My Polish Collection

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Janelle

For the past few years I’ve had my polishes arranged by color. I have some dupes (and near dupes) and it just made sense to me to keep them next to each other on my nail polish rack. Recently, though, I started to think that it would look nice if the were organized by brand. Then all of the like bottles would be next to each other. Of course the first logical step in my reorganization was to dump all of my polishes onto my living room floor. And that’s what you see here in the above picture.

As I started to sort them, I decided to snap a picture of each brand, and here’s what I found…

I have a huge pile of Wet n Wild polishes. This was probably the first brand of polish I started to accumulate back in my youth. The bottles in the upper left with the white caps are OLD! I’ve got a good mix of permanent and limited edition polishes. They’re all between $1-$3, so it’s kind of a no-brainer to grab an awesome Wet n Wild polish when I see it.

I have a lot of Sinful Colors. I mean, they’re so readily available and there’s only $1.99. They are always on top of color trends. Really, what’s not to love?

Here’s my little Revlon pile. My favorite is on the left: Matte Pearl Glaze. It’s an awesome transformative topcoat for pretty much any polish.

My L’Oreals. Yes, that’s Masked Affair on the left.

My Orly polishes. I really like Orly a lot! Most of the polishes I have are neons or crazy toppers. I think of them as summer polishes.

Look at my sad little Essie collection! Three Silk Watercolors and one other one. I just tend not to splurge on Essie because I hear too many bad things about the formulas. If I can get a great formula in a $2 Wet n Wild, I just don’t want to risk getting a bad formula from a $7 Essie.

And these are my OPI polishes. The only one that I have ever paid full price for was Charmy & Sugar (third polish in the top row). The rest were either given to me or found on clearance. It just pains me to pay $9 for a polish, and they are always exempt from sales and coupons it seems. That makes me grumpy.

Nicole by OPI: OPI’s less snobby sister. The two Modern Family polishes are really stunners!

Fresh paint is available exclusively at Five Below. They tend to be thicker in formula and they’re great for water marbling and stamping. They have such awesome colors! The third polish in the top row is Sugar Crush and it’s a dupe for Essie – Shine of the Times. If I ever see this polish again in a five Below, I am buying a BUNCH of bottles.

Speaking of Five Below, that’s where you also find Funky Fingers. Okay, these polishes are sort of juvenile, but they have such fun bright colors and crazy glitter mixes! Plus, they’re only $2 or 3 for $5!

LA Colors polishes tend to be disappointing. If you’re going to spend $1 on polish, just get a Wet n Wild or a NYC. The only exception is the one in the upper left which is a lilac crelly with a bunch of glitter. It’s tough to find those in mainstream polishes.

I picked up these Finger Paints at Sally Beauty Supply. So sparkly!

The only place that sells Pure Ice that I know of, is Walmart, and I just don’t end up in Walmart that often. If I did, I would probably own more of these.

Broadway Nails are found in either Dollar General or Family Dollar. I swear I can never remember. My favorites are Space Flight (third polish in the top row), an deep blue jelly, and Hot n Sexy (bottom left), which is a dupe for China Glaze – Ruby Pumps.

I first discovered Bonita polish in Francesca’s about 5 years ago when I bought the little bottles. I now usually find them in Rite Aid or Kmart. So affordable and so beautiful! (I’ve actually bought 3 more since I took this picture.)

Yes, I only have two Zoya, both found on clearance at Ulta. They’re both great, though, and I definitely want to add to these!

I’m not sure why I don’t own more Jordana. They have such vibrant colors, and great formulas, and they’re only $2. I need more of these.

I’m a sucker for NYC polishes. Good formula, good colors, really good price. The pink on the bottom right is OLD.

I only own two Milani. The one on the right is a good 10 years old, but I still love it! The one on the left was the first black and white matte glitter polish that I ever saw, and the first time I saw it, my brain almost exploded.

