Thursday, June 30, 2011

on 53 comments

450 polishes swatched

Today I’m sharing a little project that I have been working on for the last few weeks. 

I was sick of not being able to readily see each of my polishes to decide what to wear, what to layer (or stamp) over what. Of course I could look at swatch pictures, but that would take way too long, and what then to do about all those untrieds? I could swatch them all out on colour wheels, but how do I sort them for swatching? Sure I could swatch similar colours on a wheel, but what would I do when I got a new polish, it's not like I could insert it into the colour wheel in it appropriate place if that wheel is full. 

So this was my solution.  I bought many sets of nail art sticks off ebay.  Each tray holds 64 sticks.  The beauty of this system is each stick is totally removable and they can be sorted and moved around on the trays allowing for new polishes at any time.

Here they all are lined up on our dining table. Yes, it took weeks to paint these.

Now here they are in colour groups.








Yes, it took ages to sort these into colour groups. Actually it didn’t take ME very long before I said “that’ll do”, but my mum (as a painter) sat there for hours (upon hours) adjusting and sorting. Anally retentive anyone?


So this is what the little sticks look like. Nice clean and shiny Perspex.


There is even a little flat spot to write on. I wrote numbers, which correspond to numbers listed in a spreadsheet that details brand, polish name and the number of coats. I love the fact that I can look among all my sticks of a similar colour, and then take them over to my outfit and pick the best complementary colour. 


So, what do you think?  Do you have a system in place to see what all your polishes are and to help choose a colour to wear?  I used to paint a falsie and sticky tape that to the top of the bottle.  See some old stash pics.

*edit* for those interested, the ebay seller was "4ushop777", they were called "Nail Art Tips 64 Stick Display Stand Rack Practice Tool" I paid $7.65AUD for each set of 64, with free postage.

53 comments:

  1. Holy crap, this is soooo amazing, I'm totally looking at ebay now to see if this is something I can do too. I'm sure it took weeks to do, just to keep the fumes down!

    By the way, where do you store all these sticks? Right now I stack my nail wheels, but this system looks like it would take up more space.

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  2. Super idea! And wowow well done to your mum for having the patience to sort it all out! =]

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  3. Cool idea! Looks awesome :)

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  4. Great idea!! I'm still new to polish [well in terms that I still have under 100 polishes] - I wonder if I should start something like this now rather than later *thinks*

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  5. I am super impressed and polish ogling jealous of your collection

    I am curious, how many dupes did your mom find while trying to sort out colours?

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  6. Wow!!!
    You have alot of holos !!
    I love it by color like that!
    Which polish is the last picture please?

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  7. This is such a fantastic idea! These sticks make so much more sense than the wheels. You have a gorgeous collection :)

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  8. I am going to borrow this idea, amazing!
    Can you add a link to the eBay store you bought them from?

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  9. It's a fantastic idea!

    p.s. I'm jealous of your collection :P

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  10. Wow, amazing!

    Having them displayed so temptingly, let's hope it won´t make the choice of color each time even harder LOL

    BTW Those yellows look so lonely (like mine are too!). Safe to say you have a "cool" taste in nail colors :D

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  11. You have the most amazing collection of nail polishes. I also have these stick and find I have to re-drill the holes in the holders as the sticks don't always fit in. Lovely collection, wish they were all mine - hee hee!!

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  12. Wow - so many comments already! Thank you. For the ladies that asked questions:

    stickles - where do I store them - atm as a center piece to the dining table. But hubby will be expecting them to move to the cupboards under the display cabinet soon. But yes, displayed like this they take up a fair bit of room.

    jaded_imp - Amazingly the only dupes mum found were ones I already knew of, such as Ozotics and Artforms. There were lots very similar, but a nail polish junkie could tell them apart!

    rock-or-not - that last polish is a black holo that I just whipped up this afternoon with spectraflair. I will post it soon.

    Melinda Stella - I added an edit with the ebay seller details.

    Doo - Good pick up, yes, it is a very 'cool' collection. Those poor yellows, we couldn't find them any friends.

    jazzqueen64 - shame you had to re-drill your holes. Mine were all perfect. I ordered 10 sets, so out of 640 I found one tip broken and one cracked. I glued the broken one and just left the cracked one. Interestingly they counted perfect for the sticks, I got 640, not one more or less!

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  13. This is so wonderful, I'm speechless. And a bit jealous, I admit :)
    But why are there only three yellows there? Don't you like yellow? I think it looks cool in the summer when a person gets darker tan and then it's really noticeable.

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  14. Fantastic idea and thank you for sharing! That's the sort of thing right up my alley. After all, I used have all my old music CD's sorted alphabetically ;) LOL

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  15. Stickers - I know, I can't believe I only have those three yellow cremes. I have heaps of golds though, and some of them are quite yellow. That's another reason why doing this was so fun, I was easily able to see where the colour gaps are in my stash! Totally agree about a tan and a yellow polish!

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  16. This is a great idea - way better than using nail wheels I think! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. That's just an amazing idea! Nice work! :)

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  18. Wow..I thought my 250-ish swatches was impressive, but this is just.... epic!
    I also love the whole nail stick system! I swatched mine on nail wheels, and am now wondering where I will put the new polishes.

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  19. This is amazing! good work!

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  20. Your organization blows my mind, haha! This is great!

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  21. That holographic one, almost all the way to the left, in the nude/brown collection is amazing! what is that?!?!

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  22. I knew I should have bought nail sticks when I was on ebay earlier this week!! Oh well, I move too much as a student anyway to have a decent organization system. Your collection is awesome!

