Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Nail Polish Collection and Donation/Giveway...?

I'm going to share something with you that only a handful of people know...because I literally just found out about it quite recently myself...

Seven weekends ago, I'd decided that I needed to better organize my nail polishes and supplies. After doing some research online, I decided on a red six-drawer storage unit from Ikea called the Helmer. According to one nail polish blogger, it could hold something like 400 to 500 nail polishes...

I figured that it would be perfect for me, because in my own mind, there was no way in the world I had even HALF of that. I thought I could use the rest of the drawers for stuff like nail polish remover, cotton balls, nail and cuticle treatments, etc.

After having my 14-year-old son build the thing, I kind of just filled up the drawers without counting. I decided that my top two fave nail polish brands, Zoya and Julep, should get their own individual drawers. I then put all of my base, top and glitter coats in one drawer, my salon and higher end brands like Butter London, OPI, China Glaze, etc. into another, Avon, Sally Hansen, Sinful Colors and Wet n Wild in another, and finally my Spoiled by Wet n Wild, Revlon, and other random polishes into the final drawer. When I was done, I found myself getting a little upset with that blogger because in my mind, she was way, WAY OFF about the capacity of this thing. I mean, sure, at least half of top/base coat drawer was still available (at the time), about a third of the Zoya drawer was available (at the time) and more than half of the drugstore/Revlon drawer was available, too (at the time), but there was no way I could fit polish removers, files, cotton balls, etc. in ANY of them...plus, the way I was buying polish, I could see that those drawers would fill up way too fast....and I couldn't have had more than 200 polishes!

Two weeks ago, when I made the decision to enter all of my nail polishes into a spreadsheet, I made a shocking discovery...

Without even including my top and basecoats, nor the small handful of nail striper colors I own, my collection consisted of nearly 400 individual bottles of polish. Today, it's well over 400 due to my Julep subscription, a promo box of polishes they were offering for a ridiculously amazing price that included SIX polishes plus some extra hand/nail care goodies, the three Orly polishes I got from Sally's Beauty due to the buy two, get one free sale (for which I also had a coupon!!!), receipt of my pre-ordered Zoya Pixie Dust Summer Collection, some polish shopping on drugstore.com as well as on ebay and Amazon.com, and not even including the 14 bottles of polish I ordered late last week from Zoya's website thanks to their Earth Day/half off promotion that I have yet to receive. Sigh...

I won't feign shame about this discovery. I don't feel remorse or regret about having collected so many nail polishes. My only regret is that I don't have a rockin' awesome camera to post what's on my nails every single time I change it! (FYI: Last night, I put Julep's Ellen on all 10 fingers and layered a little bit of Julep's Chelsea on top from my cuticle to about halfway up my nail on my ring and middle fingers. It's very different from what I usually wear but I like it!)

My Zoya drawer was overflowing and I also wanted to do some reorganizing, so, this past weekend, I went back to Ikea for a second Helmer, this time in Silver - and this time, I built it myself! When I was finished, I was more than able to use the extra drawers for my nail supplies! Yay!

Having said all that, I don't plan to shop for polish for a while. I am keeping my Julep subscription, of course, though I'm going to be more picky about their mystery boxes from now on because they increased the price from $19.99 to $24.99 (and the last two mystery boxes I got, one at the old price and the other at the new one were disappointing - which is why I decided against getting their most recent Sea Salt Mystery Box offering). Also, if/when Zoya comes out with something NEW, I may very well up and buy it simply because I love Zoya like that. But then again, if I'm being honest, I most likely wouldn't have ordered the two collections I just did: Stunning and Irresistible, plus Faye and Snowsicle, if I didn't have that half-off promo code.

This decision comes from a very grown up place within me that understands how irresponsible it can be for me continue shopping for new colors/formulas when there are literally hundreds in my collection that I have yet to try.

Totally random statement: Is it just me, or is Essie nail polish ($8) WAY overrated? That stuff chips on me within two days - even when - and probably ESPECIALLY because - I've used it with her Good To Go (Allegedly) Fast Drying Top Coat. I will admit that I've loved Essie's polish formula - it applies like a dream - but it chips so quickly! I've worn $2 Sinful Colors polishes for an entire week with absolutely no chipping whatsoever!

In honor of Zoya's Earth Day promo, I've opted to do a sort of "donation" of polishes I don't love instead of sending them back to Zoya to be disposed. I put aside about 25 polishes from which my sister is going to get first dibs, and the rest of which I just might bring to church to give to the ladies there...unless someone suggests something more fun to do with them:). There are at least four or five Julep polishes that I'm including in the giveaway/donation because they were duplicates (thanks, mystery boxes! :/). I've gotten THREE Lynn's and THREE Sienna's (one of which I gave to a coworker)! I also got two Dakota's, two Evangeline's, two of a glittery mystery color, two Georgia's and two Sally's. I'm keeping the Sienna's because I'm WAY too in love with them and I think I'm keeping the Sally's, too, though I'm not 100 percent sure at this time. My daughter fell in love with the mystery glitter polish so I let her have her own. That leaves a Georgia, Dakota, Evangeline (a brown holographic) and TWO Lynn's to be given away. The other polishes are from Sally Hansen and Klean Color...I can't remember if there were other brands...

Man, I've said more than I needed to say in this post, but I couldn't help it. I kind of light up and go crazy when talking about this very insignificant-to-life-and-purpose type of stuff :/...

Until next time,

XOXOXO - Jessika

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Blog Anxiety


I don't recall feeling like this (anxious) about writing before. At this moment, I haven't a clue as to what I'm going to write, but I felt I had to push myself to do it because for days and days, whenever I thought about writing, I experienced some form of anxiety...

In the past, whenever I'd experienced anxiety about somewhere I had to go, or something I had to do, and I pushed myself to go or do it anyway, the result was always positive...so here I am...

Some instances in which I've felt this type of anxiety, but went along anyway, were:

1. Signing up for technical school, from which I graduated and was able to quit my job as a cashier and then qualify for and obtain an "office job," making way more money;
2. Going to particular church services that always blessed me through messages I really needed to hear;
3. Meeting with the wedding coordinator at the place I really, REALLY wanted to have my wedding (but that I really didn't think I could afford), which resulted in my having a gorgeous wedding exactly where I wanted to have it;
4. Going to an event at my then-best friend's church, which resulted in my joining that church and eventually marrying my best friend;
5. Agreeing to go on various outings with past friends, family members, etc. that I really didn't want to go to only to have some of the best times of my life and/or even meet some fantastic new people!!!

Those are just a few of many, MANY examples. I can't think of any other explanation other than demonic influence that would have me feel so negatively toward things that actually benefited me in very positive ways.

For some reason, the word "Courageous" just popped into my head. I don't mean to brag but it's my feeling that for me to push past the anxiety all of those times was pretty courageous of me. I thank God for giving me opportunities, even now and at my age, to be strong and of good courage...

Another thing that just popped into my head:

Fear is the devil's most commonly used weapon...as well as his most frequently told lie...

Until next time,

XOXOXO - Jessika