Top 25(ish) Polishes of 2013!

Even though I haven't been blogging regularly, I still paint my nails quite often. There have been some beautiful polishes this year and I've decided to swatch out my top 25 or so. Whenever I use a polish in my spreadsheet, I rate it 1-5 stars. These are my 5 star polishes released in 2013 that I've gotten to use so far.

So let's see what types of polishes drew my eye this year:

Color: 26% were blue, 23% were green and 19% were blue. Quite characteristic.

Brand: 23% were Zoya, 15% were Picture Polish and Orly, KBShimmer, Julie G and Digital Nails each made up 7%.

Price Range: 30% were salon polishes, 27% were indies and 15% were foreign.

Finish: 30% texture, 30% holographic, 23% glitter

#25 SquareHue Flower Power

This green is a gorgeous, happy green. It was kinda streaky on the first coat, but perfect on the second. I had my doubts including this in my top 25, but one I got it on the nail, I knew it had to be there.

#24 Color Club Mamba

I picked this one up at an outlet store on vacation. It is the PERFECT red. Rarely needs more than one coat on me. I reached for this one countless times for Christmas manis and Texas Tech game day nails.

#23 Zoya Miranda

Texture was probably my favorite thing of 2013. I cannot get enough of them! I didn't get Miranda at first, but the pink is so pretty and feminine! It reminds me of a princess.

 #22 OPI Jinx

I also hesitated buying this one at first since there were so many orange textures that came out around the same time. I am so glad I bought this! It's got a touch of pink and a gorgeous gold shimmer. Summer in a bottle!

#21 Orly Melodious Utopia and #21.5 Elevation Stay Behind, Catch a Wave

I absolutely love these two together! Melodious Utopia has a gorgeous pink shimmer I couldn't quite capture. Stay Behind in a lovely aqua shade and CIRCLES!

#20 Colores de Carol April Fools

This polish makes me so incredible happy. It's a white based glitter, the glitters are square, it's got rainbow glitter and it's named after my birthday! It's like it was made for me. It's like a party on my nails! There is a little VNL after 3 coats, but I like it. I'd like it more if my nails were more even :/ 

#19 Orly Sparkling Garbage

Sparkling Garbage is too thin to make it looks its best alone, so I layered it over Cult Nails Riot. Riot complements Sparkling Garbage's teal-ish color and is a great base for it!

#18 Zoya Liberty

Another texture. I really can't get over them. This shade of blue it just so stinking gorgeous. It's like ground up jewels on my nails. 

#17 Sinful Colors Pine Away

A metallic green? How could I not love this? Another favorite for Christmas manicures.

#16 Salon Perfect Green Room

This seafoamy/teal-ish halographic underwhelmed me at first. But outside, it blew my socks off.

#15 Picture Polish Hope

My first Picture Polish on this list! They make gorgeous polishes and this is no exception! A gorgeous deep blue scattered holo with glitter.

#14 Picture Polish Ocean

Picture Polish nails scattered holos. The blue of this is perfect for the name Ocean. Beautiful! I should've gone for one more coat.

#13 KBShimmer Get Clover It

KBShimmer always has amazing polishes. I love the green base with sparkle and the gorgeous circle glitters. So perfect for St. Patrick's Day.

#12 KBShimmer I've Got a Crush on Blue

Another fantastic glitter from KBShimmer. This blue is so deep and amazing. The base plus the shimmer and holo glitter makes this polish mesmerizing.

#11 Zoya Godiva

Zoya Godiva is a neutral, which I typically don't like. But make it into a texture and I am all in! This was one of my first textures and led to my addiction with them.

#10 Zoya Sunshine

Once I hopped on board the texture train, I needed a navy texture. Who better than Zoya to make this? This is what I was craving so badly. So perfect for fall. Now I just need a texture the color of Zoya Zuza.

#9 Julie G Sugar Plum Fairy

This rich purple texture is perfection. And a one coater!

#8 Julie G Mistletoe

Julie G Mistletoe is the best green texture I've seen. It's like a Christmas tree!

#7 Picture Polish Freya's Cats

Freya's Cats is a bright blue holo. As with all Picture Polishes, they apply flawlessly.

#6 Digital Nails Stars at Night

A navy holo that's named after Texas. How can this be any better?! Digital Nails makes gorgeous polishes that reference so many things I love!

#5 Zoya Tomoko

Tomoko is perfect for Christmas nails. Doesn't it make you think of a party? Such an amazing metallic champagne color that is just so classy.

