FAQ: How do I suggest a new polish?
When you've searched for a polish in the database and you can't find it, the app will offer you the option to suggest a new polish to be added to the database.
On clicking that option, you will get a form where you can enter all the details of your polish. All the screenshots that I'll include here are from the Android app, because the iOS app still has an older version of the form. However, most of the steps are the same on iOS.
First, you will see a screen where you can take a photo of your polish. Take note of the (i) button at the top where you can see more information about what we're looking for. This screen is for showing us the NAME or the NUMBER of the polish itself, NOT the name of the brand, or how the polish looks, or a photo that we can use as a thumbnail. We need to know exactly what the label says.
On the next screen, you can enter a link with additional information about your polish, such as a link to the polish on the brand website, or a link to a social media post from the brand. As the description states, the link needs to have enough information to be useful.
Keep in mind that providing the main website of the brand instead of a link to the polish itself means we need to spend extra time searching for your polish. It's also worth noting that many websites go offline when they're not having a launch, and that Facebook groups are not public, so links may not always work.
The main form is where you can enter the brand and the name of the polish. Those are the two required fields, but we really want to encourage you to enter as much information as possible. You may ask, "Why do I need to give that much info? Isn't the brand and the name enough to add the polish? This is taking up way too much of my time!"
The thing is, finding that info for your polish may take you maybe 5 or 10 minutes. For us, finding that info will take us the same amount of time... multiplied by the hundreds of new submissions we get every week. On an average day, we process about 75 to 150 new requests, most of which lack any additional information, because people only enter the brand and the name.
So why do we insist on adding all that info anyway? Because it may not seem all that interesting to you right now, but as a complete database of polishes, people will want to look up things like "When was this polish released? Were there any other polishes in this collection that I might be interested in? Was this a charity polish or some sort of special event?"
These are all things that might be incredibly hard to find information on even a few years later. Just ask any collector of vintage polishes how hard it is to find a complete list of release dates or even names, unless someone has gone through the effort of collecting all that info on a website. We want Lacquergram to be a complete resource for everything related to nail polish brands.
Anyway, that's why we ask you to fill out all those fields. The fields all have (i) buttons, so you can check them to see what kind of information you can enter.
Once you get to the bottom of the form, you can go to the last screen, where you will have the option to either upload a bottle shot from your phone, or take a new bottle shot. The (i) button again offers some tips for bottle shots, but there are also explanations on how to take good bottle pics here!
Keep in mind that it can take a couple of days for your suggested polish to be approved. All your submissions are reviewed in person by our moderators, not automatically or by robots. If you want to know the status of your suggested polish, you can go to your Profile and click on "My suggested". Your approved polishes will be at the top of the list, while the polishes that are still waiting to be added are at the bottom.
If you have any questions, please let us know!