u/pink_planets

These have by far been some of my most versatile colors!

I’ve layered them over Mega X, silver magnetics, over flakes etc.

I need more!! Which shades are just as sandwichable?

Aka jelly formula, with no shimmer or flakes, subtle holo only, and no white/milky shades that dull the sandwich?

From a website search some contenders seem to be these. Most mention can be sandwiched but would love confirmation/recommendations!

Poppy

Play Date

Forest Drive

Sunkissed

Jelly Shot

Good Vibes

Someday (but I destashed this one oops)

Valerie

Unforgettable

Surfboard

Cookie Cutter

Euphoria

Hide and Seek

Seaside

Clover

I’m a social media noob and had never edited a video in my life before or even knew what UGC was before this. I was never much of a scroller either, but I’m quickly getting the hang of things and having fun with it.

My niche is indie nail polish (manicures and swatching) and I started my account from zero 2.5 months ago. I’m nearing 2k followers and still getting about 30 new a day. The first 500 or so were from mutuals because this niche is a really tight knit welcoming community, I was actually really surprised how nice everyone is!

Then about 1300 came from one video that is at about 225k views and still going. Some of those are mutuals that hadn‘t found me yet, but a lot are random people that I’m not sure engage in my new posts. I think instagram isn’t showing them my content or they’re not interacting. Still, I’m not complaining because it gives me social proof and my engagement was already really good.

Some things I’ve learned or noticed:

- I think it’s really important to keep improving your craft. I know everyone says this but look at people who have even a small 2-10k following, they usually have high quality content. 20k+ accounts have even higher quality. I don’t necessarily mean video quality (though that’s important to me and in my niche imo), but quality of what you’re saying or posting. I’ve seen pages pop off with “bad” video quality but they’re genuine and show up as themselves - that’s where the quality is in their case. Quality can also mean engaging editing and captions (ALWAYS use these), concise editing to cut out fluff, or valuable information.

- I immediately starting showing up as me and my brand and what I stand for. I’ve recently been reconnecting with my heritage and my heritage language that I’m relearning, so I share stuff about that. I‘ve gotten feedback that people like it and look forward to the facts about my country/language that I just randomly shove into my manicure posts! I also am a bird and native plant nerd so I’ll share either pics of the birds I volunteer with or some important message about those topics. These are all a part of who I am so I can’t not share it imo. For others this could be some unique background about you like a sobriety story, or about starting over, maybe parenthood, or some of your other hobbies or interests etc.

- I always try to offer something to the community in each post. Maybe it’s a manicure tip, some useful info or experiments related to nail polish, a fact about my heritage country/language like I mentioned above, an important message about our world, something difficult/inspiring (for example I posted my nail biting transformation), or just something to make someone laugh. Most people want to get something out of your content, something in return for their time, unless you’re really famous or something which none of us here are lol. I’ve come across some other content creators just starting out, some just post about themselves or follow 0 people and I’m not really sure how far that’ll get you honestly.

- I never use AI. Not for hook ideas, not for my profile pics, nothing. Especially on the creative side of insta, no one wants that. I want to show up as me, my own unique ideas, mistakes and all. I‘d rather see bad art than AI any day.

- Finding mutuals is huge. Do you want an audience or a community? The second one is much more valuable to me imo. The first probably just feels lonely and like you’re posting into the void. My account might not be huge, but it feels alive and fun. I spend a lot of time interacting with mutuals and leaving genuine compliments or questions. I also repost their posts and share to stories when I like something and they often return the favor. This community even has meetups and expos which is really cool.

- Trial reels are just ok. They’ve gotten me a few followers but nothing crazy. My videos seem to do better when I post them to my feed because my mutuals interact a lot and push the videos I’m guessing. I did get one that got beyond 10k views but it only got me 2 followers, it wasn’t really a video that might bring in followers though. I do like the concept though and will keep using it to test stuff.

- I see tons of people complain about not having access to trial reels (you need 200 followers), but if you’re under 200 basically everyone seeing it will be new anyway so just post things as if it was a trial.

- Don’t try to grow just because you’re desperate to make money. I feel like it seeps out through your content. What is your motivation? Mine is to have fun and challenge myself, and maybe also get free polish as a side benefit, (which I’m about to achieve!). Making money would be cool sure, but I only want that goal if I can also still enjoy this and have fun with it. There’s a small amount of money in swatching for indie nail polish brands, which I think would be fun. I would have to grow a lot bigger to get the big brand deals I think.

- I don’t really follow trends (except maybe a nail trend in my niche) or use trending audio. In fact I use foreign music from the same heritage language I mentioned because I think it’s fun to share something new to people (though I have a few followers from my country of birth as well).

Anyway, those are my ramblings as an amateur to this, unsure how valuable or interesting this is but figured it’s still better than all the AI posts or sales pitches plaguing this corner of the internet.

I’m sick of all the AI posts so I figured I’d post my experience. I’m a social media noob and had never edited a video in my life before or even knew what UGC was before this. I was never much of a scroller either, but I’m quickly getting the hang of things and having fun with it.

