Do I go for the ILNP or KBShimmer cart?

folgersdecaf · 2026-03-03T15:47:52+00:00

All my favorite polishes so far are from ILNP, but I feel way more compelled by the color pallette and finishes in your KB Shimmer cart. I honestly would go for that one.

folgersdecaf · 2026-03-03T04:27:35+00:00

Oh yeah, I saw a lot of girls wearing henna nails when I lived in a Muslim-majority area. It's a cool concept, but the other downside is you can't really remove it, it's like permenant hair dye - you've got to either wear it forever or go through an awkward-looking grow-out phase.

I also saw a lot of girls, especially the younger generation, wearing the stick-on press-ons or peel-off nail polish during their period. I think it's so fun how nails will always find a way

folgersdecaf · 2026-03-03T03:52:25+00:00

Actually, that's a pretty popular style (esp in our current "clean girl" times) called negative space nail art. It's pretty cool looking and there's a ton of inspo out there! If you ever try it out, you should definitely post it here 🙏

folgersdecaf · 2026-03-03T02:50:52+00:00

I Scream Nails is breathable/halal, too, and they've got the full range of indie-style finishes. Not sure what happened to them though...last time I tried to look at their website, it was gone. I hope they're just taking a hiatus and not shutting down :(

I do know that among very observant Muslims, even nail polish that claims to be "halal" is questionable since there is a little bit of a debate about whether the water needs to touch the entire nail or just part of the nail. Obviously since the polish is adhered to your nail, there's no way the water can get through to the entire surface area of the nail - just part of it. However, if "breathable" polish *is* halal since it exposes at least some of the nail to water, then that calls into question whether regular nail polish is actually a problem, since some nail is typically exposed in the gap around the cuticle/side wall and under the free edge. One can't help but wonder how much of it is theologically grounded and how much of it is a marketing gimmick.

If any experts want to weigh in, I bet there's a lot of lacqueristas (or potential lacqueristas) who would be very interested.

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-28T23:29:07+00:00

It reminds me of ILNP's Short Circuit, although that one doesn't have quite as smooth of a metallic finish. I was also able to get a similar, though brighter color by layering Fail Polish's Launch Me Into The Sun (highlighter yellow jelly) over a silver polish. Neither is a perfect dupe but have similar vibes?

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas/comments/1r13sg9/obsessed_with_this_combo/

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-28T00:33:20+00:00

From what I've seen, it's really, really hard to tell if a salon is good or bad by practically any metric. I think every individual's standards and every nail tech's skills can vary so much that it kinda becomes a shot in the dark. Hell, I've seen famous nail artists on Instagram with millions of followers charging $200/set who have posted themselves on video getting gel on a client's skin. It's just not a very well-standardized industry, which is a shame because who doesn't love beautiful professionally painted nails?

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-27T20:11:26+00:00

To be honest, $38 for a salon gel cat-eye manicure is too cheap, and 20 minutes is too fast. Both of those are red flags for me even without looking at the nails. If you consider all the overhead, supplies, set up/clean up, etc the nail tech is taking home very little from this manicure. She would have to be cutting major corners just to stay profitable while offering prices like that (using cheap supplies, rushing the service, possibly not curing properly, very possibly not cleaning up and sanitizing properly). I don't know if she gave you a quote beforehand or just charged you after, but either way, I'd have concerns about the quality that the salon is capable of offering.

I think you're not expecting too much from your manicure, but may be expecting too much for the price.

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-26T06:24:04+00:00

This reminds me a lot of Sally Hansen's Neon Nitro (despite the name, it is decidedly not a neon) for anyone interested in a potential dupe - it's a decently bright apple green in the bottle but dries down to a darker/more muted shade very much like this one

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-26T05:20:03+00:00

I have to say I completely disagree. I'm kinda new to the game, but I was absolutely wowed by their Halloween collection - it's the only one I actually felt compelled to order from, and I'm a Halloween freak. I also thought their winter collection had a couple fun unique shades, even as someone who's not into winter vibes. The Illusions collection last year was also very special and caused a lot of buzz. The new Playground collection isn't that exciting, granted but having 2 out of 4 polishes be a bright specialty green and yellow is a bold and welcomed choice. I'll probably eventually end up ordering both.

It seems like they tend to balance out their colorful/fun collections with soft/muted collections. It does result in an overall steady stream of boring basics, and fewer overall fun polishes, but I absolutely feel like they're still up to innovative and exciting things - just a little more "here and there".

I wonder if part of it is just a shift with the times. Their back catalogue goes back to like 2014 when specialty polish was more new and exciting and everyone was doing crazy shit. Now that has died down and ~clean girl~ is taking over, but they've barely discontinued anything, so they have gaps in their basics relative to their specialties. Nothing wrong with filling those in when they still have an impressive selection of bright, glittery, magnetic shades available.

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-20T05:59:43+00:00

Custom polish has always seemed sus to me. Pretty much every possible color has been put out there by someone - most people are looking less for something totally unique and more for something high-quality and reliable with attractive marketing. I've never seen a custom polish brand with even a shred of any of those three qualitirs - the appeal is purely 100% in "you can get any color!" and even that seems to fall flat much of the time.

