My nail polish stash, storage and work space - a guided tour

Welcome to a picture heavy guided tour in my polish drawers and workspace...!
I feel like a child waiting for Christmas LOL - I have looked SO much forward to showing you this post and I put in at least 8 hours of work in it trying to remember everything and to make all photos and text as perfect and as easy to understand as possible!
I have become one more chest of drawers for my nail polishes - and it's two and a half years ago since I last showed you my nail polish workspace - click HERE - and a lot have happened since then!

First two overview photos showing the storage and the workspace before we dive into the drawers...!
Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge them!

The cushion on top of the smallest of the chest of drawers is mainly used by Ivan, the youngest of our 4 cats.

As you can see I often sit with my laptop right behind the "half-wall", so it's quite cozy. And if the "cozy-level" isn't high enough, Ivan jumps on the table and demands to be cuddled <3

Everything in my workspace is within reach and I even have a sink, very practical both when swatching and painting nail art with acrylic craft colors!
And in case you wonder, this is NOT our kitchen, it's my workspace and noting else, but it is a separate part of your long L-shaped kitchen....

My photo set-up is only a few steps away (if I don't stumble over any cat toys) and I can open doors to get in fresh air if I want to.
Another favorite cat cushion is found on the top of our extra refrigerator.

Ok, enough small talk - let's dive into the drawers. I took photos of all of them except two, that aren't (yet) used for nail polish/related stuff!

Do you remember my many, many untried polishes - click HERE?
Well I have been swatching a lot, so now the drawer looks like this, so that is quite an improvement:

BUT - there always seem to be a but somewhere, doesn't there..?

My drawer of untried Chanel's is way fuller now:

AND there is a new drawer of untried Indies & Co.

AND the acrylic shelves with the "next up" untrieds aren't exactly empty either, are they, tsk, tsk...

So let's move away from the untried polishes to all the swatched/tried ones, all the keepers - most are sorted by color, Chanel and Dance Legend are sorted by brand.

This drawer houses the already swatched Chanel polishes from 2007 and onwards. The empty spaces are for not yet swatched and missing polishes from the year in question.

And this drawer houses the already swatched Chanel polishes older than 2007.

A few swatched orange and yellow - a LOT of swatched pastel yellows - and my so far swatched Dance Legends...

My so far swatched pink and reds.

My swatched pink, red and purple holos.

My swatched holos in other colors.

My swatched greens going from dark til light mint.

My swatched blues going from dark til light pastel blue.

My so far swatched purples going from pastel to dark - I see the need for more room for the darker purples soon...

My glitters.

My so far swatched Diors - a few others and special finish polishes like glow in the dark, magnetics, crackle etc. - a drawer that that is open for other polishes, maybe the darker purples as before mentioned...

My refills, a few gifts and polishes looking for new homes...

- but what is this? MORE polishes looking for new homes + a shelf somewhere else in the house, tsk, tsk, tsk...

A drawer with a few extra acrylic craft colors, most stand ready in my workspace, a little glitters etc.

Extra nail wheels, swatch sticks and a lot of "this and that"...

Re-use of boxes, bubble wrap etc. for shipping polishes to friends...

And finally a closer look at my workspace:

I have all I need in one place - always ready to use.
Because of surgery in the neck and shoulders it's best for me to stand while polishing and painting, so one arm is supported by the clear acrylic box, the other by the metal suitcase.
On the clear acrylic box you see my old eyes secret weapon and helper: OptiVisor (5), that enlarges everything 2½ times (but gives a very short focal depth); I use it when I paint nail art and do a clean up.

The top drawer under the metal suitcase - messy and chaotic, but I can find most things in it without looking - and...

- I chose not to tidy up before the photos, so what might look chaotic to you is very practical for me ;)

Did you like the guided tour in my polish world?
Useful links to my: Indies & Co. -  Chanel polishes - Stash list - DIY Tips & Tricks - or use the menu at the top of the page to see even more pages.
Current giveaway - click HERE!

I have (almost) NO nail polish ;) – Jeg har (næsten) INGEN neglelak ;)

My new nail polish set-up 

Dansk, se længere nede.

A few days ago I ordered an additional acrylic rack for nail polish and a small rack for nail art polish bottles, see the "before" photos here.. And they arrived yesterday!!!

I simply LOVE the 5-step acrylic rack, that holds 60 bottles, and owning two makes feel very fortunate :)

Unfortunately the small rack for the nail art bottles was broken, but the company promptly refunded it after I sent a photo. I got the last one, so they could send a replacement.

But my handyman husband took one look at it and said: - I can fix that, and so he did, and except from the middle shelf not being quite wide enough in one end, it’s actually working alright for the time being.

I keep my nail art tools, rhinestones, pearls, stamping set, orange sticks, files, etc. etc. in a aluminum case, but I’ll show you that some other day.

