Nail Polish Boxes.

A 15ml polish bottle puts thick glass and a weighted base onto about 1.4 in square, and an auto-bottom carries that load better than a tuck flap. The crash-lock base snaps flat when the carton is squared up, so it also packs quickly by hand.

A tuck bottom can push open under the weight of the bottle when the carton is lifted by its top.

18pt SBS handles a standard single bottle, and 20pt pays off for multipacks and bottles with heavy weighted bases. The bright coated white of SBS also gives shade colours a clean ground to print on.

The extra stiffness of 20pt shows most at the base and along the side seam, where the concentrated weight of the glass works on the carton.

Four-colour process cannot reproduce pearls, metallics or glitters, so we reach for other tools. Metallised board, or cold foil with CMYK printed over it, gets closest to a metallic lacquer, and holographic board suits glitter and duochrome ranges.

The most direct option is a die-cut window that shows the actual bottle. It removes the colour problem outright.

Most polish cartons are gloss laminated, because the lacquer inside is glossy and a shiny carton looks consistent with it. Spot UV over matte is often used on a printed swatch so it looks like wet polish.

Some brands go the other way with a matte laminate, which makes the gloss of the bottle look deliberate once it is out of the box.

A standard 15ml bottle usually fits a carton around 1.4 × 1.4 × 3.2 in, and a 10ml mini around 1.2 × 1.2 × 2.8 in. Caps vary a lot between brands, so we size from your bottle with its cap on.

Gel and treatment bottles often have taller or wider caps than lacquer bottles. Send us a sample bottle and we'll draw the dieline around it.

Yes, an SBS polish carton is recyclable paperboard. Gloss or matte film lamination adds a thin plastic layer, so if the recycling claim matters to you, an aqueous coating keeps the carton paper-only.

A die-cut window with no film in it keeps the box single-material as well, while still letting the bottle colour show.

Nail polish cartons have a 500-unit minimum. One structure can carry many shades, with only the printed colour and shade name changing between versions, so the die is cut once.

If you are planning several versions, send the list and we will show how the order splits across them.

Production takes 7 to 10 business days from the day your artwork is approved. Rush work comes through in 5 to 7 business days when the press schedule allows.

Samples are ready in 5 to 7 business days, which gives you a chance to judge the window or the foil against a real bottle. The sample cost is deducted from the bulk order.