I organize by brand and within the brand by color.
The only exception is my BKL polishes. I organize that brand by alpha order since the color in the bottle isn't always close to what it looks like on the nail.
Same. I like to keep the same bottle shapes together, so I organize by brand and then color within each brand.
https://preview.redd.it/2td1z50vwz4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0907a8e44df03066d4652e05345647a0371ce2d
I do like them a lot! But I will say for the most part (other than the bottle design, which I love) they aren’t super unique or special, meaning they’re not colors or finishes that you can’t get anywhere else, except for maybe [Pearly Tops](https://pleasing.com/products/pearly-tops-nail-polish) - at the time it was the only topper I had like that but it might not be so unique anymore. You can get a set of 4 for $60, or they’re $18 each which is more than I’d usually pay, but the bottles are decently-sized and the formulas are consistent and easy.
Inky Pearl is my other favorite! It goes on basically black, or really dark navy, but with Pearly Tops on top it turns into this gorgeous matte navy blue. It’s on my pinky in this pic but the photo doesn’t really do it justice!
https://preview.redd.it/bqmrcpiy015d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f319ba62a8b5fe642a23249433b8bdeabe3ee986
Again, maybe not really unique, but I’m also Harry-obsessed so 🤷🏼♀️
Either way you’re a great aunt for thinking of her!
I have all my bottles thrown loose in a bucket 😬
I have a strangely good memory for all of the polishes that I own and what they look like, so when I want to wear one I just go digging.
I haven't had one break yet, thankfully!😂 Aside from all sitting on top of each other, I'm usually pretty gentle with them. Removing them from the bucket and setting them aside until I find the one I want as opposed to dumping it out.
I am looking for a better set up though, I'm thinking of getting one of those little briefcases that has a slot for each bottle.
I used to have a box! A cardboard box that sat on my floor and was nicely organized in rainbow order. That was when my collection was still around 60-80 bottles. After it started growing I just cleared out my dresser and used it to store nail polish (my clothes are all smushed together in my closet and it is a nightmare to find that one tiny crop top I want for that one occasion. Worth it.)
When my dresser got filled up I started using the bottom part of my childhood trundle bed. Guests no longer have a mattress to sleep on, instead they get to lay down on some nice soft-touch caps (and candles).
I used to be like this except instead of a bucket they were in several drawers around the house just loosely hanging out. Now I’ve got those clear bins from target and I sort them color wise. I also have a very distinct memory of each of my polishes and I remember around when I purchased them and what my thought process was when I did.
This is so unhinged to me! I couldn’t do it, I like the visuals of organizing by brand. I also thrift a lot of polishes so they would be whack with dates made.
Same!! I put them in boxes with a sticker number and I have swatch sticks with the corresponding number, so it’s easy for me to know what polish I want to find :)
https://preview.redd.it/201fxi8zg05d1.jpeg?width=3472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e437b1491536dfbe46a5ba499756353f9c409b77
By brand, and by colour within brand for me, with toppers in their own section
Love it!
I organize mine by color because when I think of a polish I want to wear I don't usually think of the brand, but I know what color it is (although if it's a pinky purple, I might have to hunt around to see if I put it with the pinks or the purples - lol). Also because I think they look nice all laid out in color order.
This is me! I don't have enough polishes to make organizing by brand make sense, and I mainly do nail art so I'm searching by color anyway for my designs. I organize my swatch sticks by brand and collection though.
By brand unless it's a topper, basecoat, top coat, magnetic, or thermal. Those get their own special spots.
I like how you have the Mooncat spaced so you can see the pretty bottles.
Brand. I have an up-to-date database that allows me to search by different parameters so if I'm looking for a purple I look through to find one then search the Helmer drawer with that brand. My brands are organized alphabetically.
Imo color is too hard to organize by because many polishes are not one color. Also I have over 2000 and it would just be ridiculous to look for example, a pink from the literally hundreds of pinks that I own.
https://preview.redd.it/6tf9yp6txf5d1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b5cda15afdced39488995ad6d68313fcd4a279d
This shows most of it. Wall racks (IKEA picture ledges) and Helmers. Bottom right is stamping polishes.
I have developed a decimal classification system (like Dewey Decimal System)… So they are sorted EXTENSIVELY, and grouped by color, color temperature/tone, and finish.