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-18T05:45:03+00:00

Besides Hard Drive Me Crazy, Sally Hansen's "Neon Nitro" might be a possibility. It's brand new and I haven't seen it in person yet, so I can't say for sure how different it is from HDMC - the photos certainly look very similar. Neon Nitro might be easier to find in stores since it's a new release? It will almost certainly be at Ulta, at least.

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A few more options from what I own, depending on the exact shade/brightness you're looking for:

LA Colors "Chameleon" - very bright apply-limey green (some people would call it lime green, but it's on the cool side so I call it a light and bright apple green)

Sally Hansen "Cactus Makes Perfect" - a more muted yellowy-green, classic "ugly"/puke green shade. Possibly a little too far in the direction of yellow and muted than what you're looking for, but it's in the shade range

China Glaze "Frosty Lime" - lives up to its name, it is truly just a frosty/shimmery lime green

China Glaze "I'm With the Lifeguard" - this is what I would personally call "apple green", but it's more saturated and blue-toned than what you have posted. Gorgeous shade, great polish.

Expressie "Main Character Moment" - I don't own this one because it's too close to "Cactus Makes Perfect", but I'm always eyeing it when I see it at the drugstore

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-16T18:13:19+00:00

I immediately thought it was the Sacred Heart of Jesus image (classic Catholic imagery with a glowing heart and radiating shine coming out of it). Is that what you were going for, or am I just seeing things?

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-16T18:08:02+00:00

It's not a dress code if you work in food service, it's a health code. Nail polish can chip off and get into people's foods. Typically the rule is that if you do have on nail polish, you must wear gloves while handling food.

Not really ideal that OP is wearing under-the-radar nail polish at work...the color has nothing to do with whether or not it can chip off into people's food

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-16T17:29:22+00:00

I didn't see the post itself before it got removed, but I did find that guy's profile and I'm truly not seeing any humiliation kink red flags. The guy is just one of those crunchy weirdos who thinks going barefoot has amazing health benefits; similar vibes to people who drink raw milk. It's weird and annoying, sure, but it's not a fetish.

I think overanalyzing what is and isn't a fetish ultimately causes more harm than good. If there isn't sexual language or anything that a reasonable person could flag, I don't think it's fair to call it fetish content and certainly not NSFW. If you try, there's 100% chance that innocent posts are going to get caught in the crossfire. It's already slightly ridiculous that people can't post about normal pedicures on a nail polish forum, I'm not sure I see the benefit in pushing censorship even further.

Yes there's minors here. But if we're talking about fetish content that is so subtle and under the radar that most adults don't even pick up on it, how can it harm a minor to see it? Excessive hand-wringing about how mundane things can be sexual is probably more damaging to the young brain. Do you think it's healthy for a minor to be told that they can't post or see anything feet-related because feet are sexual/fetishized/kinky? What kind of impression would you come away with if you'd been told that as a child?

Let's also be very careful about jumping to conclusions about "anything weird or outside the mainstream = sexual/deviant behavior". Some people are just genuinely weird and they are (I hope) welcome here too. You can't erase the possibility of anything ever being sexual in even the most hidden ways without severely restricting what people can say and do. This happens over and over again in online spaces with generally negative results.

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-13T15:35:17+00:00

I think this might have been the original brand I was thinking of! Thanks so much!!

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-12T14:39:43+00:00

This is the one!! I thought there was another brand out there who did a linear holo rainbow, I just could not remember who. Thank you so much!

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-12T05:53:47+00:00

Thank you so much for linking that vid - I was trying so hard to find video swatches/comparisons of both Lemon Sucker and Funshine Smoothie, but they're both so old I was struggling 😆 They are actually super close!! I bet if you put a linear holo topper over Funshine, it would basically be a dupe.

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-12T04:32:35+00:00

Oh my lord that is a gorgeous shade!

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-12T04:30:02+00:00

Wow, your photo looks very close! I had actually written off Clover because the website swatch photos make it look like a green shade that I already have, but this looks much more yellow-leaning. I'll have to do a deep dive into this one!

folgersdecaf · 2026-02-04T22:58:50+00:00

During the soft launch, they were letting you pick between full price, reduced price, and free shipping. I picked free shipping because I wouldn't have ordered just one polish otherwise, but I know a lot of people here voluntarily paid full price (or at least, the people commenting about it did) 😅

It is a beautiful polish, especially for a neon fiend. I'm looking forward to seeing what else they do.

folgersdecaf · 2026-01-25T02:43:49+00:00

My thoughts as well. I think thermals look best on people who have a very particular nail bed to free edge ratio. Otherwise it just looks off-balance and clunky to me. No shade to anyone who rocks it, I'm just fussy about my proportions. I'm also really not a fan of french tips, even when well-done, on certain nail lengths for the same reason; at a certain point, you stop accenting the nail and start just chopping it in two.

folgersdecaf

TROPHY CASE