Cosmetic Cupcake

Hi ladies! I thought I would show you my updated nail polish storage today. I really need another Helmer but I'm holding off because it will only encourage me to buy more polish which is NOT good! I've acquired a lot more stuff since I last showed you my nail polish storage (you can see my posts from August and October and last year) and I also have a cheaper option to the Helmer too which I've had to add to my storage to hold nail stuff! I love seeing stash pics so I included pics of my polishes ;) WARNING - this post is a bit pic heavy!

YES my Helmer is next to my bed.
On top of my Helmer I keep my nail art toolbox, manicure essentials, nail dryer and nail polish remover and cotton pads so they're handy. Keeping everything in close reach is important when doing your nails I think - that way you won't wreck your nails looking for stuff!


Below are my trusty manicure essentials that I use for every manicure. I love my hot pink Manicare nail dryer which is a must for me! The container is actually a lipstick holder which I got from a dollar store and holds my essentials perfectly.


I use the blue Manicare nail polish remover with vitamin E to remove my polish. I use the Konad One Touch Remover for konading. I'm a cheapie so I just recycled an old Ferrero Rocher plastic box to hold my cotton pads =p Works well and didn't cost me anything!


I can't believe at one point all my nail art stuff fit in the toolbox below! Gosh that was a long time ago lol. I got this great toolbox from Riot Art and Craft for $19.99 and it's perfect for holding nail art stuff. It holds all my rhinestone wheels, cut fimo pieces, nail stickers and other bits and bobs. It's a great toolbox because the bottom is tall enough to store nail polishes so it's great to take on the go too.


I like to sort my nail polishes by family (brand) but here and there it's mixed up which kinda annoys me haha. I'm very OCD =p If you're wondering, the red stickers on some of the bottles you see below is my attempt to keep track of what I've used and what I haven't but I gave up after a while.

1st drawer holds OPI, Nicole by OPI, holos, flakies, Cult Nails:

I've moved back home into my new room so I thought it called for new nail polish storage. I still absolutely love the clear storage boxes that I used (see my previous nail polish storage post) however my polish collection has expanded to the point that boxes are stored here and there in my room which was annoying the crap out of me. Like I've said, I am way OCD about organising stuff. I couldn't organise the boxes the way I wanted them so I finally caved and bought myself an Ikea Helmer!


I picked white because it matches the rest of the furniture in my room. Besides going halves with me for the Helmer (I was still ummmming and ahhhing in the store which the boy HATES so he said he'd help out just to get me out of the store I think!) the boy was also very kind and assembled it for me =D After assembling it he said that he doubted I could have assembled it myself what with the folding of metal etc.. I couldn't agree with him more after seeing the instruction booklet!

While I was at Ikea purchasing my Helmer, I picked up a roll of Rationell Variera drawer mat which you can use to line drawers for pots and pans etc. I bought it so that my polishes wouldn't slip and slide when I pull the drawers out but according to the Ikea website it's main purpose is to protect drawers against scratching and also to dampen sound.


It's clear and comes in a roll which you then cut to size yourself. I placed one of the empty drawers on top of the mat, marked the size and then cut out accordingly. The 1st piece was trial and error to get the exact size so cut out more than you need and then trim to fit is my suggestion.


I almost gave up using it. The curl is SO strong that even after 2 nights of being flattened by 4 of my 5kg nursing textbooks it was still curling up. I was ready to throw them out in frustration and for having wasted $3.99 (special price with the Ikea Family card!) but my sis suggested I Google a solution. Lucky I did! One of the tips I looked up suggested soaking cut out sheets into hot water to flatten it. I did this for about 3-5minutes per sheet which flattened them mostly. For extra measure I stuck them under my textbooks overnight again. Worked like a charm! Then I lined the bottom of each drawer with them.


I decided to organise my collection by brand, collection and where the polishes are from. I like to have polishes in their neat little families ok =p

On the top of my helmer I've got my manicure essentials box, removers, nail stamping plates and cotton pads and tips. My nail dryer isn't shown in the pic but I keep it on top as well:


1st drawer holds treatments (base and top coats, hardeners, cuticle softeners etc.), konad polishes, nail art stripers and nail wheels:


2nd drawer is China Glaze polishes:


3rd drawer is OPI, Color Club, Essie, Orly and misc. higher end polishes:


4th drawer is for my lovely European polishes - Catrice, Essence, Barry M, Hema, Art Deco, S-he etc.:


5th drawer is for my awesome American and Asian polishes - Sinful Colors, Claire's, Sally Hansen, Rimmel, Pa, Elianto etc.:


And the lucky bottom drawer is for my Aussie polishes! Ulta 3, BYS, Glitter Gal etc. I actually have about double the amount shown here but I've lent them to girls at work. It crossed my mind to ask for them back for a night just for this post but I couldn't very well do that haha =p


I am so happy I got my Helmer! It is a great solution for nail storage and it is so sleek and compact. At the rate I'm going buying nail polish I will probably need another one next year which is definitely not good! o_O

I want to mention that I've updated my blog with some pages at the top including a "where to buy" guide on my best kept places to buy nail polish - both international and local brands. The guide is mainly geared towards Sydney ladies but includes my favourite online sellers too.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Don't forget to enter my Polished Pink for October giveaway here!

