As a polish buyer I would to buy from a website that gives be the best deal on what I am buying. I currently pay $0.20 per listing, another $0.32 per transaction and then another $0.64-0.68 per item through Paypal or Etsy depending on which checkout option my customer choose. That's $1.16-$1.18 per item! I am thinking about finding a website that doesn't charge as much to sell Dragon Lacquer polishes through. This way I can lower the prices on Dragon Lacquer products. Sounds good, right? However, the ones I know about have extremely limiting free accounts and if I have to pay a $20 (or more) monthly fee, it doesn't help me to be able to lower prices.
BigCartel
For example, BigCartel.com allows only 5 items with one picture a piece on their free account. Also, you have to upgrade to be able to make coupons, etc. There are ways to work around the 5 item listing limit, I could make each polish name an option in a drop-down menu but it would be time consuming both to set up and for the customer to scroll down through the list to find the one they want. I currently have 70 items listed on my Etsy store. I set one up just to try it out and I'm not to impressed. You can check it out here but can't buy stuff as of yet.
StoreEnvy
Next is Storeenvy.com, again limited functionality for a free account. Allows for up to 5 photos per item, similar to Etsy but I can't customize shop sections to make shopping easier. Again I set one up just to test, check it out here. One thing I don't like is that I can only customize the colors of the shop a small amount, no uploading a custom background or the ability to make it more appealing.
FreeWebStore
Another place I found is FreeWebStore,org. They allow for up to 15 item listings on a free account with way more options than the previous 2 sites provided. Far more customization ability, in design and category/item listing. Down side again, I have 70 items currently listed on Etsy. I would have to decide which 15 I want to keep selling and ditch the rest. I did set up an account to try it out, check it out here.
Miiduu
Okay, when I first came across this site I had never heard of it before but I though what the heck and set up a free account. The first thing I notice is that short of being able to fully customize my shop design with background images and font preferences and the ability to edit website HTML and coding (although I believe I can if I decide to upgrade down the road) it's like a fully functional webstore. I can customize categories, items, it tracks stock, customers can register an account to track their orders and use the WISHLIST function. Yep, a wishlist! I know I like to wishlist polishes I like so I can easily find them when it's purchase time. Down side, no coupon codes unless I upgrade BUT it is extremely easy to edit pricing for sales in the account management section. You can check my demo store out here. So far I think I like this one the best.
So here's my question! Does it matter to you, as a potential customer, which site hosts a store? If you have actually read through this and checked out the "store" options, which one do you like the best and why? I am seriously hoping that you all will help me out here. If I leave Etsy, I can reduce polish prices by at least $1.00 if not more.
Thanks in advance & Much Love & Lacquer,
Kevan
GeekyOwl's Review of Dragon Lacquer
Hope you all aren't getting sick of seeing DL swatches 'cause Kirsten over at GeekyOwl is doing a Dragon Lacquer Review WEEK!
She is already up to day 3 of 5! Click on the pics to check out more swatches & read the reviews!
Day 1 - Cuticle & Hand Care:
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| Photo courtesy of Kirsten at GeekyOwl |
I was honored at her comparison of Dragon Lacquer's Fluffy Lemon Cuticle Butter to Burt's Bees and Lush's Lemony Flutter.
Day 2 - Smart is Sexy:
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| Photo courtesy of Kirsten at GeekyOwl |
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| Photo courtesy of Kirsten at GeekyOwl |
I love that Kirsten did pictures with multiple coats to show build-ability.
Day 3 - Geeking Out:
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| Photo courtesy of Kirsten at GeekyOwl |
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| Photo courtesy of Kirsten at GeekyOwl |
Day 4 is up tomorrow and I can't wait!