And now my nail polish shelf looks tidy and well organized, just the way I like it. A little more light would be great when dark outside, but my husband said this morning: - You need a built in light in there. So that might be my wish for Christmas!!

The only “down side” is that before my rack was bursting, and now it looks like I have very few polishes (and compared to a lot of you, I do LOL), but I know a “cure” for that problem…. ;)

For et par dage siden bestilte jeg yderlig en acryl ”trappe” til mine neglelakker plus en lille til nail art lak flaskerne, se før billeder af mit setup her. Og de ankom i går!!!

Jeg er vild med den 5-trins acryl trappe, der kan rumme 60 flasker, og nu ejer jeg hele to – hvor er jeg heldig :)

Desværre var den lille trappe til nail art flaskerne slået i stykker, men firmaet refunderede promte beløbet, efter at jeg havde sendt fotos, for det var desværre den sidste, de havde.

Men min kære handyman mand kiggede på den og sagde: - Den kan jeg da lime, og det gjorde han. Den midterste hylde sidder lidt skævt, så den ene ende er meget trang, men bort set fra det, så fungerer den udmærket ind til videre.

Jeg opbevarer mine nail art ting som f.eks. redskaber, file, rosenpinde, rhinsten, perler osv. osv. i en aluminiumskuffert, men den vil jeg viser Jer en anden dag.

Og nu ser min neglelakshylde velorganiseret og ordentlig ud, lige som jeg gerne vil have den. Det kunne være dejligt med lidt lys, her i den mørke tid, og her til morgen sagde min mand: - Du mangler en lille lampe derinde. Så det kunne blive et ønske til jul.

Det eneste ”ulempe” ved den nye trappe er, at det nu pludselige ser ud som om, jeg kun har få neglelakker (og det har jeg vel også i forhold til de fleste af Jer), men det er der heldigvis en ”kur” for… ;)

Nail polish storage and confessions from an addict – opbevaring af neglelak og bekendelser fra en afhængig

Dansk tekst, se under fotos. 
When I in the end of august 11 decided to give nail polish another go after several years, I thought to myself: - Ah, well, I probably will go a little overboard and maybe end up with 20 bottles tops. So I found a suitable container with a lid, where I could store them upright, cool and dark – because this is the best for the polishes.  
Little did I know…The container was not very pretty, and in my endless hours on the internet I had seen some nice acrylic racks, and decided that I really wanted one. Mid September I found one at my favourite nail polish shop at all times http://buynailsdirect.com/ but shipping to Denmark would be expensive because of the size. So I found one in the UK at http://www.venusnailsupplies.co.uk/, and got it three days later.
And even then I thought to myself: - This rack holds 60 bottles of China Glaze, it’s insane, you’ll never, EVER get that many polishes!
October 23. I ordered one more just like it plus a rack for 30 nail art bottles because there is no more room, even if I have taken some cheap crackle polishes off it. And since I might as well fill up the order without it getting more expensive freight-wise I also bought two Misa polishes (my first) and one from a brand called MK, that I haven’t heard about… One of the Misa’s is Teddy Bear – and yes, I did buy it because of the name – sighhhhh
How did your addiction evolve, please tell me???

This photo is from mid September – midten af september:

This is now 11.10.24 – og nu godt en måned senere:

Da jeg I slutningen af august købte de første neglelakker efter i mange år at have været uden, tænkte jeg: - Tja, du har det jo med at gå lidt amok, så du ender nok op med 20 flasker, hvorefter jeg fandt en lille boks med låg, så jeg kunne opbevare dem opretstående, mørkt og køligt, som anbefales af producenterne.
Jeg skulle bare have vidst…
Men den var ikke pæn, boksen altså, og under mine endeløse timer på internettet stødte jeg på flotte acryl displays beregnet til formålet. I midten af september fandt jeg lige den jeg ønskede i min favorit neglelak butik http://buynailsdirect.com/ men på grund af størrelsen, blev portoen for dyr. Men jeg fandt en i England hos http://www.venusnailsupplies.co.uk/, og fik den tre dage senere.
Og selv da tænkte jeg for mig selv: - Du må jo være sindssyg, den kan rumme 60 flasker, så mange får du da ALDRIG  nogensinde…
Den 23. oktober bestilte jeg så en mere plus en mindre, der kan rumme 30 nail art flasker. Der nemlig ikke plads til flere, selvom jeg har taget nogle billige krakeleringslakker fra Kina af den. Og for at udnytte mængden jeg kunne købe for portoen, ja så ”kom jeg også til at købe” tre neglelakker, to fra Misa (mine første – og den ene hedder Teddy Bear – og jo, jeg købte den på grund af navnet – suuuk) samt en fra MK Polishes, som jeg ikke kender.
Hvis du har læst dette, kunne jeg rigtigt godt tænke mig at høre, hvordan din neglelaks-afhængighed startede :)