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A (Belated) Year in Review and a Freebie Friday!
Jan
Hi, lovelies!
I hope 2015 is treating you well so far because I know it has for me! I’ll explain that more later. Quick warning, this may just be a long post. I’m going to try to blog more… I know, I know, I say this all the time, but well, if not now, when?
Looking back upon the year (which passed by way too quickly), I can honestly say that 2014 was pretty great.
Donations
First and foremost, last year we (and by we, I mean me and all of you) were able to donate $4,172.01!!!! As I’m sure you all know by now, each purchase of a Serum No. 5 product goes towards a charitable donation. Each month I take a portion of the sales and I do what I can to help others. If it weren’t for all of you that support Serum and continue to make those purchases, we couldn’t do this. So remember:
Thank you all for being beYOUtiful.
Press
2014 started off pretty strong in terms of press. Serum got its first magazine feature in Nail It! Magazine. Some serious special thanks to Beauty Director, Karie Frost, and the rest of the Nail It! team for including Serum in your magazine. This led to some other features and mentions in the magazine, but really, you never forget your first. Nail It! Magazine is the first lifestyle nail and beauty magazine of its kind and just connects to so many of us nail addicts, that I’m so thankful to have built a nice relationship with them.
In April, Serum participated in a celebrity gifting lounge for the MTV Movie Awards and from this it got a mention (and by mention, I mean incredibly itty bitty mention) in the Huffington Post Style section! But really, anything on the Huffington Post is pretty amazing. Pretty sure I did some happy dances when I saw this haha!
Oh and another ohmygoodmother yay! moments had to be when POPSUGAR Beauty listed Serum as one of the 11 Indie Polish Brands Every Nail Addict Should Know.
Fun and New
And of course, 2014 was filled with a lot, and I mean A LOT, of new products!
The glow in the dark line doubled, no… tripled! Thanks to Sarah of Chalkboard Nail’s suggestion, more glow cremes were added to the lineup, so let’s all give Sarah a thanks for all of that glowy rainbow goodness.
Flashing Lights made its debut and ruining improving pictures with reflectiveness has never been more fun! If you’re ever being chased by paparazzi, just flash your nails in front of your face haha.
But wait… there’s more! In addition to all things polished, Serum also included the Cut It Out Nail Vinyls line and some bath and body products, yay! If you haven’t checked them out yet, you should! And if you have some ideas on how to make your nail art game easier or to make us all smell nicer, leave a comment with some suggestions!
Nail Art
2014 was also the year for personal growth in my nail art game. I actually started doing nail art in law school, it was something that was relaxing and still let me be artsy fartsy creative without being too much of a distraction. I’m sad to say that over the years, I’ve really been lazy about it but I took part in a couple of monthly challenges and even killed myself participating in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge! Not gonna lie, that challenge is intense and is no joke. But I can totally see some improvement and have created some of my favorite designs ever.
Improving as a nail artist (and blogger?) has been hard and time-consuming, but it’s rewarding… until it’s time to change your nails and your heart dies a little each time 😉
2015
Well hello there, 2015! I don’t know about you, but I’m already loving 2015 (and I hope you are too)! 2015 is looking to be another great year! Serum is featured in the February 2015 issue of InStyle Germany and not only that, it’s on the opening page of the beauty section! Can I type with any more exclamatory sentences?! I think so!
Already with 2015, Serum has expanded the reflective topper line with All of the Lights, On Sight and Power, some lovely multichrome flakie reflective toppers.
Serum is also starting some limited batch polishes as well! Sometimes while I’m scouring for some fun shimmers and pigments, I’m able to get my grubby little hands on some samples that unfortunately I’m not able to get more of due to limited supply. So, instead of hoarding them, I’ve decided to make something fun and beautiful out of them with new monthly polishes! Although only one batch is made, I do try to make a decent amount and these are available internationally as well.
I’ll be working on hosting another Love, Preview. If you haven’t heard of this, Love, Preview is a curated beauty and fashion charity shopping event held in Southern California, it’s pretty much an indie shopper’s dream and we were able to donate over $2,000 to No Kid Hungry! I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t able to plan and host one last year, life just got in the way and doing it all yourself is tough. But… I’m hoping to get it going again, so please stay tuned and help a girl out when it comes time to buying tickets and/or fundraising 😉
Oh and let’s not forget my new favorite for 2015: Freebie Friday! While I may not do this every Friday, I will try to do this as often as possible, so keep your eyes peeled or follow Serum on our social media (links to the right and the bottom). So here’s this week’s Freebie Friday: La Vie en Rose and Love Struck Cut It Out Nail Vinyls!
All you have to do is comment on this blog post with what you’d like to see from Serum. Here’s some ideas to get you going: New glow colors, vinyl ideas, bath and body scents or nail art tutorials. I’ll email multiple winners on Monday.
So what else is new in 2015? I’m really not sure, but I hope whatever it is, it’ll be great, amazing and you’ll love it! So cheers to a new beginning and doing more good out there <3
congrats! That’s an awesome amount of money for very worthy causes What would I like to see?
Hmmm Lead lighting nailart tutorials for sure Some brighter pastel shades in polish with shimmer and sharing some of the challenges you face as an Indie maker Thanks for all you do Keep up the great work
I would love to see nail vinyls that are letters. Also, polka dots would be great too!
I’d love love love to get my hands on a glow in the dark polish with stars and moons in it! 😀
What would I like to see? Well, I’m looking forward to the upcoming ‘one and done’s, and would love to see more of the Cut it out vinyls.
I would love to see more polishes like flashing lights but in different colors if possible, like a jelly base with a secondary flash color.
I would love to see birght pastel nail colors and letter nail vinyls
I would love if you could have cut it out nail vinyls that have metallic designs or even a candy themed design with cute sweets and lollipops 🙂
I’m not sure what it is this year but I’d love to see some bird nail vinyls – different shapes and things. I also love the idea of candy shaped vinyls suggested by another poster.
I would love to see a glow in the dark polish that looks like embers or lava! Red or orange, with an orangey shimmer and black glitter or flakes, something like that. I’m sure you would have a much better idea of how to make it look than I would. 😀
Congrats on a very successful year! I would love to see more GITDs -something crazy like neon multichrome GITDs? Here’s to a successful 2015 for you!
That is awesome!! Congratulations on all your success. I absolutely love the flashing lights! Add a variety of colors to it, and the possibilities are endless. Best wishes to in this coming year!!
more nail tutorials! i love em 🙂 i always want new ideas to try
I would love to see jewel tones in a satin or matte finish with a little bit of shimmer.
Great work! In the future I’d love to see some edgier vinyl designs.
Congratulations on the success of 2014! I LOVE your GITD polishes and would like to see what else you can do with GITD pigment; e.g. Holographic GITD polishes.
Is there any way you can make glow in the dark stamping polish!! I think that would be awesome!!!
And congratulations on a greater year!! May this year bring you much more!!!
holo glows!!