*Before we begin, I need to state that this post is not sponsored in any way or form. I just really like this app and wanted to share it with anyone else who may need it in their life!

Any avid collector of nail polish knows what the struggle it is to maintain their nail polish collections. The more nail polish you own, the harder it is to keep track of what polishes you already have. I'll go shopping and find a nail polish that I like, bring it home, and realize that it's a shade that I already own. I used to take pictures of my swatch boards back when my collection was manageable, which helped when I was trying to figure out if I owned similar shades. But now that I own somewhere between 250-300 polishes, I'm apprehensive to buy a lot of polishes because I don't remember if I already own them or not.

So I decided to browse the internet for an app that would help me keep track of what I own. I mean sure, I can keep a list of all the polishes and shades that I own in the notes app on my phone. But I'm a visual. I also wanted to be able to search my polishes by colours, finish, textures, etc as well.

I found two apps that seemed to be what I was searching for. The first is Nail Polish Book and the second is Glossy.

At first, Nail Polish Book seemed okay, but I wasn't able to add subcategories to search by. So I downloaded Glossy instead, which started to be love at first site... until I realized the app was free with "in app purchases". The purchases honestly aren't that expensive, but I don't like having to pay to use a full app. Without the in app purchases you can only store 5 polishes... and when you have 250+ polishes that isn't very helpful. I did like the features in Glossy though. You are able to store four images for each polish which made it extremely helpful to view the polish, the swatch, and any nail art that you've created with the polish. To increase the lookbook and add more pictures, the price is $2.79USD to unlock. The price to add unlimited polishes to your collection (which is 100% necessary if you own more than 5 polishes) is also $2.79. However, if you wanted to fully unlock all the features, the price is a mere $3.99 (which saves you $1.59). Honestly, for $4, that's a pretty good deal to keep track of your excessive nail polish collection!

Screen shots of the Glossy app from the App Store for iOS

But what if you don't want to pay money at all for in app purchases? What if you want to use an app that is entirely free?

After I realized that Glossy wasn't a completely free app, I went back to Nail Polish Book. After playing around with it for a bit, I realized that there is no need for subcategories. The app allows you to add certain features about each polish: the shade, brand, and collection. It also allows you to add comments for each polish, and you can use the comments section as a search tool! So let's say I want to add Sidewalk Psychic by Color Club to my collection and I want to be able to search it by two key words: "red" and "holographic". I make the shade "red" and add the word "holographic" to the comments section. Then voila! When I search either word, the polish will come up in my search results. The only thing that I wish I could change about Nail Polish Book would be the ability to add more than one picture for each polish, which means that Glossy is more helpful in that aspect. But I'd rather go for Nail Polish Book because it's completely free.

Screen shots of the Nail Polish Book app from the App Store for iOS

The one thing I'll note is that if you have giant collections of nail polish, compiling your inventory is going to be extremely time consuming ⎼ especially if you hate typing things out on your phone. And while I could just take pictures of my polishes myself, I want the images to look uniform. So I've been scouring the internet for stock photos of the polishes I own. This has been proving to be a difficult task as a lot of the polishes that I own are old, discontinued, indie, or not sold online (or the images that I find online are terribly pixelated). Another downfall is that both apps are only available for iOS devices, so they won't be compatible for anyone with Samsung, Huawei, Sony, or other non-Apple devices.

I'm extremely grateful to have found the Nail Polish Book app. The next time I go shopping and I'm unsure of if I already own a polish or not, I can consult my app! This is going to be so helpful. I'm never going to have to call my fiancé while I'm shopping again, and be like, "Babe. Do me a favour and go to the nail polish shelf. Go to the Color Club section on the top shelf. Go through them all and let me know if I already own Cherubic. It's a holo. Kinda browny-gold. Yes this is important. No, it can't wait. Babe, please. I need to know if I should buy this polish while it's here at Winners for $4 or if I should just come home. Ugh, it's not that hard. I only have like 10 of these holos for you to go through. You know what, fine. I'll just buy it anyways. Thanks for the help." Click. And trust me, I have had this conversation with him. He puts up with my nail polish nonsense so much! This app is going to be a life saver.

TopBox has sent me some Burt's Bees products to review, and I'm about to spill the tea on their makeup. I wanted to love the products that TopBox sent me because it's Burt we're talking about here. The brand is super popular and mostly known for their lip balms. They also don't test on animals, and their products are formulated without parabens, phthalates, SLS, petrolatum, talc, or synthetic fragrances. But the products didn't wow me, and one particular product was so awful that I'm debating tossing the bottle in the trash. And I hate wasting products.

