2012 Favourites - Part 4: Nails

2012 was definitely the year of the nail polish for me. I bought over 550 nail polishes (I know, crazy!) and discovered some amazing brands. (Check out my stash video and pictures here.) Until 2 years ago I'd hardy heard of any nail polish brands that couldn't be bought in Boots or Superdrug (and back then there weren't a lot of glittery, shimmery, duochrome polish around, or at least I didn't notice them). As well as continuing to buy from mainstream brands like China Glaze, OPI, Orly and the likes, I discovered some very unique and interesting brands and nail polishes. My favourite polishes are holos and duochromes, or preferably both together in one product, and I'm also rather partial to glitter.

The picture above shows a few of my recent purchases including the new Color Club holographic polishes that I regret to say I haven't tried yet as well as Topshop glitter polishes and Enchanted Polish duo(multi)chrome polishes.

My favourite newly discovered brands in 2012 were Topshop, Enchanted Polish, Layla and Glitter Gal. Out of the four I'd say Enchanted Polish is my definite favourite, the only thing I don't like is how difficult it is to come by as the polishes are only made in very small quantities and the shades are limited edition. Nevertheless I have managed to get my hands on a few of them and here are some:

These are from the Beatles collection (I Am The Walrus and Magical Mystery Tour) and from the Falloween collection (Witchful Thinking). The new holiday collection came in a new style, fancier, more professional looking bottle:

Green Peace on Earth, Dance Of The Sugar Plum, Bruised Nutcracker, Olive The Other Reindeer

Enchanted Polish nail polishes are absolutely gorgeous, duo- or rather multichrome with scattered holo, straight forward holographic or glittery. I have showed you Across The Universe here if you want to take a peek.

Find out what other nail polishes and nail care products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

I mentioned Topshop earlier, I absolutely love their glitter polishes, but they also do some stunning metallic and duochrome polishes. Here's a selection of shades below. I will post the swatches for these sometime soon! I have already shown you Ice Crush, Rising Star and Amethyst (click the names for the NOTD posts). I love how cheap (£6) the polishes are and there's always new ones, and so many pretty shades.



My two favourite holographic polish brands to date are Glitter Gal and Layla. To me Glitter Gal seems to have the strongest holo, but Layla isn't far behind and there are so many pretty colours! Check out my NOTDs for Glitter Gail Copper 3D/Holo Polish and Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish in Mermaid Spell.

Quickly I want to mention what nail care products I used and loved in 2012. After my on-going love/hate (although now increasingly hate) relationship with Seche base and top coats, I decided to try something new and have been using OPI Nail Envy. I have already used up a bottle of the Original formula and I'm currently using the Sensitive & Peeling one, although I think I preferred the Original.

Instead of Seche Vite I switched to OPI RapiDry topcoat which doesn't shrink the polishes and is so far still a runny consistency unlike the gloopy Seche Vite, some of which is impossible to get out of the bottle due to the short brush.

I use OPI Avoplex Nail and Cuticle Replenishing Oil to keep my cuticles looking better. 

Do you also love nail polish? Or not bothered? Which were your favourite nail polish brands and/or products in 2012? Let me know in the comments!