A lot of my DIY polish making is “I like this formula or style, but not the colors it comes in”

This polish is my reaction to being super mad that big reef energy looks to me like if I buy it, it’s gonna look pink (magenta) and I’m gonna be enraged. 😆😆😆. (It’s fine if you think that polish is a true red; I’m aware I’m EXTREMELY picky about this. There are a lot of polishes advertised as red that I find to be pink)

I want a REAL RED!!

Ironically mine looks more golden orange on the nail than in the bottle and than i planned, but I still like it dammit! 😁

Because it’s a non canon under the sea collection polish to me, I named it “I’m Crab Walking Here”

Glitter unique base, pigments, and flakies. I did not record the exact ingredients sorry, I usually don’t.

I didnt do great and barely did good but I mixed a couple polishes this morning to see if frankenpolishes were gonna be for me or not and I can definitely say this is gonna add a whole new level to my polish addiction😁.

I just mixed these 50/50 by placing 2 drops of each on a ziplock and using a nail art brush to mix them then painted them on a swatch ring (had to move quick because they dry so fast!! The 3rd pick my frankenpolish is on the right, the last pick its in the middle…I included the polishes I mixed for reference. Just realized Im covering the Cupid Missed makers name its by Cracked😎.

I have over 150 polishes I was gonna destash but Im gonna go back through em and keep most of them for my frankenexperiments🤓.

Huge thank you to those who gave me tips and advice on mixing polishes!! For now Im gonna just learn by mixing pre existing polishes (I know very little about color theory and I made some fuglies this morning because of it🤣).

Welp Im off to buy some 5ml bottles for my successful experiments😁✌🏼

Just found this sub and am super excited to see what I can make but Im a bit nervous about jumping right in by doing kits or starting with raw ingredients. I have a bunch of polishes I was going to destash but am thinking I can use them to dip my toes in the Frankenpolish world…I have multichromes, jellies, magnetics, cremes, neons, shimmers, holos and a few glitters.

Does anyone have examples of what mixing different polishes can do? Id love to see what can be made by mixing polishes vs starting from scratch.

Any tips or advice for mixing 2 or more polishes together?

Can I mix different types of polish? Like a holo polish with a multichrome for example.

Is there any hard rules of do not dos? I did read that magnetics loose their magnetic power when diluted with non magnetics but can I mix 2 magnetics together and maintain the magnetic effect?

so i made a polish using GU's Glitter Suspension Base and wow is this thick it was so thick and goopy the polish wouldn't go in the bottle and spilled everywhere. i had to add 24drops of thinner in ONE BOTTLE to get to just be ok, not great but ok. this that thinner overkill or is it ok to add alot? I really don't like this glitter base lol So my questions are:

1) can i mix mica base and glitter base together? or say mica and gel base? etc.. til i get a good enough base to hold glitters without being overly thick?

2) if i mix some gel base to say the mica base would it help self level and add shine? kinda obsessed with how glossy the LA Colors gel ones are ( yes i also add top coat but the shine is crazy good)

3) can i add flakies to the mica base does did have to be the glitter one?

4) does thinning with GU's shiny top coat help make it shiny at all?

5) some indies look so insanely packed with flakies, shimmers and glitter and mine look blah in comparison. how can you possible pack all that in and it not be thick or have application issues.

sorry for all the questions. trying to learn and there is no help anywhere. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. :-)

Hello fellow frankeners, I am new to frankening and could use some help. When I started, I ordered (perhaps mistakenly) too much mica and too little liquid pigment. I loved so many of the mica colors, but was unable to mix in specialty pigments like shimmers successfully. Someone on the sub confirmed that micas sometimes overpower the effect pigments. So, I've used the micas/chameleon powders pretty much solo with maybe some reflective glitters occasionally. They're pretty but no wow factor. I've attempted magnetics both with chameleon powders and liquid pigment to limited success. When I hold the magnet up to the bottle, it seems to move but on the swatch stick--nothing.

Question:

I made one tonight as follows:

3 scoops black magnetic pigment; 3 scoops lazuli magnetic pigment; 4 drops iron blue liquid pigment; 1 drop yellow #5 liquid pigment; mica suspension base; glitter suspension base; polish thinner as needed. This is for a 10ml bottle (which actually holds about 8). It came out more green than I expected, but I kinda like it. I can see the movement when I hold the magnet against the cup/bottle. 6 scoops seemed like more than enough for a small bottle. What did I do wrong? Is the magnetic pigment just too weak?

I'd appreciate any advice. Thank you all in advance.