Much Love & Lacquer,
Kevan @DragonLacquer aka The Dragon Lady
Manicurity Review of Dragon Lacquer
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| Photo courtesy of Emma at Manicurity |
The first one up is FTW from the Gam3r Gir1 Collecion:
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| FTW - Photo courtesy of Manicurity |
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| L33T - Photo courtesy of Manicurity |
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| Neon Ninja - Photo courtesy of Manicurity |
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| One Bad Bytch - Photo courtesy of Manicurity |
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| Photo courtesy of Manicurity |
Much Love & Lacquer,
Kevan @DragonLacquer aka The Dragon Lady
ColorSplashNails Review of Dragon Lacquer
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| Neon Ninja - Photo courtesy of Rychelle from ColorSplashNails |
Rychelle over at ColorSplashNails did a review of some of my Dragon Lacquer polishes. click the photos to go to her awesome blog to check out the rest of her swatches. She reviewed 4 polishes and cuticle/hand care items for me over two days. On Saturday, she reviewed Neon Ninja from my Core Collection (pictured above) and Meh. from the G33K Collection (pictured below).
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| Meh. - Photo courtesy of Rychelle from ColorSplashNails |
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| Gam3r Gir1 - Photo courtesy of Rychelle from ColorSplashNails |
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| Zombocalypse - Photo courtesy of Rychelle from ColorSplashNails |
Happy Lacquering all!
Much Love & Lacquer, The Dragon Lady
Deuce Beauties Review of Dragon Lacquer
Carla over at Deuce Beauties did a review of some of my Dragon Lacquer polishes. The first review of Dragon Lacquer so far. She reviewed 4 polishes for me: Nerd-a-licious (G33K Collection), Neon Ninja (Core Collection), Lovely Lilac (Spring Collection), and Zombocalypse (Zombie Collection).
You can click on any of the pictures to go check out her review/swatches.
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| Nerd-a-licious - Photo courtesy of Carla at DeuceBeauties |
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| Neon Ninja - Photo courtesy of Carla at DeuceBeauties |
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| Lovely Lilac - Photo courtesy of Carla at DeuceBeauties |
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| Zombocalypse over Lovely Lilac - Photo courtesy of Carla at DeuceBeauties |
Much Love & Lacquer, The Dragon Lady
Leather Effects Dupe in progress
Good afternoon all! This is a quick post to show you what I was wearing yesterday. First off, I have to say that earlier this year I saw some awesome swatches of Nails Inc. Leather Effect Nail Polish in Noho over at Lacquered Lover. The down side? $25 a bottle and you can't buy it alone. Bummer. So I decided to attempt a dupe since I have the polish making supplies. Here's how it came out... "Leather-ish" is opaque in 2 coats. Shown below with 2 coats no top coat, no undies.
What do you think? Did I come close? I was afraid it would end up super-textured but it ended up with a subtle texture and way shinier than I expected. Now I am kicking myself for not mattifying this before I removed it. Maybe next time.
Much Love & Lacquer, The Dragon Lady
Subtle Pink Gradient with Stamping
I decided to play with my mani from last night. I did a sponge gradient and because it's been awhile totally failed at take pics of what it looked like before the stamping. Sorry. Anyway, since I used Sinful Colors Cotton Candy for my mani yesterday, I decided to do my gradient with Cotton Candy and her sister, Sugar N Spice. It only took two rounds of sponging to achieve the look I was going for.
I said the other day (Wednesday?) that I missed stamping so I went through my stamping plate collection and found a design I liked and hadn't used before. I used the large swirly design from m51 Konad plate and stamped with Color Club Miss Bliss, an awesome pink holographic polish.
On a side note, now that school is over for the semester, I finally have some time to wade through the 2 TB of data I recovered from my destroyed PC a few months ago. I hope to be able to recover a couple of reviews I was working on, a handful of posts, and a ton of pictures including the photos from my nail art contest. Thanks to all of you for sticking around through the random & scant posts and failed PC.
Much Love, The Dragon Lady
Sinful Colors Cotton Candy
I thought I'd start out my return to blogging with one of the untrieds I nabbed sometime in spring. This is Sinful Colors Cotton Candy from the Sugar Rush collection. I grabbed up several of the polishes from this collection.
