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.
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
