Tips on Tuesday: How My Custom Polish was Born

Ever since I discovered indies, I have always wanted a custom polish. But, I didn't think I was creative enough. I didn't have a vision of a polish that I wanted knocking around in my head. And the thing that stopped me the most from requesting a custom was...

What if I didn't like what was made for me?!

That would just be the worst.

After talking a bit with Emily from Carpe Noctem Cosmetics, I decided to take a leap and request a custom. But I wanted 2, a solid color and a glitter topper. I like 'sets' of things.

My exact words to Emily when purchasing my custom were as follows:

"I like mint greens, fuchsia and purples. Pinks too. I really don't know what else to describe since I have never ordered a custom before. So maybe I would like a duo chrome (since those seem like your fave to make) and then a glitter topper? Do you need more information?"

Good thing these polish making peoples are creative, because if that was sent to me, I would have NO idea what to do with it...

All throughout the custom making process, Emily conversed with me. She talked to me about different size glitters she has, different duochrome shifts and different colors I like. 

I mentioned I have an affinity for vampy purples.

And Sapphire Abyss was born. 

You can name your polish if you want, but I let Emily go ahead and name my customs. Probably because she wanted to mail them to me, and I still hadn't come up with any names.

I am SO bad at naming things. 

God help my children, because I have pet birds and their names are their colors. 

Gray Bird and Yellow Bird. 

Sapphire Abyss is a vampy purple with a blue shift. Up close there is such a nice shimmer to it. Without even knowing what kind of polish I wanted, I got exactly what I wanted!

Emily sent me swatches via facebook message to make sure I liked what she had created. She showed me several different sets of swatches in all different lighting and heard any concerns I had. If you check out her facebook albums, you will see just how many swatches she will take for you!

My main concern: I didn't want it too dark. I didn't want it to appear to be black with 2 coats.

Swatches here are shown as 2 coats and you can see that it is not too dark at all!

Next up is my glitter!

During my conversations with Emily and talking to her about different glitters, I told her I like dot glitters. She worked to incorporate a fuchsia dot glitter into my custom. Since I didn't give Emily much direction, she messaged me to ask me if I like gray and pink together. Why yes, yes I do!

Emily named this polish something silly, so I am going to call it my Princess Glitter. My Princess Glitter has fuchsia dots, gray hexes and blue flakies/shards. When Emily sent me the initial swatches of my glitter, I thought it needed something extra.

I searched through some of the photos on Emily's Etsy shop, to get a better idea of some of her holographic glitters. She even sent me photos of some of the holo glitters she had. I asked her to add a sprinkling of small holo glitters (as seen in Holo Hex). 

She did and sent me some new swatches to look over.

Viola! I had my polish!

My Princess Glitter is shown here as one coat over Sapphire Abyss, with topcoat.

She was such a pleasure to work with even though I had no idea what I had in mind for my polishes. 

She was in constant contact with me and showed me several different swatches. I felt comfortable voicing concerns to her and telling her what else I wanted added to my color. 

I am so happy with her customer service and with the outcome of my polish! 

Thanks Emily!

A custom polish is $12.74 and you can find the listing here.

Have you ever ordered a custom? If you have, how was your experience? If you haven't, why not?!

**This was based on my experience with Carpe Noctem Cosmetics. I have never purchased a custom polish from any other indie maker and do not have another experience to compare to**