I usually love Sinful Colors but I was a little disappointed in this one. Not for the color, I love the color and the pretty little shimmer flecks in it. No, I was disappointed because the first coat went on semi-transparent and streaky. After letting it dry for a while, I tried adding a thicker second coat...still streaky and semi-transparent. So I let that coat dry and added a third thick coat. I was definitely happier with this polish at 3 coats. I topped it off with one coat of Seche Vite and went to take pictures, then I saw it. VNL, not glaring but enough that I could see it. Bummer. The other thing I noticed was that it looks a little darker than it does in the bottle.
Ah well, they can't all be perfect right? Did anyone else have this problem? Like I said, I love the color so I will probably wear it again. I'm thinking maybe some kind of nail art. I am looking at Sinful Colors Sugar n Spice (from the same collection) and I'm thinking about doing a gradient over this with the two.
Gnight all! Much Love & Lacquer ~ The Dragon Lady
Finals are FINALLY over!
So happy right now, I had 3 finals yesterday and I took my last final of the semester this afternoon. Today's final was in my Game Design class and my team & I completed our game demo and nabbed third prize in the Top Game Design out of our entire class. I did SO much game programming this semester but this video game has consumed so much of my "free" time for the last several months that I actually skipped doing my nails because of it. Crazy right?
I look forward to being able to post more frequently now that the semester is over (atleast until Fall semester starts). Too drained to post one tonight but I hope to not only paint my nails but do a little nail art as well! Man, I miss stamping...
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| This just might be me this weekend! |
That's it for now...Gnighty all!
Much Love, The Dragon Lady
Pink Wednesday - Orly Beach Cruiser with glitter topper
For today's Pink Wednesday post, I've got Orly Beach Cruiser topped with DL Matter of Perspective. I used two coats of Beach cruiser, one coat of M.o.P. and one coat of Seche Vite.
I love the look of black and white glitter over neons! Much love & lacquer, The Dragon Lady
Going Gold for Silas
Yesterday, I read an article about a brave young boy named Silas who lives in eastern Georgia and has a disease that cannot be cured. You can read the full article here. Silas is 4-years old and has Hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer. He has been told he only has a few days to live and his one wish? To have people, everywhere, paint their nails gold in awareness for childhood cancer. So I'm going gold for Silas and I hope you will too!
You
can submit your Going Gold for Silas nail photos here or send them to photos@11alive.com. Silas' story is not the only one I read yesterday. Through the Praying for Silas Facebook page I learned about Adain, Harlee, and Micah. Let's show Silas, Adain, Harlee, Micah and all of the other children fighting childhood cancer, that they do not fight alone!
Other ways to show support for Silas & :
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| Silas |
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| Adain |
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| Harlee |
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| Micah (right) |
A simple Facebook like could brighten these kids' day and show them that just one more person out there cares. Feel free to add links to other pages in the comments below, we need to spread support and love to as many children as we can.
This seriously hits home for me on a personal level. I used to work in both the Oncology & Pediatric wings of my local hospital and have work with some wonderful kids. As many of you know, I am also the mother of three beautiful girls, ages 13, 10, and 3. My heart aches for these families and what they are going through.
Much love to you all, The Dragon Lady
Dragon Lacquer Update
I have gotten quite a few requests from bloggers lately asking to do reviews of Dragon Lacquer polishes. As I am getting ready to release a handful of new polishes, I have decided that I will put together several Blogger Review Packages. If you are a blogger or have a dedicated nail polish Facebook page and would like to do a review, I encourage you to submit a request via my new form located on the last tab in the navbar above.
Color Club Harp On It
This is what I was wearing yesterday, I can't get over how much rainbow-tastic holo-goodness thee Color Club holos have. I bought this collection in Dec during my polish hiatus and grabbed up the newest one from Amazon as soon as they were released. I have been waiting to "play" with these for MONTHS!
These are 2 coats with one coat of Seche Vite. Enough talking...onto the holo spam.
These are definitely worth the price, easy application and gorgeous! Need I say more?
Much Love & Lacquer, The Dragon Lady
