Influencer KathleenLights Discusses Ending Her Brand KL Polish And Starting New One Lights Lacquer

Kathleen Fuentes went through a very public breakup, and it had nothing to do with her love life. The beauty influencer known as KathleenLights launched nail polish brand KL Polish three years ago as a joint venture. She doesn’t disclose her former partners, but Daniel Faulkner’s LinkedIn page describes it as the first brand from influencer brand specialist Brand Lab Partners, a company previously called Parsel that he leads as president and co-founder, and reveals KL Polish generated more than $10 million in sales. Josh Brandley, board member at Brand Lab Partners and vice president of Intercap, an investment firm backing Brand Lab Partners, is listed online as the president and co-founder of KL Polish. Driven by Fuentes’ loyal followers, the brand experienced instant success. Its red shade Brick Sidewalk, mauve shade Zoey and mustard shade Caramello quickly sold out, and retailers reached out to place it on their shelves.

But trouble was brewing under the shiny surface. “I personally felt like certain decisions were being made that I wasn’t totally OK with and, as things kept going, I kept seeing these red flags,” says Fuentes in a video posted in March on YouTube, where she has nearly 4.2 million subscribers, explaining her decision to exit KL Polish and noting international shipping was abruptly stopped in July to her dismay. She continues, “I started to feel that certain people saw me as this little girl. I started to feel like I was losing control of my own brand.” To regain control, Fuentes, who’s collaborated with Colourpop, Ofra, Makeup Geek and Morphe, put KL Polish behind her and created new nail polish brand Lights Lacquer, which kicked off this month with the six-shade GRL PWR collection, as a solo project. She talked to Beauty Independent about the importance of independence, the future of influencer brands, beauty trends and goals for her latest business endeavor.

Why did you decide to start your former brand KL Polish?

I’ve always been obsessed with nail polish. When I was younger, me and my sister would talk about our dream job being to name nail polishes. One day, I was sitting in my kitchen complaining about the nail polishes I used to my mom. With every other brand, there was always something I didn’t like. She said, “Why don’t you create your own nail polish?” That’s how it started.

What steps did you take to create the brand?

I went to the people that used to manage me on YouTube for advice. I said, “I really want to start a nail polish brand, but I don’t know how to contact manufacturers and go about the process.” I got some help from my YouTube management team. They connected me to my old business partners that did the operations side of it. I was in charge of everything creative. At the time, I didn’t know about the operational side.

Were there things you wish you knew then that you know now?

So many things. Not that I was naïve, but I really wanted to be in this field so much. I had collaborated with makeup brands, but collab-ing is so different than creating your own product. I don’t regret anything because it was an amazing experience, and it really taught me a lot, but I wish I could have had more professional guidance in terms of the contracts, what I was agreeing to, and what I was giving up. When I had KL Polish, it was a 50/50 thing with my business partners. I didn’t have a lawyer look over my contract. So, I went into it pretty blindly, and I’ve realized that wasn’t the best idea.

What’s different with your new brand?

I completely own Lights Lacquer. It’s 100% me. My husband and I do the operations and business side. I deal with the manufacturers directly now. I’m totally involved now, whereas before I was only doing creative. KL Polish was amazing, but we just focused on creating colors. I’m trying to dive into the entire world of nail polish and nail care now. I am trying to perfect a formula now for magnetic nail polish. I really want to get into nail files and acetone. I want to expand in a way that KL Polish never did. It’s definitely very different now.

What lessons did you learn from KL Polish that could be instructive for others wanting to follow a similar path?

The lesson is to really go over everything. Go over your contract. Pay attention to surroundings and intentions. If you feel like you are working with someone that just sees a big dollar sign, be very cautious and make sure you have lawyers. Make sure you are covered and protected.

Did you consider doing another partnership when launching Lights Lacquer?

Absolutely not. I just realized that to me my connection with my subscribers is the most important thing to me. They are the reason I have the life that I have today, and I never let that slip from my mind. When I didn’t have complete control over the brand, it was losing that connection. Without going into too much detail, I just felt like the customer wasn’t being taken care of the way I wanted them to be. It was super important for me to take over and create that bond again, and to make sure I’m doing it for them and they know that.

Do you think the influencer-created beauty brand space is too crowded?

A part of me says yes, especially in the makeup world. At the same time, I truly feel this is where social media is going and where the whole influencer world is going. We are going to see a lot more brands created by influencers, and I think you are going to start to see less brands by names that you can’t put a face to. Influencers are the new celebrities in a sense. Unless you have a strong support and following, it’s very hard to grow a business. It’s hard to keep people entertained. What makes your makeup brand or my nail polish brand or better than Essie, OPI or Orly? You have to have a following or a support system. If not, you are just a lost fish in a big pond.

How are you evolving your content?

It’s a struggle that I have myself all the time. I feel like I’m such an old-school, classic YouTuber. I’ve been on YouTube since 2013. So much has changed since then. For example, pictures used to do amazing on Instagram. Now, it’s evolving, and everything is about videos. I’m doing more videos on Instagram where it’s sped up, and it’s not as long as educational YouTube videos. People are really loving that.

I’m really trying to evolve with the times, and you have to evolve. If you don’t, you will fall behind. Apparently, I’m not relevant if I’m not on TikTok, so I need to get on it. I have downloaded it, but I’m 27. I don’t know if I want to sit here and do TikTok videos, but I have to.

