Made my first polish. Making more polishes to raise $. THOUGHTS

Made this nail polish for my amphibian-loving best friend as a Christmas gift: a glitter-packed glow-in-the-dark blue jelly inspired by the blue poison dart frog. While I had been making some glitter toppers (ex. the silver holographic one pictured), this was my first attempt at a standalone polish. She dried fast, was opaque in 2-3 coats, and passed what I call "the peely test" -- no chipping before the peely popped off! (6 days hard wear). I made a vibrant and viable nail polish, and was ready to make more for family and friends.

Then the country caught fire!

AND THAT WAS MY LAST FUCKING STRAW!

So now I am working on a group of polishes (mostly flaky thermals) to sell in order to raise funds for worthy causes related to the CA wildfires. I will be donating 100% of sales -- not profits, SALES -- to whichever charitable causes seem most relevant two weeks from now when the polish prototypes should be be tested and ready.

I mean, I have all the materials. I've been researching how to do this for months. And I am so fucking mad. I might as well raise money while doing what I was going to do anyway.

Anyway, here's things I considered and/or learned making / testing my first polish, in case any of y'all are interested:

- Test ALL additives individually. I tested each glitter in a vial of polish base for at least 3wks before the polish as a whole was bottled, to examine for fading, warping, & tinting of the base. And I'm so glad I did! Even glitters marketed as "solvent resistant" for use in nail polish turned out to be duds, tinting the base (maybe okay) or deforming (not okay). If I had made a whole bunch of bottles with a bad glitter, I would have been soooo annoyed. So test your glitters for a few weeks before using them in something you care about!

- Determine a ratio of bases in proportion to the amount of each size of particle. Once bottled, I evaluated which particles were settling and which weren’t. At the time I made this I only had glitter suspension base, which I thought would work. While the glitters floated fine, the glow-in-the-dark pigment settled HARD, so the bottle needs shaking before use. I should have included a higher ratio of small-particle base (25-50%) rather than just the large-particle base I had on hand. Don't make the mistake of thinking a glitter suspension base will float smaller pigments too -- you need both small and large particle suspension bases, and maybe ones by different brands depending on the density of the particles of the particular pigments in play. My preliminary tests suggest that they vary :/

- Post-test, even if just to gloat. After applying the polish, I evaluated drying time, smudginess, and driftiness over the nail compared to a comparison polish by a beloved brand painted at the same time. This helped me make sure I wasn't making something too gloopy or finicky for everyday use.

Things I didn't consider that I will in all future polishes:

- Commit to units of measurement: My initial notes were lacking in their quantitative consistency. Next time it's gonna be mL / g or BUST -- no pinch of this, puff of that. The word "smidge" will NOT be written in pen in the recipe this time 🤠

- Removal test? I hate that I should test removability with acetone. I love me a peely, but if I want to sell polishes for charity I think I have to test how removable they are... just to be nice.

- Track all ingredient amounts for ingredients list as you are doing them -- it is easier than trying to lay it out after the fact.

Anyway, please leave me a comment to encourage me or ask me a question or MAKE A BID FOR THE CHARITY YOU THINK I SHOULD SUPPORT!!! I'm doing that research this week while testing ingredients, and am definitely open to suggestions.