Nail polish stash

~ stashy

All right, here’s the stash that started it all.  If it wasn’t for my growing nail polish collection, I would have never tracked any of my makeup in a spreadsheet. And out of everything I hoard, I would say that buying nail polish is the most compulsive for me.  They’re just so much fun!  No guilt. No commitment. And nail polishes don’t go “bad” per se – they can ALL be revived with thinner even if they thicken over time.  The oldest polishes in my collection are from the 90’s!  I’ve done a lot of purging over the years of duplicate shades or formulas that I don’t care for.  My current collection stands at 498 but if I count all of the ones I’ve given away (yes I track those too so I don’t repurchase by accident), the number would be closer to 570.

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I keep them sorted by colour in clear airtight bins.
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The larger bin measures approx 12″ x 8″ x 4″ and the smaller one is an inch shorter.
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Overhead view of a bin – one bin holds approx 60 nail polishes
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I have a few smaller bins for random colours.

I know a lot of nail polish “enthusiasts” store their nail polishes in the Ikea Helmer, but I prefer keeping them in airtight containers.  They’re more portable and keep the nail polishes fresher for longer.  I also own a couple of small clear acrylic wall racks (a beauty supply store was selling their old displays for cheap) – I got them in order to display my more frequently used nail polishes but right now I don’t have the space to hang them up.

Here is a tiny – TINY – sampling of each colour family:

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Nude, white, sheer (work appropriate shades)
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Pink, coral, orange
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Red, berry shades
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Purple, grey and deep vampy shades
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Taupe, beige, greige
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Blue, green
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Untrieds, oh so many Untrieds…
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More Untrieds: Illamasqua, BECCA and Marc Jacobs still in their boxes
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Oldies: the oldest polish I own is from Cover Girl (Cherry Brandy, on the left), and it still applies like a dream!  The others are from the 90’s

To appease the nerd in me, here are some quick stats of my nail polish stash:

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Quantity I own in each colour family
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Quantity by finish

Top 10 brands in my collection, by quantity:
•  Essie (73)
•  Illamasqua (47)
•  Color Club (44)
•  Avon (20)
•  China Glaze (20)
•  OPI (18)
•  Revlon (17)
•  Orly (14)
•  Deborah Lippmann (12)
•  nails inc (10)

It’s funny, as much as I own, I still think there are gaps in my nail polish collection. I’m not really into large glitters or crazy colours… but I feel like I don’t have enough bright pink or green shades – am I nuts?

What’s your nail polish stash like?

27 thoughts on “Nail polish stash”

        1. Maybe not a minute, but the Poshe fast dry top coat is very good – I can go about doing normal stuff after about 5 minutes! And you can apply it on top of still wet polish (that’s actually how it’s meant to work) Give it a try!

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  4. Pingback: Untrieds: Illamasqua Poke nail polish | stash matters

  5. All of your untried shades !!!! Omggg so jealous ! You’re collection is bomb 😍😍😍😍😍 you have tons of berry shades !!!! One of my all time favorite colors are berries and vampy shades! I wish I had your collection 😍So.many.options. 😍

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  6. I notice you have MANY boring beiges in your collection 😛
    I used to LOVE the CG NailSlicks polishes, as well as those caboodles polishes! ALSO. Maybelline used to have SO many different lines of polishes, what happened to that, now all they really have in Canada at least are the color show ones >.<

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    1. Glad to know that I’m not the only one who doesn’t much care for the Color Show polishes? I did, however, find a really nice mannequin nail shade from one of the LE collections so I hoarded 3 bottles of those. But overall, the range leaves me underwhelmed.
      The Caboodles polish handle was a PITA to hold though – looks nice but not useful!
      I’ve gotten rid of so many old polishes – part of me wishes I’d kept some, ah well. I’ll just have to check out all the TBT from fivezero! 😛

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      1. Yeah I am not a fan of the Maybelline CS line, I just look past them, I have a couple for the sake of having them (mainly LE as well), but I never go out of my way for them.

        Yeah caboodles was not practical for application whatsoever haha

        You gotta keep the vintage nail polishes, it’s a thing! But we’ll live vicariously through fiverzero’s throwbacks haha

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  7. OMG. This is dreamy to me. I have a SEVERE nail polish addiction. I’m at over 250 polishes of every brand under the sun. Chanel polishes are a particular weekness…which I hate, as they are now $35 a pop (taxes included). UGH.

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    1. Since last year, my nail polish collection is exploded… it’s a mess too. I really need to buckle down and declutter and re-organize. I likely need to buy more bins… 😳

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