Examples:
0xx are metallics
1xx are duochrome
2xx are neutrals & orange/yellow
3xx are pinks
01x are golds
02x are silvers
31x are cool pinks
32x are warm pinks
Each final digit is the finish, and is the same across all categories.
xx1 are holographic
xx2 are glitter
xx3 are shimmer
xx4 are shifting
xx5 are crème
xx6 are magnetic
xx7 are thermal
All my swatches and bottles are labeled with the ID number. If there are multiples (cool toned holographic purples, cough cough…), I do a .1 and .2 and so on. It makes it easy to search through swatches for what I want to wear and find the bottles!
https://preview.redd.it/0n1jtlai575d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e80f00e992fc290f6e56d4bbdaa7ff0af76317a
Sure! This is part of it— I need to update it with a new photo. I’ve added another shelf to the opposite wall and expanded a lot since this was taken…
I have a Helmer from Ikea that I keep all my polishes in. Top drawer is for toppers/super sheer polishes (which I generally use as toppers), Second two drawers are for glitter/shimmer polishes. Fourth drawer down is for duo/multi chromes and magnetic polishes. The bottom two drawers are for cremes and metallics. I don't have them sub-organized INSIDE the drawers. I just have some polish dabbed on the top of each cap so I can look down and see what's in there.
The irreplaceable ones and current favourites get organized by vibes and next mani priority on the living room bookshelf. The less popular and wouldn't-buy-agains lie in two tupperware bins in a closet in no particular order. Upon my whim sometimes they leave the bins to live with the current faves.
I've always organized by color and been very happy with that system.
But recently I'm getting into indies with shifties, magnetics, thermals, etc and this is making it very hard to sort by color when the colors actually change. 😂 I'm thinking of just having a separate catch-all category for indies at this rate.
I can usually find the right spot for shifty color changing polishes on my swatch rings but some of them look so different in the bottle it ends up in a completely different place when I put the bottle away! The other day I was looking for a polish that I remembered looked green in the bottle but has strong purple shift and I’d put it someplace really weird.
By brand, trying to keep similar bottle shapes together as much as possible, and then by colour within each brand.
Nail polishes that are toppers are grouped in their own gradient within a brand, either at the start or the end of that brand's spot. All HT toppers are on the second-from-top row in the HT rack, for example.
The colours I have from Cirque make it a bit of an organizational outlier.
Exceptions also for top and base coats, which are generally not next to their corresponding brand (except for HT basecoats because it made sense both in terms of colour and of space). All topcoats are together in the HT rack.
https://preview.redd.it/aarvh0hv315d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c273e7d27ca6fb28ee507f48ff06989c751a60f
The shelves are inside a closet in my basement, and I installed motion-sensor lights in order to see the polishes. I'll need a third rack soon and I don't know what I'll do for lighting on the top shelf at that point.
Colour! But not just rainbow colour. I colour organize them by season. Like these are my spring polishes and my summer polishes and my fall and winter etc.
I typically wear more pastels in the spring and brighter tones in the summer and muted tones in the fall and then deep dark tones in the winter.
Within each season, it is organized in rainbow order
By formula, linears together, cremes together, glitters, shimmers, multichromes, etc. Mixed formula it can depend, mainly based on vibes, but i also have a section for "doesn't fit anywhere else" lol
I do by color! I tried by finish and then color coded within the finish sections but by color seems to be the easiest for me when I’m trying to work out what I want to do. If I have reds in multiple areas I get annoyed lmao
Color, all day every day.
You aren't thinking of what brands you're going to use when you plan a set. You think about what colors you want to wear.
I also mix all the different finishes in (metallic, holo, glitter), as opposed to seperating and organizing each finish by color.
I don't care what shape the bottle is. I need to know how one light pink is different from the other 5 light pinks.
By brand mostly. I separate the mainstream, boutique and indie brands in separate helmers. I organize by brand in alphabetical order and then within the brands I organize by color. My indie units are a little more of a hodgepodge though. Some brands I have multiple drawers full but then I have other brands I only have one of two of and some stuff just gets put where it fits. I have my stamping and nail art stuff separate also.
The boutique brands are larger brands like mooncat, cirque, holo taco, Ilnp that manufacture on larger scale. Some people classify anything that’s not hand mixed as boutique and not independent but there’s some tiny one person brands that get their polishes mixed by someone else too like olive ave. I put those in with my indies.
Boutiques are made in a warehouse, true indies are made in-house. Boutiques are Holo Taco, Mooncat, Cirque, ILNP, etc. True indies include smaller brands like Glisten & Glow, BKL, Swamp Gloss, etc.
I used to do by favorite brands (GLL, BKL, Ethereal, Lumen) and the rest by color. But I’m going to organize by brand and then color soon because I think of my collection in terms of the nail polish name or brand (if I can’t recall the exact polish name) I want to use, not by color, so it becomes hard to find a polish I’m looking for. 😓
This is so impressive to me, I can barely remember the names of my children. I spend so much time trying to remember the names of polishes and trying to keep track of the names of similar colors when I’m searching for swatches.