#4 I Love Nail Polish A Fresh Evergreen

I'm a sucker for nearly any polish this shade of green since it's so rare in mainstream polishes. Make it a holo and I will drool. This was my first ILNP and I am so impressed.

#3 Digital Nails The Ultimate Ginger

This polish was a part of the "Ladies of Who and Rory Too!" collection. It's a gorgeous aqua which I love and named after my favorite companion and one of her best episodes. So much love.

#2 Zoya Dream

Zoya's holographic polishes last year were fantastic and the follow up was even better. Such a deep blue with an amazing silver fleck holo. Mmmmm.

#1 Picture Polish Sea Jewel

This polish is my absolute favorite polish of all time. I actually ranked it 6 stars in my stash doc. The shade of teal is phenomenal and the metallic-y mesh finish is just utter perfection. I am planning on buying so many backups of this!

So those were my favorites of 2013. What were some of yours? Any that I'm missing and should try?

Zoya Pixie Dust Partial Collection Swatches!

Hello all! I've been so sad I haven't really had time to blog, but I HAD to make time for these beauties! During Zoya's Color Your World Promo, you could get 3 free polishes and pay $10 shipping or spend $25 additinally to get free shipping. I realized I could get 6 Zoyas shipped of $27 and could not pass up that deal! I took the opportunity to try out some of the new Pixie Dusts. I am head over heels in love with them!

These all dry to a sugary finish. It's a little rough, but not at all bothersome (and this coming from someone who can't handle rhinestones or caviar nails). Strangely, I didn't even think to topcoat them because I loved the sand finish. They have great application. It was incredibly easy to get onto the nail. I used 3 coats, but if you have shorter nails or aren't prone to VNL like I am, you could probably do 2 coats and be fine. Wear time is also good. I applied these, went to bed, went to school/work as usual and then came home and took pics without any evidence of wear :)

First up is Zoya Nyx. It's a gorgeous light blue that's a little dusty. It reminds me a lot of Cinderella. When I first applied these, it also reminded me a lot of flocking manicures. Or paper heat embossing. Or just colored sugar. It's really fascinating!

In the Zoya pictures on their website there are little light glints. It honestly looks like that in real life. I felt like I was a real cartoon princess while wearing these and I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!!!!

Next up is Zoya Vespa. She's a light sagey green. Not typically my color, but the sparkles won me over.

It reminds me of crushed up jade. I don't really have words for it, but it's really gorgeous.

On to Zoya Godiva! I used to hate nudes. I was appalled anyone wanted to wear them. Then I got China Glaze Fast Track and started to appreciate nudes (especially if they were sparkly!). This polish is amazing. I really really love it.

Going on it looks a lot like CG Fast Track and then dries to that amazing textured finish I've come to love. It was subtle and gorgeous all at the same time.

All of these polishes just seem extremely classy to me. The OPI ones, while gorgeous, are a little louder and bolder and fun. All these made me feel like a classy, pretty princess :) Vespa was probably my least favorite, but I still gave it 4 stars in my stash doc. It's still really fantastic and worth owning. I can't wait to get the rest of these and I hope they make more with this finish!

December Hauls

If you follow my Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter, you get to see all my hauls and purchases. It's really easy to upload to those platforms on the go whereas the Blogger app diminishes the photo quality a lot :( I've decided to compile all my hauls posts for you at the end of each month :)

I started off December by shopping at the CVS Clearance sale. I got the Milanis for 75% off and NOPI Khloe Had a Lam Lam and Sally Hansen The Real Teal for 50% off! Then I picked up Orly Miss Conduct, Angel Eyes and Devil May Care for B2G1 free at Sally's!

Then I got my Lac Attack's Magical Musings collection picks! I got Beauxbatons Academy, Holidays in Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, Dementor's Kiss and The Horcrux of It... I'm such a big Harry Potter fan that I want to complete my collection ASAP! I need to post my Hogwarts mani because it was seriously awesome!

I got my December Nail Art Society box. It came with Cherimoya Mystery and Blockbuster matte metallic polishes, rhinestones, nail glue and nail polish remover pads. I haven't tried it out yet but the polishes look gorgeous!

Then I went on an indie binge on pay day. I got Lush Lacquer Peppermint Kisses and Sugar Daddy, Lacquerhead Polish Rainbow Farts and Just Be Claus, and Pahlish A Partridge in a Pear Tree, Eight Maids a Milking and Twelve Drummers Drumming. I showed you Partridge before. I highly recommend it. It is one of the prettiest and unique indies I've tried.

