Polish Organizing (and stuff)

So I finally opened my polish racks today (that came in August 2nd) and one was smashed on 2 shelves.  :(  I'm working with UPS and the seller to fix this because at $70 a piece, this is no bueno.  I may be able to use super glue?  But I'd much rather not.  I've already been talking to my Dad (who is still in the hospital) about building a table for my polish racks but he wants to make a whole elaborate piece of furniture on wheels... oh geez.  So for now, they are all sitting on my dining room table.

Oy.  I'm also still in painting, so that's why my "white" wall is actually two toned (paint and primer).


I think I'm going to organize by brand and then by color.  I really like having them all by color because then I can look at dupes but I like having them by brand because the bottle sizes all line up.  I'm weird, I know it.


Here's the current list of my polishes (also available on my sidebar) - listed are how many bottles of that brand and then the brand.  I don't have my base/top/matte coats listed except for ManGlaze, but eventually I'm going to do those too.

Number/Brand

2       10

2       A Beautiful Life

3       American Apparel

6       Barielle

6       Bon Bons

1       Borghese

1       Chanel

41     Cheeky Monkey Cosmetics

225   China Glaze

7       Claire's

8       CND

6       Color Club

2       Confetti

2       Cover Girl

4       Dusty Round

1       Dusty Square

37     e.l.f.

5       Essie

2       FingerPaints

2       Hot Topic

1       Illamasqua

5       Jolly Rancher

2       Loreal Paris

1       Love My Nails

2       M.A.C.

4       ManGlaze

3       Milani

1       N.Y.C.

1       Natural Glow

18     Naughty Nailz

1       Nfu-Oh

22     OPI

3       OPI (Nicole)

8       OPI (Sephora)

3       Orly

1       Piggy Paint

6       Piggy Polish

4       Pure Ice

1       Rescue Beauty Lounge

1       Sally Girl

23     Sally Hansen

4       Savvy

5       Sinful Colors

2       Spa Ritual

2       Sula

14     Urban Decay

12     Wet n Wild

51     Zoya

And with China Glaze coming out with a whole 12 piece set for Christmas and then 12 pieces in the Spring with Anchors Away, well - let's say I'm going polish nuts.  I'm also really wanting to get some Nubars and Nfu-Ohs but my wallet is begging me to wait.  I'm supposed to close on my house tomorrow (it was supposed to be today), but things have been crazy.  Thanks for reading and I'm looking to get some swatches done now that I have my polish out again!

Blogs of Note

Starting off my series of "Blogs of Note" - blogs that I follow either because I found them, I know the author, or whatever crazy reason I have.


Today's Blog of Note is my friend Chele whom I met through work (kinda).  She's literally JUST starting out, but she's been a big supporter of mine, so please, do check her out at Polished & Frosted.


I'm hoping to make this a weekly post - possibly on Fridays?  Any suggestions (or even suggestions for your blog) feel free to either leave in the Comments section or email me at krystal@polishgalore.com 

A Little Ramble

I don't have a nail polish swatch today (sorry!) but I have a bit of news.  My Dad is still in the hospital after finding a very bad infection in his big toe (yeah, he's diabetic) and he's having surgery later today to try and scrape all the infection out.  It's been an emotional roller coaster, but we're survivors.


On a totally different (happy) note, I got all my polish racks in!  However, I'm having the hardest time figuring out (a) where to put them and (b) how to organize my polish.  Because things are kinda up in the air at the moment, I'm kind of thinking about putting all 5 racks on my dining room table (since I haven't used it yet), and organizing the polish by brand first, then by color.  My Mom wanted to paint her toenails today and grabbed Zoya Posh, not knowing that it was a matte or that it was more pink than maroon (to her).  I had painted my toes with A Beautiful Life Hot Rod, and it's probably the first time I've painted my own toe nails in well over a year... while I don't go for manicures, I do adore pedicures.  


I have another post coming up on Beauty Debutante soon involving a self tanner and soon I will have skin care related posts as well.  I'll be sure to link you because I'm really excited about beauty blogging as well.  


