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 :)

Digit-al Dozen Does BLUE - Zoya Natty

Hi Goddesses

Aw that went so fast!  We're ALREADY at the end of Blue Week :(  I hope you've been clicking on the other links each day, there have been some truly special manis out there.  Special shout out to Bee who did her own spin, did a Day 1 mani, and then for each subsequent day added something to it.  Honestly, 5 looks from 1 mani?  That's hard!

I think part of why I've had so much fun is that these ladies are actually my bestest blogging friends too, so it's like a special little family :)   Talking of special, we'll be back in about 3 weeks ... and next time, we'll be getting spooky !!!

So, I've chosen to end the week as I began it, with one of Zoya's new blues.  This is Natty, and we're really not sure whether we like each other.  

Natty is a smoky medium blue - think medium grey, and add a dash of blue.  She reminds me very much of last year's Petra, but I don't have that polish so can't compare them.  I only have 2 other polishes close to this shade, a Bettina and a Nubar, both from their "Jeans" collections.   There is a lovely faded feel to this ... in the bottle.

On the nail, not so much.  It dries at least 2 shades darker, and that's where it all goes wrong for me.  It makes it darker, but not dark; darker, but less blue; darker, but less smoky.   It's like it dries all the subtlety out of it.

My plan was to do a Saran Wrap mani, and take a lovely smokey creme (allegedly) and roll it around in some lighter, brighter blue.  I picked up Zoya Skylar - the lovely tone and the fabulous shimmer looked as if it would make a fabulous contrast ..... But no.  Apparently, shimmers don't like the saran wrap shimmy, so what I ended up with was a matted version of what I had before.  I don't dislike it ... but it's not what I was aiming for.

Holy cow, it's going sooooo well!  So far, so .... Lol, I really didn't know WHAT to do at this point.   So, when in doubt, stamp it out!   I had just received my amazing new stamping plates from Llarowe, and 1 particular pattern kept winking at me from LLC-A.

And hello awesome mani !!!!   I LOVE THIS !!   This is why sometimes it's a good idea to keep going.  Everything about this mani now works.  The silver stamp, the accent nail, the Skylar ... love it ... love it.   

But I'm still getting splinters about Natty.  Do I love her enough to keep her for silver starstruck manis ?  No.  Such a shame though - she'd look lovely if she was the colour she is in the bottle :/

Enjoy xx :)