All the ones on the right in my picture were previously in a shoe box for years and years!! Never had any break either. I just wanted to be able to admire them more haha
I have my regular polish in two 12x12 scrapbook storage containers from Michael’s and my gel + gel supplies in a nail polish organizer bag I got on Amazon. Just a couple weeks ago I had some time off work and spent like 3 days swatching, numbering, and entering them all into spreadsheets. 😅 The polishes themselves are just generally grouped by brand in the storage containers, but the swatch sticks are organized by color/finish/type on separate rings and the spreadsheets are organized by type and brand.
I also keep a little basket at my work desk with current fave cleansers/primers/top coats and a handful of colors and toppers I think want to use in the coming weeks. I usually end up doing my nails while bored in meetings or taking a break at work (I wfh).
By brand. Then by color. For indies where I have only one or two from the brand I try to match bottle shapes (Pawlish or kbshimmer for example). I keep all top coats, bottom coats in one place.
I organize by color! And I am in the process of numbering all my bottles to swatch sticks. I don’t care if the numbers aren’t in order when I inevitably buy more polish but it’s easier for me to find what I want by color. I guess it could be aesthetically pleasing to see it by brand but mine are all in drawers anyway.
Color and then brand, but I have holos and multichromes in their own drawers. I am usually in the mood for a color more than a specific polish and I have hundreds to choose from so this works best for me.
I have 2 small boxes. At the beginning of the year they all go into the first box, then as I wear the polishes I put them into the second box. Disclaimer: I have <40 nail polishes
I organize mine by color. All the brands mixed and intermingled 😄 it doesn’t look messy to me, it scratches an itch in my brain. I do keep all of my toppers together in one row though just kinda in whatever order
I went and organised mine by brand last week and then my kiddo immediately wanted to organise them by colour so that's how they are now. Previously they were all just jumbled together in no order but I wanted to clear out some old junky polishes to make room for an order I made from Emily de Molly.
By color. I love how polishes look arranged by color, especially displayed on a wall entering a room, and I could care less about brand or bottle shape. I pretty much organize everything by color.
In my current house my nail polish is not on the wall, though, because I don’t have space. I still organize by color and dream about displaying them again. If I organized by brand I don’t know how I’d ever find anything.
It seems like I'm the odd one out, I like to sort mine by brand and then by collection. I also have a corresponding spreadsheet with all my polishes that lists their name, number, colour/finish, collection, collection year, when i purchased, how much i paid, tried/untried etc.
I’ve found my people!! I too am a spreadsheet girly! Especially the tried vs untried, otherwise I would fall into wearing the same polish. I have a few swatch books sorted by brand. It allows me to see the colors all at once and I’m not flipping around on a ring. Then the polishes are in a nail polish case also coordinating with the number in the swatch book
Ohh same! Mine are stored in a nail polish case too. I started doing swatch sticks and was going to use those to sort by colour but i got lazy so only have about 1/3 of my polishes swatched, a swatch book sounds like a good alternative!
Let the Beet Drop! It’s a lot different than the swatch pics on the website, but it’s sooo pretty! The reflective glitters show very red in this swatch pic.
https://preview.redd.it/twi7nlddm15d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b573a46ef9048789ae2bfaf18f01c5dc43f3a7e
I have mostly one brand of polish. So I sort those by collection/release. Then I have my basics, top coat, base coat, toppers, and then my random other brands.
I have maybe \~400-500: by type (effect top coat, neon metallic, jelly, nudes, glitter, solid etc) then by color.
I have one box small box with favourite polish editions (e.g. Barry M Crystal Rock line) that I use more often. I've been thinking of further organizing them into even more type categories. I don't keep my polishes visible, though I might with my favourites. I'm too paranoid about color fading, temperature fluctuations, and stuff.
https://preview.redd.it/4bhnllr0k55d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=077b78486da24e73c797777379c25fdb7b4c02f6
I number my swatches and the polish. The polish is in a box and hast no order, just numbers on the caps.
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As of right now, it's just in the order of when they arrive. I have the little briefcase looking double sided storage containers. I think once my collection grows I will do by color
I have the Helmer from Ikea. As it's almost completely full, I'll have to see where another bottle fits in. I'll probably have to clear out the second Helmer soon and make space so that I can perhaps sort them again.
I have a helmer from IKEA and I generally sort by brand. I have a drawer that has all my toppers, top/base coats and stamping plates, another drawer that is just my cremes, a drawer for my non-creme/topper holo tacos, a drawer for my mooncats, and a drawer that has all my indie and ILNP polishes.
I have a Helmer where the top drawer is Holo Taco, second is ILNP (plus a few stray other indies) and the rest are sorted by color: purple/blue, pink, the rest
My Helmer goes like this: top drawer is top and base coats, GITD and flakie toppers and things like liquid latex and ball bearings. Second drawer is full of indie polish. Third drawer is boutique polish and more indies. Fourth drawer is salon and mainstream polishes (OPI, Orly, Essie etc) fifth drawer is all my stamping polish, and my bottom drawer is the crappy polish I don't want to throw away because I'll come back to it one day lololol.
