Nail polish swatch cards

My nail polish habit is out of control....again. The minute I took my acrylics off my obsession came back. With that being said, I actually don't have access to my whole entire collection :(. It is the worst thing ever. My poor babies are in a storage unit and I don't have a way to get to them. 

There's a happy ending to the story though! Despite not having my whole collection I've still racked up quite a few bottles of nail polish in the last six weeks and I chose to swatch them before it got out of hand. 

I love the idea of swatchicles and cute swatch binders and notebooks. However I can't afford the materials for swatchicles right now. I also really wanted to have something more portable then a binder. I had seen other bloggers use cute mini notebooks to swatch but I would feel restricted by that since I can't freely move the pages. 

Then I came up with the perfect solution (for me at least): Index cards! 

I had a pack lying around that I picked up at Walmart for like $0.48 or something ridiculous like that. Back to school supplies are awesome! 

It seemed a little daunting at first. I became aware of how much I acquired in a short amount of time because of this little project but it's totally fine. I work in a shoe store so most things that I own are stored in shoe boxes. By the looks of this box though I'll need new permanent storage once I get the rest of my polishes. 

(Random fact: the polishes in this picture are Maybelline's Color Show vintage leather collection! So cute!)

I sorted my polishes by brand. I wrote the brand on the top of the card then I wrote the nail of the polish, the number, then swatched after that. I also used different colored pens to keep it fun! 

One of the things I like about the index cards is that I can add to the list at any time and not be limited. I plan on writing my thoughts on the polishes on the back of each index card (i.e. texture, drying time, durability, etc). I also put a mark next to the ones I've already tried.

Waiting for them to dry!

Overall I'm happy with my idea! I like that I can carry them wherever I need to and add on to them as needed. I didn't finish my collection (I got bored haha) but I will soon! 

All dry and done!