Thursday, May 10, 2012

ever wonder what 1000 nail polishes piled on top of an ugly bedspread would look like?


...well now you know.

Yep, this is my entire collection of 1000-some odd polishes (minus minis, nail art stripers and basecoats/topcoats/treatments). I decided to reorganize them--again...

Oh the dilemmas of polish organizing!

I flip flop between organizing by brand and organizing by color. I like the aesthetics of organizing by brand because seeing all those pretty bottles lined up perfectly next to their sisters makes my OCD happy. However, the shortfall of organizing polishes this way is if I'm looking for just the RIGHT shade of a certain color, I have to yank out and sift through a bunch of brands in a bunch of drawers and that's annoying (especially because half my Melmer drawers make this God-awful screeching noise when I open them--a noise guaranteed to wake any and all sleeping children in the house, thus negating my chance at any kind of manicuring...)

Organizing by color is good for getting a glimpse of every nuance of every color you have--BUT it's not exactly fool proof either. How does one classify multi chromes or multi-colored glitter polishes?? And what about those blurples or those green-leaning teals or those burnt brownish oranges or grayed out purples or---AAARRRGGGHHH...yea I think you get the point.

SO I've come up with yet another organizing scheme that I'm hoping will actually work: Organizing by finish and purpose!!

Creams will live with creams.
Jellies will live with jellies.
Glitters will live with glitters
Holos will live with holos.
shimmers with shimmers...and so forth and so on...
and I'll organize the polishes by color ONCE I've sorted them by finish...

I've also decided I want to keep seperate categories for stamping polishes and layering polishes. Nothing is more annoying than having to sift thru 45 purples looking for one that I know stamps well. 

Layering polishes will basically be polishes that can't be worn alone no matter how many coats--like, for instance, flakies in clear bases or color-shifting top coats or crackles....this should make it easy for me to pull out what I need when I'm looking to do something sandwiched or layered or some other fancy schmancy mani trick...

soooo here's hoping my latest organizational grand delusion effort works out. And yes I will post pictures once I have everything sorted and settled!

15 comments:

  1. Exactly the way I organize is by finish.Flakies with flakies,glitter w/glitters,and duochromes with duochromes.

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  2. I have troubles organizing my stash too, and I'm at about halfway yours... so looking forwad to see some pictures of your organized stash!

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    1. i'm looking forward to showing it off once it's finally done. i may need to get another Melmer, though to keep everything sorted (I have 3 Melmers now in addition to a few of those Sterlite plastic drawer thingies...

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  3. And now I feel poor ROFL, you have a LOT of nail polish girl!

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    1. lol i swear they multiply at night when i am not looking!

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    2. I just said that to my mom last week! LOL

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  4. I would really enjoy a post where you list some polishes that stamp well. I only have black, white, and silver to stamp with, so I'd love some ideas of purples and colors that work well!

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    1. I can definitely do a post on that! Right off the top of my head, I can think of the Sally Hansen Insta-dri polishes, Color Club Foiled collection, China Glaze Romantique collection, the LA Colors Art Deco nail art stripers...generally, if a polish is a cream or a metallic foil that can reach opacity in 1 coat, it's good for stamping. I'll do a post showing the ones I use and I'll show what they look like when stamped--sound good?

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  5. My solution? Swatch all the polishes! Then you can organize the swatch sticks by color. Organize the polish bottles by brand, and then color or alphabetize by name, whichever suits your fancy. Personally, if I kept mine in drawers, I would alphabetize, since I can't *see* color from the top in the shadowy drawer, so if I'm trying to find the polish that matches the name on the swatch stick, alphabetical is easier, but when I put them up on my new shelf, I'll be sorting by brand & color.

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    1. Wow good tips! You should be a professional organizer! I've been meaning to do swatch sticks forever! I just kept putting it off & the more my stash grows, the more intimidating swatching seems lol.

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  6. To answer your question, I was actually just wondering that. Lol! Great stash!

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