I recently got back into doing my nails, and to celebrate this I purchased some new nail polish. I’m big on buying from indie brands, and wanted to explore the offerings available in the indie polish space. It was during this search for different brands I came across Death Valley Nails. I loved the aesthetic, and made an order without investigating the brand’s history. I loved the looks of their polishes, the fun names, and the bronze bottle caps, though they are actually quite controversial. Death Valley Nails was, and continues to be, very much my vibe. I wanted to share my newfound excitement with others in the space, and began searching online in the polish loving spaces I had joined. As I began my search it became clear Death Valley Nails has been enveloped in several controversies, and as a result lost many of their online supporters. Due to the controversy and online discourse I wanted to explore the brands history, and present it to you, before ever posting about the things I purchased from the brand. I intend to make sure every one of my readers is able to make informed purchasing decisions when it comes to the products and brands I’m discussing.
Before I begin, I want to address some of my biases that have impacted my reasoning throughout this post, so we can both be on the same page going forward.
I know it may sound silly, but I personally hate boycotting. For me, it feels like there is already such a laundry list of things I cannot have, do, eat, or use that I really don’t enjoy voluntarily limiting myself further. It isn’t that I believe boycotting isn’t often well deserved, or an effective strategy in creating change in the market, because it clearly is. Ultimately, I avoid it due to my aforementioned hatred of further limiting myself. As someone with an annoyingly long list of allergies and physical limitations, boycotting brands I enjoy feels like more of a punishment to me than it is to them.
On a separate note, I don’t like talking politics. I have my opinions, and stay politically informed, but often feel pressure to vocalize my opinions, even as I am attempting to build a creative space outside of the dumpster fire that the US political landscape is right now. My distaste for the agendas that are currently being pushed, and the ever radicalizing political extremes is very real, and shapes the way I live my daily life without a doubt. But I desire my space on the internet to serve as an escape from the dreadful realities we are facing, and thus hope to leave politics out of things as much as possible. Regardless of my opinions and choices, I do encourage you to do your due diligence, and follow your convictions when it comes to where you are spending your money, and who you are supporting.
Now that you know where I am coming from, let’s get down to what Death Valley Nails has done, and been accused of doing. My information on these topics largely was pulled from Reddit, mainly r/redditlaqueristas unless otherwise noted. I have seen mentions of a discord which also discussed some of these topics, however I did not join, and thus am unaware of the full information compiled in the server. All information should be easily retrievable via google search.
So, here is the breakdown- According to a reddit post on r/redditlaqueristas made by u/slapstick_nightmare about year ago as I am writing this, the Death Valley Nails (hereafter DVN) instagram account was following three specific accounts that were considered problematic, as they appear to be MAGA supporting. Those mentioned in this post were @christarose_14, which the brand no longer follows, @w_bryan_hubbard an account focused on advocacy for legalizing certain alternative medications who apparently has aligned himself at times with RFK jr. and Joe Rogan, who the brand still follows, and @pics_stallone, whom the brand still follows, and appears to support Ivanka Trump. In my opinion, I don’t consider the accounts DVN still follows to be as problematic from the information I can find about them, although I understand the confusion and frustration over aligning yourself with this sort of political content as a brand page. These follows were odd, and arguably problematic, however the biggest issue came with DVN’s interactions with House Inhabit, or Jessica Reed Kraus. DVN no longer follows or engages with this account, and has not since this controversy broke, as far as I am aware. There is a screenshot posted in the same reddit post of the DVN account liking a post from houseinhabit’s instagram, but without context, and a year plus removed from the post, it’s unclear to me what situations the houseinhabit post was referencing. (If anyone has more context, please let me know!!) From what I have seen about her on reddit, specifically on a r/HouseOnFire post made by u/the_ghost_in_me_ about 2 years ago, Jessica Reed Kraus is a self proclaimed journalist, who is considered problematic by many due to her lack of journalistic integrity, her alleged plagiarism of other creators, and her harassment campaigns against the survivors of high profile abusers. House Inhabit, or Jessica, allegedly has a track record of promising bombshell information, and claiming inside sources that never materialize as a way to make her opinions appear more credible. She has also apparently been a big supporter of RFK. But as far as DVN’s support of her goes, I am unclear on how many of her posts they interacted with in the 2024-2025 timeframe. I was unaware of this creator before researching for this post, which is why I do not have a more definitive view of who she is, or the broader issues with her content.
The company did not address the concerns surrounding these accounts, and the posts DVN had liked at all. As far as I can tell from my research, they quietly unfollowed the most controversial and political accounts and moved forward with business as usual. Much of the continued boycotting and backlash stems from the fact that many see the lack of response as continued support for the posts and these polarizing political creators. This, understandably has caused many to see the brand as antithetical to the principles their customers stand for.
Honestly, I am unsure of where I fall on this point. In these situations I believe there is continually room for growth and improvement. That being said, growth is found in taking accountability for past actions, however, I have observed the phenomena of online masses rewarding the lack of accountability by moving on to a newer, more interesting situation. From the perspective of the brand I would argue this may be appear as an enticing way forward, without risking backlash from a bad apology. Conversely, I almost feel bad supporting larger corporations while boycotting smaller brands, as I feel that ultimately creates more negative impact, and causes me to feel like a hypocrite.
The second major controversy/brand issue I saw come up was poor customer service, and batch inconsistencies. These complaints came up frequently in older comments, and the feedback they received from customer service was not helpful, causing several people to say they would not have purchased from the brand again after the interaction. Most of the complaints of this sort I saw were a year or older, and personally I have not had any issues with my DVN polishes, or seen many more recent complaints. Due to this I am unsure if this is still a prevalent issue, or if batch consistency and quality, or customer service have since improved. I haven’t purchased from the brand enough times say either way, but the well documented lack of care for customer experience does not reflect positively on the brand.
There is a third controversy, which I feel deserves a mention here. That is the alleged questionable supply chain for the brands “Dust to Dust” collection, specifically their FOSSILS polish. The fossils for this polish are sourced from a company called Paleo Direct, which has faced controversy for prior involvement in illegal artifact smuggling. Death Valley Nails lists Paleo Direct as members of an organization called the American Association of Paleontological Suppliers. Historically, this was a real organization, however, they changed their name in 2002. Making the listing of this membership questionable at best. While I was unable to find them listed in the membership directory for the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences (the new name of American Association of Paleontological Suppliers), they do state on their website that not all members are listed for safety and privacy reasons. Again, this is not necessarily proof of anything nefarious on DVN’s part, but if their are no shady business practices going on here, it does suggest some negligence at the very least.
So, my concluding thoughts..
Will I continue to buy from the brand? I don’t know. This is something that I have really gone back and forth on as I have done the research on this post. I enjoy the artistry and style of the brand, and I like to shop small, especially in the indie polish space. However, there are so many other brands out there that also have something special to offer that have not tied themselves to criminals and hate speech. My mind is not made up. I may buy from them in the future, but if I do, it will be a choice I continue to think through. I want to leave room for growth and change, but don’t want to be aligning myself with the worldview this brand has become associated with, as it isn’t one I share. I would like to have grace for the brand, seeing the quiet changes that have been made to their public image, but am still torn.
Alright friends, that wraps up my thoughts for this post. If anyone has anymore information, questions, or comments to share please do! I want to have open conversations as much as possible, and welcome feedback as I think through these issues for myself. I hope everyone is having a lovely day!!
Signed, your friendly neighborhood blogger
journal of a dreamer. 