Favourite Polish Collections 2018

Hello!  I hope you guys have had a really enjoyable and fun Christmas/Holiday break.  I know I did.  Christmas is always such a great time for our family.  Anyway, if you don't know towards the end of each year I usually do a few favourites posts (for polishes, stamping plates, nail art etc) to round up the year.  I know I like seeing what things others have loved and I do quite like looking back at all the things that have been released throughout the year.  These types of posts will also be great to look at again in a few years time to see how much my tastes have changed.  To kick off my favourites I'm going to look at all of my favourite collections from this year.  

Now I am being really tough and trying to cut back on listing about a hundred things in each of these posts.  I am happy to report that today's favourites are relatively small.  Woohoo!  I've included a mix of mainstream and indie polishes as well as some stamping polishes.  Like with previous end of year favourites this post only includes collections that were released in 2018 and not collections that were released in previous years that I only swatched and reviewed this year. This post is not in any particular order because that would just be way to hard to do.

Mainstream Collections

Color Club

A little bit of a disclosure when it comes to Color Club.  I only buy the collections that I am interested in so there is also a much higher chance of me liking what I buy.  Take for example the three collections I am about to share.  They are all holo based and all similar colours across the collections so it just makes sense that they all fit into this favourites post.

Color Club Halo Chrome Collection 

When I first ordered this collection I was honestly thought it would be basically a regular looking holo.  Well I was certainly very surprised with how chrome these actually are.  I don't have anything else like them in my collection.  I'm a huge fan.  You can see more swatches and my original review here.

Color Club Halo Crush Collection
I love that Color Club have made such good variations with their holo collections.  I am such a fan of all of their holos.  You can find my original post of this collection here.

Color Club Hypnotic Hologram Collection

This collection took me quite some time to swatch but OMG this collection is AMAZING.  I'm not really sure pictures do the sparkle justice.  The only thing that I would change is the formula.  They are a little sheer for me but for that sparkle I'm more than happy to do three coats.  You can find more swatches and my review of this collection here.   

OPI
OPI have released some really fantastic collections this year and while I do really like a lot of them I have managed to cut it down to one favourite collection - the Metamorphosis Collection.
 

OPI Metamorphosis Collection

As much as I love my cremes I am always going to be a sucker for sparkly polishes.  Fun fact, OPI glitters were among some of my first polishes that really started my collecting of polish.  The Metamorphosis Collection is a six piece collection of gorgeous glitters.  I love the combinations and I am excited to play with these some more over other base colours.  I wish I had more nail hours in the day to play with them.  The Metamorphosis Collection blog post can be found here.

    

Indie Collections 

Emily de Molly
Emily de Molly is one of my all time favourite brands.  The formulas are always on point and the range of colours and finishes is amazing.  I probably could put the majority of the releases in this post but I am showing some restraint.  I'm not sure if I will be able to say the same thing when it comes to writing my favourite indies post.
  

Emily de Molly April 2018 Releases 
It's safe to say that Emily de Molly kills it when it comes to their polishes every month.  I am already dreading having to narrow down my indie favourites.  I mean how amazing was the April release?  I can't fault it!  You can find more swatches and my review of this release here.

Emily de Molly September 2018 Releases

Back in September Emily de Molly released a heap of new creme polishes and some toppers.  I am always such a huge fan of creme polishes and Hayley makes some of the best!  And the toppers from this release were magical.  If you want a run down on each of the polishes or want to see more swatches you can find my original blog posts here.

Grace-full Nail Polish
Grace-full are another favourite brand of mine.  They too have great formulas and an awesome range of finishes and colours.
    

Grace-full Nail Polish A Day At The Beach Collection
Bright and shiny polishes - what isn't there to love? All of these polishes are perfect for summer and the formulas are amazing.  I have zero complaints.  You can find more swatches of these in my post here.

Grace-full Nail Polish Fan Selection Collection
One of the things that I love about Facebook is the polish groups.  They are so interactive.  Grace-full is one of the brands that do collections and polishes based on fan suggestions.  This is easily a favourite of mine.  The colours are all gorgeous and of course the formulas are amazing.  You can find the original post here.

