On a much much happier note! I was able to interview one of my all time favorite makers! Ashley from Emerald and Ash was kind enough to sit down and answer my questions! My questions will be in purple and her responses will be in blue. So here you all go!
How long have you been in the polish making industry?
The shop itself will have been open for one year this coming March. Before the shop opened we were researching and testing for over two years. So in total we’ve been at this for a little over three years.
That is really impressive! Congrats on the almost a year!! Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Our inspiration comes from everything we love. Be it things that hold personal meaning to us, things we find interesting, things we surround ourselves with or things that we both enjoy learning and teaching about. For example the Hubble Collection was inspired not only by the fact that we both love all things space related, but also because I personally got to see the Hubble Space Telescope in person when I was younger. This coming year is full of collections that are physics-based due to Nate’s immersion in the field of physics.
Speaking of that you are a husband and wife team! I find that so fascinating! How do you work side by side together? Is there a lot of creative clashes? I had seen that he has designed his first polish recently! (I am very excited for the physics based collection!)
Other than Nate being the brains behind the scene (running the technical side of things and keeping spreadsheets on everything), we actually share a pretty even amount of the creativity and ideas that happen for collections. We’ve never run into an issue where one of us didn’t agree with the other’s idea on something, if anything we build off of each other’s ideas or give suggestions when either of us are stumped. Nate actually created Deep Field (from the Hubble Collection) on his own. It was one of the first polishes we ever sold and has been and still is one of our best sellers. He also came up with the idea for the Road Trip! Collection, which is our textured line of polishes.
Very cool! What would you say your favorite creation is? If you had to absolutely choose one.
That’s a really hard choice to have to make. I’d probably have to say Deconstructed Daisy for a few reasons. It was the first polish I ever created, and was the reason I wanted to get into making polish in the first place. I had the idea for it in my head for over a year before I was able to create it, because at the time yellow glitter was very hard to come by. Along with that it was made in memory of my mom, whose favorite flower was the shasta daisy. Nate’s favorite is undoubtedly Deep Field. As I said before, it was his creation, and just like Deconstructed Daisy for me, it was his foray into polish-making. He says it helped him figure out that polish making doesn’t have to be scary, in spite of the fact that he doesn’t think he’s very creative.
Deconstructed Daisy has been on my must have list for far to long at this point! Time for a random question ... what is your favorite band?
It depends on the day and my mood, but I will always happily listen to Something Corporate/Jack’s Mannequin, Brand New or New Found Glory.
Great answer!! I don't think I could pick a favorite band if I tried! Other than your own brand what are some of your favorite other makers?
KBShimmer was easily my first major love from the start of my indie polish addiction. Now that the community has grown so much I’m constantly finding new makers that I am smitten with. Of those I can never get enough polishes from Elevation Polish, Takko Lacquer, Pahlish, Lilypad Lacquer, I Love Nail Polish, Scofflaw, Wing Dust, Enchanted Polish and Chaos & Crocodiles.
So many good ones in there! Is there anything you would like to say to your millions of fans? (or at lease the couple hundred that read my blog?)
We truly appreciate every one of our fans and all of the love we have gotten from them. It means a lot and keeps us pushing forward to create new and amazing polishes. We look forward to the future and hope that you stay with us to see what we have up our sleeves.
And finally the thing I admire most about you is your amazing customer service! How do you maintain such a positive view on customer service being top priority?
Customer service is something that has been ingrained in me from a very young age. It’s something that my mom really worked on teaching me and I continued to learn about it while I worked in various customer service fields. Branding means a lot, but showing that customers matter will always leave a lasting impression.
You are so very right! Thank you so much for your time I will be show casing a couple of polishes to go along with the interview!
Now then! I hope you enjoyed the read! Have some pictures of some of the amazing polishes This husband and wife team make!
Wild Blue Yonder over grey, black, white, and Blue Corundum (a limited edition from E&A)
Great interview!!
ReplyDelete