De-Vaulting - CONTRARY POLISH Play Me & Feels Like Home

Hi Goddesses

It's not the most well-known indie brand, but I do have a soft spot for Contrary Polish.  When everyone else was making glitterbombs that needed a sanding drill to get them off the nail, Contrary was the only one producing gorgeous, complex cremes.


Now of course, most indie makers have understood the importance of shimmer, flakies and other magics, but remember, Contrary was doing it first.

First up is Play Me, a lovely grey grungey lilac, with hidden green shimmer.

This is one of my go-to shades - I can never resist a good lilac - and will you look at that close up!

Feels Like Home is from the other end of the purple scale - this is super browny, but no less delicious.

I love the shade of this colour, which is abolutely perfect for autumn and winter - and those copper specks are just to die for!

How To Destash

Hi Goddesses

As I've done my video posts of my polishes, you've seen a little bit of destashing going on.  I am a regular destasher, and quite a brutal one, so I thought I'd share a little bit more about how I do it.

But first, why?  Some of you will be shuddering at the thought of destashing.  Get rid of gorgeous babies?  Noooooo.  Well, yes.   Unless you have unlimited space and an exceptional memory, I think you need to keep an eye on your stash limit.   I have no idea what my overall number is, but I am sure it is under 1000, but only as long as I don't count my untrieds!



When I'm thinking of destashing, I get all my polishes out, and group them by sub-colour, just as you've seen in the videos.  I will then compare all the pale blues, all the grey-blues, all the navy blues lol, and usually there will be some I want to get rid of.



How DO You Choose?

Firstly, I'll look at how similar the shades are.  Are they dead on dupes, or as close as dammit?   If it's a colour you love, one degree of difference will make it a keeper, but if it's a colour you're not so precious about, that one degree can lead to a destash.

I love this blogger forever for this photo :) if you know who she is, please credit her in the comments xx

Usually, even if the colour is IDENTICAL, I will keep it if it's in a different finish.  So, I could have the exact same shade of lilac in a creme, a shimmer, a matte, a holo and a glitter, and I wouldn't consider those dupes.


It's not just about duping though is it.  Even if you change your polish once a day, you can only wear 365 of them a year, or 730 if you do different colours on different paws.  So owning more than 730 polishes means there are some you won't wear this year.  If you own 1500, it means some polishes won't get worn but once every 2 years.  Does that make sense?

Well, for a collector's polish, a true precious, it might, but for a China Glaze blue versus an OPI blue, it absolutely doesn't.  OR that greeny glitter you bought and last wore 2 Christmases ago ... it's not worth it.  So be brutal.  If you haven't worn it in forever, there's a reason for that.  Listen to that reason!

One of my biggest drivers is Shit, I Can't Fit Any More In!!!!!!!!!!!!!   A lot of you use Helmers, I use boxes.  The principle is the same - spilling out of the drawer / box leads to OCD dilemmas!

One the stash vids, you'll have heard me say, "this is all the reds except the Barry Ms, the KIKOs, the textures, the Elevations, the holos, the neons and the stamping polishes."  Quite reasonably, some of you have asked why.  

Well, originally each colour had it's own box.  When the reds reached their limit, I panicked.  I destashed, but a couple of months later had the same problem.  However, I then realised if I separated out 1 Barry M, 2 KIKOs, 2 textures and 10 holos, there would be room for 15 new red polishes!!  Oh yeh, I'm not a saint.  I'm STILL a polishaholic, albeit hopefully a smarter one lol.

And finally, the reason for today's photos.  If I REALLY can't decide which one to destash, I'll paint my nails (always on my hand, not a swatch stick), and see how they play for a day at work.  It allows you to see if they are as close in real life as they look in the bottle, and how they wear.  This usually then allows me to make the right choice, as it did with these 3 pretty pinks.

So what about you, my love - you're a hoarder, aren't you? x

The Northern Lights in the Messy Mansion

Hi Goddesses

Today we have possibly my best stamping mani EVER, and as is so often the case, it was a complete accident lol.

I am currently obsessed with the MM20 plate from Messy Mansion, and I don't need much / any excuse to plonk it on top of something.  When I did my Northern Lights mani for Digit-al Dozen the other week, it practically BEGGED me to stamp over it lol.

This is one of those finished results that is so much more than the sum of its parts.  Whilst the base was glorious in its own right, the addition of the stamping cranks it up a notch, and gives it an air of complexity it doesn't really have.

I totally loved this mani - shame it had to come off an hour later for something else!

Crumpet's Stash pt2 - Greeeeeeen

Hi Goddesses

I hope you enjoyed last week's video on All The Oranges (well, the ones that weren't hiding lol).

Today we focus on the greens.  As you know, I am not a green lover, but it is an essential for nail art, so as you'll hear, most of them exist for that reason.





I'd love to know how my green stash compares to yours - let me know in the comments!

Celestial Cosmetics - Lulin and Metoeroid

Hi Goddesses

Today we have the final post on the Celestial Cosmetics polishes I was sent for review, and they're both Green!   However, as you'll see, they are about as far apart as 2 greens can be.

We start with Lulin, a lovely emerald green glitter.  Whilst *I* am never going to genuinely love this, I do think it's pretty.

I love the shimmer of yellow in certain lights, but mostly I love those flashes of turquoise, which are just spectacular.   Great polish, but too green for me!

Metoeroid however is another beast entirely.  I oohed when I first saw this.  In the bottle it's kind of a molten, poisonous sand colour, and I was fascinated by it.

On the nail, I realised that was only half the picture.  Whilst this rests in a green state (and also has a lot of toxic green shimmer), this has a galactic spacedust quality that makes it try to bend to purple and even steely blue.

My photos have struggled to capture the entire rainbow of sludged up tones this polish moves through, but at work, in indirect light, I had a lot of the steely colours, which I loved.

I'm fascinated by this polish.  Whilst it's not a colour I would choose, it piques my curiosity, and I was often surprised by the colour it had shifted to.  You can see a lot of brown echoes in these photos, but trust me that there were purple and grey edges too.


I've loved all the polishes I was sent for review.  The holos were SPECTACULAR and well worth your money if you're looking to expand your collection.  The 2 duochromes were a delight AND they were complex, and the glitter applied really smoothly, and had extra layers of interest to it.


You can buy Nicky's amazing polishes HERE and follow her on Facebook HERE.