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  23. Oooooo!!! You have some really nice polishes and what a great way to organize them! I have a spreadsheet that corresponds with my nails wheels. Defnitely not foolproof organization, but I like my polishes organized by brand and collection rather than color. If I have a specific shade in mind, I grab my spreadsheet and nail wheels.

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  24. This is simply awesome! I might need me to get some of these, for practising nail art on..

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  25. Haha actually, I just went and bought it :p

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  26. I have been looking at this system for a while! Looks like a great way to organize the polishes!

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  27. if we remove it with nail polish remover this transparent nails turns into white, it happened to me i have nail wheel (clear acrylic nail wheel) , i want to know does it happen to all wheels ??

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  28. wow, thats great!...i wish i had that collection once... :D

    Marta

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  29. Oh my gosh, I wish I had seen this post about a month ago! This is what I've been doing - the very cheap version of what you're doing... http://www.polishgalore.com/2011/05/what-was-your-name-again.html

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  30. Seriously thinking about scrapping my project completely and getting these. I'm only 10% done with mine cheapy version and yours looks SO much better! Have you noticed any problem with the polish flaking off the nail? Did you seal with a top coat?

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  31. What a great idea omg! This would make life so much easier!

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  32. Thanks everyone for your comments - I can't believe how popular this has been.

    Dani Rage - Second from the left with nothing in front, on the tan colours with pinky hues set, is TTYL from China Glaze OMG collection.

    Naeema - I removed the polish off two sticks. One was a glitter and took a fair bit of acetone to get off, and the stick went slightly translucent and milky. The other was just removing one coat and it came of quickly and cleanly leaving the stick clear.

    Polish Galore - Your idea of the tips on sticks is why I went looking for something like these. I think it would have cost me more in time and effort to do it your way than to buy these sticks. No polishes have chipped off or flaked, and we had them all over the table banging into each other while sorting. I didn't use a top coat on any of them, as I wanted to see the polishes real finish (shiny, matte or satin)

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  33. This is totally awesome! I was waiting on someone to make me smile today...you just did! Thanks!

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  34. Wnat, need, must have. This is so much better than colour wheels. I like being able to have the chance to re-arrange, and with this I can. Thanks for the idea, off to ebay I go. 4ushop777 isn't going to know what''s hit them after this post of yours.

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  35. Seriously?! My idea? I'm honored! I really like yours though - they look so much more professional and I love that you can sort them many different ways! Thank you so much for the information!

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  36. I so totally want to do this as well. I did have a system going for a while where I glued falsies onto popsicle sticks, but sometimes they wouldn't stick, it was harder to label them, and I had no place to store them safely! I think Born Pretty or one of those stores sells these fairly inexpensively as well.

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  37. Omg. It's like you have an army of nail sticks! The OCD in me bows down to worship.

    My system is no where near as good, I rely on memory and all the bottles being stacked by brand, then colour in my drawers.

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  38. OMFG! This looks soooo amazing, a lot better than the nailwheels. I don't have that much polishes, but I was wondering how I could arrange it if I have this much polishes, and this is a way to do it.

    Please, get some friends for your yellow ones, they deserve it not to be alone!

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  39. That. Is. Awesome!!!!!

    Seriously, you are amazing!! I love the idea of the spreadsheet with the numbers so you can match polishes to your outfits!

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  40. That's freaking AWESOME! By the way, I am your new follower!

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  41. Bloody amazing, and definitely something I'm considering doing ! Loving the fact you put just numbers on them, and the rest on a spreadsheet INCLUDING number of coats ! Genius :D

    Would you ever consider doing a post, like reds for their own and naming them ?? I've seen some gorgeous blues up there which are to die for <3

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  42. Hahhaa I wish I had that many nail polishes. But I don't. YET! So I don't need this system. I have done a few color wheels. But this looks awesome. I'll keep it in mind if my collection ever grows this big.

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  43. imfeelingnail-venturous - Welcome, I love new followers that come for the posts, not just for giveaways! Thank you for following.

    AdmiralBiatch - That is a seriously awesome idea, doing posts about each tray listing the colours (and linking to swatch posts if I've swatched them) I will totally do that.

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  44. Wow, this is super impressive! What a great resource for you to have :)

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  45. this is epicaly brilliant. amazing organization :)

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  46. Hi, I'm Hazelle. =)

    I am totally wowed! You seem to enjoy what you do a lot by being able to do all these! Awesome!

    We, on our site, NaildeRoyale.com, has the passion of promoting beauty and sharing the essence of having high quality products especially nail products and nail art. It will be a great honor if you will consider adding our link to your website.

    Here’s our site’s link:
    NaildeRoyale.com

    Please let me know if considering our link interests you. I’d be glad to mail you couple nail art products from our website.
    Thanks and keep up the great work!

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  47. I got my first 64 painted in one night... it took me 3 weeks to create and paint my first 100 doing it on toothpicks. Thank you so much!

    (And side note to Hazelle - you had emailed me about NaildeRoyale, I responded and then you forwarded me your original email... so I forwarded my original reply. Apparently spam filters hate me)

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  48. OMG!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE your collection!! thank you for posting. i love to see people's collections, but man, this is just too beautiful and stunning for words. bravo!

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  49. Thanks for sharing such a great idea! I just ordered (2) sets of the "Nail Art Tips & Display Stand" from Ebay so I can catalog & show all my nail polishes. I can't wait for them to arrive.

    I'm also going to try the Dry Water Art technique you created...think that I might be able to do that. Will give it a try over the next week or so. If it comes out well I'll probably do a blog post about it. Thanks for the wonderful ideas and tips!

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About Me

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I live in Canberra, Australia with my husband, Mr Ten and Miss Eight. My blog is all about nail polish, and a few other bits in between. You can contact me at morenailpolish@iinet.net.au