All About Swatchicles!
12th March, 2012 - Posted by Emily - 40 Comments
This post is going to be all about swatchicles! Isn’t that the cutest word? “What on earth is that?” , do I hear you ask? Well it’s quite simply a portmanteau of swatches and popsicles! The nail tips (swatches) are attacked to popsicle sticks.
The tools you need to create swatchicles are:
- Fake Nail Tips, I got mine from Born Pretty Store, you get 500 for about $6.02. I only used the three largest sizes, 0, 1 and 2.
- Sticks! You can either use popsickle sticks or thinner sticks, mine are from a Belgian Office Supply called AVA and are called stirrers. They’re about 0,5cm wide and 14cm tall. I paid €4/$5 for 1000 sticks.
- Glue! I know some people used Helmer’s Glue for their swatchicles but I used a glue gun. If you have settings on your glue gun make sure to use the lowest, if you don’t have a temperature setting (like me) make sure to wait a few seconds (5 to 10) before attaching the plastic nail tips to the sticks with glue since they can melt slightly from the 200°C+ heat.
- A pen to write the name/brand and other information on the sticks, I used a Staedtler Pigment Liner in 0.3 but any other pen can work, you’ll have to try it out and see which one works best for you.
Once you have the nail tips attached with glue to the sticks you can start painting them! I painted mine in batches, I had platters full of sticks and a note which told me at which layer I was. Most polishes required two or more layers but I never did more than five.
On the front side I wrote the brand and name of the polish, on the back I have a number which indicates how many layers I used to create the desired coverage.
This is my full collection swatched! Not including top and base coats. I think this is about 300 sticks. I arranged them by colour; neutrals, red/pink, orange/yellow, green, blue, purple, black/white/grey and glitters/crackles.
Then I made a box to hold my swatchicles! You can keep them in a big jar but as the colours get mixed up it’s hard to find what you’re looking for. I made this box out of cardboard and created the partitions, attaching everything with a hot glue gun. I keep a box with used wrapping papers and found this pretty baroque print, I attached that with a hot glue gun as well. The black bits of the design are soft and fuzzy!
And here is the finished result! A box of colour! It looks so pretty on my desk, I cannot stop staring at my polish rainbow! It really brightens up my day. It’s so much easier to find the colours I need now. During the creative process of creating nail art this method saves me so much time. It also makes comparing colours a lot easier, by doing this I found out that I have a lot more dupes than I thought! Hmmm! Whoops, not so great haha. 
This process took me a few weeks to finish, at one point I thought I would never finish it at all but it came together in the end! So happy! How do you keep track of your stash? Do you have a special way of organizing your colours or making an inventory? Do you want to make swatchicles too after seeing this post? If you need tips on how to go about this project let me know in the comments and I will gladly help you with any questions you might have! Hope you enjoyed this post! 
40 Comments
Bellachique
March 12th, 2012 at 11:39 PM
What a great idea! I really should do something like this. It's a great way to keep track of your nail polishes
Emily
March 12th, 2012 at 11:41 PM
Thanks!! It's very time consuming to do but honestly I enjoyed every second of it haha. It's very soothing to me, just sitting there painting all the swatchicles haha. And yes it gives you a much better overview of your collection. I could honestly recommend it to anyone! (:
Courtney
March 13th, 2012 at 12:09 AM
I LOVE seeing people's swatches. There are so many creative ways to do it. I currently have all my polishes swatches on fake nails, and they are separated by color groups. I've been debating with myself if I should keep them in the little containers they came in, or glue them on sticks, like you did. And then I see the "nail polish display tips" on ebay, and it makes me want to just get those so they can be displayed all pretty. Ugh, the inner organizer/OCD person in me can't make up my mind which is best.
İrem GÖKER
March 13th, 2012 at 12:09 AM
Great idea but ı dont have a stick :/
Emily
March 13th, 2012 at 12:16 AM
@Courtney, OMG me too haha! I just love staring at people's swatches haha. Glueing them onto sticks gives you the advantage of being able to write the polish brand and name underneath, I guess once you have a large number that's pretty useful! I think you need a bit of OCD to put this much time into organizing haha but it's so worth it!