What sort of content do you want to do?

If I’m going to be completely honest, I love the old-school content on what’s in your bag and how to do your makeup. I know that now what’s super popular is the drama channels and things that are super clickbait-y. I love teaching about makeup and creating a community, even though that doesn’t seem to be as popular today.

How do you stay out of the drama?

As long as you keep to yourself, you can be pretty good at staying out of the drama. I’m focused on my brand, my subscribers, making products, YouTube videos and positivity. I don’t leave my house, to be honest with you. I really focus on me and stay out of the drama.

You seem to be interested in giving your fans an inside look at Lights Lacquer. Why?

Even more than ever, people love to see what goes on behind the scenes of a brand. My most engaged with videos when we did KL Polish were behind-the-scenes videos with the crew making the colors. People love to see who’s behind a brand, and they want to make sure they are spending their money with a good person. I want to make it a point with Lights Lacquer to show them even more.

I want to show them that I’m very involved and working very hard for them. The day of the launch, we took a bunch of Polaroid photos and wrote people notes. We sent a very long note and a picture of [my husband] Danny and me to the first person who ordered. We showed people packing bundles and sending them out. It was awesome and engaging, and people loved it.

What’s your favorite from Lights Lacquer’s first collection, GRL PWR?

Jefa. It’s our bestseller, and I think it’s the prettiest. In my video revealing the whole collection, I said, “If you could only buy one color, but this one because it’s so pretty.” It’s a dusty sage green, and it looks good on everyone.

What beauty trends are you noticing now?

It’s all about dewy skin, the very natural look. A few years ago, it was more about structured brows and intense makeup. More and more, people are evolving that look to be more natural to a feathery brow with a little bit of brow gel. People are embracing their natural selves. In nails, though, people are going the opposite direction. What’s popping now is the long Kylie Jenner nails and intense nail art. I want to start doing that with Lights Lacquer. KL Polish was more on the natural end, but I want to really hit that trend with Lights Lacquer.

Would you like to sell Lights Lacquer in salons and stores?

I’m actually working with a manufacturer now to formulate my own gel polishes, and I feel that will help me get into the salon market and pro world. I want to market myself especially to Miami-based salons.

For next year, my main goal is definitely Ulta. I would love to be in Ulta or Target. I really want to expand as much as I can. I hope that it’s out there in person, and you can physically touch it. It won’t just be online. Right now, our goal is to sell through and push out inventory. It’s doing really well.

What is biggest challenge getting the brand where you want it to go?

Honestly, it’s making sure you are doing something that not every single nail polish brand is doing and coming up with fresh innovative ideas all the time. It’s hard. You definitely need brainstorming sessions, and to go back and forth with other people. You can’t do everything alone.

How do you come up with ideas?

Every season, I think six color aesthetically look pretty together. With KL Polish, I had a popular shade called Caramello. I was sitting, just looking at caramel, and I thought, “Oh my god, I want a color like caramel.” That’s where it came from. I get inspired by things I see every day, even TV and movies. I had a shade called Café Disco. It looks like coffee, but has sprinkles in it. It reminded me of an episode of “The Office” called Café Disco.

The Lights Lacquer nail polishes are priced at $9.50. Why?

I really wanted a polish that was on the affordable side because a lot of brands now are coming out with polishes that are more prestige and high-end. I wanted not to be the new OPI or Essie, but have a polish under $10 that’s reliable. I don’t think there are many polishes under $12 today that have really a great formula like mine does.

How do you balance your schedule between guiding the brand and creating videos?

I’m all over the place. I think it’s the Aquarius in me. I have no structure. I literally have to plan it out in a planner that, OK, on Tuesday, I’m going to film a video and do phone calls. I have to write it all out. YouTube is at the top. So, I really try to schedule in filming and editing. I’m sometimes filming for four hours, and the video turns out to be 20 minutes. Tutorials especially take a long time because the process of putting on the makeup can be long. Usually, it will take an hour and a half just to do the makeup, and you have to condense it into 15 minutes.

Are you going to be on YouTube forever?

Truly, no. I do think I’m going to get to a point where I will outgrow YouTube, but I don’t really see that in the near future. I don’t really know when that will be. Right now, I am posting three times a week. Eventually, I will take it down to two and, then, maybe one and ease out of it like that, but not for a while because my subscribers would have a meltdown.

What do you think your fans are doing with their nails?

The people the follow me feel the same way that I do. They like to go to salons, but prefer to do their nails at home. That’s why they loved the KL Polish line and love Lights Lacquer so much. They like that it has a good formula that doesn’t chip. They don’t feel they have to do their nails every two days because it can last you a whole week. I don’t think my following is doing the whole Kylie Jenner thing. I have a very different kind of fan base than the traditional beauty influencer. For example, I don’t wear falsies. I’m a very laid-back natural makeup person, and it’s the same with my nails. I don’t really do acrylics and the long, long nails. People who relate to me follow me. So, my subscribers are very minimal, too.

What are your goals for Lights Lacquer over the next year?

I really want to grow. I want to expand and make things I haven’t made before. I want to surprise the audience so they feel it’s unique and different. I have a really great team, and we are working hard to create products that people didn’t see at KL Polish.