My room is arranged so that I can watch my huge-ass TV in my bed like a queen.  Since my bed is pretty high and watching TV on my back is a wee-bit different than sitting on a couch, I had to place my TV on a 2x4 and 2x2 IKEA Expedit (which worked out perfectly!).

I was starring at my expedite last night thinking 'Oh my god, look at all the space wasted on this'.

It's really messy - but the red highlighted areas are the 'empty spaces' I thought were being wasted.  

The cubbies are nice and large, but most of the stuff I had in them barely took up half of the real estate given.  I was noticing that a lot of the upper half of the cubes weren't being utilized.  I started looking up Expedite solutions and found out that IKEA had insert drawers that seemed perfect to store my beauty products!

Ever since I moved to LA, I've had a huge struggle with my products because they weren't streamlined to fit my routine and everything was scattered all over the place! For example, I wake up in the morning and put on face products (sunscreen, foundation, concealer, blush) while I am curling or straightening my hair. I really need all of the products in my bathroom, but most of my face products are in my bedroom sitting around in one of the Expedit cubbies. I have a huge drawer in my bathroom filled with nail polishes, which I don't really need in the morning.  It's already jam packed and I don't have room to expand my collection. I would always think that it'll be super nice to move all of the polishes out and use that drawer to store my face products so I don't have to go back and forth so much in the morning.

 The current bathroom situation. Drawer is filled with nail polish (and some with nowhere to go), and no place for face products..

I thought this will be a perfect opportunity to clean up and re-organize my products.  So today I headed to IKEA and brought home 2 inserts for my expedit.  They are priced 20 dollars per pack (which I think is a rip off considering that the Expedit itself is 69 dollars!).

Here's how it looks like when it is assembled and inserted.
Nice and flush!!

...And this is how it looks with the new tenants moving in. I have 7 China Glaze and 1 OPI bottle lined up.

As you can see the fit is perfect for these sized bottles. I have more than enough breathing room with the height of the drawer too.



First drawer is filled with China Glaze, OPI, Essie, Chanel, Mac, American Apparel, Butter London and Illamasqua (holds about 80 polishes in one shelf).



The second drawer has Zoya, Orly, NYX, Revlon, Sinful Colors, Sally Hansen, Missha and random other brands.


The second set will go two cubes left.


Here's how the top shelf looks like with my lipsticks filled in. I love how it holds over 100+ lipsticks with no struggle at all.

And last but not least, this is how it looks like all closed.

I'm still in the process of organizing/rearranging my products, but I wanted to hurry and share with you guys this great storage solution :p I know it's not the reinvention of the wheel, but I love the size and compactness of the insert shelves.  Expedit is a wildly popular IKEA product that sits in so many people's places, and if you're a junkie like me, the inserts could be a great solution to tuck everything away in an organized manner.

Now I can save some time with my morning routine. :)
It's great for me anyway because I usually paint my nails at night while watching the TV or sitting on my bed and doing the computer.


Here's a peek of my bathroom where some of my foundations are taking refuge.

I've also started to move in some face products to where the polishes were once residing.

I will have an updated post when everything is settled, cleaned up and presentable.. :p
I just wanted to share my new inserts and couldn't wait to finish up before posting.

Yay for IKEA and their brilliant small space solutions!

I posted this on my Instagram, but wanted to share on the blog too :)
I have to admit. After posting my previous post, I went back to TJMaxx and got 9 more bottles of nail polish... -.-
So here's a NOTD shot of two of those new colors : China Glaze Galactic Gray and China Glaze Glitz n' Pieces.


Galactic Gray is Holographic finish, which is really REALLY hard to see in real life. You have to stare at it for the longest time at a very close distance to notice the slight nuance of holographic effects on the nails.
The application is muddy and thick, which makes it hard to achieve a smooth surface. The longevity of the product is amazing short too - lasting only a day before chipping at the tips of my nails.  I screwed up on most of my application and decided to top the imperfect areas with chunky glitter.

So, enter Glitz n' Pieces. Glitz n'Pieces is a chunky glitter with Silver large hexagon glitters and smaller black glitter bits/bars mixed in a clear formula. I dabbed the glitter on the bumpy surfaces to hide the streaks, and it turned out really well. It is included in the glitter line of products I reviewed in my last post.

Anyway, the gray combo looks really nice and bling in real life - so if you're into bling nails, try this combo! :)

What do you have on your nails today? ^_^

Lately, I've been really into painting my nails.  Maintaining nails has always been a category where I lacked any sort of motivation because my nails are so brittle and soft.  They bend and peal like wet paper and I rarely get to keep all ten fingernails at the same length.