Hi ladies!!
My NOTD today is using wearing Elianto Colour Lacquer in Thistle which I received in my fantastic swap with Nikki.

Thistle is a beautiful pale lilac that looks almost pastel pink in some lighting. It is absolutely bloody beautiful!!! It makes my hands look super white or something and I can't get enough of the colour! It was hard to capture the lilac in it though unfortunately so the pic below looks more pinkish.
Application is pretty good - the brush is a good size and easy to work with, requiring very minimal cleanup. The formula like with most pale shades is a little streaky on so I did a thin 1st coat followed by a slightly thicker 2nd coat. Below is 2 beautiful coats without topcoat and it dried to a high glossy finish.


I konaded full nail design from Konad plate m79 using China Glaze Devotion. I then added the double bows from Fauxnad plate B09 (identical to Konad plate m3) using Konad Princess Polish in Violet Pearl.


Hope you like it! Here are some bonus pics of breakfast at Ikea I had a while ago but never got around to posting. You all know my love for all things Ikea! I'm constantly bugging the boy to go to Ikea for breakfast because it's just so cheap and cheerful. The hot breakfast is only $2.95!!! It used to be only $2 but it's still an absolute bargain, it would probably cost more to make yourself =p

Hot breakfast:

Cinnamon scroll and bread roll:

The boys coffee (with unlimited refills):

I also wanted to thank you all for the wonderful and positive response to my last post about my nail storage =) I'm glad you liked seeing my little nail area and storage! It's nice that I may have inspired some of you to tidy up your nail stash and given you some ideas on how to store your image plates and polishes =) I'm just a neat freak who HAS to have things organised just so and am by no means an expert!

I'm always on the look out for interesting ideas so I'd love to see your storage ideas too! If you come across a great idea or do a post yourself, leave me some link love in the comments of the previous post =) Also, if you have any requests shoot me an email or leave me a comment in any of my posts and I'll try my best.

Hope you all are having a good start to the week! Don't forget to enter my 200 followers giveaway here!

Today's NOTD is a bright and playful Hello Kitty manicure in honour of my boyfriend's adorable 2 year old niece =) My bf's brother and sister in-law live in HK at the moment but they are back home in Sydney for a visit and I get to play with his niece tomorrow!! YAY!! Fun times to be had as long as she is not in a cheeky and terrible mood lol. For this mani I used Color Club She's Sooo Glam and Poptastic from my recent Color Club haul.


She's Soooo Glam is a gorgeous Barbie pink creme polish from the Rebel Debutante collection. I've been looking for a Barbie pink for so long and I've finally found it! Application however wasn't the best and below is 3 coats. The 1st 2 coats are full of streaks and bald spots! I probably could have used 4 coats but I hate the feeling of thick polish so I stopped at 3. I love the colour so it's worth the pain! It dried quickly and to a nice glossy finish too.


I used Poptastic from the Poptastic collection on my accent fingers. It's a neon pink polish and it's so bright and cheerful!! My pic doesn't capture the true neon quality of this polish though unfortunately. Application on this was MUCH better than She's Sooo Glam - it applied smoothly and evenly and below is 3 coats to ensure no VNL.


I then used China Glaze Admire to stamp full dots nail design from Bundle Monster plate BM 19. On my accent fingers I used Konad Special Polish in white to stamp Hello Kitty design from GCOCL plate A02. Then covered it all in a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and topped it all off with Nailene Acrylic Strong topcoat!

Here are some food piccies from dinner a few nights ago at Ikea. I absolutely LOVE Ikea and have ever since I was little - I could literally spend hours there =p The food there is cheap, cheerful and tasty even though you eat cafeteria style but that's all part of the fun.

The boy and I had a plate of Gravad Lax (salmon with dill and mustard sauce) each:


I had Swedish meatballs and chips. These are really yummy!


And the boy had stuffed salmon with chive cake:


All for under $30!! No trip to Ikea is complete without visiting the Swedish Food Market full of Swedish food goodies. I normally go crazy and get Daim chocolate (some of the best chocolate in the world!), pear cider, and soft serves amongst other things! But all I got was Lingonberry and blueberry cordial. These are delicioius and you can really taste the difference between these and supermarket brand ones.


Thanks for looking!!