Hello lovely Society Sisters! I was hoping you didn't notice but I'm still feeling guilty for skipping my Spotlight Series for April. I think this month's one will make up for it though! I had the pleasure of interviewing the kind and talented Sara of Cupcake Polish! If you're familiar with the brand you know she consistently creates beautiful shades with signature delicate formulas. If this is a new-to-you brand, do yourself a favor and check out this post. Let's meet Sara..
Tell us a little about yourself (family, hobbies, where you're from, etc.)
My name is Sara and I am the owner and creator behind Cupcake Polish. I live in Dallas, TX with my husband and an adorable cat and dog. My hobbies (besides nail polish!) include learning more about skincare and makeup, watching every reality TV show ever, and swimming. As an entrepreneur, I spend most of my days making nail polish, filling orders, and dealing with suppliers but I absolutely love my job and would work a million hours a week as long as I get to keep creating beautiful nail polishes!
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| Cupcake Polish Highly Cultured |
Where did the name Cupcake Polish come from?
I majored in business in college because I always hoped to become an entrepreneur someday. At the time, I really loved cupcakes and thought one day I would open my own cupcake bakery! Right after I graduated from college I started formulating my own nail polishes and jokingly called them my "cupcake polishes" because instead of opening a cupcake shop, I decided to start selling my nail polish creations instead. The name stuck and here we are 6 years later still creating nail polishes that are sweet like cupcakes!
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| Cupcake Polish Diamond, Celebrate, 5 Years, and Frankincense |
Cupcake Polish found our niche pretty quickly after we opened in creating bright, fun colors. We love everything holographic and iridescent and other special effects that are unlike anything you can find on the shelves at a big box store. Our goal is to help customers express their individuality from tip to toe!
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| Cupcake Polish A-maze-ing |
When did your love for polish begin?
I have loved nail polish from an early age! I remember *begging* my mom to purchase funky blue and teal OPI nail polishes as a little girl and I had my own little collection that I treasured. My mom didn't trust me with nail polish (probably a good idea haha!) so I remember sneaking into her bathroom as a teen to paint my nails all the time. When I got to college, I brought my nail polish collection with me and painting my nails turned it into a fun, cheap hobby because I didn't have enough money to get my nails done.
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| Cupcake Polish Eucalyptus |
How did you make the leap into creating your own brand?
When I was in college doing my own nails all the time, I would stalk Instagram for hours for nail art inspiration and fell in love with the community. I discovered that others were mixing nail polishes together to make "frankens" and I was fascinated with creating my own custom colors! After creating my own frankens for several years, I finally graduated college and it was then that I saw others were purchasing the raw materials to create nail polishes from scratch. I spent every evening after work creating new polishes for hours and hours and finally decided I should try to sell my creations.
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| Cupcake Polish Lament |
I love visiting craft breweries and distilleries and would love to learn that craft! The micro brewery industry has created such a fun environment for its customers as well as the people who work in that industry!
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| Cupcake Polish Drakon |
I work out of a dedicated studio in my home. When I started this business, I transformed the dining room of my one bedroom apartment into my nail polish mixing studio and that was quickly outgrown! When my husband and I decided to make the move to purchase a home, we made sure that there was a perfect space that we could transform into a studio for creating new products and shipping orders.
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| Cupcake Polish Flash Forward |
If you could create a nail polish to look exactly like something that isn't currently possible, what would it be?
I would love to create a true white iridescent multichrome that shifts through the whole rainbow! So far, pigments like that don't exist (shifts are limited to 2-3 colors) so it's not really possible but I am hoping with future technologies something like this might be possible! **Holy cannoli that sounds amazing!!**
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| Cupcake Polish Frankincense |
I truly love it all! I am naturally a very creative person so I really enjoy creating new colors and coming up with unique combinations but I also enjoy getting to know my customers and even find shipping orders enjoyable usually (except after a big sale haha- sometimes that can burn me out!). One of the most gratifying parts of my job is seeing something that I have created by hand giving other people joy!
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| Cupcake Polish Sea Colored Glasses |
Because all of my products are handmade, it can be hard to not take things personally if someone has an issue with the product or just plain doesn't like it! I have had to learn how to step back and look at things objectively over time.
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| Cupcake Polish Unrequited Love |
Currently, my favorite is Atomic! There is just something about that purple base with contrasting orange/green flakies that is so beautiful.
Was there a specific polish or collection that “put you on the map” so to speak?
Berry Good Looking launched in 2015 and went viral! It is still one of our best sellers today.
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| Cupcake Polish Berry Good Looking |
Our most popular shade of 2018 was Diamond - a flakie topper that was released to celebrate our 5th anniversary.
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| Cupcake Polish Diamond |
In life, I am inspired by my mom! It's so cliche - but the older I get, the more I truly appreciate all the sacrifices she made for me as a kid. She has always been my number one cheerleader and has always supported me 110% no matter what I do.
In business, Jill from Glisten and Glow and Missi from Different Dimension have been amazing friends and mentors. When I first met them, I didn't have a vision for the future of Cupcake Polish and was struggling with what to do next. Without them, I would not have had the courage to grow Cupcake Polish into what it is now and probably would have made a million more mistakes along the way. To have people who support your business 100% and are there during the good and bad times is so invaluable! I truly value their friendship and all of the business advice they have given me over the last 5 years.
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| Cupcake Polish Now You See Me |
Extra tid bits and thoughts:
*I mean this is the best of ways- Sara's polishes are probably the hardest for me to photograph! All of the shimmer and holo, etc is so incredibly delicate it's just about impossible for me to capture and do them justice!
*The Essential Oils collection was the first time I swatched for Cupcake Polish, a little over a year ago. I wanted to do a flat lay with the collection and had a specific look in mind. I couldn't find my cinnamon sticks with my other spices so I spent way too much money buying some just for the photo (no, it's not an amazing photo but I was happy with it- see my post here). Turns out my old cinnamon sticks were hiding so now I have two bottles of them that will never be used for anything else!
*Anyone else want to try some cupcakes baked by Sara? Maybe she could create some for a sort of special edition gift with purchase? Just a suggestion.. ;P
Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this Sara! I hope you all had as much fun getting to know her better as I did!
Thank you for reading. For more Cupcake Polish goodness and to keep up-to-date with what's new, check out the links below.
*I mean this is the best of ways- Sara's polishes are probably the hardest for me to photograph! All of the shimmer and holo, etc is so incredibly delicate it's just about impossible for me to capture and do them justice!
*The Essential Oils collection was the first time I swatched for Cupcake Polish, a little over a year ago. I wanted to do a flat lay with the collection and had a specific look in mind. I couldn't find my cinnamon sticks with my other spices so I spent way too much money buying some just for the photo (no, it's not an amazing photo but I was happy with it- see my post here). Turns out my old cinnamon sticks were hiding so now I have two bottles of them that will never be used for anything else!
*Anyone else want to try some cupcakes baked by Sara? Maybe she could create some for a sort of special edition gift with purchase? Just a suggestion.. ;P
Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this Sara! I hope you all had as much fun getting to know her better as I did!
Thank you for reading. For more Cupcake Polish goodness and to keep up-to-date with what's new, check out the links below.
Cupcake Polish
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