My Nail Polish Stash and Storage Video (and Lots of Pictures!)

I've spent a couple of days re-organising my nail polish storage and creating a spreadsheet, so I know exactly where every single one of them are, so I though I would show you the fruit of my hard work. Also I enjoy looking at other people's stashes, so hope you enjoy it too.



I have also taken pictures of the contents of each box and separate packs, so if you're interested, have a look! No individual pictures, but I did do a rather extensive series on my nail polish stash last November, so click here if you'd like to check it out.

See lots more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Bourjois 1 Seconde Nail Polish in Rainbow Apparition

Once again I got sucked into buying another rainbow glitter nail polish. I'm like a magpie, love myself some glitter and rainbow colours. I used Bourjois Rainbow Apparition on top of 2 coats of Orly Sugar Plum (although I can't remember if I used one or two coats of Rainbow Apparition, sorry).

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

Rainbow Apparition is such a pretty polish, it has loads of holographic glitter that shimmer in all colours of the rainbow. It's supposed to be a 1 second nail polish, ie should take one second to apply due to the wide fan brush. I don't like claims like that, nothing takes one second in my opinion, but apart from that it's a lovely top coat with a nice formula and the brush is indeed very handy.

It lasted brilliantly on me, 3 days with hardly any chipping. I didn't have any chips at all in the first 24 hours, and only a couple of small ones later on. Very impressed.What annoys me though is that the bottle is so tall due to the long thin cap, it doesn't fit into my storage boxes standing up. No need for that in my opinion, 2 cm shorter would be just fine.

Bourjois 1 Seconde Nail Polishes cost £5.99 and available from Boots, Superdrug, etc. Orly Sugar Plum was a PR sample, but retails at £7.50 on BeautyBay.

See more pictures after the jump!

Want It: Orly Flash Glam FX Collection for Summer 2012

I have been on a massive nail polish kick lately and have bought probably over 100 polishes. I've actually got into the habit of painting my nails every 2-3 days, so I am slowly getting through them, but probably will take another 6 months or so to use every new nail polish I've bought. Regardless, I have spotted a new Orly collection of 22 glitter top coats (plus a black nail polish) that I really love and will be buying a good few from.

The collection contains 22 glitter top coats in different coloured and shaped glitters, there are holographic, bar shaped and round glitter in varying sizes:

• Ultraviolet
• Right Amount of Evil
• Spazmatic
• Cupcakes and Unicorns
• R.I.P.
• Atomic Splash
• Watch It Glitter
• Embrace
• Monster Mash
• Go Deeper
• It’s a Meteor
• Ridiculously Regal
• So Go-Diva
• It’s Electric
• Be Brave
• Too Fab
• Holy! Holo!
• Sunglasses at Night
• Mermaid Tale
• Can’t be Tamed
• Rocket’s Red Glare
• Sashay My Way

Based on the official information and the swatches I've seen so far, I want Cupcakes And Unicorns, Be Brave, Sunglasses At Night, Holy Holo!, Sashay My Way, and maybe Ultraviolet. For now anyway.

They are $10 each on the Orly website and I have found a UK stockist who is going to sell them for £8.29 each (they're due to be launched mid-August), but I have also found a seller on eBay who has them for $6.25 plus shipping which makes one bottle cost £6.88 or less if you order more than one. One bottle contains a massive 18 ml, so it's great value for money. 

See more details after the jump!

NOTD: Orly Synchro Nail Polish

I love duochrome nail polish and was really excited about Synchro nail polish from Orly's Electronica collection. It's a very unique shade, looks amazing in the bottle and the duochromeness also transfers onto the nails. It looks pink with blue flashes (the blue especially shows up well with flash), but also it has orangey-red tones to it at certain angles. A little hard to capture it properly, but you get the idea.