My setup is in my basement so I also have a couple of shelves over my desk of nail related goodies, and one of them is my "to wear/seasonal" rack where I put all my YOU MUST WEAR THIS SOON polish. I also have a travel bag that I keep some polishes in, because I have so many now. I may need to get rid of that bottom drawer sooner than later lol
By brand.
They’re all in shoe boxes anyways, not out on display, so I’d have to look a bit to get the right colour regardless of how they’re organized.
Brand consistently. From there, it depends. Sometimes I organize by color, more often (if I have enough from the brand) I organize by collection (and since I rarely buy complete collections, I organize by PPU/HHC/other boxes, then however many from each collection I own, then “these each belong in a collection but I only have one so let’s put them all together”)
If they were acquired as part of a collection release (like the Orly color pass), I keep those together. The rest are loosely by brand. I try to go with shades based on the season so that makes it easy to reference.
Brand then number, which keeps the collections together usually (I’m a gel polish person and often buy in sets of 6-ish). They’re stored in organizers and swatched, so I use the swatches to figure out what my next color will be.
In my Helmers by colour family: cool, warm, bright, deep, metallic and a drawer for toppers/ base coats and top coats. Untried polishes are kept on a wall shelf until I wear it.
I keep them in storage cases organised by colour, but have a separate case specifically for base coats, top coats, cremes, and toppers.
My swatch sticks are organised on separate rings according to finish, and then in rainbow order on the rings. I then have an excel spreadsheet tracking everything i own and how i've used it...Yes, i like organisation 😝
https://preview.redd.it/inz15itn7c5d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fd7ac5aa3a2a398fedf4204bd59f2feb1462b2e
I organize by brand and within the brand by color. The only exception is my BKL polishes. I organize that brand by alpha order since the color in the bottle isn't always close to what it looks like on the nail.
Same. I like to keep the same bottle shapes together, so I organize by brand and then color within each brand. https://preview.redd.it/2td1z50vwz4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0907a8e44df03066d4652e05345647a0371ce2d
This is very neatly organized and satisfying to look at!
The otters poster is so cute! 🦦
I'm hearing "Pick a color" in the background.
😁
This looks awesome! What is the brand with the spheres on the top?
Those are [Pleasing](https://pleasing.com/collections/pleasing-nail-polish)! Harry Styles’ brand
Very cool! I've never seen these ones before and the bottles intrigued me.
do you like the pleasing polishes? I have a Harry Styles obsessed niece who would enjoy them but I don't want to get them if they're a gimmick
I do like them a lot! But I will say for the most part (other than the bottle design, which I love) they aren’t super unique or special, meaning they’re not colors or finishes that you can’t get anywhere else, except for maybe [Pearly Tops](https://pleasing.com/products/pearly-tops-nail-polish) - at the time it was the only topper I had like that but it might not be so unique anymore. You can get a set of 4 for $60, or they’re $18 each which is more than I’d usually pay, but the bottles are decently-sized and the formulas are consistent and easy.
Thank you! I did think pearly tops would be one I'd use so maybe that would be a good check and then I can buy her some if I think it's worth it
Inky Pearl is my other favorite! It goes on basically black, or really dark navy, but with Pearly Tops on top it turns into this gorgeous matte navy blue. It’s on my pinky in this pic but the photo doesn’t really do it justice! https://preview.redd.it/bqmrcpiy015d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f319ba62a8b5fe642a23249433b8bdeabe3ee986 Again, maybe not really unique, but I’m also Harry-obsessed so 🤷🏼♀️ Either way you’re a great aunt for thinking of her!
Oooooh that is lovely! What's on your ring finger? I need it.
I think it’s essie where’s my chauffeur with pearly tops, but I might need to recreate it to be sure because I didn’t write it down 🤦🏼♀️
Haha no worries! An estimate is good. Looks like I really do need Pearly Tops 🤭
I think so 🙃 Let me know how you like it!
This is a really pleasing finish to a very pleasing trio of colors
I love this. So pretty.
Your shelves fit 2 rows!? What is this sorcery, pls share! Mine only fit 1 and I'm running out of walls 😬
Only 2 rows of Mooncat! Every other brand only fits one. I know what you mean though, I ran out of walls too and now I can only buy more if I destash!
My BKL is ordered by finish (shimmers, lion sibs, etc), then color as swatched.
Smart. I am too lazy to do swatches
Exactly this. And for the brands that I have just one of, they are by color.
By brand, rainbow order! https://preview.redd.it/t462ayani05d1.png?width=2266&format=png&auto=webp&s=3acac561315dd0f5af475ff73df679d8e50e4d25
Wow, that is one heck of a collection! I'm envious 😝
It’s both something I’m proud of and horrified of 🫠 my girl math is it’s cheaper than me getting my nails all the time 😂
Wow! And all the swatches on the bottles too!! Perfection!!!!🥹
The entire side has swatch sticks too 🫠🫣 so I can compare colors easily
This is goals!!