My Christmas Eve Nail Mail! I got Makeup Your Face Snow Angel and Rockin' Round. This polish is so cool! It has round glitter! I put it over China Glaze Running in Circles and it looked just like a Christmas tree :) It also comes with snowflake glitter in a baggy so you don't have to fish it out of the bottle. I also got Zoya Veruschka from a girl in a facebook girl that was de-stashing. I've been lemming this for so long! It's the last Zoya suede I wanted :D

My dad got these for my stocking. Pop Culture Polish Snow Angel and Amy's Nail Boutique Alyssa. Snow Angel also comes with snowflake glitter outside of the bottle to make life easier. I'm not a super huge fan of Alyssa, but Zoya and Julep refuse to make one haha. It's cute but I wish it were a full-coverage polish and not a top coat. 

My mom's stocking gifts! I got Zoya Logan and Storm, China Glaze Fairy Dust and two Fergie polishes I can't remember the names of. I was kinda sad I got Storm instead of Blaze, but it really blew me away once it was on the nail!

Ashley from One Nail to Another was my Secret Santa in our birthday group! She got me the two snowmen, two frankens she made and China Glaze Winter Holly and Glitter All the Way. And how cute is that ornament?!?!

My aunt got me a gift card to Ulta for Christmas. I was hoping to get Zoya Blaze but my Ulta hasn't restocked it in weeks. Zoya is usually the only polish I buy there (unless I find something on clearance) because I can find most other brands cheaper elsewhere. I got OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls which several bloggers have sung the praises of and it was on clearance! I also got China Glaze Cirque du Soleil because the first Sally's I went to didn't have it.

My Sally's haul (minus Running in Circles)! CG Igniting Love, Def Defying, Hanging in the Balace, Get Carried Away, It's a Trapeze, Glistening Snow, Con-Fused?, Champagne Bubbles and Naked. All the Cirque and Holiday polishes were half off at one of the Sally's I went to! Naked was in a pack with Seche Vite for $5 and I needed more topcoat. The Magnetix was $.99! I love Sally's!

I was tipped off that Color Club Halo Hues were on Crowd Cut for $5 each + shipping! I got Halo-Graphic, Blue Heaven, and Cherubic. These are gorgeous! If you're still looking for them, this is the best price I've found online. I ordered the other three from here :)

And then my last polish purchases of the year. Revlon Girly and Heavenly and Sally Hansen Lava. I paid $8.49 for Lava, which was a lot more than I would have preferred but every display I found when they were came out was already sold out of it, so I jumped when I got the chance. Girly is similar to one of the Nails Inc Sprinkles I wanted and much more affordable. Heavenly is supposed to be a Deborah Lippmann dupe or Stairway to Heaven. I have no idea how close it is, but it is an amazingly gorgeous polish. I highly recommend it!

I also bought Orly Halo for 50% off at Sally's, Orly R.I.P. for $.99 at Sally's and China Glaze Whirled Away. That makes 60 polishes purchased/received in December. That's all I have to say about that.

10 Day Nail Art Challenge: Silver & Gold

Today is the first day of a new challenge!

Today's theme is Silver & Gold. I got Zoya Song in the mail the other day and decided I had to wear it immediately. To incorporate the theme, I stamped with silver and gold snowflakes!

I used China Glaze Passion and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes for the stamping. I kinda messed up my ring finger, but overall, I liked the look :)

Zoya Song was a little disappointing. In pictures (even mine) it's looks so much more interesting on the nail. In real life, it's just a really dark blue :( You can barely tell it's a shimmer. It was also tricky to apply and really thick. Luckily it was a one-coater.

For funsies, here's a macro shot of my favorite nail :)

If you'd like to join the challenge, go to the Facebook event here.

Glitter Gradient!!!

Between work, school and extracurriculars I have not had any time for the blog! It's so sad! But now that things have slowed down after the start of year rush, I think I've got a better handle of things. And now I've finally got something to show you!

This is one coat of Zoya Yummy and then a gradient with China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I completed my Prismatic collection when they were on clearance at Sally's. They're so pretty!

And I took the above photos with the Photo Jojo wide angle lens for iPhone. I don't need the wide angle aspect of it, but it just makes my photos clearer! Then it also comes apart to become a macro lens. That's how I took the next pics:

I love seeing glitters so up close and personal! It had a hard time focusing because of the curve of my nail, but it still looks pretty awesome :)