Have you ever desperately looked for a specific nail polish colour to match a dress? (Hint: Great for a wedding!) Dreamt of tweaking a polish you own just so? Have looked at pictures of indie polishes and dreamt of making your own? Here’s the conclusive post just to do that – for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels!

I’m a nailpolish addict. My own stash numbers hundreds, and I’ve a full blown indie addiction. While I often buy my polish at the drugstore, I nevertheless find that you find the most innovative colours and textures in the realm of indie makers. So of course I’ve dabbled in making polishes myself – and when one of our readers asked about making nail polish, I jumped at the opportunity to write about it.

 

Before we start, I want to remind you that we’re going to handle chemicals while making and mixing polishes. Please take care accordingly and mix in a well-ventilated area and wear latex gloves. I once forgot that I had some polish residue on my hands and touched my eye area – not a good idea! Use caution, use your common sense and only, ONLY use products that are cleared for use in cosmetics, especially nail products (We’ll come to that later). If you want to see what can happen if nail polish production goes horribly wrong, google Mentality Polish. So, take care!

Things you might need for your own homemade frankenpolish!
Things you might need for your own homemade frankenpolish!

 

What you’ll need:

A mat of some kind so you can spill polish or pigments without making a huge mess of your desk.

Empty polish bottles (either you use a bottle of polish that you emptied before – I like using empty top or basecoat bottles for this – or you can buy some off ebay, amazon or etsy)

Mixing balls (from ebay, amazon or etsy)

Additional:

Pigments, Glitters, suspension base (see below on where to get)

 

One of my last projects: I made a holo topcoat that gives every polish I put it over a bi of holo sparkle. Supplies I needed - a silver holo polish and a clear polish. Here I'm experimenting how much I need of both - always start with small amounts!
One of my last projects: I made a holo topcoat that gives every polish I put it over a bit of holo sparkle. Supplies I needed – a silver holo polish and a clear polish. Here I’m experimenting how much I need of both – always start with small amounts!

 

Beginner level

So you want to polish your nails with one specific shade that you can’t find anywhere. Or you’re looking for a jelly finish while the polish you have is a crème. Don’t faff around with clear polish and pigment, there’s a much easier way to make that colour that you want. Simply start mixing two existing polishes until you reach your desired shade. If you want to make a jelly polish, start adding clear polish to the cream polish until you reach the desired jelly-level. In both cases, carefully add mere drops of polish! That way you can even mix your own ‘watercolour’ polish/ polish tints that’s recently became very popular for nail art.

 

Intermediate level – everything glitter

Aaaaaaall the glitter! My small *cough* glitter stash. I got most of it from Glitter Unique.
Aaaaaaall the glitter! My small *cough* glitter stash. I got most of it from Glitter Unique.

 

Glitter of all kinds brings some dangers with it while adding it to polish. Trying to add a bit of glitter into clear polish, two things will happen – very likely the coloured glitter will start to ‘bleed’, tinting your base, and then the glitter will sink down to the bottom of your polish, not dispersing prettily thoughout the base polish.

To prevent that, either use suspension base (we’ll come to that) and specific glitter, or use a polish that already has some glitter in it, like a glitter top coat. Maybe you have one with really pretty glitter, but you’d love the base to be tinted? Either try mixing some coloured crème polish into it, or add some cosmetics pigments into the glitter top coat and shake, shake, shake!

You can do the same thing with those obnoxious glitter polishes whose base is so sheer that you need about three layers until everything is opaque. Add a bit of pigment and you’re good! Fun, right?

 

Supplies you'll need to mix/franken your own nail polish: Suspension base, pigments and glitters, empty bottles, mixing balls.
Supplies you’ll need to mix/franken your own nail polish: Suspension base, pigments and glitters, empty bottles, mixing balls.

 

Advanced level

You’ve a firm idea in your head about your own polish. Specific colour, glitter, holo pigment, thermal… All at once! Well, you can do it. But you’ll need some supplies, and it won’t be cheap.

Let us talk about where to get the stuff you’ll need. Dance Legend makes a nice newbie set that will provide you with some stuff you need to make your own polish. If you’re more adventurous, you can get everything easily elsewhere.

Glitters that have been tested for use in nail polish you can either get at Etsy, or my fave glitter shop, Glitter Unique. If you’re in Britain, Micamoma is a good option. Tkbtrading is another one in the US. Generally look for ‘franken’ supplies. If you’re looking for pigments to use in your polish, search for ‘mica’. Llarowe also sells franken supplies (franken comes from ‘frankenpolish’, or a polish you made yourself from pre-existing parts – just like Frankenstein’s monster!).

First I pour some suspension base into the bottle, then I add colour, then the glitters.
First I pour some suspension base into the bottle, then I add colour, then the glitters.

 

I get my suspension base from Etsy – look for stores that actually ship to your country! That may be a bit of a bother, because some countries consider suspension base as hazardous and shipping is horrendously expensive because of that. Speaking of suspension base – you need it. It’s the reason that in your own mixed polish glitter doesn’t sink to the ground of the bottle. But here’s a little secret – your home-made polish doesn’t have to be wholly of suspension base. You can definitely cut it with clear nailpolish, so it becomes more liquid (usually it’s a bit gloopy), so experiment how much you need.

Holo pigment (the best one is called Spectraflair) is also available at the sellers mentioned above, same with thermal pigment or glow-in-the-dark pigment.

And now you can start ‘frankening’! Start with very small quantities and have fun. Btw, I make my own funnels out of paper to use with pigments but have a very small one to funnel suspension base into small bottles. I also use a very small spatula for scooping glitter into bottles. Also nice to have: nail wheels to actually test the various stages of the polish you’re making.

 

I hope that was helpful! If you need some advice or want to show us the nail polish you made, shoot us a message or tag us in the social media channel of your choice!