The Road to Flexi Build
- Diamond Nail Supplies
- Jul 4
- 8 min read
Four years. That's how long Flexi Build has been in development. In hindsight, I'm grateful it took that long because if I'd launched the first, second, or even third version, it wouldn't be the product you're holding today.
Something you probably don’t know about me is that I originally trained in hard gel before eventually transitioning to acrylic, which very quickly became my passion and has remained that way ever since. For a long time, I never really saw myself moving back into gel. In my head, Diamond Nail Supplies was always going to be an acrylic brand.
As the business grew, though, I could see the demand was there. The industry was shifting, and more and more of our existing customers were asking when we'd be bringing out builder gel. I knew that if we were going to do it, I wanted to make sure it lived up to the same standards as everything else we put our name to. There wasn't much point in releasing a builder gel just for the sake of having one.
So the search began.
I first started testing bottled builder gel formulations back in early 2022, and eventually found one from a US manufacturer that I absolutely loved. At the time, the plan was to launch a collection of nude builder gels alongside matching rubber bases. I was trialling both formulations on friends, the retention was fantastic, the application was beautiful, and I genuinely thought we'd found the one.
Then, in 2023, we were told that TPO was on its way out and that the entire range would need reformulating.
I decided to wait.
It wasn't an easy decision. We could have launched before the reformulation became necessary, but I didn't want people falling in love with a product only for me to replace it a few months later with something completely different. If the reformulated version wasn't as good, I'd have backed myself into a corner.
I'm so glad I trusted my gut.
By 2024, the reformulation was complete and... I just wasn't happy with it.
The viscosity had become much thicker. In my opinion, it was now far too thick for a bottled builder gel, and it no longer had the effortless application that made me fall in love with it in the first place. It simply wasn't a product I wanted to put my name to anymore, so despite how frustrating it was, I walked away and started the search all over again.
By this point, I'd tried formulations from Europe, the UK, and the US, but I'd been incredibly reluctant to try manufacturers in China. Not because I personally believed there was anything wrong with Chinese manufacturing standards, quite the opposite, actually. I knew there was still a huge stigma attached to products made there, and I was very aware that people in our industry can sometimes have a tendency to judge the country of manufacture before they've ever judged the product itself.
Eventually, though, I realised I was limiting myself.
I contacted several manufacturers, asked endless questions about their manufacturing processes, quality control systems and compliance with UK and EU cosmetic regulations before ordering samples from the factories that impressed me the most.
By some miracle, the first one I tried was genuinely incredible.
The shades had already been chosen and named. I'd reached the point where my production order had been drafted and was literally sitting there waiting for payment.
Then the little things started happening.
Nothing huge on its own, but enough small issues that they began stacking up, and I found myself questioning whether I was completely comfortable moving forward. The more I thought about it, the more I realised I couldn't ignore that feeling.
So, in the summer of 2025, right on the brink of launch, I pulled the plug.
I'd already sent samples out to content creators. There are still TikToks out there showing those gels being used, although you'll never see the brand mentioned because, at the time, the launch was still top secret. I remember watching those videos and feeling so genuinely excited for everyone else to get their hands on these gels. The application looked incredible. The feedback was fantastic.
But despite all of that, I still pulled the plug.
It wasn't because the gels were bad. They weren’t. It was because I didn't have complete confidence in the manufacturer, and I wasn't prepared to build the future of Diamond Nail Supplies on something I had doubts about. That was one of the hardest business decisions I've ever made, but I think it was also the best decision I could’ve made.
Once again, it was back to square one.
I reached out to several other manufacturers that had been sitting on my shortlist, narrowed it down to two factories, and ordered another round of samples.
This time, there was a very clear winner.
I still remember testing them for the first time and thinking, "This is it."
The application was effortless, the viscosity was exactly what I'd been looking for, the colours were beautiful, and it just... worked. Every box I'd spent years trying to tick was finally being ticked.
But as much as I cared about how the product performed, the formulation itself was just as important to me.