Taken with flash

The formula was a little runny and it needed 3 coats to achieve the colour you see. It wasn't very easy to apply and as you can see the brushstrokes are very visible on my nails. It also didn't dry very quickly, and it started chipping within the first 24 hours and by 48 hours I had some big chips. I always have to add that practically everything chips on me within 48 hours (I think one or two brands have lasted maybe 60 hours without chipping, but that's the exception). It's a very unique colour though, so if you don't mind a few flaws, you might like this.

You get a whopping 18 ml for £7.50 (BeautyBay) or for quite a bit less on eBay from the US. Not sure if anyone needs that much, but there's also a set of 4 mini polishes available from BeautyBay for £12.95 if you prefer.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Orly Sugar Plum

This is the third and last shade I was sent for review and to me out of the three this is possibly the least interesting. (If you missed them, here are the reviews for the other two: Gorgeous and Rock Candy.) There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just nothing special. It's a frosty pink shade with shimmer, although it is very pretty. This is also a permanent shade.

Taken with flash

Formula-wise it was fine, runny enough to apply easily and it dried pretty quickly. I did 3 coats to achieve full opacity, but I think 2 would be fine if you're in a hurry. Wasn't overly long-lasting, chipped on day 2 as so many other polishes do on me.

You get a whopping 18 ml for your money and in the UK it costs £7.50 from BeautyBay or you can buy it from eBay for even a bit less (I've seen it for under £6 including shipping).

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Orly Rock Candy

Here's another Orly nail polish I was sent for review, this shade is called Rock Candy. This is an iridescent sheer blue polish with a shimmer finish. It's not just blue, it flashes pink and purple depending how the light hits it. Very pretty.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

This is actually very much the kind of nail polish I used to wear years ago before I learned about all the amazing brands and colours, so I guess for me this would not be one I'd choose nowadays, but it is certainly lovely and very office friendly and would look lovely even on a bride. As I said this polish is pretty sheer, so it took 3 layers to build up and even then it wasn't opaque, but with this kind of colour I don't think you need that anyway.

A lovely formula, a bit runny, but equally it dried really quickly, and it lasted pretty well by my standards, it wore for 2 days without much chipping.

You get a whopping 18 ml for your money and in the UK it costs £7.50 from BeautyBay or you can buy it from eBay for even a bit less (I've seen it for under £6 includign shipping).

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Orly Gorgeous

I only own a few Orly nail polishes (from the Cosmic FX collection), so I jumped to the opportunity when I was asked if I could be sent a few Orly nail polishes for review. This is the first one: Gorgeous. I believe this is part of Orly's permanent collection, and this shade is exactly what it name suggests: gorgeous. A vibrant fuchsia-pink with beautiful blue/purple duochrome and shimmer. 

The formula is pretty nice, it's quite runny, but not overly so. It's a bit sheer, what you see in the pictures is two layers, but it could've benefited from three layers to be honest. It did dry quickly (with Seche Vite), however didn't last very long at all. It started chipping on me after about 24 hours, which isn't too unusual for me, but having said that some other polishes last for 2-3 days without chipping.

All in all, this is a lovely shade and a nice nail polish. In the UK Orly polishes are a lot more expensive than in the US (as usual), you can get them for £9.25 from Lookfantastic (although I can't find this particular shade there) or £7.50 from BeautyBay and you get a whopping 18 ml for your money.  You can also buy 5 ml mini bottles from Boots if you prefer, alternatively there's eBay, my old friend. I have seen it for under £6 including postage from the US.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Ever Growing Nail Polish Collection Part 1 - OPI, China Glaze, Orly, Mavala

I had some requests to show off my nail polish collection, so here it is. I'm going to do it in 3 parts because I have a lot of nail polishes, so make sure you check out part 2 and part 3 as well!

Some of my nail polish stash

Would you believe it that just a couple of years ago all the nail polish I owned fitted into this box?

