About Lacquistry

Lacquistry was born out of a deep love of nail polish back in 2011. I (Jenna Herder) have been drawn to nail polish and all things sparkly for my entire life. All throughout my youth I would stick on fake nails and paint and decorate them. I would even make fake nails out of Scotch tape so that I could paint them red.

In the early 2000's MakeupAlley.com was the go-to place for makeup and nail care chat boards, much like Reddit is today. On the Nail Board users would share tips, product reviews, manicure and nail polish photos. We would share our prize finds from "dusty hunting", which was going to small nail salons to find and purchase hard to find polishes. It is where I learned how to properly do my nails.

There were not many specialty finishes back then. It was standard cremes, shimmers, basic glitters, and some metallics. 

Sally Hansen was the reigning drugstore brand and started doing more adventurous finishes like linear holographics, which collectively blew our minds. Maybelline came out with some coveted orange flakie toppers that were the first we had seen. Nail polish was evolving and advancing and we were so excited.

When Clarins came out with the legendary and hard to find 230, only to discontinue it, we lost our minds. It was so coveted, expensive, and hard to find it was dubbed "Unicorn Pee" due to its elusiveness. It was a deep vibrant purple base and shifted from red to gold to green. The nail polish world had never seen anything like it. 

In 2010 Deborah Lippmann came out with a glitter nail polish called Across the Universe. It had blue and green glitters that were different sizes in a deep navy jelly base. We had not seen different sizes and colors of glitters mixed together before!

I loved that polish, but it still left my sparkle loving heart wanting more. I started wondering if I could make a better version. Then I became determined to actually figure out a way to do it. That polish was my inspiration to start creating my own nail polish. It lit a spark inside me.

We did not have companies back then that supplied an aspiring hobbyist with nail polish base, so I bought a bunch of Wet n Wild clear topcoat. I went to a bunch of different local nail supply shops and started buying glitters and experimenting.

Back then, there was no indication if a glitter was solvent resistant or not, so it was all trial and error, and money down the drain if a glitter bled or curled (or "tacoed" as we called it).

2010 was a LOT of experimenting. There were no online shops where you could buy the raw materials and solvent resistant glitters that we have today. There were no resources where you could look up exactly how to do things. You just had to buy stuff and hope for the best. 

In September of 2011 I opened Lacquistry on Etsy. I came up with the name as a combination of lacquer and chemistry, because I felt like a mad scientist doing glitter experiments.

People were into the large glitters I used and the unexpected color combinations I put together. I was making polishes you could not find in stores and the indie nail polish space was in its infancy but quickly gaining traction.

Lacquerheads were hungry for something new and different. Lacquistry quickly took off and was in high demand. Other indie brands started to pop up, and suddenly it was a trend. Now there are hundreds of wonderful makers!

In 2025 I decided to fully come back to my love, making nail polish. Pigments and new technologies made it so that I could create what had only been in my dreams before. I was known as The Glitter Queen when I started Lacquistry back in 2011, so I thought it only fitting that my return collection be called The Glitter Queen Returns in September 2025.

I am an advocate for mental health awareness, domestic abuse awareness, and I support, and champion LGBTQ+ rights and mental health. The charities that I publicly and monetarily support are The Trevor Project, the National Domestic Abuse Hotline, our local Emerge! Center for Domestic Abuse, and our local animal shelters.

I am a huge animal lover and pet parent. I advocate for marginalized communities and am proud to be considered a Safe Space For ALL. You are safe with me. 

Thank you for being you! I am grateful for you!

Much love,

Jenna Herder