentioned were purchased by me.*

Happy Labor Day everyone!  I hope you're having a nice holiday if you're in the States.  It's been a relaxing long weekend for me and I'm really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow lol  I've got some fun polishes to show today from Spellbound Nails.  Ashley, the mastermind behind the brand, created and is donating some polishes to the Chicago English Bulldog Rescue's Bully Bash, which is scheduled for October 4, 2014 from 11 AM to 6 PM (CST).  These polishes will be put up for silent auction to help raise some fund for the rescue and the wonderful work they do.  Additionally, Ashely will be donating $2 per each bottle of these polishes sold to CEBR...it's always great to get a lovely polish whilst doing good for the dogs!  

There are three polishes included in this fundraiser and I have swatches of all of them to show you guys so let's get to it!

Bully For You is a bright, lime green jelly with a unique fuchsia shimmer and flakie shards.  This polish is on the sheer side, so I've shown it alone in 4 coats on my thumb, index and pinky nails, in 1 coat over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Olympia, and in 2 coats over Sinful Colors Black on Black.  Bully For You is a very versatile polish with tons of layering possibilities! 
 

I chose to show you a macro of this over black so you could really see the interesting shimmer this polish.  It just adds something a little extra...and really, who doesn't dig a little flakie action?!  The formula was great here, easy to apply and no dragging or streaking.

Even if a lime green polish isn't your favorite, you may want to give Bully For You a shot.  That shimmer is just such a great touch and the layering possibilities will give you more options than just plain green.
 

Up next is the first half of the Bear Down Duo, #1 Fan.  Bear Down is the name of the Chicago Bears fight song...which surprised me when I moved here because I didn't realize NFL teams even had fight songs lol   I've always liked the Bears (which is a huge accomplishment for them because I despise many, many NFL teams for various reasons) but since moving here, I've become a fan.  I'll clam up on the football speak and get back to polish!

#1 Fan is a dark navy with a beautiful blue shimmer.  Navy can sometimes be a bit drab, but the base of this not only matches the Bears' navy perfectly, it's the perfect background for the shimmer! I'm showing 3 coats here with a coat of Seche Vite. The formula was a little tricky on this one for me as it was kind of thick out of the bottle.  I added a few drops of polish thinner and that really helped.  It was a bit streaky on the first coat for me, but evened out nicely by the second coat.  I should also mention that it was fairly warm out when Ashley shipped these to me, so that may have more to do with the thickness than anything.  Summer is just not a great time for shipping polish :(
 

   Even with my bottle being tricky, I love the color!  I'm sucker for a beautiful blue and #1 Fan certainly fits the bill!

Da Bears is the second half of the Bear Down Duo.  A glitter topper comprised of different sizes of orange and white glitter, Da Bears is easily my favorite of these three.  The color is perfect not only for the Bears, but for summer, fall, and would make a great addition to a manicure themed by my favorite holiday, Halloween! 
 

I decided to apply Da Bears over a gradient of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and NYC Times Square Tangerine Creme.  Isn't it just divine?!  I wore this combo for 3 days with no chips and virtually no tip wear.  Durability test passed with flying colors!  Additionally, the formula was smooth and easy to work with.  I did a little specific placement of the glitters but, on the whole, they applied easily right off the brush.

These polishes release today (Monday, Sept. 1) and are available on the Spellbound Nails store page,  Etsy and Storenvy.  Each polish is $10 for a full size, 15ml bottle with $2 going to the CEBR. You also have the option of purchasing the Bear Down Duo at $20 for the set, with $4 going to CEBR. 

You are also welcome to participate in the Bully Bash's silent auction.  This year, attendance to the Bash is not required to bid in the auction.  If you'd like to see a catalog of auction items, please take a trip on over to the auction page.  Some items are already up for bid and they'll be adding more up to and during the Bully Bash!

I hope you enjoyed this post and, should you decide to order any of Spellbound Nails charity polishes, I'd love to hear what you think of them!  Feel free to leave me a comment :)  Thanks so much for reading!