Since I am a huge lover of everything which involves nail art, I thought it would be a great idea to go through some of the items, tools and colours which I love the most. My collection isn’t as big as some people but it’s definitely growing in size! In fact most of my products I have here are really cheap — I don’t normally buy expensive brands such as China Glaze or O.P.I.

First up here are my tools, I have brushes, I don’t use them often since they are such a pain to wash. You need a special liquid which I can’t get hold of, however when it comes to doing very fine designs I will use them. My most used tool is the dotting tools they are almost the most important thing in this collection. They can be used for anything; applying rhinestones, making shapes and lines, for anyone who wants to do nail art I suggest you get a pack of five dotting tools. They will never let you down!

Also I have a razor, to cut the filmo canes. When it comes down to pricing it’s actually cheaper and a lot better to buy the canes instead of the wheels. Normally when you buy a wheel of the filmo sets you will get around 5 of each different design. If you buy a filmo cane set you will get over 100 of the one design! It turns out a lot cheaper and actually cutting them is really relaxing!

A great thing to keep hold of is some Q-tips to get rid of nail varnish which I always get on my fingers (as some of you already know) they are much easier to use that a full cotton pad when it comes to removing the varnish around the tips of your fingers. I think it’s important to have a buffer, not just because it makes your nail shine nicely but also it removes any bumps or grazes in the nail which can effect how smooth the nail varnish looks on your nails. Also I have a pallet (Pringle pot lid) for when I use my dotting tools. It’s much easier to use a pallete when it comes to using dotting tools, however it some times means a lot of varnish is wasted since it dries quickly, so if you do use a pallet make sure you don’t spill it everywhere!

My nail scissors are actually bent, it makes it easier to cut the nail into a round shape instead of always having to file it down more, it’s really easy to bend the scissors, just make sure you don’t bend them too much! Also in the collection is some stickers, these stickers are mainly to create a perfect round tip, I don’t really use them though since they leave a sticky mark on the nail afterwards.

This is my ‘deco’ collection which includes 14 wheels which have filmo cuts, rhinestones, half pearls, butterflies and a various collection of cute things, they are the most used thing in the shelf since they give a great dimension to your nails. I love using filmo cuts. They are always such a great and easy way to decorate your nails, there is no effort needed to use them either! Also there is micro-beads, these are the most annoying things ever! They will scatter everywhere and you have to carefully pick one up at a time and place it on your nail, however they do like to wander off now and then! I also have stickers, some are actual nail art stickers and some are from ArtBox (the Korean stationary store).

Now two of the most important things for when it comes to nail varnish is the base and top coats! You do need them, if you don’t use a base coat then say hello to the yellow stains which will not go away however hard you try! My favorite brand personally is ‘Save The Nail.’ They are really good and also they do not stink like most varnishes do! They also come in a really cute packaging! I do like the more expensive ones, but when you are on a student’s budget, the cheaper ones do the job!

Next up is my pink varnish collection, there are ten different vanishes here but if I had to pick the ones I like the most it would have to be the Barry M ones. When it comes to Barry M nail varnish I find that it never chips away easily unlike other brands. It’s also not overpriced too which makes it more loved. I think when it comes to picking what pinks to buy I usually buy pale and light pinks since normally if you stain your nails you can cover up the stain using a pale pink colour! It’s a good way of making your nails look naturally pinker!

As you can see my orange collection isn’t big, but then again it’s hard to have millions of different shades when orange is one color I will hardly use. Again out of these three, you can probably see already I use the Barry M one the most, it’s got a metallic side to it as well making it less boring. Orange isn’t the most used color in my collection so these three remained mostly untouched for now.

My purples, again there isn’t many of them I love using deep purples more than light purples so my favorite from this set is the Natural Collection (Boots own brand). Just like the orange above it has a metallic feel to it as well as bringing out a nice shine. Natural Collection also is really cheap and hardly chips away! It’s the perfect varnish for any of you, who like me are on a students budget right now!

