I threw away all my nailpolishes...

Because I haven't used them in over a year, some in over three years... i counted, and I had 47 colors, most OPI and Revlon and a few Creative and China Glaze.. and a couple Sinful. My polishes were all over the board.

Anyway- I was contemplating rebuilding, but it occurred to me that the reason I haven;t used them, is because when my nails are actually painted, it's being done at a nail salon.

I was sad to see all the colors go to waste- they had all separated and yellowed with age and sunlight.

But sometimes, you just have to admit, that there is no reason to start a new collection of anything if it will only go to waste.

I have to throw my polishes out periodically too. I usually try my stash under 10, because they go bad so quickly.

I think your wise in not building up another collection.

I think my daughters have more polish in their stash than I do.

That's fair enough, if it's just going to waste it's not worth re-building. It would have been hard though turfing them out though.

tips for storing for best life?

Also how do you tell once you open it that you know its bad? (not just based on time)

I very occassionally get the desire to paint my own nails with a neutral pink, but I think most of my polishes were given to me by others as gifts over the years - you're right though, I almost exclusively get my nails done at salons - i can't be bothered doing them myself!

I learned the hard way to not buy a ton of polish either....now I just have my favorites and I use them as much as I can. I have a 3 yr old that loves her nails painted so that helps

I only buy 4-6 bottles at a time, it is really stupid IMO to have 100 bottles that you will never use....some stashes are meant to be small

ya i rarely paint my nails so any nail polishes i have just get old and crappy

Darla - somewhere cool. I keep mine in a drawer. Some people think storing them in the refrigerator helps, but I don't want nail polishes in there. You can tell they're bad when they've separated.

Here's a good link:

Nail Polish

Toss-It Time: One to two years

Insider info: When polish expires, the consistency turns gooey or stringy, says Ji Baek, owner of Rescue Beauty Lounge in New York City. Formulas are especially sensitive to temperature extremes and humidity, so avoid storing in the bathroom.

Originally Posted by Aprill /img/forum/go_quote.gif I only buy 4-6 bottles at a time, it is really stupid IMO to have 100 bottles that you will never use....some stashes are meant to be small I totally agree.My nail polish stash consist of only one bottle of nail polish, lmao.

Black nail polish, it goes with everything so i dont need another color, haha.

I just recently bought 2 bottles of nail polish and threw away about 5-6. I need to throw some more away but I cant find the strength to do it, lol.

I have quite a lot of polishes, some are very old, I just store them in boxes and keep them right side up, sometimes I just shake them so they don0t separate. When they turn gloopy I just had a couple of drops of thinner, and they are as new. I think nail polishes have a very very long expiration time if you threat them well, and I love to have a lot of colours to choose from.

I hate finding a pretty polish I haven't used in a while, then opening it to find out it's dried up. A lot of the nailpolishes I use are cheap brands like Rimmel, so at least I'm not wasting too much money. I can't stop buying them, especially during the summer when I want to try out all kinds of bright colors .

That is sad to see all those pretty polishes go to waste

It's totally logical what you did though! LoL

I would not start another collection if I were you, they go bad, dry up and fade quickly and if your paying to have them painted at the salon, theres no reason to have a bunch taking up space at home. I hate having to toss out old polishes, especially ones I have barley used.

Oh well.

Spend the money you would on new polish, on new make up!!

You can take your nail polishes to the salon, so it won't be wasted. I know many folks do that and it'll run a bit cheaper.

I just started my collection, but I'm only keeping the ones that I really like and can wear everyday and compliments everything. That means throwing out the ones I dislike already, haha.

Originally Posted by Ashley /img/forum/go_quote.gif Darla - somewhere cool. I keep mine in a drawer. Some people think storing them in the refrigerator helps, but I don't want nail polishes in there. You can tell they're bad when they've separated.
Here's a good link:

Nail Polish

Toss-It Time: One to two years

Insider info: When polish expires, the consistency turns gooey or stringy, says Ji Baek, owner of Rescue Beauty Lounge in New York City. Formulas are especially sensitive to temperature extremes and humidity, so avoid storing in the bathroom.

thank you . exactly the answer i was looking for.

I have had nail polish stashes before too, but then, I realised how little I used them so I ended up tossing them all out and now I only have 6 in my collection. But even before I threw most out, my stash wasen't too big, probably 20 or 30 something nail polishes only, most of them I haven't touched in a couple years anyway so I thought to just throw them out because their colours have either separated, or some are just white elephants taking up precious space in my drawers since I nearly never use them.

I'm down to three... I'd rather spray paint my fake nails with enamel than take the time to paint them with polish... Lazy!! Lol