It's a revelation that will surprise exactly no-one, but let's just get it on record anyway: my name is Lynda, and I am a make-up junkie. My condition is long-term - it predates my beauty blogging by about, oh, 10-to-15 years - and it interferes with my day-to-day activities on a regular basis because it means I can't resist the call of a counter or stand, be it in a pharmacy or a department store or a salon supply shop, to save my life.
I like to browse nearly as much as I like to purchase, and yes: I am a bit of a nightmare to steer through duty free.
To make matters worse, I'm also a recovering hoarder. I take it one day at a time and still find it hard to chuck things with even the most tenuous sentimental attachment, but downsizing from a two-bed gaff with deadly built-in storage to a one bed flah earlier in the year has definitely helped with my (gradual) rehabilitation.
In the run up to the move, I got rid of lots of what I can only describe as crap and parted company with clothes, shoes and bags that I don't wear anymore, but predictably the beauty bits suffered only the mildest of pre-move haircuts. And, er, there was no nail polish cull at all.
So when Cakeinthcountry wondered how and where the feck we store all the make-up that we blog about every day, I thought I'd show you how a make-up junkie and beauty writer with a hoarding disorder and a nail polish problem organises her nails shizz.
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Originally I liked the idea of keeping my polishes in pretty boxes atop my chest of drawers, but having the boxes on display wrecked my head after a while so I moved them under the bed and then simply used shoe boxes for additional storage as my collection grew. Eventually, I graduated to a small wicker drawer unit in the bathroom for easy access and so that I could see my entire stash at a glance, but a couple of weeks ago when even that was overflowing I decided that it was high time for an upgrade.
One trip to Ikea and just shy of €30 later, I had me an off-white Helmer drawer unit. It's a small six-drawer filing cabinet that's also available in red, and is widely regarded by nail polish bloggers as The Ultimate Holy Grail Storage Solution; I've noticed that lots of salons use it to store polishes, too.
Just some of the stash... and that's only half a drawer's worth
Since it doesn't look like your typical bathroom storage unit, I keep mine in the hallway-cum-living room, tucked fairly unobtrusively between the front door and a credenza, which is handy for me as I usually do my nails in front of the telly and of course it also keeps the bathroom from feeling cluttered. It would look equally at home in a home office space.
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Considering how easy it is to put together (I was done in less than 30 minutes), that it seems born to hold nail polish (each drawer is just deep enough to accommodate a standard sized bottle standing upright), and its incredible capacity (I'd guesstimate that it'd hold about 400-to-500 bottles) the Helmer is a bit of a no-brainer solution for anyone with a lot of polish to store. It'll be complete overkill for some people, of course, but I'd definitely recommend a Helmer if you need a dedicated place to hoard keep your collection.
