Pointless Cafe's Top 12 of 2012 - Part 2: Hand-Poured Indies

MY top picks for the best indie polishes of 2012

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Well I thought the mainstreams were hard. The indies are IMPOSSIBLE! How can I pick only 12? I even took the "private label" indies out and reserved them for their own post: - a-England, piCture pOlish, BB Couture, Cult Nails, etc. - they will be Part 3. And I still couldn't get it down to just 12. I mean the hand-poured indie polish "industry" just totally EXPLODED this year. (BTW if you missed my Best 12 of 2012 Mainstream Brand polishes post, click here.)

So here's what I've done...I've picked my top 12 favorites, in no particular order because that truly would be impossible, and I have some Honorable Mentions. Polishes I loved so much I couldn't leave out. And at the end, I'll tell you what my FAVORITE indie polish for 2012 was.


Ready?


Enchanted Polish Hot Chocolate

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Elevation Polish Toubkal

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Hebridean Sprite Underhill

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SoFlaJo The True Death

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Ninja Polish Zultanite

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Girly Bits Fathomless

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Dandy Nails Chilled Down

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Maya Cosmetics Tranquillis

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AquaDaisy Shazaam

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Red Dog Designs The Engineer

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Girly Bits Hot Toddy

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Jindie Nails Choose Me

There is just something SO special and so unique and so gorgeous and creative about each one of those polishes.

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And the Honorable Mentions! Yes, 12 of them. Again, in no particular order...



Dandy Nails Moon Glow

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Elevation Polish The Arches

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These next two I haven't had a chance to blog about but I've worn them for full manis more than once since they came out - I strongly suggest you go read the post because they blow the others out of the water!


Ninja Polish He Went To Jarred

Ninja Polish The Midas Touch

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NerdLacquer Smoke Dragon

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Dandy Nails Bory-Alice

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Enchanted Polish I Am The Walrus

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Maya No Big Deal

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Sea Lore Attina

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The Nail Junkie Grape Jelly

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Enchanted Polish Ciao Milano

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Paint Box Polish Gryffindor

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And what IS my favorite indie polish for 2012? AquaDaisy Shazaam. I've used it so much that I'm already into my second bottle and I have more backups because I never want to run out of this. It's a one-coater and the finish is sort of a satin finish without top coat, which I really like. It dries SUPER fast. I finish swatching and I can have my nails done in less than 3 minutes, start to DRY finish. No lie. I've timed it. Best stuff EVER. Not to mention it's gorgeous. Well...look at it!

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So there you have it! What do you think - any of these make YOUR favorites list for 2012? Haven't indies been a wild ride so far? I think it's not only awesome for them and for us but it's also awesome in that the big mainstream companies have had to sit up and take notice and start stepping up their games and I think, for the most part, they have. Everyone wins!

As you can see, I'm not hugely into the chunky glitters or glitterbombs. But I know lots of people are and I say more power to them - ROCK IT, Bay-bee!

Stay tuned for my final installment of the best of 2012 with "private label" indies...coming soon.

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