This post contains gifted product and/or affiliate commission codes/links. Disclosure statement available here.
This post contains gifted product and/or affiliate commission codes/links. Disclosure statement available here.
The Nail Thoughts Celebration Collection marks a major milestone for the brand, officially surpassing 100 gel color shades. Founded by Katie Masters in collaboration with Kokoist, Nail Thoughts has helped bring bridge the gap between the potted gel preference of Japanese market and the bottled gel preference of the American market.
In this, interview, Katie shares the inspiration behind the Celebration Collection, the evolution of the Nail Thoughts brand, and her personal favorite gel shades. Be sure to keep scrolling because, we’re sharing full swatches of the Celebration Collection colors right below the interview.
About the Nail Thoughts Celebration Collection
2026 is feeling a little extra #blessed at just over two months in and we are boots-on-the-ground with the new Nail Thoughts Celebration color collection. Living up to its name, this collection is full of fun and punchy colors, a lot of sparkle and a nice little formulation and packaging upgrade.
I had a great conversation with Nail Thoughts creator and founder, Katie Masters about the new collection with a little revisit of the brand origins and a look forward into what we can expect in the future.
The Evolution of the Nail Thoughts x Kokoist Partnership
Rachel: Japanese gel is fairly synonymous with potted gels, when you started your collaboration with Kokoist, how did you see the evolution of the Nail Thoughts brand? Did it feel experimental at the time or were you confident from the get-go?
Katie: It was both experimental while also being confident it would be great. Koko [Kashiwagi] came to me with an idea to create the first bottled gel line for Kokoist, but, make it Nail Thoughts. I knew it would be a hit because while most nail techs in Japan use potted gels only, we both knew that American nail techs are more bottled gel forward and that deep down this would help get Kokoist into the mainstream American market. So we gave everyone the best of both worlds: high quality Japanese gel,but in a bottle.
Surpassing 100 Shades: Creating the Celebration Collection
Rachel: While the full collection including the bases, art gels, etc.. has well over 100 products, the Celebration Collection is where the brand officially surpasses the 100 shade mark for color gels. What has been your favorite part of creating the palette of colors?
Katie: OMG! the confetti gels have been my favorite part. Well okay, honestly I love the puzzle of it all. So a few months ago I knew this milestone was coming and I made a bright colored mood board with confetti and glitter to help guide me into what I wanted the palette to be. From there I ordered tons of samples. When the samples came, I was playing around with which ones to keep versus not, and the order ( because keep in mind, I knew I wanted gold to be the 100th, so it would show up 4th in this collection. And I’m telling you, the feeling of knowing you got the right color combos and the right color order is SO satisfying and never gets old.
A Packaging Refresh to Mark the Milestone
Rachel: For nail artists by nail artists has been a pillar of the Nail Thoughts brand overall. Can you speak on how that plays into the packaging upgrades?
Katie: After working so many nail expos and also traveling around to get nails done by other techs, I would obviously see how people would browse the colors on their shelves or on the expo shelves. A lot of people at expos would have a little bit of a hard time finding what color they needed without either opening the bottle, or referring to the swatch sticks first. And in the salons, I saw some people had to have the bottles either in a drawer (so they could see the color stickers on top of the bottle easier) or the bottles would just look all the same on the shelf which led them having to lift every bottle up to check to see what color it was. So when Koko mentioned she wanted to change the packaging and give it an upgrade for this milestone I knew this was going to be a great transition.
Katie Masters’ Top 10 Favorite Nail Thoughts Gel Colors
Rachel: What are your personal, all time top ten favorite Nail Thoughts gel colors?
Katie: I’m a simple girl, this is my personal classic rotation:
My Favorite Red
Movie Night
Orchid Syrup
But, seven other worthy mentions that have a special place in my heart are :
Tortoiseshell
Supernova
Frosted
Pool Float
Sakura Stroll
100% Cotton
Comfort Show
Follow Katie Masters across social media platforms @nailthoughts and stat up-to-date on the latest and greatest on her website NailThoughts.com and be sure to check out her YouTube channel for the Nail Thoughts Challege series as well as a behind the scenes look into the brand.
Nail Thoughts Celebration Collection Swatches
Inspiration? Check. A chat with Katie? Check. Now it’s time to hop on the trolley to Swatch City. Scroll for full swatches of the Nail Thoughts Celebration Collection, including the confetti gels and the milestone 100th shade.
As always, thank you for using code RACHEL10 when you shop at KokoistUSA.com. Using my code not only saves YOU a little somethin’ (10% to be exact) it also helps support so that I can keep bringing you all the blogs, swatches and content.
NT-97 Time To Party
NT-98 Matsuri
NT-99 It’s My Bday!
NT-100 Cheers to Us!
NT-101 Wait, We Need a Pic!
NT-102 Ice Cream Sundae
NT-103 Candy Coated
NT-104 Dancing Shoes
NT-105 LA Nights
NT-106 Goodie Bag
NT-107 This Is My Song!
NT-108 Extra Sprinkles
As a nail artist myself and a member of the Kokoist USA Education Team, I’m especially excited to add these 12 beauties to my shelf. The Nail Thoughts Celebration Collection offers a thoughtful mix of statement brights, specialty finishes (hello, confetti!), and what will surely become spring and summer salon staples.
If you’re a licensed manicurist or manicuring student interested in refining your technique with the Nail Thoughts system, you can find more information about Nail Thoughts Certification classes here.