Favourite Polishes of 2012

Here is a list of polishes that impressed me the most this year. Just like last year some (many?) of the polishes on my list did not come out this year, but were the ones I bought or had an opportunity to try this year.
In no particular order, here are my favourites:

OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest. This is such a beautiful polish! It is interesting that it looks so different in the bottle than it actually is. Let's face it, I would have loved this polish for its name even if it was ugly, since I was born in Germany in October.

SpaRitual Optical Illusion. I have nothing quite like this murky, swamp-like polish.


Layla Misty Blush. Very unusual colour for a holographic polish.






OPI DS Fantasy. A perfect one coat polish with amazing depth.
Barry M Navy. It seems that there is nothing particularly spectacular about this polish, but to me it is the perfect dark blue shimmer.

Orly Miss Conduct. Happy, bright colour with some holo sparkle. A pink cousin of DS Extravagance.

SpaRitual Shooting Star. Purple, pink and blue shimmer all rolled into one!

Orly Androgynie. Funnily enough, I didn't like this polish when I first tried it, but because I don't have anything that looks even remotely close to this it makes the list.


Essie Bobbing For Baubles. Interesting colour, great formula.

China Glaze Midtown Magic. I like that it has this lit from within

Barry M Denim.



Essence Gold Old Buffy.
Essie Poor Lil Rich Girl. Festive red jelly, so shiny.

Essence Walk On the Wild Side

Layla Misty Blush

Hey everyone! Long time, no see! I've finally finished all my studies that were taking up all my time, and also passed all my exams really rather well. So now I have a lot of free time. In the last few days I've put up the Christmas tree, tidied the house up, and went to see The Hobbit.
At the same time my nails have grown quite long. Today I'm wearing one of the loveliest polishes I've tried. Layla Holographic 15 Misty Blush is wonderful, such an unusual color that also has a magnificent rainbow effect. It also dries really quickly on me and needs just 2 coats.

Layla Holographic #11 Shock Pink

A couple of days ago it became cold enough so that the clouds have parted and there finally was some sun. So it was time to bring out some holographic polishes. I've decided to wear some of my untried polishes, so Layla Shock Pink it was.
It is nice, pink and holographic, plus it is fairly easy to apply. I've used 2 coats over Gosh Fix Base Coat. I really don't like that base coat very much, it smells horribly of glue, but it makes the application of these holographic polishes easier.

China Glaze Re-fresh Mint

I was looking through some of my swatches that I haven't published and came across this. China Glaze happens to be the second most numerous brand of polish that I own (after OPI) and for me they are a bit of hit and miss. They holographic polishes and glitters are awesome, other finishes depend on the colour. Re-fresh Mint is a great colour, palest green creme. While the colour is great, the polish is a bit difficult to apply. I used three coats to make it opaque, and then it looks somewhat thick and chunky. 

Essie Poor Lil Rich Girl

I'm up to my ears in studying, but there is always some time for a little nail polish! Essie Poor Lil Rich Girl is an amazing, amazing cranberry red jelly. It is also the kind of jelly I like, the kind you can build up. Here I'm wearing three coats, and the colour is deep and dark and close to the bottle shade. You can probably get away with two coats, but the colour will be really different, vibrant red. After coming across a couple of amazing Essie polishes, like this one and Bobbing For Baubles, I really want to get them for my own stash (they belong to my friend). They are that amazing!

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky

It is truly dreary around here, wet and grey, so a bright polish is just what is needed. Happy Go Lucky is a bright yellow creme polish. I think yellow is unflattering on my skin and thus don't own many yellow shades, so this one belong to my lovely friend Lena.
Happy Go Lucky was rather difficult to apply. After one coat I thought it would never get even. I gave up after three coats, while it still showed some streaks. But in person streaks were more visible, not critical, just hard to achieve a perfect look. All in all I like that this particular polish is so vivid and bright, a really positive colour.

Layla Holographic Jade Groove

These Layla polishes are probably the coolest polishes I've ever tried. They are so vivid and sparkly that it is hard to stop myself from looking at my hands all the time.
Today I'm wearing #05 Jade Groove. It is supposed to be a very pale green polish, but once it dries you can't really say, all you see is the rainbow. This one wasn't that difficult to apply, I used 2 coats over Gosh Fix Base Coat. It smells horribly like glue, but it works wonders. But when I tried it over my usual base coat, OPI Nail Envy, it just kind of slid off.

Baltic Beauty 2012

This weekend me and a friend went to the Baltic Beauty 2012 exhibition. We spent some 3 hours there, had a really good time. Laughed a lot, especially at creepy displays and products on offer (a photo of your aura, anyone?).
I didn't really take any photos since the displays were pretty much the same as last year. Apparently this season fake tan, curly hair and mad nail design are in. I did find some very cool products. It turned out that one local company stock Layla polishes. Not only that, but during the exhibition the polishes were 30% off. I couldn't resist. This year was the the first time that Oniks Beta, the local OPI distributor, managed to bring new collections in time for the exhibition - I've seen James Bond and Germany collection.

I walked away with Cuccio cuticle oil, Orly Miss Conduct, Layla 05 Jade Groove, 15 Misty Blush, 07 Ocean Rush, 11 Shock Pink, OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Every Month is Oktoberfest.

 Here's a sneak peak of Layla Holographic 15 Misty Blush. Beyond awesome.

Essie Bobbing For Baubles

I've recently started swimming again. I love swimming, but lately between lack of time and the pool being closed for reconstruction, I've fallen off the wagon a little. With all the swimming, my skin is super dry and any polish doesn't last.
Bobbing for Baubles is great. It is only the second Essie polish that I've ever try, and you can colour me impressed. Not only is it a beautiful colour, but the formula is utter perfection. This could be applied in just one coat, but given how clumsy I am, I used two coats on some nails.

China Glaze Eyes Like Sapphires

I've been stuck in the house for a couple of days, doing a lot of reading for one of the courses I'm taking. My brain is just about ready to explode, so I've decided that I need a break, and why not paint my nails in the process.

I got Eyes Like Sapphires as part of the We Adorn You set some years ago. It is a brilliant blue shimmery polish that also has a lot of small silver glitter in it. Here I'm wearing 2 coats. The colour of this polish is amazing, bright and vibrant sapphire blue. A really fitting name. The litter in it is not so great. It stays on the surface, and really eats up the top coat. It makes it look as if I dipped my nails into sand.

OPI Not Like The Movies

I have been going through my polishes, trying to wear the ones that are not used all that often. This polish was one of them. For some reason I'm not that fond of it, at least I don't reach for it often enough. I used three thin coats here. It is kind of thin in consistency, and at first goes on really sheer. I like how at certain times you can see a little bit of green and pink in the silver of the polish.

I recently found out that I'm going to be spending an exchange semester in France early next year. It is really time to dust of my French, I suck so much at it!

 

Dior Golden Jungle Polish Duo

Yesterday was my birthday. As is always the case with birthdays and other special occasions, I never have enough time to polish my nails. It is perhaps lucky then that people tend to give me nail polish as gifts :)
Dior Golden Jungle nail polish duo was one of them. It consists of a pale gold foil as the base, and camouflage green crock effect crackle top coat. It looks quite interesting. Under the crackle you can use just one coat of gold polish.
On its own it required two coats to be opaque.

The crackle has an interesting texture, not really like a regular polish, more liquid and also not entirely opaque. It takes a while for it to crack completely, it was probably close to 5 minutes. Also if the the shatter is too thick, it will only crack at the edges. What I like the most is that the golden foil shines through the green and gives it an added dimension.