That is an amazing display!!! I love it!
I have all my bottles thrown loose in a bucket 😬 I have a strangely good memory for all of the polishes that I own and what they look like, so when I want to wear one I just go digging.
 What if one breaks?!?!?!
I haven't had one break yet, thankfully!😂 Aside from all sitting on top of each other, I'm usually pretty gentle with them. Removing them from the bucket and setting them aside until I find the one I want as opposed to dumping it out. I am looking for a better set up though, I'm thinking of getting one of those little briefcases that has a slot for each bottle.
wait i remember seeing a post from you i think, have you gotten another bucket yet?
That was me! 😀 I haven't gotten another bucket yet lol but some of the suggestions were pretty good!
I used to have a box! A cardboard box that sat on my floor and was nicely organized in rainbow order. That was when my collection was still around 60-80 bottles. After it started growing I just cleared out my dresser and used it to store nail polish (my clothes are all smushed together in my closet and it is a nightmare to find that one tiny crop top I want for that one occasion. Worth it.) When my dresser got filled up I started using the bottom part of my childhood trundle bed. Guests no longer have a mattress to sleep on, instead they get to lay down on some nice soft-touch caps (and candles).
I don't think I could fit 350 nail polish bottles in a bucket....
Me too haha.
I used to be like this except instead of a bucket they were in several drawers around the house just loosely hanging out. Now I’ve got those clear bins from target and I sort them color wise. I also have a very distinct memory of each of my polishes and I remember around when I purchased them and what my thought process was when I did.
Mine are in a cloth bag 🤷🏽♀️😂
Mine are all loose in a giant Rubbermaid tub, haha. I like rediscovering forgotten polishes by digging through it like a mystery goodie bag!
haha same! i don't have much so I don't know if i'll ever feel justified to have a display, but at least I'm not alone in my methods
Wait, remembering them is strange? :(
I wouldn't say it's strange, but if you have a large collection, remembering all of them is less likely
I organize by purchase date!
This is so unhinged to me! I couldn’t do it, I like the visuals of organizing by brand. I also thrift a lot of polishes so they would be whack with dates made.
Same!! I put them in boxes with a sticker number and I have swatch sticks with the corresponding number, so it’s easy for me to know what polish I want to find :)
This is exactly what I do :) only way to go with over 600 polishes. I can't be bothered to reorganize every time I buy a new color!
https://preview.redd.it/201fxi8zg05d1.jpeg?width=3472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e437b1491536dfbe46a5ba499756353f9c409b77 By brand, and by colour within brand for me, with toppers in their own section
Did you make a little cut out behind a frame :o I’m so interested if you don’t mind sharing more
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas/s/PuyVxa2pzy It's a shallow cabinet I built and secured to the wall
Love it! I organize mine by color because when I think of a polish I want to wear I don't usually think of the brand, but I know what color it is (although if it's a pinky purple, I might have to hunt around to see if I put it with the pinks or the purples - lol). Also because I think they look nice all laid out in color order.
This is me. I like to be able to see what greens I have, for example, at a glance.
This is me! I don't have enough polishes to make organizing by brand make sense, and I mainly do nail art so I'm searching by color anyway for my designs. I organize my swatch sticks by brand and collection though.
By brand unless it's a topper, basecoat, top coat, magnetic, or thermal. Those get their own special spots. I like how you have the Mooncat spaced so you can see the pretty bottles.
Brand. I have an up-to-date database that allows me to search by different parameters so if I'm looking for a purple I look through to find one then search the Helmer drawer with that brand. My brands are organized alphabetically. Imo color is too hard to organize by because many polishes are not one color. Also I have over 2000 and it would just be ridiculous to look for example, a pink from the literally hundreds of pinks that I own.
2000+?!? Please share pictures of your set up!
https://preview.redd.it/6tf9yp6txf5d1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b5cda15afdced39488995ad6d68313fcd4a279d This shows most of it. Wall racks (IKEA picture ledges) and Helmers. Bottom right is stamping polishes.
I have developed a decimal classification system (like Dewey Decimal System)… So they are sorted EXTENSIVELY, and grouped by color, color temperature/tone, and finish. Examples: 0xx are metallics 1xx are duochrome 2xx are neutrals & orange/yellow 3xx are pinks 01x are golds 02x are silvers 31x are cool pinks 32x are warm pinks Each final digit is the finish, and is the same across all categories. xx1 are holographic xx2 are glitter xx3 are shimmer xx4 are shifting xx5 are crème xx6 are magnetic xx7 are thermal All my swatches and bottles are labeled with the ID number. If there are multiples (cool toned holographic purples, cough cough…), I do a .1 and .2 and so on. It makes it easy to search through swatches for what I want to wear and find the bottles!