@Irem, you can find sticks like these in craft stores! Ask around maybe someone knows where you can find this locally! Or you can order them online! (:
Azhdarcho
March 13th, 2012 at 12:23 AM
What a good idea! I think I might go do this tomorrow.
Floortje
March 13th, 2012 at 12:24 AM
Wow, this is such a great idea! I'd love to do this – but I don't think I have the time. Too bad, though.. Maybe in a few months' time
pamela
March 13th, 2012 at 12:24 AM
wow, those are a lot! but a great idea though!
Emily
March 13th, 2012 at 12:28 AM
Floortje, Thanks! It is very time consuming yes, there's always the option of buying those clear prefab swatches with sticks. It's so much fun to do though! I really enjoyed it (:
missy
March 13th, 2012 at 7:59 PM
i just did swatchicles too! it took me about 5 days to swatch my 300 color collection but it was totally fun. i love your box – i put all of mine in clear cups by color family – but i may attempt to create (or buy) a box like this instead so i can display them!
Emily
March 13th, 2012 at 8:19 PM
Aw that's so awesome Missy! You mustmustmust share pictures I would love to see it! Looking at people's swatchicles is just so ahhh! I love it haha!
I wanted to buy a box too but I couldn't find one that suited my needs so I made a bespoke one haha. It's pretty easy to do, I had to redo mine so it's kind of trial and error but it's worth it in the end!
missy
March 13th, 2012 at 9:34 PM
well i did it! im super diy so i knew id rather do it than buy one i didnt love as much. i had this very cute pink and white houndstooth scrapbooking paper that begged for use with this project. it turned out really good and it actually took me less than an hour – was way easier than i expected it to be! thanks so much for such an inspirational post – now i can display them cutely and it takes up WAY less space than the cups did! will post pics up on my blog later today!
Emily
March 13th, 2012 at 9:39 PM
Ahhhh omg YAY Missy!!!
That pink houndstooth paper sounds so gorgeous! I'm so honoured and happy I inspired you to make that. I cannot wait to see your post!!!! 
missy
March 13th, 2012 at 11:25 PM
here it is Emily – hope i did your awesome idea justice!
http://gnarlygnails.blogspot.com/2012/03/swatchic…
Emily
March 13th, 2012 at 11:30 PM
That looks so amazing! Thanks so much for linking back to me! I love your box!!!
Isha
March 14th, 2012 at 2:16 AM
Goddamn dat zijn een boel swatchicles zeg! Wel heel erg leuk gedaan, ziet er inderdaad lekker vrolijk uit.
Als mijn tweede doos met nagellak vol is, moet ik dit misschien ook maar eens gaan overwegen!
Emily
March 14th, 2012 at 2:25 AM
Muhaua *kijkt schuldig*. Ja is echt heel leuk om te hebben en gebruiken en naar te kijken haha, en zal ook minder werk zijn als je minder nagellakjes hebt haha ;')
Parker
March 14th, 2012 at 6:32 AM
Genius! I love your website! Can I "pin it" on Pinterest?
Emily
March 14th, 2012 at 12:18 PM
Thanks so much! And sure, go ahead!
Niki
March 14th, 2012 at 10:00 PM
GENIUS!!!! I have mine on a wheel thing that I got from Sally's, but They are awfully awkward lol and there is nowhere to write on them! Plus if i want to do a marble or any other kind of design, they are too close to each other to do it =/ I love this idea!!!
Emily
March 14th, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Thanks haha! I can't take credit for this idea though but it's made my life so much easier (and more colourful haha!). You should totally do it as well! I started with wheels too but I didn't love them either, this method is so great! (:
Lipstick Fridays
March 15th, 2012 at 5:50 PM
I am so in love with this idea – its absolutely fab – Im off to hunt for some nails and sticks on ebay xx
Great blog xx Wanted to invite you to check out my 450 follower giveaway – all you have to do is follow through bloglovin and gfc for two entries – you could win £50 of Nars products of your choice xx Hope to see you there – you have a fab blog – if you follow leave a comment and Ill be sure to follow back xxx
Emily
March 16th, 2012 at 1:35 AM
Thanks! Have fun making swatchicles haha! I had a blast doing mine. If you make a post about them let me know I would love to see it!
