Launching the polish brand...

So with my Soap-Dodger business up and running and the creative side of my brain well and truly unlocked I started obsessing. Soap-Dodger had been around for 2 years but I wanted something else...something with colour! I decided in my own mind that setting up a nail polish business was something I really wanted to do. The only problem was I knew very little about it and wasn't even sure it was possible.

Enter Social Media! Thankfully social media was a tool I was becomming increasingly confident with and I soon managed to get in touch with a few 'nail' content creators. Only one person got back to me and thankfully that person had in excess of a million followers and was the reason I managed to persue the business in the end. Had nobody come back to me maybe I would have let the idea go. Thankfully she agreed to chat more with me around her experience and knowledge on the subject. Little did I know that I would be woefully unprepared for that conversation! We will call this creator 'Sarah' for the sake of ease here.

So Sarah agreed to have a call with me and after the intros to each other and me explainign what I wanted to create she sounded VERY excited. Don't get me wrong I was thrilled she was giving me her time, but the enthusiasm for my new venture seemed a little overkill. I think she noticed my confusion and immediately a conversation started that I will never forget, and it went a little something like this...

Sarah: So....you want to launch a nail polish business and you are wondering why I am so keen on the idea and why I seem a little 'over' excited yes?

Kat: Oh my god, I am so sorry that sounds like I am being ungrateful and I promise I am not. But...I am just confused as to why a big content creator such as yourself is so excited over the thought of a new brand.

Sarah: Let me ask you a few questions and maybe it will make sense. How many Independant Nail Polish brands are do you think are currently operating in the UK?

Kat: Erm, honestly I don't know

Sarah: Okay, so how many are operating in the US right now?

Kat: Honestly I also don't know (at this point feeling woefully unprepared)

Sarah: Well in the US I would estimate maybe around 60-80 brands but that is just a guide. In the UK there are currently less than 10. NOW do you see why I am excited?

So, as you can imagine I soon realised that the Indie polish market was extremely niche here in the UK and realised that for UK people the thought of another new accessible brand was a massive plus. Sarah went on to fire questions at me which made me realise the extent of how little I knew, but it was by far THE most valuable conversation I have had about the nail polish business to this very day, and one I will always be truly grateful for. I went away from that conversation feeling scared, nervous and excited all in one go. It dawned on me that this was a big job and I had to get it right, or as near as damn it if I was going to go ahead with it.

The next couple of months I literally drowned in research. One question Sarah asked me was how many nail polish types there were. I admit at that point I felt lost as I could only think of a handful. The research I did and learning about polish made me realise I knew next to nothing. It was an exciting time but I felt even more aprehensive about launching another new brand even though I had been through the process once before.

Launching a new polish brand also came up with new challenges. I already knew about the licencing rules and thankfully for me I managed to secure mine at a time where I got way more flexibility than many people maybe starting this line of work now. The hardest part was finding and sourcing bottles and brushes. Unlike the USA, we are limited to manufacturers and availability was scarce. I couldn't afford large quantities as I was just starting out but thankfully I found a sqaure bottle I thought would work.

The name for the business came about once again thanks to my husband. As a 'South-London' fella the saying 'Ard As nails isn't uncommon and it always made me laugh. I literally asked him what I should name the brand and he came straight out with it in minutes. It just fitted so we dropped the H from the word hard, and 'Ard as nails brand was born.

Sidenote here for anybody reading maybe not from the UK:-

In the UK, saying someone is "hard as nails" means they are extremely tough and physically resilient. In the London area due to the accent the letter H is dropped by many and the saying becomes 'ard as nails.

So, once my research was done I was on the hunt for people to try out the polish and give me some opinions. Thankfully I had no end of offers and after a few months prepping and planning I was ready to launch. On the 7th August 2015 I officially launched the Ard As Nails polish online and was gobsmacked by the response. I was amazed at the amount of orders I got that very day and then the following few days.

As you are reading this in August 2026 we have just celebrated 11 years of 'Ard As Nails and if somebody would have told me the brand would still be going this long and doing just as well I would have laughed at them. I had no idea that this would become the main focus of the business and one that had longevity and best of all the huge community you find yourself among. I can only hope that I can continue to do this year after year with the help and support of my amazing customers.