My niche is indie nail polish (manicures and swatching) and I started my account from zero 2.5 months ago. I’m nearing 2k followers and still getting about 30 new a day. The first 500 or so were from mutuals because this niche is a really tight knit welcoming community, I was actually really surprised how nice everyone is!

Then about 1300 came from one video that is at about 225k views and still going. Some of those are mutuals that hadn‘t found me yet, but a lot are random people that I’m not sure engage in my new posts. I think instagram isn’t showing them my content or they’re not interacting. Still, I’m not complaining because it gives me social proof and my engagement was already really good.

Some things I’ve learned or noticed:

- I think it’s really important to keep improving your craft. I know everyone says this but look at people who have even a small 2-10k following, they usually have high quality content. 20k+ accounts have even higher quality. I don’t necessarily mean video quality (though that’s important to me and in my niche imo), but quality of what you’re saying or posting. I’ve seen pages pop off with “bad” video quality but they’re genuine and show up as themselves - that’s where the quality is in their case. Quality can also mean engaging editing and captions (ALWAYS use these), concise editing to cut out fluff, or valuable information.

- I immediately starting showing up as me and my brand and what I stand for. I’ve recently been reconnecting with my heritage and my heritage language that I’m relearning, so I share stuff about that. I‘ve gotten feedback that people like it and look forward to the facts about my country/language that I just randomly shove into my manicure posts! I also am a bird and native plant nerd so I’ll share either pics of the birds I volunteer with or some important message about those topics. These are all a part of who I am so I can’t not share it imo. For others this could be some unique background about you like a sobriety story, or about starting over, maybe parenthood, or some of your other hobbies or interests etc.

- I always try to offer something to the community in each post. Maybe it’s a manicure tip, some useful info or experiments related to nail polish, a fact about my heritage country/language like I mentioned above, an important message about our world, something difficult/inspiring (for example I posted my nail biting transformation), or just something to make someone laugh. Most people want to get something out of your content, something in return for their time, unless you’re really famous or something which none of us here are lol. I’ve come across some other content creators just starting out, some just post about themselves or follow 0 people and I’m not really sure how far that’ll get you honestly.

- I never use AI. Not for hook ideas, not for my profile pics, nothing. Especially on the creative side of insta, no one wants that. I want to show up as me, my own unique ideas, mistakes and all. I‘d rather see bad art than AI any day.

- Finding mutuals is huge. Do you want an audience or a community? The second one is much more valuable to me imo. The first probably just feels lonely and like you’re posting into the void. My account might not be huge, but it feels alive and fun. I spend a lot of time interacting with mutuals and leaving genuine compliments or questions. I also repost their posts and share to stories when I like something and they often return the favor. This community even has meetups and expos which is really cool.

- Trial reels are just ok. They’ve gotten me a few followers but nothing crazy. My videos seem to do better when I post them to my feed because my mutuals interact a lot and push the videos I’m guessing. I did get one that got beyond 10k views but it only got me 2 followers, it wasn’t really a video that might bring in followers though. I do like the concept though and will keep using it to test stuff.

- I see tons of people complain about not having access to trial reels (you need 200 followers), but if you’re under 200 basically everyone seeing it will be new anyway so just post things as if it was a trial.

- Don’t try to grow just because you’re desperate to make money. I feel like it seeps out through your content. What is your motivation? Mine is to have fun and challenge myself, and maybe also get free polish as a side benefit, (which I’m about to achieve!). Making money would be cool sure, but I only want that goal if I can also still enjoy this and have fun with it. There’s a small amount of money in swatching for indie nail polish brands, which I think would be fun. I would have to grow a lot bigger to get the big brand deals I think.

- I don’t really follow trends (except maybe a nail trend in my niche) or use trending audio. In fact I use foreign music from the same heritage language I mentioned because I think it’s fun to share something new to people (though I have a few followers from my country of birth as well).

Anyway, those are my ramblings as an amateur to this, unsure how valuable or interesting this is but figured it’s still better than all the AI posts or sales pitches plaguing this corner of the internet.

I was nervous this was going to go viral because I promised everyone who commented that I would tag them in an update post (video is about an experiment that will take a year+).

But why did it not go viral with these stats? Any other insight would be appreciated! 100% new to this.

I realized you can't post pictures here but here's the stats:

859 likes, 218 comments, 17 reposts, 16 shares, 61 saves

21.5k views (15.6k accounts)

22s avg watch

449 profile visits

72 follows

Skip: 15%

Share: 0.1%

Like: 5.3%

Save: 0.4%

Repost: 0.1%

Comment: 1.3%

EDIT: I got a stamping bundle for now but if you’re looking to offload at a discount feel free to still offer.

I'm eyeing a couple suppliers for stamping polishes but figured I'd try here first if anyone is offering a good deal.

Would like a decent-sized bundle vs onesies or twosies. Any variety of colors since I have 0 currently!

I will consider stamping plates too but my budget is smaller for those.