Grace-full Nail Polish Sweet Treats Collection

Have I mentioned that I am a huge fan of creme polishes?  LOL.  Grace-full recently released the Sweet Treats Collection which has a bunch of gorgeous cremes and one thermal polish (which is also creme based).  I love that these are all bright and summery (those are usual my favourite types of polishes to wear).  You can see the original post for this collection here.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics
I honestly have gone a little back and forth when it comes talking about Pretty Serious Cosmetics. They have certainly had a lot of drama this year and sadly have closed their doors.  But one thing is for sure - they have made some awesome polishes.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Pastel Pets 2 Collection

I am a massive fan of the first Pastel Pets Collection from Pretty Serious Cosmetics (they are still probably my favourite collection the Pretty Serious ever did) and the Pastel Pets 2 Collection is fantastic also.  I love the colours and have reached for them time and time again for nail art.  You can see my review of each of the shades here.

Stamping Polishes

Hit The Bottle
You can never go wrong with Hit The Bottle stamping polishes.  They have such an amazing range of colours and they also stamp so beautifully.
   

Hit The Bottle Fruit Tingles Collection

Originally I was going to be doing a separate post for stamping polishes but looking back over the year of the stamping polishes I have used I realized that this is really the only collection of stamping polishes that I have truly love!  There are other stamping polishes that I also really like but like I mentioned earlier I am trying to cut back on my favourites.  This collection is full of gorgeous pastel stamping polishes and each stamp beautifully.  You can find the Fruit Tingles Collection blog post here.

I really could list so many more great collections as there have been quite a few this year, but in order of cutting back these are my hands down favourites from 2018.  What collections have you loved this year?

Tomorrow I will have my favourite mainstream polishes from this year.  I have absolutely no idea how I am going to cut these down.  This will be interesting.  I'll see you guys tomorrow.

OPI Metamorphosis Collection - Swatches & Review

Funny story - I actually thought that I had already posted the OPI Metamorphosis Collection.  I grabbed out my computer to edit some swatches of a new Grace-full Nail Polish collection and I realized that I still had these OPI swatches sitting waiting for me.  That being said, I had actually planned on posting these last Sunday and for some unknown reason I had marked that the post was done.  I have absolutely no idea why (or when) I did that but I definitely didn't do a post - because there were no pictures to go with it.  Anyway, today I have the new (well newish) OPI Metamorphosis Collection.  This is a limited edition collection which features six glitter toppers.

To save myself some time (and to save you reading the same things over and over) I have done one coat over black for each of my swatches.  All polishes apply really easily and there is no fishing or placement required, especially with those bigger glitter pieces. 

Butterfly Me To The Moon is a pink/purple shimmer with larger blue glitter pieces.  I absolutely love this one.  It is easily my favourite from this collection.

Can't Be Camouflaged is a yellow, green and blue shimmer with some larger green glitters.   I think that this is such a pretty topper.  I really like it over the black base.

Ecstatic Prismatic is a lilac and green shimmer with larger green glitters.  I do quite like this one too.

Metamorphically Speaking is a light gold and green shimmer with silver glitter pieces.

This Changes Everything! is a gold, purple and blue shimmer with large gold glitter pieces.  This one definitely is more dense with the shimmer than the other polishes.

You Little Shade Shifter is a blue and purple (maybe green or gold) shimmer with large blue glitters.  This one is so pretty too!

I love these glitter toppers.  I think they are all so pretty and sparkly.  I am excited to try them over some other colour bases....and with a matte top coat!  I think these would look so good mattified.  I also want to try using them in some nail art.  Sadly, time was not on my side to get that done before this post.

What do you think of glitter toppers?  Love them?  Hate them?  Let me know.

 

November 2018 Favourites

I can' get over how quickly this month has gone by!  It seriously has popped up out of nowhere.  I also can't believe that there is only one more month left for 2018.  I really need to start thinking about my yearly favourites (and working towards the goals I set out at the start of the year - eek).  Yes I know there is still plenty of time but I really struggle to narrow down my favourites each month, let alone doing it for a whole year!  But that is a job for Future Tracy.  Today I can just focus on all the things I have loved throughout November.  Let's take a look shall we?

Nail Art
I have had another really quite month when it comes to nail art.  Then again, it has been a really quite month for me blogging wise.  Anyway, I do have some nail art favourites from this month.

Stamping Plates

It's been a good month for stamping plates!

Uberchic Beauty Art Deco Flair Stamping Plate

I love this plate (which I am sure you could have guessed seems it is in my favourites for this month).  It has some really great images on here and it stamps beautifully.

