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.
 

Picture taken in light box

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.
 

Picture taken in light box

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.
 

Picture taken in light box

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.
  

Picture taken in light box

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.

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.

December 2018 Favourites

Before I jump into all of my end of year favourites I need to wrap up December.  Given this has been a bit of a quite month on the blog front (but OMG what an absolutely crazy month it has been outside of nails!) this post is going to be a relatively short one.  I imagine that the yearly favourites might be quite lengthy but we'll see about that.  Anyway, onto December's favourites!

Nail Art

Before going into this month I was honestly thinking it was going to be quite on the nail art front, but so it turns out I have actually done quite a bit of nail art.  Go me!

Stamping Plates

I have been playing with a few stamping plates this month.  Not because I purchased them recently.  It's pretty much all ones that I purchased throughout the year and didn't get around to posting for one reason or another and I needed to get them done to help me get my goal that I set out for myself at the start of this year.
  

It Girl Nail Art IG113 

You can't go wrong with this Christmas stamping plate.  It has a fantastic range of Christmas images!
  

Image from It Girl

Lina Nail Art Supplies Spooklicious 03

It definitely is very strange putting in a Halloween plate in a December favourites post but I didn't post it until earlier this month and it is a cool plate.  There are some seriously great images - I'm excited to play with it some more next year.

Image from Lina Nail Art Supplies

Mainstream Polishes

I have a couple of mainstream polish collections that I have fallen in love with.  Well not necessarily the full collection but quite a lot of the polishes from the collections.

Color Club Hypnotic Hologram Collection

This is such a super sparkly and pretty collection.  For the most part the formulas are pretty good too.  Most are fully opaque in three coats, while others need to be sponged on.  Given how much these sparkle, I'm more than ok with having to sponge these on.

OPI The Nutcracker And The Four Realms Collection 

I'm a big fan of this year's Holiday Collection from OPI.  There are so many great shades.  My favourites though are Tinker, Thinker, Winker?, Berry Fairy Fun, Dreams Need Clara-fication, Lavendare To Find Courage and March In Uniform.  I could add a few more to this list but I am trying to behave a little.

 

Indie Polishes 

It isn't a favourites post of mine if it doesn't include polishes from Emily de Molly or Grace-full Nail Polish.  This month I have polishes from both brands.
  

Emily de Molly December Releases

This month EdM have released some amazing polishes - most of which I consider to be 'must haves'.  My favourites are Save Your Boredom, Just Your Type, Chrome Buttons, Seventh Seal and Silk And Denim.

Emily de Molly Limited Edition December 2018 Polishes
I try and behave myself when it comes to buying polishes but as soon as I saw this month's limited edition polishes I knew I had to have them.  Well it was mainly LE114 that I fell in love with from Hayley's swatches but I am very happy that I picked up the three that I did.
 

Grace-full Nail Polish Fairy Footprints (Polish Pick Up)

Grace-full Nail Polish have done some amazing polishes for the Polish Pick Up and December is no exception.  Fairy Footprints is a stunning colour, has a glorious amount of sparkle and an amazing formula.

Picture taken in direct sunlight

That brings me to the end of this month's favourites.  As tomorrow is Christmas Day (woohoo) I am planning on spending it with my family but I will be back on the 27th to kick start my end of year favourites posts.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! 

It Girl Nail Art IG113 Stamping Plate - Swatches & Review

It's here!  My very last swatch and review post for 2018!  Next week I will have all of my "favourites".  I am both excited and a little terrified of trying to work out my favourites from the entire year but it has become a little bit of a tradition over the last couple of years so I need to keep it up.  Plus it is fun to look back over all the goodies that the year has brought.  Anyway, I thought that It Girl's IG113 stamping plate was the perfect plate to end the year on as it is filled with all these gorgeous Christmas images.

Image from It Girl Nail Art

I do love snowflake manis.  I think they are so pretty.  This snowflake image intrigued by.  There is quite big spaces between each so I wanted to see how it looked on the nails.  This one probably better as a pond mani or any sort of layered mani.  Or perhaps as a background with some other imagery over the top.  For my base I used China Glaze Water-falling In Love, Capacity To See Beyond and DJ Blue My Mind.  Stamping polish is Hit The Bottle Snowed In!

I think most years (if not every year) I do some holly nails.  I just think they are so pretty.  This image is slightly different to the other holly images I have, and it is definitely more delicate.  For this mani I used Grace-full Nail Polish Silver And Gold, Christmas Green Tint and Red Tint.

How great are the images on this plate?  I really like it for a Christmas plate.  Have you planned out your Christmas mani yet?  I know I haven't.  Better get onto that.

Lina Nail Art Supplies License To Be Sexy 02 Stamping Plate - Swatches & Review

Today I have the very last of my Lina Nail Art Supplies stamping plates that I purchased this year to share with you - the License To Be Sexy 02 stamping plate.  I was a fan of the first License To Be Sexy 01 plate (you can see my swatches and review of that plate here) so it made sense for me to grab the second plate as well.  I didn't do anything too fancy with this plate.  I think the images speak for themselves.

Image from Lina Nail Art Supplies

I am obsessed with this base colour (it's Emily de Molly LE114) and I didn't want to take it off.  I thought this stamping image was perfect for it.

Now this next mani I am not sure if I like it or not.  It's not quite what I was going for.  For my base I used Emily de Molly LE116 and stamped using Hit The Bottle Snowed In!

Looking at this plate I think the images are really pretty, but I'm not convinced that I love it so much on my nails.  I think I need to play with it some more.  Maybe that will make me change my mind.

Have you tried this plate?

Emily de Molly Limited Editions December 2018 - Swatches & Review

I honestly thought that I had purchased all of the polishes I was going to for this year, but Emily de Molly went and released four new limited edition polishes.  One of them I absolutely HAD to have, and two were ones that I thought I would like so I grabbed those.  I did leave behind the brown holo.  It was nice but I don't think it was one that I really needed.  Anyway, let's jump into the polishes that I do have!

LE 114 is a dark red with pink to orange shifting foil shimmer.  This is the one that I absolutely had to have and it did not disappointment me at all.  The formula is amazing (you could easily get away with one coat) and the colour is gorgeous.  I did wear this as a full mani and could see the shift, however I stupidly forgot to take pictures (it was one of those crazy running around days).  Anyway, my swatch shows two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in light box

LE 116 is a light purple with turquoise shimmer, iridescent flakes and assorted glitters, including some tiny bar glitters.  This one is super pretty and really interesting to look at.  I know that properly sounds a little odd, but the more I look at my nails the more things I see.  The formula is a little on the sheer side for me so I used three coats for my swatch.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in overcast sunlight

Picture taken in overcast sunlight

LE 117 is an olive green to very dark purple multichrome with iridescent flakes and holographic micro glitters.  This is such a cool polish.  It's not one that I would normally gravitate towards but I am so happy I grabbed it.  Unfortunately I didn't have any sunlight so I wasn't able to capture the holo in this one.  The formula is awesome and applies like a dream.  For my swatch I used two coats.

Picture taken in light box

Picture taken in overcast lighting

Picture taken in overcast lighting

I'm sooooo happy to have these babies in my collection.  They are all beautiful in their own ways.  I'm excited to see what Emily de Molly does next year!