Friday, April 13, 2012

Stash Post!

Hello everyone!

I've always been a fan of polish, especially bright colors. I remember the first polish hunt I did in the early 2000's. I had seen a spread in some magazine about bold colored polish and there was a toxic waste green that I just had to have! After searching through a number of different drugstores, I finally found the perfect neon green at Walmart from Pure Ice. It stained my nails yellow but boy was I in love!

Then a few years later, I was looking through Vogue and saw a picture of a model wearing grey nail polish. The search began! Months later, an awesome friend of mine came back from Sally's with a bottle of China Glaze No Name Yet just for me. It was a grey/lilac polish perfection. It's still in my stash today, even though the bottle barely has any polish left. 

I used to have all my polish in a little make-up bag. Then, I went off to college and starting buying more and more nail polish. So I dedicated a drawer of my computer desk to polish :)
When I left college, I had probably tripled the number of polishes I owned. I stuff them all in a big hat box but quickly realized that I needed a better way to store my lovelies...

I went to the store and found a plastic drawer organizer! perfect! Now I felt like a real polish addict. It was time to do something more productive with my hobby. It was time to share it through a blog!
Since then, the collection has grown quite a bit and a new plastic drawer organizer had to be added. I considered getting a Helmer but the plastic organizers are much cheaper: my first was $29, the other 2 (which I stacked) were $15 each! And that leaves more money to spend on polish!!

This is what my polish corner looks like right now


 In the right organizer I keep all of my nail tools, art, and treatments along with glitter polish and franken materials.
The left organizer has all of my colored polish :)

More after the jump!




Let's start with right organizer, then we can get the lovelies eh?

On top of my first organizer I have some stacked basket. This is where I keep polishes I need to put away, or that I just bought and have to add to my "polish stash spreadsheet"
 The first drawer has all of my art brushes, stripers, acrylic paints, and sponges. Basically, things I need to do nail art!

 The second drawer is my nail art implements: rhinestones, stickers, striping tape, stamping, and acrylic molds

 3rd is basically an extra stuff drawer. I have some cups for water marbling (which I suck at!), feathers, tape, and a plastic lid that I use as a color palette

 Then I have some nail wheels. I swatch and keep track of every polish I own in an Excel spreadsheet. Each nail wheel is organized by finish: creme, glitter, holo...


 There here we have my top coats, base coats, and treatments; along with my nail files and other necessities


 the 6th drawer holds all of my glitter/flakie topcoats and special effect polish like mood polish and magnetics



 Lastly, here is my Franken drawer. It's a mess, just like my creative process :) lots of glitter, some glamour base, empty bottles, and labels!

On to the stacked organizers I use for all of my colored polishes! I know a lot of swatch bloggers organize their collection by brand but since I do nail art, I organize my polish by color. That way, if I need a sky blue, I can compare all the blues I have and pick the best one!

 I use the top of this organizer for my removers and cotton balls. That way they are always within reach if I mess up >_<

 The first drawer holds my bronze, gold, nudes, white, silver, black, and grey polishes


 Then there is browns, yellows, orange, and red


 Here are the pinks!
on the left are the special effects (like duochrome and holo), middle are metallic and shimmers, and right are cremes.
Looks like I need more special effects and metallics huh?


 Then the purples. My favorite!
these are also organized by finish, with special effect on the left, then shimmer/metallics, and finally cremes


 Gorgeous blues!
I have a lot of blue glitter polish (middle)


And finally the greens.
It's hard to find a good green duochrome, hence the lack of polish on the left side...

 That's it! that is all of my polish
I currently have 365 colored polishes. One for every day! It's hard to imagine that less than 3 years ago, I had no more than 25 bottles... If I ever go broke, I can always start selling them though, right?
Although I would have a very hard time parting with most of these...

How many polishes did you start out with?

Until next time ^_^

12 comments :

Carol said...

Oh my! You are extremely organized! I just discovered my passion for nail art last summer and I am still at the big cardboard box level! I fit ~100 polishes there :) It is a sweet addiction :)

Anonymous said...

This was such a fun post to look at!!! :D I started out with 2 polishes in August of last year, and now I have 160 (including top coats and 1 base coat). Huzzah! :D

Jme said...

Woah, I am impressed! And in lust!

arfblat said...

Wow, so organized! I love seeing people's stashes, may have to make a stash post myself. Right now it's awkward because I split my time between a dorm & my parents' house so travel-friendly is my priority over organization-friendly... hopefully that will change soon!

Stephanie'sAwesome said...

Can I just say... WOW! And sorting by colour is a great idea, that way, if you need a colour you don't have to go looking through however many bins :) Love your stash!

Lydz said...

wow! what a stash!

Samantha said...

Haha thanks Carol! I wasn't organized at first but the growing number of bottles really required it :) I love it!

Samantha said...

I goes by so quickly!

Samantha said...

Thanks Jme hehe

Samantha said...

I have been there man! it is no fun :( what is the use in having pretty polishes if they are so far away right? Im glad you liked this post!

Samantha said...

Thank you! this type of sorting is a must for me!

Samantha said...

