Square. Oval. Stiletto. Coffin. Press-on. Gel. Powder Dip. Acrylic. Gel X. Let’s shout out the myriad ways to manicure, style, and adorn our nails! With new fads, formulations, and techniques every year, like makeup and fashion, there’s a huge spectrum of nail looks to channel our personal aesthetics. While shapes and finishes may be finite, nail design is anything but. Even without factoring in the most whimsical designs and be-jeweled toppers, the endless array of nail colors, textures, and finishes is more limitless than a wardrobe, making nail style the ultimate intersection of self-care and accessory.
It’s this ethos that motivated longtime nail enthusiast Monique Weller to found the indie clean beauty brand Cracked Polish. During the isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic, she found solace and new possibilities for artistry, therapy, and the pursuit of happiness in a single bottle of beloved polish. After an induction into the sub culture of hardcore DIY manicurists on Facebook, Monique started mixing pigments.
Just a few years later Cracked Polish was born and has since been churning out all the colors of the rainbow and then some: vibrant reds, pinks, oranges, pastel and neon yellows, greens and blues, gothy burgundies, grays, and blacks, neutrals, muted beiges, mochas, and browns. And then there are the finishes. The options have proliferated to include cream, matte, iridescent, sparking, glitter, chrome, magnetic, shimmer, mosaic, and summer-loving jellies.
Whether you love a matte burgundy, a hot pink jelly, a glittery azure, or mosaic pink, Pacific Northwest-based Cracked Polish spans the wide spectrum of nail looks with a limitless array of IG-ready lacquers to satisfy every mood and fancy. Just in time for summer fun and Pride celebrations, Cracked Polish has launched several limited edition shades worthy of hoarding as much for their stunning color payoff as their cheeky, zeitgeist-approved names: F*ck Kale, Spill the Tea, Back To The Fuschia.
And of course, as a clean beauty brand, Cracked polishes are all vegan, cruelty-free, non-toxic and certified 10-Free (formulated without the dibutyl phthalate, toluene, xylene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, parabens, triphenyl phosphate, and ethyl tosylamide found in commercial polishes).
For a classic, beach-ready pedicure, Peep Toe delivers a bright, warm strawberry red for maximum pinup payoff. If planning to maximize the brattiness of the summer months, Sandals Required pushes the envelope with a neon shade of hot pink with purple shimmers for maximum, eye-catching sparkle. In honor of the wellness-obsessed girlies who’s mantra is all about green maximalism, I Love You So Matcha nails the grassy-hued vibrancy of our fave healthy drink with a jelly finish.
In addition to celebrating diversity with an inclusive aesthetic and eye-pooping shade range, Cracked Polish also gives back. Amidst seasonal launches and vibe curations, Cracked Polish makes a line of Charity Polishes to raise funds for philanthropic causes. To offer relief for those impacted by the LA Wildfires, the shade California Love layers blue shimmer particles atop a shiny dark mauve base.
To commemorate the resilience and perseverance of black entrepreneurs for Juneteenth, I was thrilled to chat with Monique Weller about diversity, as well as the revelations and challenges of founding Cracked Polish.
Q &A with Monique Weller
1. What are your favorite viral social media skin care hacks? Which viral, social media hacks do you think are the most dangerous?
My favorite hack is sunscreen. I never thought I needed it growing up and learned the importance of protecting your skin as an adult. Thankfully it has come a long way and you have more options that aren’t thick, or leave a white cast. I think the most dangerous thing is just blindly following super viral trends. Do your research, maybe it’s a product that’s not even suited for your skintype.
2. What was your eureka moment, when you knew deep-down that it was the time in your life, and in the market, to start your own business?
The pandemic shifted my perspective on what’s important. There is a difference between working hard and bleeding yourself dry until you have nothing left. I used to always put work above everything else (girlboss mode). You needed me to stay late, cover a shift, train someone, I was up for it. I was having some health issues and suddenly working myself beyond my limits for a company that could replace me tomorrow didn’t feel like a priority anymore. Spending time with loved ones and doing things that brought me joy were now top of my list. I knew something had to change.
3. What had you wished a more seasoned business owner in any industry had told you when you started?
Don’t spend so much cash in the beginning and really zone in on perfecting one thing, for me that was nail polish. I started so many failed brand side projects in the beginning (silicone nail mats, random nail tools, stickers, etc.) Once I focused on what makes Cracked Polish unique in a huge indie market, that’s when we started to see traction.
4. What’s your most essential platform/source/voice for market research?
Building community. Connecting with people online interested in or doing the same thing I want to do. When I first started, I used YouTube and watched endless amounts of paint mixing and nail polish mixing videos. I experimented for over a year with different formulations. I will say, I had the best conversations in the early strategies of launching with a manufacturer when I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be boutique or indie and those phone calls changed how I went about experimenting with nail polish. They helped me figure out our percentages for concentrates, additives and pigments and how far I could push those lines and still have a great performing product. Those conversations were so insightful. Alongside experimenting daily, that’s what helped me perfect my craft, honestly. For those starting out, there isn’t a ton of technical information on how to make nail polish from scratch. Lots of small batch or single bottle tutorials and people playing around for fun, but much less information out there for someone who wants to learn to do bigger batches and take it to the next level. Our Facebook group Cracked Polish Cronies has been the best for actual market research now that we’ve developed an active community. We vote on things all the time and pay close attention to their feedback. It’s by far the best tool we have for getting direct feedback from customers.
5. In addition to clean formulations and sustainable practices, diversity is one of the hottest trends in beauty and wellness. How does Cracked approach/embrace diversity?
Being an African American woman this has always been important to me. I was a part of that time when we couldn’t find foundations that matched, sunscreen that didn’t give us a white cast, or a nude lip that I didn’t have to buy a brown liner to go with to make it look halfway decent. People of color were always an afterthought. Oftentimes you would see brands throwing in a shade or two amongst dozens of offerings and it just makes you feel like it was done just so they can say “they have it” . When creating polish, I always go in with the mindset of wanting people to feel special and to feel included. Having different genders, skin tones and nail lengths shown in our photos is so important. Nail polish is for EVERYONE. You want to shop with brands where you feel represented and not like you were an afterthought.
Previous Q&As in the Female Entrepreneur in Clean Beauty Series:
Read Part 1 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Glow Bar CEO HERE.
Read Part 2 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Uzima CEO HERE.
Read Part 3 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Kinship CEO HERE.
Read Part 4 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Raw Sugar Living CEO HERE.
Read Part 5 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Alchimie Forever CEO HERE.
Read Part 6 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Kindness Powered Skincaee CEO HERE.
Read Part 7 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Iles Formula CEO HERE.
Read Part 8 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Blessed Bananas CEO HERE.
Read Part 9 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Exoceuticals CEO HERE.
Read Part 10 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Nekko CEOs HERE.
Read Part 11 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Made By Dentists CEO HERE.
Read Part 12 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the MrayaBeauty CEO HERE.
Read Part 13 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Sonela Beauty CEO HERE.
Read Part 14 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Brahmi Beauty CEO HERE.
Read Part 15 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Zen Essentials CEO HERE.
Read Part 16 in the “Female Founders Q&A” series with the Kulfi Beauty CEO HERE.