Image from Uberchic Beauty

Uberchic Beauty Moroccan Delight Stamping Plate

When you have trouble deciding which images to use first then you know that it's true love.  This is easily one of my favourite Uberchic plates that I own!  I seriously love all the images and can't wait to play with it more.

Image from Uberchic Beauty

Mainstream Polishes

I have just finished swatching the OPI Nutcracker & The Four Realms Collection, however as I haven't actually shared it on my blog yet I'm not going to include my favourites this month.  There have been two mainstream collections that I have shared this month and I have favourites from each.

China Glaze The Grinch Collection

I am a huge fan of this collection.  There are so many great polishes and I love that the bottles have the cute little Grinchs on them.  My favourites from this collection are Who Wonder, You're A Mean One, Lukewarm Wishes and Resting Grinch Face.  
 

OPI Metamorphosis Collection

I'm not 100% sure if this collection was ever released here in Australia but it really should be.  It's so gorgeous!  I'm so excited to play with these some more.
 

Indie Polishes 

It's been a bit of a quite month on the indie front....well for me anyway.  But naturally there is still lots to love.
 

Grace-full Nail Polish So What (Polish Pick Up)

Once upon a time, I use to not like thermal polishes (in fact - I still don't like swatching them, they never do what you want them to do).  But wearing them is so fun.  I loved wearing So What.

Grace-full Nail Polish Sweet Treats Collection

As much as I love glittery/shimmery polishes I am always going to be a such for cremes and Grace-full Nails Polish's new Sweet Treats Collection is AMAZING!

That brings us to the end of November.  I do have some really good polishes to share with you in December so stay tuned for that!

Favourite Mainstream Polishes 2018

Today is where things start to get a little more interesting (and be interesting I mean challenging).  If you don't know I also have a really had time narrowing down my favourites.  I tried to be a lot tougher on my favourites throughout the months in order to make my job now a little easier but I'm not sure how much that helped.  Anyway, I have managed to narrow my mainstream favourites to just twenty polishes.  I haven't included any of the polishes that I have listed in my Favourite Collections post - so brands like Color Club are missing for today's post because I loved the full collection.  Right, let's look at my mainstream favourites for 2018.

CHINA GLAZE

I don't know about you guys but I feel like things have been a little quieter on the polish front from China Glaze this year.  I only grabbed five new collections this year and there was only one collection that I skipped over (the OMG Flashback Collection).  Anyway, we have seen some really great polishes from China Glaze this year.  Both formula wise and colour wise.

Barre Hopping is from the Chic Physique Collection.  I absolutely love this colour.  I love it by itself as well as a a base for a topper (which you will see in a mintue).  This polish looks very similar to OPI's Lavedare To Find Courage in the bottle.  I haven't swatched them together so I can't comment on if they are dupes or not.

Picture taken in light box

Get It Right, Get It Bright is probably my favourite polish from the Chic Physique Collection.  I love both the colour and the shimmer in it.  It also looks amazing over Barre Hopping, which is what I wore it over for my swatch as I find it too sheer for my personal taste. 

Picture taken in light box

Glamletics is the final polish that I love from the Chic Physique Collection.  I think the Chic Physique Collection would have to be my faovurite of the five collections from China Glaze this year.  There are so many beautiful colours.  Like this blue!
 

Picture taken in light box

Lukewarm Wishes is such a gorgeous polish from the Grinch Collection.  It is very sheer so I personally will only wear it as a topper.  For my swatch I used it over black, but I am excited to play with it over some other colours.  I think it's going to look so pretty over so many colours.
 

Picture taken in light box

Who Wonder is another polish from the Grinch Collection that made it into my top twenty polishes.  I did have a couple of others from this collection but they ended up being cut.  Anyway, this is definitely my favourite polish from the collection.  It grabbed my attention as soon as I saw the collection and it didn't disappoint. 

Picture taken in light box

Pret-a-potion is from the Paint It Black Collection.  I love that this collection just focused on blakc polishes in different finishes.  I think it's such a cool idea.  I think for most people this is just a boring black glitter topper, but there is something magic about it for me.  Yes it's simple, but I love it.  I especially love it over China Glaze Chic Happens.
 

