I had ordered them from eBay ages ago, but due to a combination of them being shipped from Hong Kong and an issue with my Paypal account, they just recently arrived. I got 10 wheels with 20 nails on each, for around £3 including shipping.
I had a ball swatching all of my polishes and arranging them by color. My color categories are: Topcoats, Red, Glitter & Metallic, Neutrals (that is black, white, gray & brown), Blue, Purple & Cool Pink, and Orange & Warm Pink (and my one yellow polish). That leaves me with three wheels left over - one I'll be using for layering experiments, and the other two? Not sure yet.
Why should you swatch your polishes? Because when you start to accumulate a lot of them, it helps to know what a color looks like on the nail and just not in the bottle. It helps you get an idea of the texture, opacity, and true color of the polish.
Here's how I swatched my colors:
It isn't super complicated, of course, because it's just like painting nails! But, there are a few differences. First of all, I didn't use a base coat. That would be a huge waste of polish! Second, I painted them so that I can tell how opaque each coat becomes: The first coat I painted the entire surface of the nail, then the second coat was 1/3 of the way down, then the third coat was just the top 1/3 of the nail. That way, I can see how the polish looks at 1 coat, 2 coats, and 3 coats. I did this even for polishes that looked opaque on the first coat, because sometimes polish can change when it gets thicker.
You can really do whatever you like with your wheels - if you want to, you can use different nails for different numbers of coats, instead of using just one nail for it. You can sort your wheels by color, finish, brand, how much you like them... it's up to you! You can also choose between white and clear wheels. I chose clear wheels because my nails are not white, and I think a white base would change my swatch. I know a lot of people prefer white ones, however.
You can also choose whether or not to go over your swatches with top coat. I chose not to, because for one, that would be the equivalent of four manicures of TC, and for another thing, I'd rather know what the original texture of the polish is, and decide from there how I want to coat it. For instance, it's useful to know whether a glitter polish is chunky or smooth when it dries.
So now I've got a full record of all my polishes. When I get a new one, I can swatch it on the wheel and get a good idea of how many coats to use, before I even start my mani. Plus, I can even see how a sheer polish might look layered over something else.
By the way - I mentioned I'm using one of my extra wheels for layering experiments. Here's some of the things I've come up with.
A few of them are inspired by some unique high-end polishes... do you know what they are? More on that soon :)
Nailgirl
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