I picked this Nina polish up at Sally awhile ago. The green is less awesome than I thought it was going to be. I bought the blue while I was on the hunt for the most pure and pigmented blue that I could find.

I own three Ulta polishes and they are all in different bottles. What’s up with that? The blue is really beautiful, though.

Spoiled by Wet n Wild used to be available exclusively at CVS. They’ve been discontinued, but most (if not all) of these colors are in the Wet n Wild Megalast bottles and are sold exclusively at Dollar General/Family Dollar. I was sad to see this line of polishes leave CVS, though.

I have a good pile of China Glaze. Most of these were purchased on clearance or on really good sales at either Sally or Ulta. Man, I love so many of these!

Does anyone remember Petites? These polishes are a solid 10 years old. I went through a phase where I loved each of these polishes.

Anyone remember Bon Bons either? Are these still around? Seriously, each bottle has like, four drops of polish in it.

Speaking of teeny tiny bottles, these are Sally Beauty Supply’s brand called Sally Girl. Pretty nice little polishes, actually.

We here in ‘Murica can’t get Joe Fresh polishes, so I picked these up a year or so ago when I was in Canada. Great little polishes! I’m definitely picking up more then next time I visit our neighbors to the north, assuming that they don’t build a wall to keep us out if Trump is elected.

Sally Hansen sure likes their different bottle shapes and various lines, huh? The first three polishes in the top row are OLD. I know for sure I got the teal one in the top left corner when I was in college. I graduated 16 years ago.

I picked up this little pile of polishes when I was in London last year. The one on the left is Seventeen, the next two are Barry M, and the two on the right are Rimmel. I like them all, but I love the Barry M polishes. If/when I get back over there, I’m nabbing more of these!

These polishes are from Old Navy. “Why would anyone buy polish at Old Navy,” you ask? I don’t know either. The metallic pink and gold are both pretty good, though.

These polishes are from Gap. Obviously I’m a sucker for polish, if I bought some from the Gap.

I got these LA Girl Color Pop polishes at Rite Aid. The neon pink on the right is my favorite neon pick of all time.

CQ2 polishes? Yeah, I don’t know either. They’re old.

Mary Kay polish. The one on the left is good as a base for French manicures or negative space manis.

Playboy Polishes…. How and why? It’s a long weird story.

I have two Color Club stripers, but only one color club regular polish! I know, that’s sad! I’m gonna fix that.

This pile of Kiss stuff was given to me. It’s okay, I guess.

Bath and Body Works polishes. I know, it’s just as weird as Old Navy and Gap. Aren’t the little bottles on the right so cute though? These are actually nice polishes, albeit old.

My only two Nails Inc polishes are magnetic and were found in a clearance bin at Marshalls/TJ Maxx/Ross. Those stores are all the same to me.

These Del Sol Polishes change color in the sun, or at least they used to. They are about 5 years old and only about half of them change color anymore. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

This tiny pile is all the indie polishes that I own! I know, it’s sad! I will definitely be adding to this pile over the next year.

These are all of my one-of-a-kind or weirdo polishes. I just threw them all into their own pile.

These are all of my Frankenpolishes. In other words, I mixed up these polish colors on my own…. Mwahahaha!

Here is my pile of empty bottles waiting for some Frankenpolish to happen to them.

And here’s my pile of base and top coats.

Here’s my whole collection after I got them all organized! Aren’t they so pretty?

And now all of my friends and family know exactly what I have in case they need to do some borrowing. I really don’t mind, though. Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments about your collection!

Mannequin Hands… And Then I Added Stuff.

