Boyfriend picked out my nail polish.

Boyfriend picked out my nail polish. Now let's see if I still got my nail art skills.

Between last night and today...

Between last night and today I swatched all of my burnishing powders that are used with gel polish. I swatched them over both black and white polish because they look dramatically different depending on the base over which you put them. I have ~50 powders, so x 2 colors, that's ~100 swatches. 😳

This wasn't a huge "need to get it done" type of task, but I rarely use my powders because I didn't have an easy way to see what they would look like. The powders usually come in little pots with an eye-shadow type brush to apply them, and those two things usually come in a small bag so they stay together. At one point I'd starting swatching them on an old nail wheel and snapping off the nails to go in the bag, but the bags weren't always clear and the nails would sometimes be turned around where you couldn't see them. And if I ever wanted to take the nails out to compare one powder to another, there was always the risk of getting things mixed up. It just wasn't effective.

You would think that in the years I've been messing with nail polish that somewhere along the way I'd have finally started using swatch sticks with labels, and you'd be wrong. That is a thing I started doing literally YESTERDAY. But it makes so much sense and it's so much easier to compare colors without worrying about getting things mixed up. I'd love to eventually swatch my whole nail polish collection, but that's not a task I'll be starting anytime soon. 😅

Anyway, this is my drawer of powders, and my swatches over both black and white, with and without flash. Now that that's all organized and lovely and satisfying I have no reason not to use my powders and I'm pretty excited about that.

This is the state of my nail stuff currently:

This is the state of my nail stuff currently:

The stack of drawers to the left contains things like files, gel tools, fake nails for swatching, magnets for the polish, different kinds of tape for nail art, brushes, etc.

The 12 helmers in the middle contain my polish. I have 3 empty drawers at the moment, and that is with all of my polish in there. My polish is a mess; it's sorted into drawers by color, with things like magnetic and multichrome and topper polishes (mostly) separated. The drawers are just in there every which way at the moment. I do plan to re-sort by color and arrange the drawers better, but it's a process since I have the physical storage of my polish to contend with as well as the digital storage for my database (swatches, color descriptions, collection, event, release date, which drawer it's in, etc). According to my database, I have a little over 4,200 polishes.

On the right, those drawers contain things like my gel lamp, my chemicals, my stones, studs, and other small embellishments, as well as powders (the kind you buff into gel), my hard gels, and my stamping polish.

Not pictured:  My binders of stamping plates and my binder of decals, vinyls, and stickers.

I've been hyper-focused on my database...

I've been hyper-focused on my database rather than sitting down and writing out my feelings.  I'm in the zone on a project that I've wanted to finish for years and I finally feel like I have the mental space and energy to do it.  My sweet husbang has put up with me getting off work, getting on my personal laptop, and half-ass watching our shows or whatever we're doing because my brain is just busy.

Nail polish these days. 🤯

Nail polish these days. 🤯 I am not good at writing descriptions, but this darker one is definitely AT LEAST a holographic multichrome with reflective glitter. These two photos are of the same polish - the only difference is that one photo was taken with flash and the other was not.

That blue jumping out is the reflective glitter, and it's going to be CRAZY on the nail in bright light. I opened the package it was in just now and it stopped. me. in. my. tracks.

Edited to add in this green; it's magnetic with reflective glitter.  Not my swatches; they are by Christian Gillespie, but I just want to spew a bunch of cursewords because it's so pretty.  It also came today with the other one pictured.

The things that independent makers have done with nail polish over the years have never ceased to amaze me. I can't wait to see what they come up with next. 🤩

If you have nothing more fun or interesting to do...

If you have nothing more fun or interesting to do this fine Friday evening, feel free to browse through my nail polish swatch folder. According to my spreadsheet I have around 4000 nail polishes, so this is far from all of them. I'm hoping to finish gathering swatches, descriptions, and collection names over the next few months, so the folders and photos found at this link will be updating while that happens.

The folders that are most complete are Bee's Knees and Tonic. Sadly, they are both on hiatus for now, but they make up some of the largest numbers in my collection and if you look at them you'll definitely see why. They made some beauties.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1FdO7iQBsyidgnZNggHySOs4xIOsCyG

I don't know how many of you have a bunch of small things to sort through, but...

I don't know how many of you have a bunch of small things to sort through, but with my nail art collection I have a good bit of stuff. A couple of years ago I thought I'd make an app for storing nail stamping plates, but then I found the "Color My Life" app and changed my mind. "Color My Life is a mobile cataloging app designed exclusively for Paper Crafters." It's not meant for me, but it actually works quite well.

I have all of my stamping plates stored in there, as well as stickers, vinyls, nail wraps, water slide decals, etc. It has space for photos and brands and barcodes, as well as a field for listing where you stored your items. You can tag things by color and search by pretty much anything. I should probably give in and use this for my nail polish, but I've been too invested in making my own database to give that up. 😂 I'm nothing if not stubborn.

I thought I'd share this piece of my nail art organization for any of you who might be interested. I've got more Helmers on the way so it'll be a bit yet before I get my actual polish straightened out. That is a much bigger job. 😂😂😂

Today Shaun and I built 7 Helmers from Ikea.

Today Shaun and I built 7 Helmers from Ikea. Then we moved 58 small totes of nail polish downstairs. I got 36 of those totes put away into the Helmers. The rest of the polish is sorted by brand (easier to put into my database) rather than color (how the rest of my polish is sorted), so it's slower going putting those other 22 totes away. And I think I'm going to need a few more Helmers, anyway.

I sure wish I had Janet here to help me sort the colors! 😂❤️

I've decided to move my nail polish downstairs.

I've decided to move my nail polish downstairs.  I have 8 helmers being delivered from Ikea tomorrow.  I'm pretty excited about that.  It'll be a nice way to store my polishes properly (in a dark drawer so they don't fade), so I'm pumped about that.  I spend most of my time downstairs with the animals so it just doesn't make sense to have my hobby put away somewhere that is effort to get to.

Other than that, I've finally got the mental space and energy to think about starting back on my two long-term projects:  my nail polish database and my website.  Those two things were put on pause in August of last year.  I don't know how / when those are going to fit into my life yet, but as I fall into a comfortable routine here I know that the opportunity will present itself.  I'm excited to pick back up on those things and I feel more like myself than I have in a long time at just the thought of it.

I painted my nails the other day.

I painted my nails the other day. There's a lot going on here.

I used a milky white gel base, then applied a unicorn powder on that. Then, since those flake off the tips easily and I type a lot I sponged a sparkly gradient from the free edge. I stamped one nail because OBVIOUSLY I needed to. 😂 If only I had some stones here with me I would have put at least one of those on there, too - right near the cuticle of my ring finger.

But anyway. I had fun and treated myself to something pretty. Got kind of a "gelly sandwich" going on here. I like it. 😃

Research polish;
Research plates;
Stamping and Sponge Gradient techniques