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Hi, I'm Megan, founder of 52 Color of Polish. I was once an interior designer, a construction manager, and most recently a project manager. I have a creative background and have numerous creative hobbies. But I also have an insane attention to detail, a compulsive need to learn new things, and a strong business mind.
I am often described as "unique", primarily as "this is a unique resume" or "you have such a unique background" because I don't conform to society's standard of being solely right-brained or left-brained, logical or creative. I love showing both sides, as you will see reflected in the 52 Colors of Polish brand and in this blog.
Originally from California (Ventura County, just north of L.A.), I have called New York home for over 15 years. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn with my husband. This is where I design, mix, bottle, and ship our polishes.
52 Colors of Polish is an independent nail polish brand that makes sophisticated and fun polishes. Our polishes are designed and made in Brooklyn and reflect the city’s classic and urban aesthetic. Launched monthly, our collections speak to the season, holiday, or general vibe of the moment.
We take sustainability seriously. We make small batches and use environmentally-friendly packaging. We use a 10-free suspension base and a variety of pigments, shimmers, and solvent-resistant glitters to formulate each polish to our exacting specifications. We are constantly looking for ways to make our polishes better to use, for you and the environment.
I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. I have a million creative hobbies and have contemplated turning each of them into a small business. But the math never worked out. If you look at any business, its largest expense if labor, and creative hobbies are especially labor intense.
Then in 2023 after being laid off, I was applying for jobs at my local Starbucks. There was a group of young women next to me with elaborate and colorful hairdos. They got to talking with the guy on the other side of me; he was explaining how the women could get into buying and selling hair extensions online. He talked about registering a business, applying for business financing, and signing up as a seller on Amazon. It wasn’t new information to me, but he was presenting it in a way that spoke to the ease of doing it. After the women left, he turned to me. “And what about you?” he asked. I told him that it all sounded fine and dandy, but I had never landed on an idea that I was passionate about and could be profitable. All of the way home, I thought about what he said to those women. I had the phrase “You just have to start.” swirling in my head. So the next day, I started.
I have always loved having painted nails, either from a salon or DIY. But for years, I didn’t bother with my nails. I have thin and brittle nails and have never had success getting my manicure to last the week. So I’d only paint them on special occasions. Until I read “I Will Teach Your to Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi. His philosophy is that your money (any amount of money) should be used to bring you joy, to help you create your “rich life”.
I would love to get a salon manicure every week, but I’ve never had that kind of money. But I could afford nail polish and nail tools and the time to do a DIY manicure every week. But as I got into this self-care ritual and was shopping for new polishes for my weekly manicure, I realized I wasn’t finding what I was looking for. I initially ignored this concern and figured that I just hadn’t found the right brand yet.
So this is how I started.
I realized I should start the brand that has the polishes I’m looking for. That polishes, being small, are easy to hold in inventory. That a premium is paid for indie polish brands. That my aesthetic wasn’t reflected in existing brands, so that meant that there was market space for another polish company.
And 52 Colors of Polish was born.
*** There is always a concern about turning a hobby into a business, because there’s a fear that the business aspects will kill your love of the hobby. And if I became a manicurist, I’d share that concern. But instead I am creating a product that makes my hobby, DIY manicures, even more joyful. Not only are my nails beautiful, they are beautiful because of a polish I created.
When I started 52 Colors of Polish in 2023, there were no resources. There is one archived blog on the internet that the lovely MK put together when she was inspired to create Franken polishes. A Franken polish is traditionally created by mixing two or more polishes together to get a desired color/shade/finish. She created a wonderful repository of suppliers and nail polish appropriate glitters and pigments, as well as what to mix and how to mix it. But she focused solely on making a single bottle of polish, based on your personal preferences and what you have on hand. Which is amazing and has been super helpful, but didn’t answer my questions about making polish to sell.
I want this blog to continue her work and provide DIY nail polish content that helps people mix their own polishes. But I also want to provide information for people starting their own indie nail polish brand, including business advice, supplier advice, and how to make product in quantity. More brands mean more people can use nail polish to speak to their own style and perspective, because that's the beauty of nail polish. It's similar to fashion in that way. There is an infinite combination of colors, pigments, glitters, bases, bottle sizes, and bottle shapes. If any one of those are tweaked, you're creating a completely new brand, and you'll address a completely unique part of the market.
I want to focus on DIY nail polish, not only as an individual consumer but also as an indie polish business. So I will also focus the blog on business learnings. I have set up an LLC, I have applied for sales tax, I applied for a trademark, I have done all of these big business things. I want to share what I’m learning as I go, because there isn’t a lot of focus in business literature or advice on female businesses and maker businesses. A lot of small business advice is built for the sole service provider (the sole accountant or lawyer) and some of it is focused on small retail (a clothing store or coffee shop).
But for 52 Colors of Polish, I am designing and manufacturing the product myself. There is so little information out there about being a business of this type (what I call Small Business Manufacturing) that I want to be that resource for other people. I want to pass on what I have learned from my MBA and from my experience with the brand to really support and help others follow behind me.
And honestly, the market is growing. It is becoming more gender diverse. I am all for it, because industries are successful when there is significant diversity in product, in manufacturing, in distribution, in brand, and in business type and approach. Historically there have been business theories about holding onto your slice of the pie at all costs, but we’re learning that it’s okay if your list of competitors grows, as long as the market grows with them. Because then you can still have same slice of the pie, but there are more slices available for other people.
The business knowledge shared in this blog will be generally directed towards the nail polish and the nail/cosmetic industry, but most it will be focused on small business manufacturing. So, if someone is making toys, or furniture, or paper goods, or tiny houses, whatever they are manufacturing, this advice should apply to them. I will always recommend that additional research should be done, especially if you are in a different industry, and that you should seek out advice from licensed professionals (your lawyer, accountant, financial advisor, etc.) as I am not one.
I hope that this blog will help you find your own path to or through entrepreneurship and that 52 Colors of Polish will help you look gorgeous while doing so.
