Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have the September edition of my Indie Spotlight Series to share with you. This month I am featuring Jeanine from
Lorelei Lacquer! I've had the pleasure of working with Jeanine several times of the last few months by swatching her collections - she is the first indie to invite me to be a permanent swatcher and WOW was that a huge honor! I definitely adore her polishes and think everyone should own at least one Lorelei. With her commitment to her brand and the quality of her polishes coupled with her unique and flawless formulas, Jeanine has a polish brand that will go places and do great things! So without further ado, let's get to know the maker behind Lorelei Lacquer!
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1.What inspired you to start Lorelei Lacquer?
Well I guess I can start off being straight forward. I'm bipolar, and if you get to know a lot of the makers, most of them are. We need a creative outlet and it's hard for us to find jobs. At least that was the case for me. I fell in love with nail polish in 2012, I fell into the indie rabbit hole around 2013. All I ever thought seeing all of the creations was by other indie makers was, THESE LOOK AMAZING! I am a smart kid, I want to franken my own polishes so I can get exactly what I want. I actually toyed with the idea of Lorelei Lacquer back in August of 2014. I got the website and everything, but I didn't have the resources to actually open up a shop. So off and on between August 2014 and January 2015 I was playing around with the ingredients I had purchased for frankening. My friend was dropping out of the indie business to stick with her bath and body line and I got a whole bunch of supplies for a great deal. So in February 2015 it was decided to open up shop. I had come up with a few polishes and ideas I loved and went with it finally making it to my opening of May 29, 2015.
TL;DR: I needed a way to make money while being able to keep myself kind of sane and doing something I enjoy, and I just went for it when the time came.
2. How do you decide what to do for future collections?
I'm not going to do something that I'm not passionate about. I usually start with a theme. For example I decided I needed to do Adventure Time because I've been in love with the show forever now. I made a list of possible names with ideas and started creating from there. There was suppose to be a Lady Rainicorn and an Ice King, but I couldn't make something I was happy with. Plus 9 shades is a lot, especially when you're just opening up shop. I basically have 1 requirements for me to run a line. I need to enjoy it (ex zelda, Adventure Time, My Birthday! LOL). I'm sorry but there are things I am not very passionate about, and I'm not going to run a line on it because I think it's going to be popular. I know businesses should be customer focused, but if I do that, I feel it limits my creativity. I won't release a polish or a line if I don't love it.
3. What goes into the testing/prototype phase?
I know my bloggers won't believe me because I am the world's biggest procrastinator and they get their packages really late (sorry Becky!), but I know what I'm going to do at least 3 months in advance. I have a basic line ready. I do a settle/stability/bleeding test, recently I started a stain test (stupid red 27 needs to go die), formula test, and an is there something I can do to improve it test. I always have my polishes out. I tend to pick them up a lot because they're pretty and sparkly and oooohh shiny thing and look at them in the sun. Basewise things usually stay the same, but coming down to the month before, and sometimes why it takes me so long to get it out, is because I either need to add something, take something away or get rid of it completely and pick a different prototype that I had worked on at the same time. I can say if you don't waste a lot of supplies, you're not doing the best you can do. I think that is another part of the good thing indie makers are bipolar. We're ok with taking risks. You don't see that with giant companies, they keep everything plain for the general public. We go all out. I love the freedom.
4. How do you come up with the names of your polishes?
Well, as I had said before, I always have a theme months ahead of time. There are at least one of three things that goes into naming a polish in my case. 1) It needs to make me laugh. 2) It needs to fit with the theme or 3) It needs to rhyme. Once again this goes back to, I make these polishes for me, hoping everyone else loves them, but I do try to not be offensive, but that should be a common knowledge/decency thing, not an indie polish thing. I'm sure most of my groupies understand my humor though. An outsider might give me some side eye and say that's stupid. It's all good :)
5. What do you think makes Lorelei Lacquer a success?
I think Lorelei Lacquer is successful because I relate to a lot of the ladies who are in the indie communities and I make them laugh, or at least try to. I know a lot of makers that sound like a customer service robots when you try to talk to them. I'm really really not that professional. I talk to them like I would talk to my friend. I give everyone deals, extras, try to make everyone happy (which is also considered to be my mental downfall, but meh LOL) and I try to go the extra mile for everyone. Like I said before, I'm not going to release garbage. It needs to be 100% before it goes out to my customers. I know I've had a few slip ups (yeah, I still want you to die red 27) but no one gets anywhere without making mistakes to learn from. Also in my group, I'm trying to make money yeah, but I'm more than happy to share the success of other brands, or mani's from other places. I am not going to sit here and say "Yes I love indies! Support me and other indies!" And then turn around and say, but you can only wear my polish and only talk about my polish because MY POLISH! No. I don't work like that. I like the family atmosphere. We're all together in this, it's not the Jeanine show.
6. I know you have a younger child like me, which I imagine takes a lot of your time during the day! What drives you to keep going with Lorelei Lacquer?
Ha! Yes. I work from home for my other job. For a while there is was getting overwhelming with having my then 5 year old running around especially with also being a single mother. If my dad wasn't here to help me I don't know what I'd do. It gives me the ability to say "OK mommy is going to work now, I need you to not come in until I say it's ok unless it's an emergency or you have an important question." But now my daughter is is *full day* kindergarten so I do my main job when she is at school, and most of the time I only work on nail polish at night. So being that now since she has a morning schedule and going to bed at 8, I have a lot of free time to get everything I need to done. I know people need to hover over their children all the time, but I actually have a really great kid and I'm ok with stepping away for a minute saying I need to work because she knows no matter what I'm always there for her.
7. Can you give us a behind the scenes peek where Lorelei Lacquer is made?
I could but no one would understand.... >.> *hears the tornado sirens going off in my room*
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And that concludes my interview with Jeanine from Lorelei Lacquer! I really hope you guys enjoyed reading this month's edition of Indie Spotlight Series about one of my favorite makers! It is always a blast to write about someone's brand that I feel I can really get behind. The most recent collection by Lorelei Lacquer is The Legend of Flakies collection which restocks on the 15th of each month, be sure you go check it out because its the best one yet!
What other brands would you be interested in seeing me feature? Which are your favorites?
Thanks for reading!
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