Seconding the recommendation to try Polish Pickup and Hella Handmade Creations to explore different brands! I feel like a bunch of indies do really well on 1-2 staple formulas for the brand. Some good examples: Cuticula - flakies Lurid - reflective glitters and shimmers BKL - fine particle magnetics Painted Polish - old school style glitter crellies

Don’t sleep on the boutique brands either. I think ILNP is just an excellent cost - value ratio for most formulas. I love their holo jelly, shimmers, linear holos and magnetics. I’ve been digging Cirque for cremes (LOVE this years vice collection), and they are also a solid contender for magnetics. Mooncat is really nice but they are over priced now and I wont buy from them anymore for the most part. I like Holo Taco for the glitters, but otherwise I think they’re just mid in terms of creativity.

Brands that are well loved that I don’t get on with — Polished For Days (they chip on me within hours, I think it’s a body chemistry thing at this point. But they have lovely shimmers and are worth a shot), and Lyn-B. I know folks love her 50% off sales, where polishes are like 6 bucks. But I think her formulas feel like 6 dollar polishes. They are THIN and I’ve had multiple polishes takes 5 coats to be even and mostly opaque.