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Janelle

I while back, I went on a quest to find my perfect “mannequin hands” polish. By that I mean a polish that was as close to a perfect match to my skin as I could find. I had heard that Deborah Lippmann had a polish called Naked that was a good match for a lot of people who are fair like me, so I checked it out at Sephora. Yep, it’s a great nude shade that was a really close match to my skin, but you know what? Deborah Lippmann polishes cost $20 and I absolutely refuse to spend $20 on a single polish. Nope, I’m never going to do it. I can’t imagine any possible scenario in which I would spend $20 on a single polish. If I’m spending $20 on polish, you’d better believe that I’m going to be getting like, 10 bottles for that price. Okay, let me get back on track…

So, this one time I was at Kmart and I spotted a color that I had never noticed before from NCY from the In A New York Minute line called Fashion Safari. I did that thing that you’re not supposed to do (even though everyone does it) and opened up the bottle in the store. I had polish on my nails already, so I just brushed a tiny bit of the polish onto the back of my hand and it blended right in! best of all, it cost under $2! I feel bad for the suckers who buy Deborah Lippmann Naked when there’s NYC Fashion Safari in the world. Anyway, here it is with a matte top coat:

Fun, right? My hand really almost looks like a mannequin’s, right? By the way, this is the color I used for the sand colored nails in my Beach Inspired Nail Art. In that tutorial, I actually painted my sister’s nails and her skin is definitely a shade or two darker than mine. It’s a little hard to tell in the picture, but in person, you could definitely see that Fashion Safari was lighter than my sister’s skin. I also used it in my Real Seashell Nails with a pearly color shifting polish over top.

Well, my mannequin hands fascinated me for about 24 hours, and then I decided that I needed to add something to them. I opted for some of the chunky glitter that is Funky Fingers Pep Rally and I ended up with this look:

I didn’t actually just brush the glitter onto my nails. I used a little dotting tool to pick the individual pieces of glitter off the brush and placed them where I wanted them. It’s a little time consuming, but not very hard. I also opted to top them with Sech Vite, since it’s thick enough to smooth out this really chunky glitter.

That’s it for today! As always, thank you for liking, following, and sharing! Come find me on instagram and facebook!

Five Below Haul

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Janelle

I went into a Five Below store. That’s a rarity, because well, I’m a solid 20 years older than their target demographic. I had been in a Five Below a year or so ago, and I had a vague recollection of seeing nail polish there, so when my path crossed a Five Below a few weeks ago, I figured that it might be worth checking out. Was it ever!

Five Below is a chain of stores that specialize in trendy gadgets and accessories and whatnot that appeal to the teen and tween crowd, so not surprisingly, the nail polish they carry is all very young and trendy. They carry two lines of nail polish: Funky Fingers and Fresh Paint. They were all $2 each or 3 for $5, which you could mix and match between the two lines. I ended up with 6 polishes. My little sis was kind enough to let me use her nails for swatching. Here they are:

Fresh Paint: Guava

This is a beautiful neon peach. Although the middle and pinky fingers have a white base underneath, you don’t need it for it to be amazingly bright. The formula is really great and it’s also a dupe for China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy! I had been itching for Flip Flop Fantasy for a few months, but I didn’t want to spend $7. I actually went into a Sally Beauty Supply right after I picked this up and did a little comparison, and yep, they’re identical.

Fresh Paint: Sugar Crush

This is an iridescent topper that pulls primarily orange, but also green, blue and yellow. It’s not really a glitter, but little flakes. We tried it over Guava, white and black. It looked great over Guava! It sort of took Guava from just neon to classy neon. It was not that amazing over white, but it was really fun over black! I’m definitely going to be wearing it over black in the cooler months.

Funky Fingers: Glowstick

This is a neon yellow that leans a little toward the green side of things with a subtle iridescent sheen. Again, the middle and pinky fingers have a white base, which did make this polish a little brighter.

Funky Fingers: Pep Rally

This is a really fun neon glitter with matte blue and pink hexes in different sizes, big green iridescent hexes, small metallic purple hexes, and small orange and purple bar glitter. We swatched this glitter over Glowstick, white and black. It really looked cool over all of those colors! There are a few drawbacks with this polish. The clear base is really thick and a little hard to work with. I think I will end up using the makeup sponge method to apply this glitter. Also, the glitters themselves were pretty thick, so it may take 2 or three layers of a thick top coat like Seche Vite to make the nails smooth.