Here's the funny thing though. After lipstick, nail polish is my next favorite category to collect, so I have had a truck load of polishes that have been patiently waiting to be abused by me for some time.  At this point of my life, I'm all about consuming my products.  I used to be very protective and stingy about using my products, since I valued them more as a whole package than anything but to be used, but now I'm on a mission to get a great use out of all the products I've committed myself to.

So, yesterday I strolled into TJMaxx thinking that I had to buy a mirror.

I'm sure when anyone who saw me at TJMaxx, whether when I was grabbing every mug from the home section or when I was picking out every single workout pants at mid-shin length, would no doubt notice that I like to hoard anything and everything I like and see.  I have a TJMaxx close by, so close I can occasionally stroll in and randomly pick up things without having to make it an occasion. While fumbling through the baby section (I wandered into that section because my parrots like to play with baby toys), I found a whole new section filled with nail polishes!! The brands carried there are OPI, Orly, China Glaze and some other brands.

After checking the conditions of the polishes and confirming that they weren't opened or weirdly dried out, I started picking up all the chunky glitter polishes I could get my hands on.

Well... let's rephrase it. I had my bf glaring at me with disgust asking why I needed more nail polishes than what I already had - so I was only able to pick up six, and the six are as shown above.

I've always been a cream/solid color girl, but I feel like I've overdone that - now I want wilder nails that are eye catching! So naturally, the products I picked up were heavy and chunky glitter polishes.

I PINK I CAN

This shade was super famous and sought out in Korea for a while. The chunky glitter really pops and reflects light even from far away.  Out of all the colors I bought, this one is the brightest and glitteriest when paired with a dark background color.

I Pink I Can consists of large and medium hexagon glitters.
The application is solid. You can pick out the bigger chunks and strategically place them where you want them to be. The formula dries quickly and isn't messy at all. I mean, overall it is a transparent formula with pink glitter specks in it.  When dried, the surface does maintain some texture so a top coat to even out the surface would be a good idea.  I haven't tried the polish with other background colors, but I think it works great with what I already had on my nails.

Scattered & Tattered

This is my favorite out of all of the six.  Or maybe I like it so much because it went so well with my nail color I had used for the background color.

Scattered & Tattered is clear base and consists of large, medium and small hexagons. By the time you're at medium size, it's hard to tell that what shape the glitters are. It also has small round black glitters and glitter bars (which I thought were a defect when I first saw them), which nicely balances out the red.

This is the perfect holiday topping!

Pure Joy

This is the only one I didn't swatch on my nails since I already had nail polish on. It's a tomato red polish with gold medium sized glitters in it. I solely bought it because it was the red shade I like. I will update you guys on this shade in a separate post.

Bling It On

Another clear based polish with large, medium and small periwinkle glitters mixed with small black glitter bits and bars. The color looks a bit blue in certain angles. I don't think it matched well with my dark background nail color, but when seen in the bottle it is an absolute beauty.
This one in particular doesn't seem to reflect light as much as the others. It's great for those who want subtle, yet pronounced glitters on their nails.

I'm still thinking that it's more of the color combo that didn't do Bling it on any justice.

Application and finish is about the same as Scattered & Tattered. Rough finishing but the glitters don't scrape off.

Mosaic Madness

Gorgeous sapphire blue in large, medium and small hexagon sizes mixed with small black glitter bits and bars.  Mosaic madness reflects light much better than Bling it on and is a bit more noticeable on the nails.  I like how it makes your nails holographic when the light hits it.

Same as the above glitters. The application is solid with a bit rough finishing.

Get Carried Away

Get Carried Away has a bit of black in its base. Mixed with silver and muted red (same color glitters as Scattered & Tattered above) large hexagon glitters, it also has medium sized silver round glitter and small black glitter bits + bars.

I personally don't think the application is chunky or thick, but I can see how some people might not like the formula.  It dries really quickly and the fun part about the large glitters is you can position it however you want to.




So what do you guys think?
The bottles were $2.99 each, which isn't bad at all for me (considering that CG goes for 6-8 dollars/ea).
I'm so excited to play with these! The swatches were done on my pre-existing nail color so the combination on some were really off.

Which one would you guys go for? Any shades that tickle your interest? :)


PS. The nail color I had on was OPI Royal Rajah Ruby, which is an absolutely gorgeous deep blood-red color on its own.