Wanna see what's inside? A bit boring really, but here you go:

A bit samey, all pastels and hardly any colour. I just wasn't into nail polish, mainly because my nails are really thin and bendy, so nail polish chips off within a matter of days, and I couldn't be bothered to repaint them all the time, so I just used barely there shades. What's changed? I realised that there were some really gorgeous nail polishes out there from brands I'd never heard of! I also realised that nail polishes come in seasonal collections like make up, which of course made me buy even more so I don't miss out. And suddenly I don't mind painting my nails every 2-3 days. At the last count I had 130 nail polishes, which is really crazy, especially as some (most of them are large 15 ml sizes). I will now have to stop buying them and be sure to use them all, although that will certainly take a while. I'd say about 75% of the nail polish I own has not been used yet, so I'd better get cracking!

Without further ado, here are the detailed pictures. I haven't put the shade names down simply because it would take too long, but if you have any questions, just ask in the comments! Enjoy!

Do you crackle?

I was probably the only person in the blogosphere that wasn't at all excited about Barry M's black crackle top coat when it first came out, and the subsequent versions by different brands, but I have finally given in and bought my first crackle top coat: Nail Xtras Crackle Top Coat by 17 (Boots's own brand). I still don't like the black top coat, but I thought I'd try out this metallic light gold version and see for myself what the fuss is all about.

To be perfectly honest, I'm still not that keen. I don't know why, when my 6 and 9-year-old daughters think my nails look really cool, I just don't see it. I have now tried it with 3 different nail polishes and have found one combo that I quite like, but I don't think I will be buying it in any other colour. Actually there aren't any other colours of the 17 version, but I believe that Models Own are coming out with their own range pretty soon, and so are some other brands. Back to this one though, formulawise it is a pretty nice nail polish, just the right consistency, applies nicely and cracks very quickly. You will see from the pictures below that the patterns are very fascinating. It costs £3.99 for 10 ml and is available Boots. 

See more pictures and find out which one was my favourite combo after the jump!

NOTD: Orly Lunar Eclipse nail polish

I first heard about Orly nail polishes when details of the upcoming Mac Disney Venomous Villains collection details emerged (Orly Galaxy Girl and Space Cadet being dupes for Mac Formidable! and Mean & Green nail polishes), so that just shows you how much I'm not into nail polishes. The problem with my nails is that they're very soft and bendy, so most nail polishes chip and peel off within 48 hours. So after a while I would just give up and not bother with painting my nails, especially since I also didn't know about Seche Vite, so it took forever for my nails to dry which is not very doable when you're a mum of 3 young children. Nail polish still chips on my nails within 1-2 days, but at least painting them again isn't as time consuming anymore. Unfortunately since I hardly ever paint my nails, I'm also pretty rubbish at it, especially when it comes to my right hand (I cannot do anything with my left hand, it's pretty rubbish, wish I was ambidextrous).

Anyway, I have ordered a few Orly nail polishes and today I am sporting Lunar Eclipse. It's part of the Cosmic FX collection (the one that also includes Galaxy Girl and Space Cadet), and I believe it's limited edition. Unfortunately my camera isn't very good, so what you can't see in the pictures is the beautiful purple sheen. Not so noticable on my nails, but gorgeous in the bottle. The blue is amazing, so sparkly and pretty, really gorgeous. Not too dark, not too bright, just right.

I did find that the polish was a bit on the runny side and it needed 2-3 coats to look even, which it still isn't in a few places, but that's probably down to my clumsiness. Unfortunately it also peeled off my nails more quickly than usual, I painted them last night at 8 pm, the pictures were taken at 10 am this morning and by 4 am I had 2 big chips and several small ones. With a colour like this, you can't walk around with chipped nails, something which I used to do when using light pink / pearly white nail polish in the past as I couldn't be bothered to do my nails every 2 days. Luckily you get 18 ml in the bottle, so plenty to go around. I don't think I will ever use it up to be honest, half the size would do me just fine.

Have you tried Orly nail polishes? What do you think of them?

See more photos after the jump!