I read a LOT of blogs, and so I would like to start sharing some of them with you each week.  I think I follow about 167 blogs at this point and not all are nail polish related.  Is that something you'd be interested in?


I got myself a small mini haul of OPIs from the website that I bought my polish racks from, and there is an Ulta opening "sometime this fall" in the next big town over (about 30~ miles northwest) so I'm excited to check that out.  I also have the Zoya Wicked/Wonderful collection and this scandalous bunch of polishes from Naughty Nailz coming up soon too.  My nails are still in need of some TLC - I have to be honest, I'm happy with my Dermelect Launchpad... I thought I broke my nail the other night but nope, it was intact and I was shocked.  It has lived up to being a nail strengthener.


As soon as I hit 500 readers (I'm currently at 466), I'm going to be holding a sponsored giveaway from China Glaze, and today I got a bonus prize in the mail.  In June, I was apart of the HBO True Blood Ultimate Fan Experience and got to represent San Antonio, Texas as the Sheriff.  Today, I got my "thank you" gift which was season 2 of True Blood on DVD... I'm going to be like a Maker (get the reference?) and gift it to someone because I bought the discs on Blu-Ray on pre-order about 6 months before it was available.  Unfortunately, it is a region 1 copy so that has to go to someone in the USA (and maybe Canada?).  I'll find out more later.


Well dear friends, I'm going to go finish my DVR list of shows - I'm absolutely in love with the concept of DVR.  I have about 3 or 4 more hours that I'd like to watch before I call it a night (hah), but tomorrow I plan to get that polish organized and get some swatching done!  Thanks for reading my ramble!

10 Spring Awakening

While I was at CVS the other day, I found this brand called "10" which is pretty inexpensive (under $5) and had a lot of cremes that I figured could be dupes for several colors that I'm lemming (wishing for).  I accidentally photographed the top and not the name, but this one is called Spring Awakening.  10 is big 3 free and states that it has "micro matrix technology pairs breathability with durable, chip resistant protection, no streak, no smudge formula with a high shine UVA protection to resist fading."  Breathability?  Really?  That's not even a word!  Anyway.


This bottle is tall and tall bottles mean tall brushes.  I was kinda of scared that I was going to tip this bottle over the entire time.  I used Dermelect Launchpad, two coats of Spring Awakening and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The formula was horrid.  It pooled into my cuticles and was rather runny.

I tried to clean up my cuticles as much as possible but you can see it in my pointer finger and the pinkie was pretty bad too.

Slightly darker looking in the shade.  Overall it's a pretty color but just a bad formula.  I don't think I'll be purchasing many more of these unless I'm hit by sheer curiosity.


10 can be purchased at CVS/pharmacy.

A Beautiful Life Soy Nail Polish Remover

I was also sent A Beautiful Life's own soy nail polish remover.  It's big 3 free, soy based and non-toxic, safe for kids, recyclable packaging, gentle and effective and has a mild scent of grapefruit.  The smell was very faint for me but it was different from the smell of acetone for sure.


The top of this bottle is a small screw top which I wasn't sure if it was just a gaping hole or what, but nope, it's a little squeeze bottle that you can either let drip onto your cotton ball/pad, or squeeze the plastic bottle to get it on the cotton ball/pad.

I prefer cotton rounds, so I squeezed a little bit out onto my cotton round.

It looks a little oily from here and being soy based, there is a bit of an oil like residue that is left on your hands.  Not sure if you can tell that my nail and cuticle looks shiny here.

Now, the bottle states to wash your hands thoroughly after using, which I did and really felt like I had to because I'm not into having oily hands - I'm used to Zoya Remove+.  It did take a little rubbing for me to get my polish off my nails - it wasn't like a glitter scrubbing procedure but it wasn't a quick swipe either.  It was nice to have an alternative to acetone, especially when I'm trying to swatch several polishes in a day.  Like I need dry(er) cuticles at this point!  ^_^  Overall, I'm pleased with A Beautiful Life.  While the polish and remover is more than I pay for typically, this also has the all natural products in it, which is important.

A Beautiful Life soy polish remover is available on their website [official store] for $20 a bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.