Burt's Bees Goodness Glows Liquid Foundation - $20.99

Burt's Bees 100% Natural All Aglow Lip & Cheek Stick - $20.99

I had a slightly better experience with their 100% Natural All Aglow Lip & Cheek Sticks. I received the shades Suez Sands and Dahlia Dew. Their lip & cheek sticks retail at $20.99. I've never tried a cream blush or a stick blush, let alone one that doubles as a lip tint. This product tries to be versatile, but that makes application dirty and germy. If you're using this product on your face then your mouth, you're going to have to wipe it off between uses otherwise you're applying a cesspool of germs onto your lips. I wouldn't recommend using the stick directly on your face (which is literally its sole purpose as a stick product) because it will move your foundation around relentlessly. I found that the best way to apply it to my face to swipe a clean makeup brush against the stick, then to dab it onto my cheeks. You can also use your fingers to transfer the product from the stick to your skin, but the lighter you dab (which is easier with a brush), the less likely you'll be disturbing your foundation. Paired with the Goodness Glows foundation, blending the two were difficult, and if not done correctly, will make your foundation patchy all over. As a lip tint, the product applies well and will last an hour or so. And I'll admit, as a lip tint it does feel nourishing. Colour-wise, Suez Sands is a dusty rose colour and applied very lightly, which looked natural on my cheeks but not opaque enough to be noticeable on my lips. Dahlia Dew is very red and I found it to be too dark to look natural on my cheeks, but added a nice darker tint to my lips.

Burt's Bees 100% Natural Highlighter/Bronzer Stick - $20.99

The Burt's Bees 100% Natural All Aglow Highlighter Stick and 100% Natural All Aglow Bronzer Stick retail for $20.99. You will need to apply it the same way as you would the cheek/lip sticks: with a brush or your fingers. If you use the sticks directly on your face (more specifically, with the Goodness Glows foundation), you will smear all your foundation underneath. They have one highlighter shade called Opal Mist, which is a soft and opal/cream colour and applies lightly and gives a more natural and subtle looking glow. Their bronzer sticks have two shades, Golden Shimmer and Bronze Splash, which can be described as gold and darker gold. I received darker gold, and it applied like a gold highlighter. I wouldn't use this as a bronzer because it's too shimmery, but I'd definitely use it as a highlighter, especially for warm summer days.

Burt's Bees 100% Natural Nourishing Mascara - $14.99

Lastly, I also received their 100% Natural Nourishing Mascara, which retails for $14.99 and comes in the colours black brown and classic black. It's made with jojoba oil and glycerin to nourish lashes, and is supposed to be delicate for your eye area. I've seen many reviews saying that they thought it was clumpy and flaky. Personally, I didn't see any flakiness whatsoever. As for clumping, maybe a teensy bit, but that can always be rectified by twirling the mascara wand as you apply the product. This is a trick that I use with all my mascaras to create a flawless, clump-free finish. It also didn't hold up very well with water, so if you happen to shed a tear while wearing this mascara be prepared to have it run down your face. This product wasn't the best mascara that I've ever used, but it wasn't the worst. It didn't make my lashes look lengthened or anything, but is good for a more natural lift for my lashes. It was meh, but it's budget friendly for anyone looking for natural makeup products.

I wanted to love these products by Burt's Bees. I wanted to love how they were made from natural ingredients. But I feel like these products missed the mark for me. I can learn to use all the stick products so that I can apply them more expertly. The mascara I can work with. But these products were all meh. Not incredible, but not horrible either. And for meh products, I don't know if I could justify the price points. If you want to make better consumer choices by purchasing natural products, then maybe this is the product line for you. However, the foundation was absolutely horrid and I would never recommend it. Maybe it works better on people with different skin types than me, but this product is definitely not meant for anyone with oily skin unless they want to look oilier than they already are.

P.S. This is the look that I created using all the products (minus Bronze Splash). If you can't tell from the picture below, I suck at selfies! I'm not even smiling. My house has poor lighting, so you can't really tell, but my skin looks super oily/shiny because of the foundation. Opal Mist didn't give much of a highlight, the mascara looks average, Suez Sands didn't make my cheeks look very rosy because it was too sheer, and Dahlia Dew did an okay job adding some tint to my lips, but it didn't last much longer than an hour or so. Overall, the look is very natural. So with the exception of the foundation, I may keep some of these products in my arsenal of makeup for days that I want to look more natural (ie. when I do a no-makeup makeup look).