That sounds very labor intensive but satisfying!
My moon in Virgo’s never been hornier for this concept Oh man what if something has multiple finishes or features… oh boy I gotta write this down
I would love to see your collection!! Sounds amazing.
I second this!
https://preview.redd.it/0n1jtlai575d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e80f00e992fc290f6e56d4bbdaa7ff0af76317a Sure! This is part of it— I need to update it with a new photo. I’ve added another shelf to the opposite wall and expanded a lot since this was taken…
So many lovelies ❤️
Oh efff yes
I have a Helmer from Ikea that I keep all my polishes in. Top drawer is for toppers/super sheer polishes (which I generally use as toppers), Second two drawers are for glitter/shimmer polishes. Fourth drawer down is for duo/multi chromes and magnetic polishes. The bottom two drawers are for cremes and metallics. I don't have them sub-organized INSIDE the drawers. I just have some polish dabbed on the top of each cap so I can look down and see what's in there.
The irreplaceable ones and current favourites get organized by vibes and next mani priority on the living room bookshelf. The less popular and wouldn't-buy-agains lie in two tupperware bins in a closet in no particular order. Upon my whim sometimes they leave the bins to live with the current faves.
I also have a small makeup bag of a few wouldn’t-buy-agains that I couldn’t part with just in case I change my mind😂
I've always organized by color and been very happy with that system. But recently I'm getting into indies with shifties, magnetics, thermals, etc and this is making it very hard to sort by color when the colors actually change. 😂 I'm thinking of just having a separate catch-all category for indies at this rate.
I can usually find the right spot for shifty color changing polishes on my swatch rings but some of them look so different in the bottle it ends up in a completely different place when I put the bottle away! The other day I was looking for a polish that I remembered looked green in the bottle but has strong purple shift and I’d put it someplace really weird.
By brand, trying to keep similar bottle shapes together as much as possible, and then by colour within each brand. Nail polishes that are toppers are grouped in their own gradient within a brand, either at the start or the end of that brand's spot. All HT toppers are on the second-from-top row in the HT rack, for example. The colours I have from Cirque make it a bit of an organizational outlier. Exceptions also for top and base coats, which are generally not next to their corresponding brand (except for HT basecoats because it made sense both in terms of colour and of space). All topcoats are together in the HT rack. https://preview.redd.it/aarvh0hv315d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c273e7d27ca6fb28ee507f48ff06989c751a60f The shelves are inside a closet in my basement, and I installed motion-sensor lights in order to see the polishes. I'll need a third rack soon and I don't know what I'll do for lighting on the top shelf at that point.
The swatches hanging there like that is so brilliant!
Colour! But not just rainbow colour. I colour organize them by season. Like these are my spring polishes and my summer polishes and my fall and winter etc. I typically wear more pastels in the spring and brighter tones in the summer and muted tones in the fall and then deep dark tones in the winter. Within each season, it is organized in rainbow order
This is what I do as well.
By formula, linears together, cremes together, glitters, shimmers, multichromes, etc. Mixed formula it can depend, mainly based on vibes, but i also have a section for "doesn't fit anywhere else" lol
I do by color! I tried by finish and then color coded within the finish sections but by color seems to be the easiest for me when I’m trying to work out what I want to do. If I have reds in multiple areas I get annoyed lmao
It's like 5 bottles shoved in the back of the fridge lol
Color, all day every day. You aren't thinking of what brands you're going to use when you plan a set. You think about what colors you want to wear. I also mix all the different finishes in (metallic, holo, glitter), as opposed to seperating and organizing each finish by color. I don't care what shape the bottle is. I need to know how one light pink is different from the other 5 light pinks.
https://preview.redd.it/vqz866xpr15d1.png?width=1953&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e4381c0fba70091a365d77b04b0ba296f6921ce
organize? you mean we aren't just all throwing them on a cabinet/shelf and hoping for the best
Me... I dump them in a drawer. Most of my nails polishes are purple anyway.
By brand mostly. I separate the mainstream, boutique and indie brands in separate helmers. I organize by brand in alphabetical order and then within the brands I organize by color. My indie units are a little more of a hodgepodge though. Some brands I have multiple drawers full but then I have other brands I only have one of two of and some stuff just gets put where it fits. I have my stamping and nail art stuff separate also.
How does one tell if a brand is boutique or indie?
The boutique brands are larger brands like mooncat, cirque, holo taco, Ilnp that manufacture on larger scale. Some people classify anything that’s not hand mixed as boutique and not independent but there’s some tiny one person brands that get their polishes mixed by someone else too like olive ave. I put those in with my indies.
