.jpg)
.jpg)
If hearing the phrase, "Let's revive and swatch..." makes you immediately lock in, chances are you've come across nail polish collector Vintage_Dusties, a.k.a Shana Eichenberg, on your TikTok For You page. Eichenberg's specialty is collecting and restoring vintage nail polish, from finds as recent as 2000s Urban Decay to one of her oldest discoveries yet: a Peggy Sage polish from 1926. Her mesmerizing, ASMR-adjacent videos have earned her millions of views and likes, with the aforementioned introduction and her polarizing “1930s Hollywood” nail shape becoming signatures of her content.
Eichenberg started collecting polish offline in 2020, but didn’t experience niche internet fame until she started her current TikTok account in September of 2023. Within a year, she had over 100 thousand followers. At the time of writing, she has over 745 thousand followers. In just over two years, she’s established herself as both an authority in the vintage beauty community and a chill space for those who simply enjoy watching swatching and hauls to their heart’s content.
Below, we spoke with Eichenberg on her best tips for shopping vintage beauty, the top nail polish on her wishlist, social media privacy, and more.
Shana Eichenberg: It's the connection to women of the past, really, that gets me. It's not so much like, "Wow, this is so... I like this color," because you can get pretty awesome colors today. So much of the lens of history is from the male perspective, so it's just interesting to try something that was, I don't know, not really considered [as] much. I look at objects from a different lens. Everything that we make and use, it's always deeper than the surface. And every polish can say something about its time.
TikTok content
SE: At first, it's like a lot of people start out as haters because they're like, "Oh, what is that nail shape? Oh my God." But then they keep coming back. And I've had people where I've noticed they've put all these hateful comments, like I'll see months of them being haters, and then I see this... they start being positive and then I’m like, "Oh, they're here a year later."
SE: Sometime last year, I was like, "Oh, I need to lock down my Facebook." Because some people don't follow boundaries so much or they don't realize that you have a lot of attention on you, that you have a personal life. Since I'm more online than I ever was, I've cut down the amount I put out there personally. It is a strange thing, I guess, but my day-to-day life is the same as it's always been, really.
SE: Yeah, I trade with other collectors. I do a lot of eBay shopping. Sometimes Etsy. I'm a lot more discerning than ever now. I have to think about, "Am I ever going to see this polish come up again? If yes, then I don't have to spend money on it right now," or whatever. A lot of the prices have shot up because of my videos.
SE: It happened pretty quickly once I started my TikTok because that was... I mean, within a month of being on TikTok, I was monetized. There's a lot more people interested. And so from a financial standpoint, I'm not as impulsive anymore. If I know I can get it cheaper… I'll just wait. And if I don't think I'll ever see it again, then I might put in my highest bid.
SE: If it's a purple or a green from before the 60s, then I'm like, "Hell yeah, I'm going for it." Anything unique, shimmery. If it's a red from the '30s to present, I'm not like, "Oh, yeah, I got to get that red." If it's cheap, then I'm going to get it. I've seen people spend hundreds on a bottle and I'm like, "No, not doing it."
SE: Oh, yeah, I have. There's maybe seven Hard Candies I still need, and I'll never say what they are. Because if I do, then I'll never get them. Because that means hundreds of people will put it on their watch list.
SE: Know what you're looking for before you act. I've seen, for instance, Hard Candy nail polish from the '90s. I used to get it for $20 a bottle and now people are spending $400. Try not to follow the hype. You have to be able to discern if something is legit before you spend your money.
TikTok content
SE: Don't be so willing to put random chemicals on your bare nails. [Laughs.] I started the Vintage Nail Polish Subreddit and I'll see people come in hot, passionately because they've seen my content and I'll see them put a 1940s polish on their bare fingernails and I'll be like, "Oh, God." I don't say anything because it's like I don't want to crush people's enthusiasm, but I'm secretly like, “Oh.”
SE: Just be intentional, try not to overshare.
SE: Observing others. Having an audience that's so eager to listen. Try not to treat your audience like your therapist, like trauma dump[ing] on them. You don't have to respond to everything people put out. You don't have to respond to every comment or message. And in this journey, I've talked to other creators, so many people have been like, "Don't respond to messages. Don't even read the comments."
I try to read all the comments, honestly, but it's good to just remind yourself you don't have to respond to everything. You don't have to read everything. And whatever you put out there, you can never claw back, so be intentional.
SE: I’m just riding the waves, seeing what happens. I don't have a business plan. If I become irrelevant, I'll be irrelevant and just do my thing. I think I'll always collect and archive and do all that, and maybe it won't always be public-facing. Not everything on the internet lasts forever, as much as we like to tell ourselves it does.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