My blues are the most used colors out of my whole collection, I get through so many blue varnishes in it’s shocking! Barry M again win my heart with this one. Their light and dark blues are amazing and they do not chip away easily. I also like the Rimmel one since it’s another varnish which gives off a nice shine when it’s dry.

My yellow and golds! Now I hardly use that gold which you can see in the photo above, but thats because it’s really weak. I suggest when you are buying a gold you get a nice strong varnish instead of a weak one since it always changes color when I use it, normally turning into a dirty gold! I love the Barry M colors you can see in this one, I use them all the time when I need a yellow! I have to say their pastel yellow is such a nice color!

Another small collection is my browns, I really can’t find a light brown so I have to mix my brown with white to get the right color sometimes. Out of these three ELF is my favorite I love how it comes out an almost copper color and it’s really got a nice shine to it as well, it’s not very good for nail art but when it comes to plain nails it’s great!

Now I hate these varnishes with a passion! These are glitter varnishes and trust me, when it comes to taking them off, it will take forever! I really advise avoiding cheap glitter varnishes since they can ruin the design as well, and they chip and peel easily which is also rather annoying! You will probably never see me using glitter varnish in any of my tutorials, I hate them that much!

This is my collection of grey varnishes, and here you can see my only two China Glaze varnishes! I don’t use grey a lot, mainly sliver if I use any of them, but if I had to pick the best varnish out of these few, it would probably be the China Glaze’s. They never chip and they dry really smoothly and they look really good, unlike most varnishes they last more than 5 days which was a bonus for me since I do a lot of stuff meaning I can’t always repair chips in my designs! One downfall of China Glaze though is the price, it’s way too expensive!

You can never have too many reds! Here is my mass collection of my red varnishes, for a long time I mainly did designs which used a deep red color since I always think red looks great on nails. However out of these few vanishes I really like the ELF ones and also the Rimmel one. The Rimmel one has a slight tint of gold which makes it really shine and stand out! My red collection was much bigger than this, however I threw a whole bunch away due to the fact they were too think and weak for nail art.

The crackle nail varnish, it’s fairly new when it comes to the world of nail art made simple. However I think some times crackle varnish is way too overpriced compared to usual colors. This Barry M crackle was just a tiny bit more than it’s usual varnish and it looks and works great. Unlike the sliver one, which doesn’t even crackle, it’s more of a messy smudge on my nail. Barry M’s crackle is one of the best crackles I have ever used!

My green collection as you can see is mainly made up of Barry M varnishes, green is another color which I hardly use so I normally just buy simple colors instead of trying to get every shade of green I can. I really like the metallic green on the left, it’s such a nice color as well as it giving off a nice shine and also it’s got a hint of sliver in there so it’s got a nice look to it when it’s dry!

These are nail art two way brushes, it has a pen tip on the end which is really useful for when you want to add small lines or detail onto the design! Before I had these I couldn’t do leopard print very well at all! These are perfect for creating straight lines too using the brush!

Here is my white varnish collection! I use white the most normally so I have so many pots of the stuff! Normally they run out really quickly, but my advise is not to try and get a dirty white color, try and get as bright as you can because it makes the color above it stand out! Another good thing about white is, when you are doing a dark design, and you need to put a color above it, if you first paint the pattern white then place the color above it, it will come out brighter than normal!

Finally we have come to the last set of colors, which is black. I normally use my pen so my black pots don’t get used as much. Black is a good color to use when you want to make something stand out by highlighting the edges as well as leopard print designs!

My whole collection has nearly hit 100, i’m forever buying new colors or crackle and since I’ve written this I have already got another 5 varnishes! I think if you want to buy crackle varnish though, I would go for Barry M or a more expensive crackle, not because of the brand but because the sliver one you can see I have doesn’t actually crackle that well.

In total I have 14 deco-wheels, 50 sheets of nail stickers, 8 pots of micro-beads, and over 80 varnishes.