Culling nail polish

De-cluttering has become quite a sensation recently hasn't it? I haven’t quite reached the point where I want to get rid of ALL THE THINGS, but I think I’m ready to get rid of some of the things. It’s a cycle. I go through a collecting phase, where I must have everything I see and the lemming for new products is very strong. This is not a good phase to be in when you’re on a budget. Though sometimes being on a budget does sharply curtail this phase. But after that phase there’s a phase where I just don’t want to anything at all, it all bores me, and OMG a new pallet from Urban Decay, lesigh. I call this one Product OVERLOAD.  And then there’s the “Why the hell do I have five bright red lipsticks?” phase. Also known as de-cluttering. 

I sort of weeded out my lipstick collection a while back. And by that I mean I got rid of anything that smelled funky and all lip glosses.  I actually managed to get rid of about 20 products this way. Most of them lip glosses. I just don’t like the texture of lip glosses. They are generally heavy on the lips and most of them are sticky. I feel like at some point I ought to go through the remaining 60+ and cull them further, but I’m just not quite ready to part with any of them. Even the ones I never wear. Yes, that is a ridiculous statement.

However, I am ready to do a nail polish cull. Or at least the start of one.  I’m willing to get rid of some, but not too many as several years ago I got rid of almost every single polish I owned and I am very much regretting that.

On Saturday I sat down and sorted my polishes by color. Nothing very specific: all the blues together, all the purples together, etc. I had done this once before, but it was more of something to do with my hands while on the phone then anything purposeful. And I then negated all of that sorting by putting them in my storage containers by brand again. Something about having ALL OPI nail polishes together and ALL Zoya polishes together appealed to me.  This time, I both paid attention and put them away by color. And realized I had more than a few dark grey/black polishes. Oops. And this is what started the desire to cull out the collection. Because if I have a problem with the dark grey/black polishes, I’m pretty sure I have a similar problem with other shades. In order to test it out, I put 10 of those shades on my fingers in order to sort out the dupes. Some of them are very, VERY similar, but I’m not quite sure if I’m ready to cull those.

Here is the photo I posted to Instagram. It isn’t the best quality photo for swatches, but it does give you an idea of which polishes look too much like another one. (hilariously, I switched my hands around, so my left hand is on the right and my right hand is on the left).

Anyway, here are my thoughts and the bottles:

The bottles. Espresso is missing as it was in a separate container.

On my left thumb is OPI 4 In the Morning, a matte black, though more of a grey-black then a true black.  I like this one, and you would think that it’s un-cullable simply because of the unique finish, except I have a second matte in this color family. On the left middle finger is Zoya Dovima, also a matte black, and again more of a grey-black then true black. So do I cull one of these? And if so, which one? This has been the beauty dilemma of the week.  On the one hand they are both matte black polishes, and really who needs TWO matte black polishes? On the other, there are quite a few subtle differences between the two of them. Dovima has a very fine, almost holographic, shimmer going through it and 4in the Morningis a bit more matte (probably due to Dovima’s shimmer). Of the two I am drawn a bit more to Dovima, but I also really enjoy the flat matte of 4in the Morning. And so I am torn. Because I can’t decide, I will be keeping both. Obviously.

I am culling one of the three crème blacks that I own. On the left pointer finger is OPI Queen of the Road, on the right pointer is 10 Professional Nail Lacquer Black and on the right middle is Revlon Espresso. Queen of the Road is a kind of grey/black and not a true black. The difference is particularly noticeable when compared to my other crème blacks and thus I am TOTALLY justified in keeping it. Right? Hush you, I can see your skepticism from behind my screen. Of the other two, they are in fact identical. I mean, how many variations can you honestly have on a crème black nail polish? As the 10 polish was a pain to apply, didn’t dry as fast, and chipped a lot faster it will be the one I cull. And that’s one down.

Of the other five polishes, three are completely unique. On my left pinky is Revlon’s Ace of Spades. It is a true dark grey, and kind of a blue grey at that. It has a very subtle shimmer through it, and it’s gorgeous. It’s also the polish I use to ID Queen of the Road as black and not another dark grey, as comparatively they are two completely different colors. On my left ring finger is Formula X Orion’s Belt. This is both a silvery grey and a textured polish.  Unique in all respects. On my right pinky is KB Shimmer’s Stark Raven Mad, which is a black holographic polish. It is also one of my two holographic nail polishes, and I love it a lot. So those three are all keepers.

The two remaining polishes are both in the grey family. On my right thumb  is Zoya Yuna and on my right ring finger is Revlon Italian Leather. Both are greys with a gold shimmer. The shimmer is more pronounced and obvious in Yuna  but it’s there in Italian Leather as well. Yuna is also more of a blue based grey and is a bit darker; Italian Leather is a greenish grey and is probably the lightest color in this particular swatch fest.  Of the two shades I definitely prefer Yuna, though Italian Leather is pretty.  I like the formula of both equally, in terms of ease of application, lasting power, etc. However, Italian Leather is one of the scented polishes from Revlon’s Parfumerie line and I am not fond of the scent at all. It kind of turns my stomach and it lasts at least 24 hours. I’m also not 100% sold on how Italian Leather looks on my fingers; I think it tends to highlight the sallow tones of my skin. The colors are unique enough that I could easily justify keeping both of them, especially given the decision to keep both of the mattes in this color family, but I think I will be culling Italian Leather.  Mostly because I don’t like the way it smells