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!

NOTD: Glitter Gal Copper 3D/Holo Nail Polish - The Best Holo Nail Polish I've Tried!

Holographic nail polishies are notorious for chipping quickly, I've heard that a certain one (the hard to find Gosh one to be exact) chips within hours. I don't own the Gosh one, but I do own quite a few different ones  since I've been trying to find the best holo polish for a while now. The good news is, I think I've found it.

Taken with flash indoors

Glitter Gail Copper 3D/Holo nail polish remained chip free on me for a full 24 hours and after 48 hours I still only had a very few minor chips. Now that is impressive, especially seeing that almost every nail polish chips on me within that time anyway. I ended up taking it off after about 60 hours because I was getting ready to go out, but quite frankly I would've been pretty happy to continue wearing it at home for another day or two. 

The formula was lovely too, not too thick, not too runny, and it dried pretty quickly. I did my usual trick of base coat, two coats of holo, top coat and another coat of holo and it worked really well. The holo effect is gorgeous, quite subtle indoors (see picture above), but in the sunshine you have the full rainbow (see pictures below). Really lovely. Glitter Gal polishes are also the Big 3 free ( Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene).

I bought mine from Sjmwell Nails & Beauty and they cost £8.75 each. You get 9 ml per bottle, so they are rather small, but not too tiny. Postage and packaging is quite reasonable and I received mine very quickly.

Do you like holographic nail polishes? Have you got any favourites? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

This Month I...

Rather than just doing a post about products I've finished this month, I've decided to do more of a summary of the last month and all beauty related happenings. So here we go.

Last month I...

• finished 3 products. It's been a slow month, what can I say? At least it's more than nothing, eh? One of the products finished was Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara which I really enjoyed using and would definitely consider repurchasing if I didn't already own 20+ mascaras. It also lasted for ages, I don't even remember when I first started using it, it didn't go bad or dry out, just simply ran out eventually. 
• have overspent by about £250 again. I think I should just up my budget, because it's clearly too low. Or maybe buy less make up and spend less money. (Crazy talk, I know.)
• have bought another lorry load of nail polishes. I know I'm crazy, I have been buying nail polish all the time, but there are so many pretty colours! I have also discovered a couple of brands (namely Glitter Gal and A-England) I'd not heard about before and they both happened to be holographic nail polishes which is my weakness. 

Here are some pictures of the pretty polishes I bought in April (some reviews will follow eventually, let me know in the comments which ones you're interested in the most). First up, A-England holo polishes:

Princess Tears, Lady Of The Lake, Ascalon, Tristram, Princess Sabra

See lots more pictures after the jump!