It's no secret that over the last few years, our industry has had some really difficult conversations around acrylate allergies, particularly surrounding builder gels. Of course, this is a hugely complex issue. There isn't one single ingredient responsible, and there certainly isn't one simple solution. Application technique, skin contact, curing, repeated exposure and formulation all play a role.
What I did know was that I wanted to create a product that nail technicians could feel confident reaching for every day.
I wasn't interested in chasing retention by simply making the formula more reactive. I wanted to find a balance.
I wanted a formula that was HEMA-free and TPO-free. I wanted excellent adhesion. I wanted beautiful workability. I wanted flexibility. And I wanted a formulation philosophy that relied more heavily on polymers and oligomers rather than simply loading the product with reactive monomers and relying on chemical adhesion alone.
It took almost four years to find.
But we fucking did it.
Even then, I wasn't prepared to launch based on my own opinion.
I knew I loved it, but that wasn't enough. I wanted to know how it performed in real salons with real clients, so I reached out to several nail technicians. One of them had never used our products before and didn't even follow us on social media. That was completely intentional because I wanted honest, unbiased feedback, rather than people simply telling me what they thought I wanted to hear.
Each technician received several bottles of Flexi Build, Flexi Base and our prep products. I talked them through my recommended prep routine, but encouraged them to use the products exactly as they would their usual brand because that's how they would be used in the real world.
The feedback was better than I could’ve dreamed.
Clients who usually struggled with retention were suddenly coming back with full sets intact. Some technicians reported clients reaching eight and even nine weeks with minimal lifting. The comments were remarkably consistent. Beautiful application. Incredible retention. Loved the viscosity. Loved the colours.
Everything I'd experienced myself was now being repeated by people who had no reason to sugar-coat their opinions.
That's when I knew it was ready.
Of course, getting the formula right was only half the challenge. The shade range mattered just as much.
Originally, the plan was to launch with twelve shades alongside Pure, Whisper and Veil, giving us a collection of fifteen builders in total. On paper, twelve sounded like the perfect number.
Then I started swatching.
Every time I thought I'd narrowed the range down, I'd remove a colour, and suddenly something felt missing. I'd compare the swatches and realise there was now a gap in the progression, or a particular undertone wasn't represented anymore. It wasn't about having more shades for the sake of it; it was about making sure every colour that remained genuinely earned its place in the collection.
One thing that was incredibly important to me from the very beginning was making sure this wasn't just another collection that catered brilliantly to fair skin tones, and then everyone else was left behind.
Beautiful pale pinks and soft nudes already exist. They're much easier to find because that's traditionally where the industry has focused.
Where I felt the market often fell short was deeper nude shades.
Too often, shades marketed towards deeper skin tones lean heavily orange, red or brown. Rather than blending seamlessly into the natural nail, they still look like a coloured product sitting on top of it.
I wanted shades that looked like skin, not just darker pinks.
Essence is probably the shade I'm most proud of. I wanted a colour that created that healthy, natural flush to the nail bed on deeper complexions without tipping too far into peach, orange or brown. It took several revisions to get there, but I genuinely think it's one of the strongest shades in the collection because it fills a gap that I don't see many brands addressing particularly well.
Editorial came from a similar place, but with a completely different personality. I wanted something sophisticated, understated and fashion-led. A deeper nude that felt elegant rather than loud, and one that worked beautifully across a wide range of skin tones without becoming overly warm or muddy.
I didn't want anyone looking at the shade range and feeling like their skin tone had been considered as an afterthought. Whether you're looking for the palest milky pink or a rich, skin-like nude for deeper complexions, I wanted every customer to feel like there was a shade that had been created with them in mind.
Even the names were chosen with the same level of intention. I never wanted this to be "Nude 01", "Nude 02" and "Nude 03". The shades all have their own personality, so I wanted names that reflected the feeling each one evokes. Whether it's Editorial, Essence, Strut or Muse, every name was chosen because it captured the mood of the colour rather than simply describing what it looks like.
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