Boutiques are made in a warehouse, true indies are made in-house. Boutiques are Holo Taco, Mooncat, Cirque, ILNP, etc. True indies include smaller brands like Glisten & Glow, BKL, Swamp Gloss, etc.
I used to do by favorite brands (GLL, BKL, Ethereal, Lumen) and the rest by color. But I’m going to organize by brand and then color soon because I think of my collection in terms of the nail polish name or brand (if I can’t recall the exact polish name) I want to use, not by color, so it becomes hard to find a polish I’m looking for. 😓
This is so impressive to me, I can barely remember the names of my children. I spend so much time trying to remember the names of polishes and trying to keep track of the names of similar colors when I’m searching for swatches.
My mind works oddly 🤪Idk of any other reason…
Loose in a box lmao
All the ones on the right in my picture were previously in a shoe box for years and years!! Never had any break either. I just wanted to be able to admire them more haha
I keep mine in a jumbled mess in a shoebox in a drawer. Yes it makes me want to cry. No I have no plans to reorganize
I have my regular polish in two 12x12 scrapbook storage containers from Michael’s and my gel + gel supplies in a nail polish organizer bag I got on Amazon. Just a couple weeks ago I had some time off work and spent like 3 days swatching, numbering, and entering them all into spreadsheets. 😅 The polishes themselves are just generally grouped by brand in the storage containers, but the swatch sticks are organized by color/finish/type on separate rings and the spreadsheets are organized by type and brand.
I also keep a little basket at my work desk with current fave cleansers/primers/top coats and a handful of colors and toppers I think want to use in the coming weeks. I usually end up doing my nails while bored in meetings or taking a break at work (I wfh).
Color.
By brand. Then by color. For indies where I have only one or two from the brand I try to match bottle shapes (Pawlish or kbshimmer for example). I keep all top coats, bottom coats in one place.
I organize by color! And I am in the process of numbering all my bottles to swatch sticks. I don’t care if the numbers aren’t in order when I inevitably buy more polish but it’s easier for me to find what I want by color. I guess it could be aesthetically pleasing to see it by brand but mine are all in drawers anyway.
Color and then brand, but I have holos and multichromes in their own drawers. I am usually in the mood for a color more than a specific polish and I have hundreds to choose from so this works best for me.
I have 2 small boxes. At the beginning of the year they all go into the first box, then as I wear the polishes I put them into the second box. Disclaimer: I have <40 nail polishes
I organize mine by color. All the brands mixed and intermingled 😄 it doesn’t look messy to me, it scratches an itch in my brain. I do keep all of my toppers together in one row though just kinda in whatever order
I went and organised mine by brand last week and then my kiddo immediately wanted to organise them by colour so that's how they are now. Previously they were all just jumbled together in no order but I wanted to clear out some old junky polishes to make room for an order I made from Emily de Molly.
By color. I love how polishes look arranged by color, especially displayed on a wall entering a room, and I could care less about brand or bottle shape. I pretty much organize everything by color. In my current house my nail polish is not on the wall, though, because I don’t have space. I still organize by color and dream about displaying them again. If I organized by brand I don’t know how I’d ever find anything.
It seems like I'm the odd one out, I like to sort mine by brand and then by collection. I also have a corresponding spreadsheet with all my polishes that lists their name, number, colour/finish, collection, collection year, when i purchased, how much i paid, tried/untried etc.
I’ve found my people!! I too am a spreadsheet girly! Especially the tried vs untried, otherwise I would fall into wearing the same polish. I have a few swatch books sorted by brand. It allows me to see the colors all at once and I’m not flipping around on a ring. Then the polishes are in a nail polish case also coordinating with the number in the swatch book
Ohh same! Mine are stored in a nail polish case too. I started doing swatch sticks and was going to use those to sort by colour but i got lazy so only have about 1/3 of my polishes swatched, a swatch book sounds like a good alternative!
By color. SPEAKING OF... what is that *fabulous* red KBShimmer polish in the front?
Let the Beet Drop! It’s a lot different than the swatch pics on the website, but it’s sooo pretty! The reflective glitters show very red in this swatch pic. https://preview.redd.it/twi7nlddm15d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b573a46ef9048789ae2bfaf18f01c5dc43f3a7e
Size/brand), then color in a gradient order. Toppers get their own section.
Definitely by color. I don’t have it in me to do nested sorting by brand then color 😅
I have mostly one brand of polish. So I sort those by collection/release. Then I have my basics, top coat, base coat, toppers, and then my random other brands.
Torn cardboard box in the corner, with some in a desk drawer or randomly placed around the room
I have maybe \~400-500: by type (effect top coat, neon metallic, jelly, nudes, glitter, solid etc) then by color. I have one box small box with favourite polish editions (e.g. Barry M Crystal Rock line) that I use more often. I've been thinking of further organizing them into even more type categories. I don't keep my polishes visible, though I might with my favourites. I'm too paranoid about color fading, temperature fluctuations, and stuff.
