Budget Shopping101: Building a Sensible and Cost-Efficient Nail Polish Collection

In this post, I'll share some tips to keep in mind while buying nail polishes and building a collection when you're on a budget. I have always loved nail polish since I was a kid, and all these tips come from lots of experience, trials, and errors I've made over the years.

Important: When trying to build a collection you can get carried away sometimes and end up in a mess looking like you have a serious shopping problem. A collection cannot be built in a day, it definitely takes time so no rush, be patient and try to build one slowly; one which you can be proud of. Here are some tips that can help you do just that.

Take Inventory: What use is buying 10 bottles of taupe-colored nail polish again and again from different brands just because you like the color. I know it's a great shade, it looks great on you, and you get compliments when you wear it, but, how many bottles of the same shade do you need at a time? So make sure you take an inventory of your nail polish stash before you hit those counters/stores.

Check Reviews Online: Online reviews not only give you swatches which might give you an idea of what the shade looks like, but also talk about the formula/opacity, the finish (creme, gloss, iridescent, pearl, frost, shimmer, glitter, etc), the staying power, the brush, application, sales/deals, dupes, etc., and this way you can be sure if you really need to buy a certain shade and whether it's worth your money.

Wait for a Deal: If there's one thing that drugstores do well then it is a sale, there are always certain products on sale, so wait for it and grab that polish when it is on sale instead of paying full price.

Use Coupons: Check out your Sunday papers for useful coupons and Google for websites where you can get the coupon codes before you go shopping.

Swatch Them: I wish drugstores would put out testers for all their shades coz it's really difficult to judge whether the color would be flattering on us unless we are actually wearing it. But since that's not possible, they leave us with no choice but to swatch the sale items at the store. By swatching you will invest in something that you will actually use. When you buy a color just because it looks pretty in the bottle and later find out that it isn't as flattering as you thought it would be, you're gonna either go back to return it, trash it, or give it away. So save yourself some money/effort and test it before you buy it.

And to think I almost bought that matte blue shade on my middle finger, and that ugly green shade on my ring finger. Thank God! I swatched them and decided not to.

Compare Prices: Some drugstores are costlier than others and so are some discount stores so make sure you're getting a fair deal. On a side note: this is one thing I never understood in the US, there is no price control on products. What I mean is in India we have something called MRP (max retail price) on every product and a retailer is never supposed to charge more than that. On the other hand, products in US don't have this label printed on them so we don't really know what thir true worth or cost is and retailers keep fixing/selling products with their own prices and these prices vary at different stores. So shopping becomes this kind of guessing and gambling game where you have to constantly check prices, compare them and then go for the store that sells it cheaper. It's honestly time consuming and annoying.

Learn from your Mistakes: No matter what online reviews say, if you have had a bad experience with a certain brand of nail polish, stay away from it no matter how alluring the color range might be. I don't think the Confetti polishes are as great as reviewers claim, but I still went and bought three. Granted they are only $1.99 apiece but for $6 I could have bought a better quality nail polish. I'm not saying these totally suck but I don't need three mediocre polishes from the same brand.

Hold onto that Receipt: In spite of taking all measures if you still end up with the wrong nail polish then you can go back and return it, so just hold onto that receipt. Also, check the return policies firsthand.

Better In-Store than Online: I'm never very comfortable with online shopping, especially not nail polishes, and I had this experience with ELF, and I'm never buying nail polish online. The colors are just not true and you'll never know how they'll look on you unless after you buy it and then the hassle of returning it is just too much especially if you spend so little as $2 you'll just keep it thinking there's nothing much to lose. But a $ is nonetheless a $ and I could have gotten a better shade for the same.

Don't Be Greedy: Just coz something is on sale don't go ahead and buy 10 nail polishes coz you'll never be able to use all of them before they get expired and you'll definitely end up throwing them away and that's just an unnecessary waste of money. There will always be sales and deals. Just buy a couple of shades and use them first.

Do not go by Hype/Trends: Do not just believe an overly hyped product and if you find even a single review that says the product is bad then think about it carefully before buying it. Sometimes it could just be that the color was not flattering on the person who reviewed it but sometimes the product itself could not be worth buying. All I'm saying is that it's easy to get carried away by someone raving about a particular brand and shade of nail polish but when you go and buy it, you might find that you do not like it that much and regret buying it. So beware! Also, you might think that buying trendy things is chic or cool but what good is buying 10 orange nail polishes from different brands when orange does not even suit you and make your hands look dull? So don't even think about what's trending. Also, remember that trends keep changing, and what's trendy today may not be so trendy tomorrow.

Never buy on Impulse: Just because you had a bad day and need some retail therapy don't go out and buy nail polish that you do not need and will never use. Emotional spending is never good.

Think about what YOU like: Give more weight to what you like rather than what others are talking/raving about. A blogger/YouTuber you like may rave about duo-chrome nail polish but you might not necessarily like it on you. So don't buy it, you don't have to. Also, you might like a brand that others might not, stick to it.

Check out those Clearance Racks: Many beauty and discount stores/drugstores have clearance racks where they sell high-end or pricey nail polishes for a very very reduced price, check those out before you pay full price for the same. I once found a China Glaze crackle nail polish at Sally's Beauty Supply for 99cents. And recently I found Essie's Angora Cardi for $3.99 at TJMaxx.

Experiment with Less: Like a new trend? Found something you'd like to try out but are not sure of? or wanna try out a new brand? Buy one nail polish first and test it out before you go for more. I was curious about the orange nail polish trend, so I went and bought a Confetti nail polish ($1.99) in outrageous orange coz even if I didn't like it, it wouldn't set me back by much. And I'm so glad I did that coz I did not like the orange shade on me at all, it just made my hands look dull. Then there was the bright color trend for summer which I was not sure about so I went and bought one, which was the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue, and though I hated the formula, I loved the color. Now I'll never buy another nail polish from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line but I'm more confident about wearing bright colors so I went and tested some other colors at the store and bought the bright yellow color from Sinful Colors. I was also curious about the matte nail polish trend but I was not sure how they'd look so I bought a mattifying topcoat from NYC and while I do like the matte nails look it is not something that is very flattery on everyone and only some shades look good when they're matte. So I'm glad I just got this one bottle to experiment with and now I can turn whatever shade I like to a matte.

Shop for Unique Colors: If you like the color purple, don't go about picking every purple variation of nail polish, like blue-purple, black-purple, dark, light, shimmery, duo-chrome, etc., instead, venture into something new and get green nail polish or yellow maybe, then you'll have more unique colors in your collection so it doesn't seem monochromatic or boring. I recently picked up 2 purple colors, one from ELF and one from Wet n Wild which is lighter than the elf one but when I apply the nail polish there's not much noticeable difference to someone else who isn't as crazy about the purple nail polishes as me. So it almost looks like I have a dupe. Granted the wet n wild (which I bought after the elf one) only cost me $1.50 but I could have gotten another shade and added a new color to my collection.

Buy Mini Bottles Instead: A lot of polishes come in mini or baby sizes like Avon, Ulta, OPI, and even Essie. They just cost a buck or two, or at least half the price of the regular size so you can get them instead of the regular larger bottles. And they are so darn cute! 

I hope these tips will help you out when you're out shopping for some nail polish and to build a sensible collection that makes you proud as a makeup collector. Also, I do want to point out that collecting too many things can lead to a cluttered life so please think if this is what you really want before beginning your collection. Make sure you have a good reason for buying something before you do.

Do you have any more tips to share? Please do, I'd love to get as many tips to save money as I can.