Tracking your Polish Stash with a Gmail Contacts List
You know you’re an addict when your nail polish gets its own email address.
- observation from my sister after reading this post.
More times than I care to admit, I’ve returned home from the store with the exact same polish I already own. It’s like I’m drawn to the same colors over and over again. There are some amazing polish stash spreadsheets out there (examples at the end of this post), but I wanted something I could easily manage with my iPhone…which my husband says I cradle in my hand while I’m sleeping. I seriously do not let go of that phone! So today, instead of a mani, I’m going to show you my system for Trackin’ the Stash. This may not be the best way, but it’s the way I do it.
“Processing” some new stash yesterday.
Photo Credit: my daughter
This technique uses a Gmail Contacts List to store polish names and info. I can get to this list from any computer or my phone and it’s always updated. With this method, I can search and sort my polishes easily (googledocs can be cumbersome on-the-go) and I can store a picture of each polish with each record. This is a long post, but the process is easy peasy.
1. Set up a new Gmail account
To avoid getting polish names muddled with my personal and professional contact lists, I created a separate gmail account called workplaypolishcollection. I don’t receive (or even check) mail at this account. I only use it for the Contacts List.
2. Set up access to your new Gmail account from your Phone
Next, I set up the new Gmail account on my iPhone using Exchange settings (instead of the Gmail prompts).
The Exchange Settings will ask you for a server name. Enter “m.google.com”. I renamed the Description to “Polish Collection”.
On this screen, I chose to sync contacts only. Turn Mail and Calenders to OFF.
Now when you go to Contacts (the brown icon with a person on it), there will be a separate Contact List at the bottom. Your screen may look different than mine depending on how many other accounts you access from your phone.
3. Create an Entry for Each Polish
Click on your Polish Collection Contact List and hit the + button to add an entry. The First Name, Last Name and Company Name fields are “searchable”. So I enter the Polish Brand in the Last Name Field, Polish Name as the First Name, and the color(s) as the Company Name. You can scroll down and add a Field if you’d like. I activate the Notes Field and enter the Collection Name, Release Year and Finish. This info isn’t searchable, but it’s nice to have available. Finally, I hit the Add Photo Button and take a picture of the bottle in good light. I zoom way into the bottle so I can see the polish up close.
I find it’s easier to do part of this process from a computer (logged into your Gmail account) because I can type so much faster from there. After I’ve typed the entries…I use the phone to snap the pics. The photos are stored at a very low resolution so the pics won’t be that great…but it’s enough to jog your memory if you’re out and about. Here’s a screenshot of a completed entry for Zoya Arizona.
I don’t have everything inventoried yet, but I’ve made it a habit to enter all new polishes as soon as I buy them. Here’s a screenshot of the beginning of the “Z’s” in my list. The polishes show up organized by brand, then alphabetical by name.
*Note: if you view “All Contacts” (which combines every contact from every account), then the polish names will show up mingled in with your friends and families! But no worries. Just view the lists separately.
4. Use it!
I search the list all the time while I’m out on the run. Here’s a screenshot of the results of a search for “Black”. All of my black polishes are listed and I can click on the name to see the rest of the info. Cool, huh?
I hope this is useful to someone. I’m assuming the process is similar for an Android phone, but I’m not sure. Also, there may be a way to import contacts into a Gmail account from a CSV file; so if you already have an awesome spreadsheet, you may be able to map the fields and export your entries into this setup.
And finally, as promised, here are a few links to some amazing stash spreadsheets.
What’s your method for tracking your stash?
Comments (28)
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Sites That Link to this Post
- Aqua Glitter | A Sparkling Finish | July 20, 2012
- Memory Lane: My 100th Post!! | work / play / polish | August 29, 2012
- Essie Armed and Ready | work / play / polish | November 7, 2012
- Mani Monday – Armed and Ready! | December 10, 2012
- My DIY polish organisation system… | Nail Art Nouveau… | December 24, 2012
This is amazing! I was trying to think of an awesome way to keep track of which polishes I own and this is such a good organization method! I am totally doing this now.
Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions. It took me a few tries to figure out how I wanted to do it. But it has come in handy a few times already! :)
I’ve added their finishes as nicknames. This way I can search for “glass fleck” or “neon” and easily find those polishes! It does take quite a while to enter all of this information in though. I find it doesnt format how I want it if I go through gmail so it’s easier for me to just do it all on my phone.
Great idea with the nicknames!!! I will do that too. Yes. It does take awhile. But now that I’m all caught up it’s easy to add one (or twelve…ha ha) at a time.
Your sister is right. But email address aside, this picture of your stash was taken in your HOME?! Most impressive.
Sadly, it has grown since that pic. I thought my hubby wouldn’t notice but last night he said “Hey, there are 5 rows of Zoyas now. Weren’t there only 3 before?” The increase may be more obvious than I thought.
I love that he knows what Zoya is.
Reblogged this on Polish Me, Please! and commented:
This is genius!! You have got to check out this blog.
Holy crap that’s genius.
what a clever idea! i might have to do this on my ipad. i have yet to buy the exact same polish, but i definitely have several very close matches!!
What kind of racks do you use for those lovelies? And where did you get them?
I’m online now writing tomorrow’s post…sorry if my reply is stalkerishly fast! :) Just search for “clear acrylic nail polish racks” on eBay. They hold about 90 bottles a piece and cost about $30. I still have polish in boxes but I’m trying to slowly migrate everything to the racks. It’s more inspiring when you can see everything in one glance.
I just saved all mine in a word doc, this is so much better though, I’ll have to reorganise!
Love this idea!! I have an excel spreadsheet for mine that i can email to my phone and look at on the go but i think this would be so much easier! (after getting it all entered of course, lol)
THIS. IS. GENIUS. I am lazy so I just created a group in my gmail contacts called ‘Polish Problem’ lol. but it’s nice to have when I am out shopping instead of calling hubby and asking him to hunt through the collection for a ‘kinda sparkly purple’ lol
Brilliant! And as a side note can I say how happy I am to know I’m not the only one who buys the same polish over and over! That’s how I started my series ” I Must Really Like the Polish” where I show the 7 bottles of gold, 5 bottles of hot pink with purple duo-chrome and I don’t even know how many Commander in Chic type colors I have. Ooof!
I’m going to try this but I don’t have an iPhone ….yet. :)
Reblogged this on Glittericious and commented:
This is brilliant. All of my nail polishes are in boxes because I had to store them when construction workers came. When I unpack them I’ll organize them too!
This is such a cool idea!
Reblogged this on 10 Nice Nails and commented:
Those of you who know me know that I do just about everything on my iPhone. This is an excellent way to keep track of your nail polish stash!
How many polishes do you have?:
This is BRILLIANT, absolutely brilliant. I live with iPhone in hand, too, so this may be a fantastic solution for me.
very cool!
I just found an app for this called “nail polish book” :)
I’ve heard about this app. I need to go check it out!