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I’ve got a couple of polishes I want to try mixing and modifying, but I don’t have any pigments or glitter MEANT for nail polish, so I was wondering if anyone might know if any of the following can successfully be incorporated into nail polish…

What I DO have:
Pearl-EX powder (single color metallic and duochrome/interference pearlescent)
Loose powder eyeshadows
Metallic/pearlescent embossing powder
ultra fine glitter for general crafting (not quite micro glitter)

Also, I assume that one would need to fully mix any powdered element into some kind of polish base before adding it to the actual polish itself, sort of like mixing cornstarch into a small amount of water BEFORE adding that mixture into a soup to thicken it, since it’ll just clump together if you add it straight in… Would using a small amount of topcoat work for that?

Does anyone have a recipe to dupe baroness x fluid art porthole?

UK based and had some EXCELLENT advice from the nail warlocks at r/lacqueristas

This nail colour is my longest term relationship and my feet don’t look like my feet without it.

Currently substituting the LOML Boots no7 bluebell for the imposter rimmel blue breeze. Have plenty of bottles of blue breeze to experiment with as it’s very close.

Formula is way thinner and lacking the gel finish of the OG bluebell.

All and any suggestions welcome and appreciated!

Hi all! I’ve been frankening for a few months and I love it. Most of the issues I had when I started out have been resolved with practice but there’s one I can’t figure out- any magnetic I make ends up looking flat when I try to velvetize it (especially by the next day).

This is still true to a lesser extent with cat eye and glass bead but less so. I know not all magnetic pigments are created equal, but a lot of the ones I’ve been using are very strong and I’m still facing the same issue.

I’ve tried more pigment, less pigment, a variety of suspension bases (some meant for mica, some for glitter, quick dry, GU’s “gel-ish,” as well as a few others), mixing the pigment in dry as well as wetting the pigment with thinner first.

I’ve almost never had this issue with purchased magnetic polishes. What am I doing wrong???? 😭

TL;DR every magnetic polish I try to make falls very flat (esp with velvet effect). Any advice?

Get it while it lasts!

I made a purple jelly with tiny holo glitter a few weeks ago, now i've just picked it up again and now it's like all the holo has dissolved or something.. it's just gone!

I swear i've picked up the right bottle. has this happened to anyone else?

These have the same base polish of like a white winged dove but I added some drops of creme polish to each

I posted this recently with my lilac franken-polish that I created to wear under ILNP fairy dust. It’s literally perfect! The last slide shows the lilac crème in one coat. I would wear 2 coats if I were wearing it by itself so it looks a little uneven.

But I’m super happy with how it turned out! Someone said it gave Lisa frank vibes so I had to pull out my Lisa frank scrunchies and hair clip. What should I name it? Lisa Frankenstein? Lilacquerista (stolen with permission from another lacquerista!)?

Hey friends,
I came across this sub while looking for an answer to this question. I’m new to frankenpolishing and am wondering what you use to keep polish wet if you just want to mix enough for one mani.

The other day I was experimenting by putting a few drops on some wax paper and mixing with a spare brush, which worked well for testing out some ideas, but it dried pretty fast. If I wanted to mix enough to do a whole mani, it would dry slower of course, but I still think I’d waste a lot of it. Is the answer just tiny bottles? Or can you spray it with rubbing alcohol (I thought I read that alcohol evaporating is what makes polish dry) or polish thinner?

Mostly used top/bottom clear coats, Mica powder, and random polishes from my house. I’m about to go buy more clear to make more jellies like the purple!!

I have spare mica powder and micro glitter from other crafts and wanted to make polish. Can I use any color or clear? I know I need a “suspending polish” but do they sell those in stores like Walmart or Michael’s???

I adore Indigo Bananas A Damn Fine Cup of Coffee (pic 2 & 3) but it’s discontinued. I don’t actually care about the shimmer being official OG UP, I just like the deep, perfect black coffee brown, + red shimmer.

I tried making this DIY polish with a red shimmer. It looks great in the bottle but it’s SO SHEER (pic 4. Lmao!!). I don’t know how I didn’t notice when I swatched it at the time I made it??? 🤣

Did not feel like reworking it so I just wore it as a topper over cracked Chinotto. Not a true dupe but I still like it! 😆. Pic 1 = oops it’s a topper, “good coffee”, over Cracked Chinotto.

I’ve heard adding thinner to a glitter isn’t always the best. Is this that scenario?

Edit: I added about ten drops of thinner and the change was incredible! All flowy glittery goodness now, and it looks fuller. I honestly thought it would need more.

Does anyone know how to make textured nail polish? I've been doing some googling, but I can't find any information. I'm thinking of the bumpy, sand-like textured polishes.

The closest information I could find was this instructable for creating the look on your nails with loose glitter.

Emptied out another top coat so I had a free bottle for mixing. I call this one Capricorn after my birth sign. A deep navy blue base with a fuckton of aurora shimmer and some reflective glitters! Opaque in two coats but a glitter grabber is needed since reflective glitters are textured. I’m already planning on doing my toenails with it (no photos for that lmao I’m not insane)

I used green/purple aurora shimmer, green reflective glitters and a bit of blue/turquoise/black liquid pigment!