Maggie Rants [and Raves]

Move Over Gel-Polish

by Maggie Franklin | March 22, 2013 | Bookmark +

When gel-polish hit the market a few years ago, I jumped on it. Invested an embarrassing amount of money into the stuff and have continued to do so because it really is the first major technical revolution to hit the industry since I’ve been a part of it. People love the gel-polish — it stays on natural nails for weeks, and even the enhancement wearers love it because there’s no waiting for polish to dry at the end of their service.

 

There for a minute, I thought it was time to stop also investing in traditional polish and I expected my gel-polish collection to usurp the space being occupied by the traditional polish in short order.

 

But I just couldn’t bring myself to stop buying regular polish. So many colors remained available in traditional polish that weren’t being introduced in the gel-polish spectrum.

 

Then the corner of the blogosphere dedicated to nail trends really exploded and I started noticing how many of those blogs were really dedicated primarily to polish. Just polish. And most of the polish bloggers boast a list of their “hoard” or “stash” of polishes.

 

Wow! Lists lovingly written and catalogued of every bottle of polish they own and often another list of polishes they’re looking for. And those lists often contain several hundred colors.

 

Of polish. Regular, old-fashioned, nail polish. The kind that takes time to dry and has long held a reputation for not lasting more than a few days on natural nails — the kind that we’ve been hearing for years now is “dead.”

 

Well, polish turns out to be anythingbut“dead” and I, for one, am super excited about that.

 

In fact, traditional nail polish popularity has exploded. And indie polishes and/or (depending on how you define them) “Franken” polishes abound. And kits for creating your own Frankenpolish colors are available so you can mix up a small batch of exactly what you want without having to contract with a major chemical company to create it by the five-gallon drum.

 

I’m wondering how many salons will start collecting some of the trendier indie polishes versus how many salons will choose to stick to the tried-and-true brands that have adorned our shelves for decades versus how many will opt out of traditional polish altogether. I guess it really depends on the clientele that drives your business.

 

Here at the Art of Nailz, I opted to build another polish rack because I couldn’t bear to choose. I’m thinking of picking up a few indie brands to introduce my clients to the possibilities ... and I’m hoping this means I’ll finally be able to find a really good green again. 

 

 

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