If you’re a nail tech, you are likely swamped with polish bottles — both in your salon and at home. But don’t let your love of lacquer clutter your life! Blogger Krystal Emery navigates the many ways to keep it all straightened out.
Exhibiting Your Professional Polish Collection
To show off your pretties to salon clients, there are a large variety of wall mounted polish racks available online.
One new option is the Deco Beauty Products polish racks which can hold anywhere from 60-100 bottles, depending on the polish brand. Most of these racks are made out of acrylic and are very sturdy with anywhere from 2-6 shelves.
If you only have tabletop room, there are a number of stand-alone acrylic racks, like acrylic revolving polish racks from Queen Nail and Beauty Supply. There are also varied options on Amazon and eBay. Be sure to account for shipping prices as these racks may be large and require extra postage and handling.
Storing Your Personal Polish Collection
The refrigerator is one location option thought to make polish last longer. Models Own jumps on this trend with their Ice Neon collection. The company recommends stocking the frosted bottles in your refrigerator to help preserve the bright neon color. The concept is borrowed from the claim that keeping glow sticks in the freezer makes them last longer.
For those of us who have more than our fair share of polishes, like my 1800+ bottles, the refrigerator isn’t a practical spot. I’d have to get a fridge just for my polishes! So what about storage units? One popular storage unit is the IKEA Helmer. This $40 unit has 6 drawers and holds a variety of nail polish sizes comfortably. Some people have gotten 400-600 bottles to sit in the Helmer. The IKEA Alex is more expensive at $120, but it also has a good drawer height for all your polish needs. You can also use these drawers to store polishes that are seasonally rotated out of your salon.
There’s also nothing wrong with plastic shoe boxes stacked in your closet! Whatever your storage choice, just make sure to keep your bottles closed tightly so they don’t lose consistency.
Pro Organization Tips
Once you’ve decided how you’re going to display your nail polish, the next step is to figure out what order. Thankfully, there’s no right or wrong way to display your collection, so have fun with it. By brand, alphabetically, by color or by finish – whichever you think would work best! Currently, my personal collection is sorted alphabetically by brand and then in rainbow color order.
When you’ve figured out the storage and the order, it might be helpful to make a spreadsheet for your records. You can use an online spreadsheet like Google Drive, which allows others in your salon to add and edit easily from another computer, or a program on your computer like Microsoft Excel. Your spreadsheet can help you keep track of information such as brand name, finish, the collection and more. This can help you from accidentally purchasing the same polish twice.
Contributed by Krystal Emery, Polish Galore; edited by Sarah Emick for Nailpro.com
[Images: Krystal Emery, Polish Galore]