Funky Fingers: Unicorn Farts

This polish is all medium size metallic hex glitters in pretty much every color. The glitter gives off light is a linear sort of way that gives the glitter the appearance of being curved, but it actually does lay flat on the nail. The clear base is similar to that of Pep Rally, so I think I’m going to end up using the makeup sponge method with this one as well. We tested it over white, black, nude, and green. Actually, with the green I attempted a jelly sandwich, but it got a little thick and goopy because of the thick clear base. This polish is just really fun and shiny and versatile, so I know I’ll get a lot of use out of it.

Funky Fingers: Sand & Stilettos

This polish should be called The Most Sparkly Polish In The World. these pictures just aren’t doing it justice. This is a light purple -almost gray- holographic micro glitter. In the picture, I believe we have 3 coats on bare nail on the first, two coats over white on the middle finger, and two coats over black on the ring finger. The glitter is so dense, that it’s opaque in 3 coats, which is pretty amazing. There are two kinds of holographic glitters: scattered and linear. Scattered reflect all different colors all over the place. Linear reflects a more defined rainbow so that you can actually see bands of color. I really feel this polish is both scattered and linear. You definitely get different colored sparkles all over the nail, but when sunlight hits the bottle of polish, I can see a rainbow, too. I have this color on my toes now and I just feel like my toenails are covered in tiny diamonds. Seriously, it’s the kind of polish that you just can’t stop staring at.

The polishes from this haul are so fun and I feel like they go together really well! I think I could do a ton of different looks only using these 6 polishes. If you follow me in instagram, you may have seen my current doticure using Guava and Sand & Stilettos. They’re so fun together!

Thus concludeth my Five Below haul. I highly recommend that you check out the polishes at Five Below, and if you do, please let me know what you think and what polishes you get!

Sally Hansen Electric Summer Collection

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Janelle

Today in Kmart, I spotted the new limited edition summer collection from Sally Hansen: Electric Summer. Apparently, this collection has been around for several weeks, but I somehow have managed not to see it until today. Anyway, here’s what the display looks like:

Sorry for the quick, crappy picture. While I was in Kmart, a massive thunderstorm was moving toward my house and I had wash on the line, so I was sort of hustling to get out of there.

My first thought (besides how wet my clothes on the line were going to get) was that they are very pretty colors, and it’s a nice change from the neon collections that pretty much every other brand puts out in the summer. My second thought was that some of the colors looked really similar to the colors in the regular Xtreme Wear line. So, I marched my self over to the regular line of polish and did a little comparison.

That’s Kelp Yourself from Electric Summer on the left, and Mint Sorbet on the Right. Mint Sorbet might be a little more yellow, than Kelp Yourself, but I say these are REALLY close.

That’s Wet Suit from Electric summer on the left and Breezy Blue on the right. Wet suit is a little bit darker, but again, these are really close.

That’s Water Orchid from Electric summer on the left and Lacey Lilac on the right. These two aren’t as close of a match as the other two, but they’re not so different either. I just notices something: the Xtream Wear logo is a little different on the Lacey Lilac label than on the other bottles. Must be an old bottle.

Really, Sally Hansen. I think you can be a little more creative next time. If your limited edition collections are going to feature colors that are so similar to colors in your regular line, at least put some shimmer in them, or make them a jelly formula or something.

Ultimately, I didn’t buy any of the Electric summer collection, because I didn’t feel like any of the colors was really new or exciting or unique. If I would have bought any of them, it would have totally been Floaties, the pretty peach color that is second from the right in the display… But I didn’t buy it, so I guess I didn’t love it that much.

Anyway, what do you think of this collection? Have you tried any of the colors?

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Polish Me Snazzy

Tag Archives: dupes

My Polish Collection

Mannequin Hands… And Then I Added Stuff.

Five Below Haul

Sally Hansen Electric Summer Collection

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