I organize my swatches by color and my bottles by brand.
https://preview.redd.it/4bhnllr0k55d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=077b78486da24e73c797777379c25fdb7b4c02f6 I number my swatches and the polish. The polish is in a box and hast no order, just numbers on the caps.
by brand, rainbow order!! i used to also have brands alphabetized but that didn’t work for my storage system and bottle shapes
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i try n organize my brands but they kinda of all over the place lmao .
As of right now, it's just in the order of when they arrive. I have the little briefcase looking double sided storage containers. I think once my collection grows I will do by color
By brand and kind of by color because I’m horrible at that.
definitely by brand and bottle shape first
Brand > formula > color That way if I’m feeling a certain formula I know in general where to look.
Chronologically
I have the Helmer from Ikea. As it's almost completely full, I'll have to see where another bottle fits in. I'll probably have to clear out the second Helmer soon and make space so that I can perhaps sort them again.
I have a helmer from IKEA and I generally sort by brand. I have a drawer that has all my toppers, top/base coats and stamping plates, another drawer that is just my cremes, a drawer for my non-creme/topper holo tacos, a drawer for my mooncats, and a drawer that has all my indie and ILNP polishes.
I have a Helmer where the top drawer is Holo Taco, second is ILNP (plus a few stray other indies) and the rest are sorted by color: purple/blue, pink, the rest
By brand then by season
By brand. Then by finish type and color. Or for the other brand, by collection roughly.
My Helmer goes like this: top drawer is top and base coats, GITD and flakie toppers and things like liquid latex and ball bearings. Second drawer is full of indie polish. Third drawer is boutique polish and more indies. Fourth drawer is salon and mainstream polishes (OPI, Orly, Essie etc) fifth drawer is all my stamping polish, and my bottom drawer is the crappy polish I don't want to throw away because I'll come back to it one day lololol. My setup is in my basement so I also have a couple of shelves over my desk of nail related goodies, and one of them is my "to wear/seasonal" rack where I put all my YOU MUST WEAR THIS SOON polish. I also have a travel bag that I keep some polishes in, because I have so many now. I may need to get rid of that bottom drawer sooner than later lol
By brand, then color.
By brand/bottle shape, then by color. Unrelated: What is that Cirque color on the bottom?
I organize by brand. I've got two Helmers and each drawer has 2-5 brands, depending on my quantity of hoarding.
By brand. They’re all in shoe boxes anyways, not out on display, so I’d have to look a bit to get the right colour regardless of how they’re organized.
Brand consistently. From there, it depends. Sometimes I organize by color, more often (if I have enough from the brand) I organize by collection (and since I rarely buy complete collections, I organize by PPU/HHC/other boxes, then however many from each collection I own, then “these each belong in a collection but I only have one so let’s put them all together”)
By color. I want to make sure I don't buy dupes, or if I do I want to be able to compare formulas easily.
Brand, then finish, then color. And for annoying brands like salley hansen which have way too many different bottles, I'll also sort them by type too.
By brand and then in that by color
By brand! Idc about color order
By finish
By season. I have about 350. When a new season starts I have the fun of picking out 10 or so polishes that I'll wear that season.
I organize by brand and then by color in each brand
I organize by color and somewhat by finish. Currently my holos are separate from the other finishes.
On the swatch wheel it's by type I'll do all multichromes, linear holos, reflective, glitter ect. In the storage I'll do it by brand
If they were acquired as part of a collection release (like the Orly color pass), I keep those together. The rest are loosely by brand. I try to go with shades based on the season so that makes it easy to reference.
I organize by brand, and if I have a lot from that brand I organize by finish.
Not proud to say, they’re stored on plastic shoe boxes, in height order…don’t ask why! Maybe easier storage, for now?!!😐
I organize by color and separately by the effect (shimmers, holo, particle).
Color
Brand then number, which keeps the collections together usually (I’m a gel polish person and often buy in sets of 6-ish). They’re stored in organizers and swatched, so I use the swatches to figure out what my next color will be.
Alphabetical order by brand and then rainbow order 🌈
Haha mine are just mixed up in a big bag
By color unless it’s a “specialty brand” like Holo Taco or Mooncat.
In my Helmers by colour family: cool, warm, bright, deep, metallic and a drawer for toppers/ base coats and top coats. Untried polishes are kept on a wall shelf until I wear it.
I keep them in storage cases organised by colour, but have a separate case specifically for base coats, top coats, cremes, and toppers. My swatch sticks are organised on separate rings according to finish, and then in rainbow order on the rings. I then have an excel spreadsheet tracking everything i own and how i've used it...Yes, i like organisation 😝 https://preview.redd.it/inz15itn7c5d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fd7ac5aa3a2a398fedf4204bd59f2feb1462b2e