Nail polish brands tend to start with one person and one itch, a salon request, a bad formula, a hobby in a spare room. This is one bottle from each of twelve, with the stories behind the shades.
Nail Polish Brands: One Bottle From Each of Twelve
Nail polish is younger than you think. When Revlon formed in March 1932, most polishes on the market were transparent, colored with dyes and limited to light, medium and dark red, and Charles Revson's bet was a cream enamel made with pigment so it actually covered the nail. Every one of the nail polish brands here is an answer to that move, and most have a founder with a particular itch. Start with the four that have decades behind them. OPI began in 1981 as a dental supply company, and Big Apple Red is a classic red from that lineage. Essie Weingarten launched essie the same year with twelve shades and a flight to Las Vegas to leave samples at salons, and Crochet Away is a grayish brown cream in her playful naming spirit. Sally Hansen was a real person, which surprised everyone when Coty went looking in 2017, and she trademarked Hard As Nails in 1957; Black Heart is the opaque, shiny black. Jeff Pink founded Orly in 1975, and the French manicure came from Hollywood studios asking him for one nail look that worked with every costume. Breathable Almond Milk is the natural-nail one, with no base or top coat, the brand says.
The formula people
Some labels start from the bottle rather than the color. Manucurist was born in 1996 in a Paris salon run by the founder's mother, and her daughter Gaëlle Lebrat-Personnaz took over in 2016 after years at Louis Vuitton, Prada and Saint Laurent. Active Glow Blueberry is its treatment polish, a sheer magenta gloss with blueberry extract, AHAs and sweet almond oil, the brand says. Zoya came from a pianist turned cosmetologist, Zoya Reyzis, and her chemist husband Michael in Cleveland, and the brand uses real women's names for its shades, and Courtney keeps that habit. Londontown traces its Florium Complex to a family flower garden in Radlett, England, and Londoner Love is a red with a self-leveling formula. Deborah Lippmann was a jazz singer who went to cosmetology school, launched her line in 1999 with her husband and brother and names polishes after songs, and Naked is a sheer beige. Tip: sheer shades like Active Glow and Naked go on in two thin coats.
Small batches and a skip
Newer labels get to be strange. Cirque Colors was started in 2012 by Annie Pham as a side project in a Brooklyn apartment, where she hand-poured polish in small batches. Memento Mori is a super opaque black creme that the brand says is opaque in two to three coats. ILNP stands for I Love Nail Polish, and Barbra Salet began selling glitters on Etsy in Las Vegas in 2012. Bare is a sheer sandy jelly with a holographic polish shimmer that shows in daylight. Olive & June, from Sarah Gibson Tuttle, grew out of a Beverly Hills salon opened in 2013, and Swan is its quick-dry formula that dries in about a minute. butter London began in 2005 with Sasha Muir and the manicurist Nonie Creme, and Posh Petal comes from its 21-free gel-like range. What I would skip is flooding the brush on a jelly or quick-dry shade, since thick coats stay soft underneath and dent easily. Two thin coats, then a top coat.
Pick the story you like
Choosing among twelve bottles is easier when you choose a story. I would wear the salon classic on a Monday, the sheer treatment polish on a Wednesday and the black creme when I want to feel slightly dangerous. Each of these brands started because somebody thought the choices were dull or the formulas could be kinder. Open the one that sounds like you and give it two coats. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Chrome Nail Polish, From a Last-Minute Met Gala Fix to Everyday Mirror and Burgundy Nail Polish for Fall.
