What to Wear?

Good afternoon, ladies and gents!

We've all been there. It's that pivotal moment in time when you're standing in your closet, staring blankly at your clothes. There are so many options! Too many options. You can't very well go wandering around in your underwear, though, so... what do you wear??

The same can be said for nail polish. In fact, it may be even more of an issue with nail polish. Should I go with a glitter? A frost? A creme? Do I want to wear a green or an orange? Do I go with a plain mani, or do I do nail art? Maybe I'll do some stamping... but which plate do I use? 

Many a time I've sat in front of my polish rack, doe-eyed and drooling. Minutes would tick by, and my poor naked nails would stare up at me accusingly as if to say, "Pick something already!" After wasting so much time, I decided that I needed a system.

The first system I incorporated included a list of nine manicures I could choose from: French tips, gradient, water marble, dotticure, stamping, decals, boo box, stripers or striping tape, and glitter or plain. This way I would use all the nail art supplies that I have.

(I'm not sure I've explained my "boo box" before, so I'll touch on that quickly. My boo box consists of polishes that are really old or are colors or finishes I don't really care for.)

I could do a water marble for one manicure, and then a gradient for the next. I wouldn't allow myself to do another water marble until I had gone through the entire list. However, I did let myself have a little flexibility by combining manicures--for example, I could do a French tip with stamping, but count it as a french tip so that I could stamp again. Or I could do decals with something out of my boo box so that I could do decals again. 

It was a decent system, but I still ran into the problem of what colors and finishes to use. And since I had a tendency to gravitate towards certain polishes, other polishes that I liked weren't getting used. Thus, the second--and currently used--system was born.

I created a spreadsheet that listed every polish, base coat, and top coat that I own--even the boo box polishes. When it's time for a new mani, I'll pull up random.org and have it pick a number. I'll then go through my spreadsheet to find which polish coordinates with that number. I have to use that particular polish in my next mani. I can wear it on its own, or combine it with other polishes to do nail art. If random.org happens to pick a base or top coat, I have free reign in the nail design as long as I use that particular base or top coat. 

Still, even this system isn't perfect. For example, the most recent polish picked is Nabi's "Abyss", which is a chunky blue glitter. I really don't want to wear this on all my nails, so I plan to do a couple of accent nails with it. The problem is that I can't decide what to do on my other nails! I've decided to go with KleanColor "Metallic Aqua", as it matches the glitter very well, but I can't figure out what nail art to do with it! I've even tried falling back on the old system... I'm just stuck. 

I really can't complain, though. These systems have definitely cut down on the slack-jawed, brain-dead, staring-at-my-polishes-for-hours dilemma.

How do YOU decide what to wear?