Maybe it’s my entrepreneurial spirit, but I love to support bloggers and YouTubers I genuinely enjoy watching. I remember recommending KathleenLights to two of my friends years ago back when we had a group chat for makeup–don’t judge me. I also first heard about ColourPop through Kathleen because she used to rave about them before they were a household name, and they’re now one of my favorite affordable makeup brands. Needless to say, I like her recommendations so after finding out about her new KL polish brand through Instagram, I preordered two colors that looked beautiful in photos: Zoey and Snickerdoodle.

Ordering online-only items can be tricky, so today’s post will break down my experience to help you all better understand the following:

• Where to buy KL Polish
• KL Polish pricing and shipping
• The KL Polish formula
• KL Polish color selection and dupes

Where to Find KL Polish

KL Polish is only available for purchase at www.klpolish.com. They do have their own dedicated Instagram that I recommend following because it’s a quick way to see how the shades look various skin tones. Based on the formula being vegan and free of harsh chemicals, I expected the nail polish to run at around $10-$12. Instead, KL Polish is $8.50 per bottle which is comparable to the price of Essie and OPI.

The KL Polish Shipping Experience

KL Polish is available to ship within the US and Canada. I preordered my shades on 11/19, wish all preorders expected to ship on the day of the official launch, 12/5. There was a bit of an unexpected delay with the orders so I didn’t receive a shipping a confirmation until 12/12. It was definitely a bummer since I wanted to post about the order last week, but KL and crew handled it well.

What I appreciated is though the delay in shipping wasn’t ideal, KL sent e-mails to us keeping the communication loop in tow. There’s nothing worse than ordering from a website for the first time and having complete radio silence for weeks while you wait for a shipping confirmation.

Once I received the shipping confirmation on 12/12, it took the standard 3-4 day turnaround to arrive–the initial processing day, two days of shipping and sorting, and the final day of arrival. My packaged shipped through USPS and arrived on Thursday, 12/15. I usually track packages through the mail carrier’s respective site, so I was pleasantly surprised that I also received an “out for delivery” e-mail of sorts from the brand on the day my package was set to arrive.

As for the package itself, I didn’t have any issues in terms of care.

• Arrived in a padded envelope, safely wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with a branded sticker
• Package contained a promo photo with a thank you note on the opposite side
• Each bottle of polish came individually wrapped in tissue paper for added security

The KL Polish Formula

I literally jot down my initial impression of the formula and painted my nails while sitting in my car after checking the mail. Extra? Maybe, but in my defense, I was on the way to the mall and it’s my biggest pet peeve to walk around with naked nails. I shook the bottle out of pure habit since most nail polishes settle and are a very thin formula, but I don’t think it’s necessary to do so with KL Polish. To highlight a few of the details:

• The formula felt thicker than most nail polishes
• The brush is flat and wide which makes for easy application
• KL Polish is cruelty-free and vegan
• Free of harsh chemicals (Read more about that here.)

The thick brush reminds me of Essie’s Couture nail polish line, which I think is the best part about their couture collection. The wide brush paired with the thicker formula makes KL polish easy to work with and less messy than brands with thinner formulas.

KL Polish Swatches + Dupes

Now it’s time for the fun part: the colors! The KL Polish debut collection consists of 6 shades:

1. Zoey – a muted mauve
2. Snickerdoodle – a neutral tan
3. Caramello – a golden mustard
4. Broccoli & Chocolate – a rich brown
5. Brick Sidewalk – a rustic red
6. Gumption – a deep blue

I don’t suspect any shade will be permanent as Kathleen mentioned she’ll continue to release in a collection format, but I would love to see that in the future. For now, I purchased 2 of the 6 shades: Zoey and Snickerdoodle. I really like Caramello, but I’m contemplating on buying it because I’m not sure the mustard shade will mesh well with my skin tone. Aside from Caramello, the only other color I’m eyeing is Brick Sidewalk. At first glance, it looked like an average red shade, but the hint of rust piqued my interest. Since it’s unknown if the debut collection will restock once it sells out, I wanted to see if I had any potential dupe shades in my current nail polish stash.

Snickerdoodle

Snickerdoodle is quite literally the color of most snickerdoodle cookies. On fair to light skin tones, Snickerdoodle will appear as a neutral tan color a few shades deeper than your skin. Against medium to tan skin, it will appear the most like a nude polish. For my skin tone, it’s the perfect neutral tan shade suitable for the professional office. For potential dupes, I tested:

• OPI’s Samoan Sand (shown on the ring finger)
• Essie’s Cocktails & Coconuts (shown on the index finger)

Samoan Sand is far too sheer and light to be a good dupe, but Essie’s Cocktails & Coconuts came pretty close. The one thing to keep in mind is Snickerdoodle has a true neutral undertone. Cocktails & Coconuts is a bit more pink. Snickerdoodle is still available to purchase, so my recommendation is to get your hands on the original while you can. Once that sells out, Essie’s Cocktails & Coconuts may be a good alternative.

Zoey

Zoey was the first shade I knew I wanted to get, and it’s clearly the bestseller from the debut collection. I’ve loved mauve pink shades lately, but I was a bit concerned that I already owned the color in a different brand. For potential dupes, I tested:

• Sinful Colors Vacation Time
• Essie’s Eternal Optimist

I immediately thought Sinful Colors polish in the shade Vacation Time would be nearly identical, but they surprisingly have two totally different undertones. While that’s good news for me, it isn’t the best news when looking for a dupe. Unfortunately, Zoey is already sold out on the site so I’m on the lookout for another dupe solution. Within my existing collection, I tested Essie’s Eternal Optimist and Vacation Time from Sinful Colors. While Vacation Time is the closest in terms of color, the polish has significantly warmer undertones compared to the cool-toned Zoey.

As mentioned, I don’t have Caramello but I suspect this will be another color difficult to dupe. If you’re on the fence, you may want to add it to your cart before it’s too late.

Overall Thoughts

All in all, I’m very pleased with the quality of the nail polish and I look forward to seeing the future colors. In addition to the seasonal collections, I hope KL Polish creates a permanent selection of shades that are available year-round. Despite the initial shipping hiccups, I do plan to repurchase from the brand. Things like that are bound to happen when launching a new venture, so I’m sure the shipping process will only get better over time.

What do you think of KL Polish?