Don’t have the exact color you want? Some manicurists will try mixing their own colors, and this has lead to a whole new generation of nail polish creators often called frankens (as in Frankenstein) in the nail world. Check out nail polish creator Lynnderella’s work here.

Leavitt takes a different approach. “I love to layer my polishes. For example, I was working on a campaign that needed a cherry red polish. I didn’t have the color, so I applied a blackish type color, then added a deep red on top. I didn’t mix them, I just layered one color over the other, and got the cherry red the client wanted.”