Things I've learned from making nail polish into a business

• Label the new colors before putting them away--similar colors become frustratingly indistinguishable over time, as more similar colors happen.
• Label the swatches so you know which of those similar colors you're looking at.
• Always swatch new colors.
• The expensive part is all the not-nail-polish stuff--the bottles, the labels, the mailing, the packaging.
• There is never enough room for the stock--or for the collection, since making your own only forces your personal stash to grow!
• Green is really hard to get right.
• Yellow is ALWAYS more sheer than any other color, no matter which supplier you get it from.
• There's always going to be someone doing what you wanted to do, before you get to do it.
• It's really hard to actually make a living off a nail business, but not that hard to break even.
• If I die, it'll be of the Glitter Lung.
• Wear old clothes when you're mixing orders or formulating new colors--they will get covered in pigment and glitter.
• Making my own polish does in no way stop me from wanting the polishes made by others.
• Making my own polish does, however, make me really critical of store brands and their lack of creativity, their over-charging for simple effects, and their thinness, over-sheerness, and chipping.
• I apparently favor green and blue formulations.
• Favorite pigments and special effects will always run out first, so buy extra of them.
• The expensive stuff really is the most awesome.
• Fads move too fast, so don't chase them.
• Once in a while, it's really fun to be ahead of a fad, though.
• Once a noodler, always a noodler--the old colors will cry out to be improved.