Wheels, Wheels, Wheels!

I was going to have another mani for you guys today but I never got around to redoing my nails today as planned.  Instead, I have something else entirely!  I was asked about my nail wheels the other day, so I figured I might as well blog about them so you can all see how I keep track of my ever-growing collection of polish colors.  My system isn't perfect, I'm sure...but it works for me, and I like it!

I start with a package of Nail Polish & Art Wheels which I get at Sally Beauty Supply.  It's $5.99 for a pack of 10, which I don't think is a bad deal considering how helpful they are!  

Then I use a fine tip black Sharpie marker and number the nail wheel from 1 to 18 (I put a dark mark in place of the "1" so that I can see the beginning at a glace).  I sort my nail wheels by Brand (except for brands I know I won't own a lot of, then I make "Misc" wheels for those).  I put an "A" under the brand on the first wheel of that brand an when I have more than 18 colors of a particular brand I just make a new wheel and label a "B",  "C" etc.  

Here are visuals of two of my China Glaze wheels:

The reason I do the numbering this way is because it's much easier to write the numbers on the wheels than it is to try and squeeze the polish names onto the small space.  I tried once to write the names on the back of the swatches but I found that the marker showed through to the other side when it was behind a lighter color.

To go with each wheel, there is a corresponding index card.  The card is labelled the same as the wheel (ie: China Glaze 'A', China Glaze 'B', etc) and numbered 1 to 18, just as the wheel is.  So the name of the colors for each number on the wheel is written on the card next to its respective number.  This way when I see a color I want to use, I just look up on the card to see what color it is so I can find it in my stash.

Here are pics of the China Glaze cards that go with the wheels pictured above:

 

I do this for every polish I acquire before I add it to my stash, that way I have a nail wheel swatch and a card reference for every color in my collection.  I don't worry about keeping them in color order because that would be impossible.  When I have a batch of new colors to add, I do try for a "rainbow" order for each new group I add, but overall there is really no order to the colors on the wheels, but that's fine since I can still find everything easily with the cards!

So there you have it!  Do you like my system?  What kind of organizational system do you use for your collection? :)