Emily
March 18th, 2012 at 6:08 PM
Sooo going to do this! I usually randomly pick a colour polish out of my polish bag, but this would be so much easier! And you get to see what the polish really looks like
FAB!! 
Emily
March 18th, 2012 at 6:14 PM
Thanks! I'm so glad you like it! If you take pictures please send them to me I'd love to see what you come up with!
xoxo
ashley
March 21st, 2012 at 9:47 AM
hey emily, do u recommend using top coat for the swatchicles? do u think it will be useful? i want my swatchicles to last and is wondering if a top coat helps… thanks
Emily
March 21st, 2012 at 11:48 AM
Hey Ashley! I personally didn't use topcoat on any of my swatchicles because this way it showed me the true finish of the polish. In terms of lasting I am not sure if it makes a difference, they definitely won't chip so if that's a concern, no worries! Hope that helps!
xoxo
Liz
March 27th, 2012 at 7:00 AM
When I did/do this, I painted one coat all over, then when I did a second coat I left a little tiny bit without it, and so on. The more transparent polishes ended up looking sort of like gradients. That way, I know how a polish looks between the number of coats and also so I can put the swatches on top of one another and better predict how they would look if I layer them. Because the more transparent ones take many coats to be passable by themselves, but I like to see how it would look with only one or two coats over the different base colors.
I hope I just made sense. Haha
Emily
March 27th, 2012 at 10:52 AM
Yeah that made sense Liz! I added amount of layers at the back so I know if a polish is good coverage or not but I like your method a lot as well! I'd love to see a picture of your gradient sticks if you have any, they sound so pretty!
Adrianne
March 28th, 2012 at 8:15 AM
Wow, this is insane! Must have taken forever. Fantastic idea though, and the way it looks and how easy it must make colour matching and choosing must be totally worth it. Will definitely try this when I get a chance to expand my nail polish collection as I don't have many atm.
Emily
March 28th, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Yes this took me ages Adrianne haha!
But it is TOTALLY worth it. I would say go for it, start now when you have a smaller collection. It was a lot of work just because it took me so long to finally get supplies to do this and my collection grew too big haha!
Merel
April 23rd, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Wauw, dit is vooral handig omdat je inderdaad de naam op het stokje kan zetten! Zo vind je het weer veel makkelijker terug in je stash. Slim!!
bleubulle
May 8th, 2012 at 11:54 PM
Oh wow ! what a great idea ! <3 thank for all your beautiful manucure
keep doing it 
!
cookie
June 24th, 2012 at 6:24 PM
Great idea! I just painted all my colours on nail tips but couldn't think of anything but putting them in a box.
Jolien
July 8th, 2012 at 2:36 PM
Omg! I was looking for a technique to make those! Thanks for sharing, it looks superpro!
Emily
July 8th, 2012 at 3:13 PM
Thanks so much! If you try them let me know and send me pictures
Rachel
November 8th, 2012 at 7:47 AM
Would you ever put your swatchicles in a book to be able to look at them better? I found this post and i am wondering if you would know how to do this with the homemade swatchicles that you made. I tried putting them in plastic pockets in a binder, but they are not as flat as the store bought ones you an buy and don't lie flat enough for the binder to close very well. Do you have any ideas? I was thinking of just getting a bigger binder because I don't think they would even work in a scrapbook like what she did in the blog post below. . http://www.thenailjunkie.com/2012/09/my-nail-poli…
veryemily
November 8th, 2012 at 1:56 PM
I personally wouldn’t opt for using a book. Keeping my swatchicles in a box allows me to instantly see and reach for exactly the shades I need. Browsing pages and pages of a book with colours would take a look longer I’d imagine and you also don’t have the benefit of being able to hold them next to your hands to see how the shade suits you, etc.
You could opt for something like this which already has holes so you could put them inside a binder. http://www.bornprettystore.com/color-display-char…
emempal
December 27th, 2012 at 9:06 PM
Hi!
This is such a great idea! I was wondering if you recommend clear fake nails or white fake nails to then glue on? Thanks
veryemily
December 27th, 2012 at 11:07 PM
It depends what you prefer. I use clear fake nails personally! If you swatch sheer polishes or glitter top coats you can easily see the opacity with the clear fake nails for example. Both have their pros and cons I guess but it doesn\’t matter too much!
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