I currently have quite a big collection consisting mainly of Holo Taco.
Over the past few days the thought of destashing some has crossed my mind. I know I have several polishes I barely use, but I am afraid that if I get rid of them I will want to use them… on top of that I am also such a completionist😭
To the people who have destashed before, how did you do it? Was there a mental hurdle to tackle and if yes, how did you get over it? What was the entire process like for you?
by melsmanimagic
6 Comments
try r/wehavepolishathome
I’m following this because it’s a very honest start to a meaningful discussion I need to have with myself too. 🥹
My stash isn’t nearly this HT-heavy but I relate to the term “completionist” a little too well! 😢
Do you barely use them because of quantity or because you don’t like them?
I’ve destashed for 2 reasons: (1) I didn’t like a brush & (2) I highly disliked the polish itself. I regret destashing the ones where I didn’t like the brush. It was early in my nail polish collection journey & I wish I would have just either decanted the polish or switched the brushes. The ones I disliked, I *really* disliked to the point I didn’t want to wear them, even to try them out different ways.
My strategy now is to keep everything & try them out various ways. I’ve learned that wearing something a couple times doesn’t give me enough opportunity to figure out how I feel about something when I’m not sure. A few of the polishes I thought I just didn’t love have ended up working way better layered or as toppers or some other way I didn’t originally consider.
So, now I just keep everything unless I truly dislike it. But, I give myself a challenge to find ways to better like those polishes. This is working well for me.
I also recognize I have a lot of polishes, so I make sure to wear through all of my polishes as regularly as possible.
Ok this sounds dumb but stay with me: I started to think of them as my little bottles of magic. If the color didn’t feel like magic to me, I needed to get it to someone it could do its magic for. They can’t all be my particular magic, and sometimes I thought something would be my magic but it wasn’t. Or two bottles did the same magic and I didn’t need both. And this would make room for more magic too (the worst part of destash is the permission I feel to find more magic). Like we’re all these alchemists, creating little energies and I need my collection to be as powerful as it can be and I want yours to be too.
I’m also a HUGE completionist and a recovering fomo girly. Especially when it came to HT… I would buy everything each release, just so I wouldn’t miss out. I remember hating the rock candy release but I still bought it cause my collection needed to be complete and what if I suddenly love them anyway?!
What helped me was buying from other brands and finding a lot of them better, prettier or more unique. It kind of released me from the collectors mind on brand level and moved more into building my ultimate, unique collection with true collectibles and where I love each polish.
I destashed about 40 bottles of HT now (I’m so proud 🥲) and I feel so much more relaxed about my hobby because fomo isn’t driving my shopping anymore. I now only buy HT when it’s LE or during sales.
Also, it’s true what they say, no polish is unique (especially when it comes to HT as they are always a little behind in trends and new finishes).
Honestly just realizing I had more stuff than I’d ever be able to get through in one lifetime and I was creating trash for someone else to deal with later on motivated me both to destash + stop shopping as much.