Picture taken in light box

Don't Be Sea Salty is from the Shades Of Paradise Collection.  This polish is bright, it's pink, it has shimmer and it's matte (well it's more satin than matte) - I mean how could this polish not be in my favourites?  I do love it both matte and shiny.
 

Picture taken in light box

Ma-holo At Me is a stunning blue holo from the Shades Of Paradise Collection.  I know there is nothing ground breaking about this polish but I still love it.
 

Picture taken in direct sunlight

Stop Beachfrontin' is a gorgeous purple creme from the Shades Of Paradise Collection.  I actually have a few favourites from this collection, but as a whole the collection isn't my favourite.  Anyway, I had a tough choice between this purple and OPI's Grandma Kissed A Gaucho.  They do look very similar in the bottles but this one is maybe a little brighter which is why I decided to add this to my favourites for 2018. 

Picture taken in light box

And last but certainly not least for my favourites from China Glaze (and also from the Shades Of Paradise Collection) Water-falling In Love.  This is such a stunning light blue polish.  

Picture taken in light box

OPI

Oh OPI - the brand that really started my collecting of polishes.  I will always have a soft spot for this brand.  That being said, OPI do make some really great polishes.  Hands down my favourite collection was the Metamorphosis Collection.

No Turning Back From Pink Street is from the Lisbon Collection.  I think this could be my second favourite collection from OPI this year.  There are some awesome colours (and formulas) in this collection.  Like this pink!  It's such a beautiful colour and a staple for everyone's collection.

Picture taken in light box

Tile Art To Warm The Heart is another gorgeous shade from the Lisbon Collection.  There isn't much to say about this one other than it's gorgeous and has a great formula.

Picture taken in light box

Lisbon Wants Moor OPI is again from the Lisbon Collection.  Did I mention that I like the Lisbon Collection?  This is one of those fresh and clean colours that I like, especially if I feel like a break from such bold colours.
 

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Berry Fairy Fun is one of my favourite polishes from the recent Nutcracker And The Four Realms Collection.  It was one of the first polishes to catch my eye and it didn't disappoint.
 

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Dreams Need Clara-fication is a gorgeous periwinkle blue from the Nutcracker And The Four Realms Collection.  I am always a sucker for periwinkle blues.
 

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Tinker, Thinker, Winker? is a stunning silver holo from the Nutcracker And The Four Realms Collection.  This isn't the greatest representation of this polish.  It is soooo holo in person but the day I wore this I didn't have the strongest sunshine to capture it properly.  I wore this over black and I loved the combination.  

Picture taken in light box

Don't Toot My Flute is from the Peru Collection.  I received the mini bottles of the Peru Collection to swatch and I have a few that I want to buy full sized bottles of.  This is definitely one of the polishes that I need the full sized bottle of.  It's such a stunning colour.

Picture taken in light box

PICTURE POLISH

piCture pOlish is one of those brands that doesn't really fit into the mainstream category but they also don't fit into the indie category.  Given I have sooooooo many more indie favourites than mainstream I thought I would add them into the mainstream category.

Princess is a polish that was released in June along side my own collaboration shade.  While I love all of the polishes that were released with my shade this is definitely my favourite that was released along side mine.  Princess is just a stunning pink polish.
  

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Royal is of course one of my favourite polishes of 2018!  It's my very own collaboration shade with piCture pOlish.  I absolutely love this polish and have worn it quite a few times this year already.  Thank you to everyone who has picked it up and shared your pictures on social media.  I love seeing them.
    

Picture taken in direct sunlight

SALLY HANSEN
I haven't really played with too many Sally Hansen polishes this year, but a real stand out collection is the Back To School Collection.  This is the first (and only) collection of Insta-dri's I have and I am so impressed with the formulas.  They are seriously so good!

Bluetiful is one of the polishes from the Back To School Collection.  This colour reminds me of Pacific Blue (they aren't dupes and really aren't anything a like).  It is such a great eye catching colour!  This is one that I have already worn a few times.

Picture taken in light box

I feel like this year we have seen the mainstream brands step up their formulas.  I have found that there has been more good formulas and a lot more consistency between polishes.  Plus we have seen so many beautiful colours.  Anyway, that brings me to the end of my top 20 mainstream polishes for 2018.  Bring on 2019!  I am so excited to see what the new year brings for the mainstream brands!  Now I'm off to try and work out my indie favourites.  I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Let me know which mainstream brand was your favourite this year.