:D

Friday, April 13, 2012

Stash Post!

Hello everyone!

I've always been a fan of polish, especially bright colors. I remember the first polish hunt I did in the early 2000's. I had seen a spread in some magazine about bold colored polish and there was a toxic waste green that I just had to have! After searching through a number of different drugstores, I finally found the perfect neon green at Walmart from Pure Ice. It stained my nails yellow but boy was I in love!

Then a few years later, I was looking through Vogue and saw a picture of a model wearing grey nail polish. The search began! Months later, an awesome friend of mine came back from Sally's with a bottle of China Glaze No Name Yet just for me. It was a grey/lilac polish perfection. It's still in my stash today, even though the bottle barely has any polish left. 

I used to have all my polish in a little make-up bag. Then, I went off to college and starting buying more and more nail polish. So I dedicated a drawer of my computer desk to polish :)
When I left college, I had probably tripled the number of polishes I owned. I stuff them all in a big hat box but quickly realized that I needed a better way to store my lovelies...

I went to the store and found a plastic drawer organizer! perfect! Now I felt like a real polish addict. It was time to do something more productive with my hobby. It was time to share it through a blog!
Since then, the collection has grown quite a bit and a new plastic drawer organizer had to be added. I considered getting a Helmer but the plastic organizers are much cheaper: my first was $29, the other 2 (which I stacked) were $15 each! And that leaves more money to spend on polish!!

This is what my polish corner looks like right now


 In the right organizer I keep all of my nail tools, art, and treatments along with glitter polish and franken materials.
The left organizer has all of my colored polish :)

More after the jump!




Let's start with right organizer, then we can get the lovelies eh?

On top of my first organizer I have some stacked basket. This is where I keep polishes I need to put away, or that I just bought and have to add to my "polish stash spreadsheet"
 The first drawer has all of my art brushes, stripers, acrylic paints, and sponges. Basically, things I need to do nail art!

 The second drawer is my nail art implements: rhinestones, stickers, striping tape, stamping, and acrylic molds

 3rd is basically an extra stuff drawer. I have some cups for water marbling (which I suck at!), feathers, tape, and a plastic lid that I use as a color palette

 Then I have some nail wheels. I swatch and keep track of every polish I own in an Excel spreadsheet. Each nail wheel is organized by finish: creme, glitter, holo...


 There here we have my top coats, base coats, and treatments; along with my nail files and other necessities


 the 6th drawer holds all of my glitter/flakie topcoats and special effect polish like mood polish and magnetics



 Lastly, here is my Franken drawer. It's a mess, just like my creative process :) lots of glitter, some glamour base, empty bottles, and labels!

On to the stacked organizers I use for all of my colored polishes! I know a lot of swatch bloggers organize their collection by brand but since I do nail art, I organize my polish by color. That way, if I need a sky blue, I can compare all the blues I have and pick the best one!

 I use the top of this organizer for my removers and cotton balls. That way they are always within reach if I mess up >_<

 The first drawer holds my bronze, gold, nudes, white, silver, black, and grey polishes


 Then there is browns, yellows, orange, and red


 Here are the pinks!
on the left are the special effects (like duochrome and holo), middle are metallic and shimmers, and right are cremes.
Looks like I need more special effects and metallics huh?


 Then the purples. My favorite!
these are also organized by finish, with special effect on the left, then shimmer/metallics, and finally cremes


 Gorgeous blues!
I have a lot of blue glitter polish (middle)


And finally the greens.
It's hard to find a good green duochrome, hence the lack of polish on the left side...

 That's it! that is all of my polish
I currently have 365 colored polishes. One for every day! It's hard to imagine that less than 3 years ago, I had no more than 25 bottles... If I ever go broke, I can always start selling them though, right?
Although I would have a very hard time parting with most of these...

How many polishes did you start out with?

Until next time ^_^

12 comments :

Carol said...

Oh my! You are extremely organized! I just discovered my passion for nail art last summer and I am still at the big cardboard box level! I fit ~100 polishes there :) It is a sweet addiction :)

Anonymous said...

This was such a fun post to look at!!! :D I started out with 2 polishes in August of last year, and now I have 160 (including top coats and 1 base coat). Huzzah! :D

Jme said...

Woah, I am impressed! And in lust!

arfblat said...

Wow, so organized! I love seeing people's stashes, may have to make a stash post myself. Right now it's awkward because I split my time between a dorm & my parents' house so travel-friendly is my priority over organization-friendly... hopefully that will change soon!

Stephanie'sAwesome said...

Can I just say... WOW! And sorting by colour is a great idea, that way, if you need a colour you don't have to go looking through however many bins :) Love your stash!

Lydz said...

wow! what a stash!

Samantha said...

Haha thanks Carol! I wasn't organized at first but the growing number of bottles really required it :) I love it!

Samantha said...

I goes by so quickly!

Samantha said...

Thanks Jme hehe

Samantha said...

I have been there man! it is no fun :( what is the use in having pretty polishes if they are so far away right? Im glad you liked this post!

Samantha said...

Thank you! this type of sorting is a must for me!

Samantha said...

:D