Best of 2012 - The Blue Polishes

Hi Goddesses

I hope you're having a fantastic lazy Sunday.  This is going to be a bit of an epic post.  It was originally going to be 2, but as I'm running out of time to get done all the posts I want to get done ..... you get the drift :)

I have really fallen hard for blue this year.  It seems to match my ghostly skin tone really well lol.   We'll start with the glitters, and then do the cremes.  As before, click on the name of the polish to go to the original blog post for more info.

One final comment - this posts features blue in its widest range, so there's a couple of teals in here too.  Yup, I actually loved a teal in 2012!!!

Whimsical Ideas by Pam - Seuss 

This is actually one of my polishes of the year.  Everything is perfect about it - the base colour, the perfect quantity of glitter, the pop of the red against the blue ...  This was one of my biggest lemmings of the year and it took my a while to get my paws on it as Pam doesn't ship internationally.  Finally - the bottle is also perfection.  Pure elegance.

Ninja Polish - Caribbean Reef

This was sooooo unexpected.    I really didn't expect to have feelings for this polish but WOW.  So sparkly, so perfectly turquoisey, so amazing.

Crows Toes - Bah F******* Humbug

Again, another unexpected love.  I thought I'd LIKE this polish, but wow, that glitter mix is just perfect.  It really popped against the white base.  Total love.

All That Glitters - Cha Cha Twist

This was the first indie polish I fell hard for this year, and it's also the one that for me really leaped outside the box with its creativity.  Again, it's the mix of the blue and the red that grabbed me.

Dollish Polish - We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

The colour combination of the year for me has been blue with copper.  There is something stunning about the colour opposition, and whether you bought this, or Barielle's Falling Star, you really weren't going to go wrong.

KBShimmer - Don't Teal Anyone

Yup, I loved a teal.   This is polish making at it's peak.   Beautiful base, but then an unexpected glitter mix - the purple and the gold just clash perfectly, and make this a stand out polish for me.

w7 - Mosaic

A triumph for the little people!   This is a cheap UK brand that managed to semi-dupe the Nails Inc Sprinkles polishes - for a fifth of the price!  This is a genius polish, beautifully composed, with easy application.  Stunner.

Fashionista - Mythical Dragon

Yes, this might be another teal .....  I loved the metallic base and colour shift of this polish.  And isn't the bottle elegant ?  It's impossible to get a bad photograph of this one.

Barry M Gelly - Blueberry

Another winner from the Gelly Collecion.  Silky smooth and mega glossy this is just aaaaah in a bottle.   Total Winner.

Cult Nails - Manipulative

I love this polish.  I love it's slightly subdued tones, and then it's secret shimmer.  There were a lot of similar shades released this year - Zoya Wednesday is another winner - but this was the one I kept going back to.  Beautiful.

China Glaze - Kinetic Candy

Just the perfect pale blue.   Sometimes, my most valued polishes are the ones that are most versatile, and can be used for a lot of nail art.  That was certainly true in this case.  Creamy, dreamy, and beautiful.

Zoya - Skylar

In February, 3 almost identical polishes hit the stands - this one, and I Don't Give a Rotterdam, and I've Got a Herring Problem from OPI.  All were gorgeous dusty blue bases laced with gold shimmer, and all were stunning.  For me, the Zoya wins, because I had dreadful shrinkage with the OPIs.  Whichever one you bought though, you bought a stunner.

OPI - Fly

From the Nicky Minaj collection, I didn't appreciate this one til the summer, when it's overly loud tones caught my attention.  Just about as unsubtle as you can get, this is turquoise turned up to 11.  LOVE IT !!

The Polish Bar - Glowing Sapphire

I dont' find many navy polishes I like, but this was a stunner.   Beautifully lit from within with a ton of holographic sparkle, this is a beautiful polish.

KIKO !!!

A special shout out for KIKO, a brand I really sucked up this year.  I found out they were easily available in the UK and were on sale for a promotion price of £1.50 - yeh, I bought a LOT of KIKO lol.

KIKO specialise in blues and purples.  Their range is stunning.  Every colour is mega pigmented and super intense.   I've used these polishes as bases and nail art ever since I got them, and not been disappointed once.  The reason they're here ?  If you're looking to expand your blues, seriously, go KIKO.

Nails Inc - Baker Street

And finally, the polish that is probably the blue of the year, and got an INDECENT amount of fame when Beyonce wore it just after the birth of her own baby Blue.   Super loud, this was hailed as the best blue ever, although I think a couple of other polishes have run it very close since.  A great statement colour.


STOP PRESS - I've just realised I have forgotten Zoya Song, THE best blue of the year.  Dammit, that means she's lost in the nail room somewhere !!  Arrgghh.  Ok, off to search - wish me luck !!



Which was your favourite blue ??


Enjoy xx :)

31DC - Day 31 - Recreate Someone Else's Mani

Hi Goddesses

And now .....

the end is here,

And so we paint

our final maaaaani.

And it....

has to be done,

based on one

that's been done already.

And so ...

I picked Jin Jit,

who went and did

this stunning pattern.

But wow,

it was a bitch,

when I did iiiiiiiiiiiiit

myyyyyyyyyy waaaaaaaaaaaay

Thank you, thank you, curtsies, thank you :)  Lol.  I know most of you don't know me for real, but I spend most of the day doing this - making up stupid words to well known songs. Beth has MANY bedtime songs based on Top 40 hits!!

So, from Week 1 I knew what today would be, but typically didn't manage to get it done until this weekend.  Rachel also did it here, and you can see Jin Jit's version here.

This is a Harlequin tape mani, sooooo stunning but boy so time consuming.  I've become quite adept at tape manis, but it took me by surprise how much more effort this one took.

To be fair, it probably wouldn't have taken a normal person so long, but I am very VERY clumsy, and my biggest fear was getting a nail perfect and then smudging it when I did the next one, so I top coated and waited til one nail was bone dry before moving on to the next.

For my base I used GOSH Holographic Hero, a birthday pressie from Kerrie.  I did 2 coats and then Poshe and waited a half hour or so before applying tape.  As I said above, I did one nail at a time.

For my brights, I used all OPI - Kiss Me On The Tulips, Don't Talk Bach To Me,  Roll In The Hague, and Fly, and I think the combination worked perfectly.

You'll notice this mani is far from perfect.   Some of the Hero lines could do with being re-emphasised, but I'm full of cold and sneezing and coughing, and I really thought that was a recipe for more disaster rather than improvement!   Also, the index nail is a bit "thick" - this is because I added new polish to the polish I used for the thumb.  Don't Do This!   It doesn't lead to success!

I hope you've enjoyed these 31 Days, I know I have.  I'm tempted to do a round-up post, but they take a long time, so it might not happen, but as always with these challenges, I really do feel it's pushed me and stretched me, and made me all the better for it.  I've also discovered at least a dozen great new blogs in the process, so make sure you click on the thumbnails, as there really are some blogs out there to treasure.

Enjoy xx :)