2True 'Shade 3'

Recently I've managed to build up quite a few un-tried. What with frivolous polish buying and taking part in a Secret Polish Santa on Instagram, my second Helmer (yes, I now have another) is now brimming.

Here's one I picked up and have been staring at for a few weeks:

This is 2True's 'Shade 3'.

This is two layers of a blue jelly polish jam packed with glitter hexagons. So jam packed in fact...it was quite thick. I some of the hexagons were standing on their sides - that's how thick the consistency was. I had to pat them into place! Stroking this onto the nail was not easy.

I think I may have to add a few drops of polish thinner before wearing this one again. It's really not bad though because this only cost £1.99 (from Superdrug).

Have a good weekend and thanks for reading.

xx

Pictures of my nail polish stash.

On Thursday night I decided to tidy up my Helmer because I couldn't find a thing.  If you aren't familiar with a Helmer, this seems to be a popular nail polish storage choice which can be bought at Ikea. This little cabinet is cute and the drawers are high enough to house tall nail polishes like Revlon's and Peripera's.

I was then left with the question as to whether to organise my polishes in colour order or brand order. I headed to twitter and after the suggestion of one of my lovely tweeps, I decided to organise them by brand...I didn't get as far as putting each brand in colour order because the whole thing took forever.

Click here to see where I was in November 2010 and then laugh heartily.

Click here to see what my Helmer looked like in March 2011.

So, do you want to see what's in here now??

 Drawer number 1.  Yes, I only have 5 OPI's...the shame of it.

 Drawer number 2.

 Drawer number 3. I spy some growth serums in there.

 Drawer number 4. Full of lonesome polishes, nail files, full nail water decals, small decals and stickers.

 Drawer number 5. Stamping polishes, acrylic paint, striping polishes, practice fingers, more files, fimo canes, rhinestones and glitters (all in the same box) and a few metal utensils.

 Drawer number 6 - the junk drawer! Mainly full of false nails, rhinestone wheels, old art brushes and items that I rarely use. Oh, and my creepy practice hand. You'll note the red nail on it. My daughter painted that. The other nails on it were sculpted with clear and white acrylic.

There you have it - the entire contents of my Helmer.  Can I be honest though. I have another box with a handle in which I keep my college kit. I have SEVERAL polishes in there (and scattered around my home), along with tens of files, buffers, a UV light, polish remover, acetone, a box of nail art pens, my decent brushes; the list goes on. I have another couple of boxes in my wardrobe in which I keep my giveaway polishes.

Are you surprised about the amount of polish I have? I was. I honestly thought I had a lot more than that. I think there are about 350 bottles there - give or take a couple. In comparison to where I was last year, I've made steady progress.

Okay, that's it for now! If you know how much polish YOU own, let me know in the comments box if you aren't too embarrassed to disclose!

xx

So, I bought a Helmer...and did some stamping too.

Hey, hey everyone.  The weekend is nearly here!

Look what I bought...

Yes, I succumbed to the lure of 'The Helmer'.  I know I'd complained about the way it looked in the Ikea catalogue, but when I saw this 'white' one (which looked more like a cream colour), I thought it was passable.
It took one hour to get from this ^,

to this ^. It was pretty straightforward to put up, though the millions and trillions of pieces I found when I opened the box was a bit of a shock!

She fits cozily into the corner of my room. Unobtrusive, inconspicuous, quiet.

She's adorned by the crystals my late aunt gave to me every time I went to stay with her in Bussum, Holland.

My little girl helped to put some drawer liners (also from Ikea) in the drawers to stop the polish sliding around and she also arranged the polish too. The drawers do have labels on them, but they are there so she could figure out where to put what! What a sweetie <3

Overall, I do have to say that I am pretty happy with my purchase.  This little treasure is slim, easily hidden and is extremely spacious. The polish I have only fills 1.5 of the drawers! I've had to spread the rest of my art supplies, liquids and cotton wool around in the other ones...but I believe I need more polish. Muhahahahahaha.


Speaking of polish, I got 'Betty Blues' from Boots.  I had another £5 voucher so I only spent £2.

Such a gorgeous colour in the bottle...

...but rubbish on the nail.  Okay, so this has been on my nails for three days so it looks a bit worn, but the colour does NOT translate onto the nail at all.  Booooooo. I'm not going to use this again.

The images on my nails are from Shirley's plates (SdP A16)

Oh, it's my wedding anniversary tomorrow. Five years and two kiddies later, we still like each other, lol!

xx

Storage hell.

I have none. Literally NO storage space.

My polish is still in plastic bags and the thought of having to rummage through all of those bottles just fills me with dread. For months now, I've been saying that I don't want to go and buy an Ikea Helmer...

image

...which seems to be the preferred method of storage for many nail polish bloggers. Looking at it here reminds me of the bulging filing cabinets at work *shudder* (in my mind I am 'Bruce Almighty' being attacked by one of these metal monsters). Surprisingly, when I got Hubby's measuring tape out to check the dimensions, it turned out that they were a lot smaller than I'd anticipated. There I was thinking that the bloody thing would be up to my neck - it would only reach just higher than mid-thigh! That and the fact that they cost £20.42 (where'd the 42p come into it??), has nearly made up my mind.

Sooooo, I'm off to Ikea tomorrow, to wander around with a huge trolley and a massive grin on my face. If the Helmer looks cool in real life, I may just have to indulge myself. Oh joy!

xx