One of my goals this year was to declutter my makeup/beauty product collection and weed out things that I just don’t use anymore.  However if I’m being honest, I’ve been trying to declutter my nail polish collection for over a year now but never been successful.  Instead I just bought more… #logic

It took me quite a few hours to go through it all and sort out what I wanted to keep, what I wanted to give away and what needed to be trashed.  My collection only became this big a few years ago when I suddenly became obsessed with nail polish and would paint my nails every week – and usually buy a new polish every week too.  However, I haven’t been painting my nails much at all lately and when I do, I gravitate towards more neutral colours – I find darker and vibrant colours too much work upfront and to maintain.

Things I learned through this process:

• I’m weirdly attached to my nail polish – probably more so than any other beauty product I own
• I’ve wasted hundreds of dollars on nail polishes I’ve either never used or used once and never again
• I hate the price stickers that Winners puts on their polishes
• Photographing nail polish is hard
• Trying to do flat lays on a hard surface is next to impossible and unbelievably frustrating
• Even after decluttering all of these polishes, my collection is way too big.  My goal is to cut what I’ve decluttered it in half by next year.

Anything that’s going into the trash is either beyond salvageable with lacquer thinner or is dried/used up.  Anything that was still in great working condition was put into my giveaway pile which I hope to distribute amongst family and friends.  Initially I hoped to donate them but there doesn’t seem to be any places here that accept used beauty products – even if they’ve only been used once, although I can understand why.

I had hoped to share my nail polish collection in this post but it just became way too long – so keep an eye out for that sometime next week!

Trash

Basecoats/Topcoats

Left to Right: Revlon – Quick Dry Top Coat; Essie – Feed Me: Essie – Gel Setter; Deborah Lipman Hydrating Hardener

Notes

• I really like the Essie Gel Setter Top Coat but I find it thickens up to the point of being unusable about halfway through the bottle which is kind of annoying.
• I love the Deborah Lippman Hydrating Hardener – I used to use it as a base and top coat!  I wish DL polishes were more accessible here.

Polishes – Mini’s

Left to Right: OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Collection – Get Your Number, The Impossible, Stay the Night, Can’t Let Go; Sally Girl Unknown; Essie – Bikini So Teeny, Essie – Mojito Madness, Sephora Unknown

Notes

• I used one of those Liquid Sand Collection polishes once or twice yet somehow they’ve all become really thick and gloopy.  They’re all really pretty but have a very gritty texture and are a huge pain to remove.
• Essie’s Bikini So Teeny is such a great periwinkle blue for Summer – I will likely buy a full-sized replacement of this.
• Essie’s Mojito Madness is a beautiful lime green polish with a fantastic formula.   I rarely wear green polishes but I’d recommend this one if you do.

Polishes

Left to Right: OPI by Sephora – Indigo Blasted; Sally Hansen Diamond Strength – Sweetie Pie; Julep (no name)

Notes

• Sally Hanson Sweetie Pie is probably my favourite nail polish of all time.  It’s the perfect peachy pink, has a great formula and is long-lasting.  I’ve been unsuccessful trying to find it in-store but Nail Polish Canada sells it (although it’s currently out of stock)  so I might just have to place an order when they get it back in.

Giveaway

Essie

Left to Right: Fiji; Coat Couture; Scarlet O’Hara; Starry Starry Night; Fear or Desire

Notes

• I found the formulas on Fiji and Starry Starry Night horrendous – some of the worst I’ve tried
• Coat Couture was a polish I bought because I saw it on StashMatters blog and fell in love with it.  She said the formula was crap but it looked so pretty I had to test it out for myself. She was right. 🙁
• Fear or Desire on the other hand, has a fantastic formula but I’m not big on orange polishes.

Mixed

Nails Inc. Sugarloaf Sunset; CND Vinylux – Regally Yours; Zoya – Indigo; Deborah Lippmann – Since I Fell for You; Essence Colour & Go – Chic Reloaded;

Notes

• Essence Chic Reloaded is the one and only Essence nail polish I’ve tried – it’s a cool shade but it chips like nobody’s business.
• Zoya Indigo is one of the most disappointing polishes I’ve ever owned.  In the bottle it appears to be the most amazing dark blue with beautiful holographic glitter specks throughout it – it almost resembles a perfect starlit sky.  Applied it just looks like a dark blue and the glitter doesn’t shine through at all.  It’s an okay formula but I was expecting more from it.

Julep & Sally Hansen

Julep: Sasha; Mandy; Unknown, Brooke

SH: Deep Purple; Blue It; White On

Notes

• Julep Sasha and Mandy are great shades and great formulas – but I have almost exact dupes for them in Sally Hansen and I prefer the SH brush.

Revlon & Orly

Revlon: Vixen; Fashionista  Quo by Orly: Twinkle Twinkle; Night Sky;  Orly: ?;

Notes

• Hated those two Revlon polishes – so patchy!
• Twinkle Twinkle is a beautiful metallic pink/silver shade but it looks really off with my skintone.

OPI / Sephora by OPI

Casting Call; Who’s Spinning Tonight; Designer Fig Leaf; No Name; Swimsuit…Nailed It!; The One that Got Away;

Notes

• Designer Fig Leaf has a great formula and is a really pretty olive green but I never wear green polishes

China Glaze

Highlight of My Summer; Turned Up Turquoise; Flip Flop Fantasy; Shut the Front Door; Creative Fantasy; Graffiti Glitter

Notes:
All of these polishes aside from Shut the Front Door and Graffiti Glitter are beautiful colours but have horrible formulas which is why I’m letting them go.

I honestly could not believe how much work this was – I hope to never let my collection get this big again.  In fact, I’ve made a promise to myself to go through it again at the beginning of next year and get rid of anything I haven’t used.

Are you a nail polish junkie like me?  Tell me about your addiction below!