I love nail polish.  I have more bottles of nail polish than I do pairs of shoes (pretty impressive, if you’ve ever seen my shoe collection…).  It must be genetic, because my daughter is also a big fan of all things nail-related.  If you have a nail polish/accessory addict to shop for this holiday season, here’s a great way to give them a gift they’ll love without spending a fortune…

The Inspiration:  This summer, I picked up a nail polish gift set for my daughter.  The one I got was by Wet N Wild, but I’ve seen them by other companies as well.  However, they’re usually not the “prestige” brands of nail polish I prefer to use.  This one is available at CVS right now for $6.99 with a $3 reward:

The Container:  Little metal buckets make great containers for a nail polish collection.  They’re super-cute and conveniently portable.  When assembled correctly as a gift set, you can see all the colors/accessories inside easily.  These mini buckets are available at most crafting stores, dollar stores, and sometimes in the dollar sections of mass merchandisers.

Mini Blue Bucket – $.99 at Hobby Lobby. Mini Wash Tub Bucket, $1.99 at Hobby Lobby.

Contents: 

– Nail Polishes:  You can raid the clearance aisles of Target, Ulta, Sephora, and other stores to collect enough nail polishes to fill the container.  (Ulta usually has a great selection of name-brand nail polishes that are at least half off – and you can use Ulta store coupons to get them cheaper!)  You want enough to create a “ring” around the inside of the container.

– Accessories:  Fill the center by buying cutesy, colorful nail files & buffers,nail polish strips, etc.  (Dollar Tree stores sell little nail polish glitter tubes!)

– “Travel” Items:  Look for nail polish remover pads in the selection of travel-friendly items at your local drug, beauty, or mass merchandiser store.

Assembly: 

– Fill the bottom of the bucket with a block of styrofoam just tall enough to allow enough room for the nail polishes to be displayed (without falling out).

– Cut a circle of cardboard and put it on top of the styrofoam block.  Use a compass to make a perfect-ish circle, or you can use a can or jar as a template.  You can also use a small paper plate if you have one handy that works for your container size.

– Make “slits” in the center of the cardboard to insert nail files, etc. in an upright position.

– To keep all the nail polishes from sliding around, tape them to each other with clear tape.

– Elevate smaller items in the middle with colorful tissue paper.  Tape them to other items to keep them in place.

Alternate Assembly: Instead of putting the nail polishes in a ring, you can create “steps” with cardboard, and display them more like the example bucket in the first photo.

Voila!  The perfect gift for the nail-polish obsessed!  Not only will you be giving a great gift, you can take pride in having chosen and assembled it yourself.  Oh, yeah, and you’re saving money, too…