My Top 13 polishes of 2013

For new year's eve I decided not to show you a new mani, but to take a look back and show you my top 13 polishes this year (yes, I admit it, I actually planned to show you my top 10, but I couldn't narrow them down to just 10 polishes. 13 polishes for 2013 is ok too, isn't it?). So here are my 13 favorite polishes that were released this year, and that I've already worn. There are a lot of gorgeous 2013 polishes with my untrieds, but they sadly won't appear here. I linked every polish with the original post, where you can find the links to the respective online shops ;-)

So here's my list, in no particular order:



The Polish Well Let Me Go!







Dollish Polish Welcome To Camp Crystal Lake

Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces and Oceanic Forces
(I count these two polishes as one, as they're basically the same polish in a different color)










Crows Toes Tiki Torch







P2 Strict

Different Dimension It RubsThe Lotion On It's Skin

Dior Destin








ILNP Birefringence

Ethereal Lacquer Devoured 

Cadillacquer Night Clouds







A Study In Polish Consulting Detective

Picture Polish Ocean







 KBShimmer I Got A Crush On Blue






What do you think of my favourites list? Which ones are your favorite polishes in 2013?

Lady Goodman

If you've been reading my blog for some time, you'll realise that today's polish is not a typical Aglaya-polish. But sometimes even I feel a little girly... ;-)

Kristi, the creator of Happy Hands polishes, describes Lady Goodman as "A soft lavender jelly with pink, gold, and purple glitter." I'd call the jelly base a soft pink, not lavender. The pink hexes and the purple squares are holographic and give the polish an extra sparkle.

Application was easy, I used three coats for opacity. I bought my bottle about a year ago, and it still has the old, stinky base. As far as I know, Kristi changed the base, so the never versions don't stink anymore (which is great, as the smell of the old ones really is aweful...)

Happy Hands polishes are sold on Etsy , at their own shop and at Harlow & Co.  

Let The Triangles Go!

Today's mani was inspired by the Manicurator (ok, I admit it, mine is more like a lousy copy. Victoria's original is much cleaner, more accurate etc.)

As base color I used Let Me Go! by The Polish Well (Halloween 2013 / Coraline Collection). Let Me Go! has a chocolate brown jelly base with lots of small golden glitters. Application was easy, three coats provided opacity.

Then I used some striping tape and Kiko Mirror Nail Lacquer 617 Taupe to add the triangles at the tips (I didn't know it's so hard to tape off accurate triangles. I need to practise. A lot...). One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top finished this mani.

At the moment, apparently there's no shop where The Polish Well polishes are available. If you follow The Polish Well Blog, Mich, the creator, announced pre-sales of her polishes, that's how I got mine. 

Night Clouds

More swiss nailpolish! Today's polish is part of Cadillacquer's Christmas 2013 Collection: Night Clouds






"Night Clouds is a royal blue with green to gold color changing sparkles and square gold holo glitter."
(Source: Cadillacquer)

The green flakie sparkles give the royal blue base a teal look. The formula of Night Cloud is flawless, it applied like butter and was opaque in two coats (I added a third for a little more depth). Night Cloud dries very smooth, with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top it felt more like a creme or shimmer polish, not like a glitter at all.

Cadillacquer polishes are available on  Big Cartel, at Llarowe and at Harlow & Co.
I bought mine at the Big Cartel shop, of course, so the polishes could stay in the country insted of crossing the Atlantic twice... :-)

 

Moonraker Mallard

After the big feasting of the last two days, I'm back with a new mani. I hope, you had a great Christmas celebration (if you do celebrate it).

As base color I used OPI Moonraker (Skyfall Collection), a steel colored metallic polish, named after the eleventh James Bond movie. I really like the color (there are some brushstrokes, but I'd say that's normal with metallic polishes), but I didn't like the formula at all. It's thin, leaning on runny, flooded my cuticles and pooled all around my nails. Plus, I still had some bald patches after three coats (they're not too visible in my pictures, but they were there).





On top of Moonraker, I added one dabbed coat of Candeo Colors Mallard. "Mallard has a shimmery semi-sheer lilac base and is loaded with purple shimmer, silver, lime, and green hex glitter."
(Source: Candeo Colors)

Honestly, I'd call the base clear, I can't see any lilac. Maybe Candeo Colors reformulated the polish, as my bottle is not really new, but in my version, there's no hint of lilac or purple shimmer. But there are a lot of tiny holographic glitters that make this polish really sparkly. I topped this mani with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

Candeo Colors polishes are available at their own store.

Minuit

Gold and red are the classic Christmas colors, so I have a gold and red mani to show you for today's Christmas Eve.

I used Dior Minuit of this year's Christmas Collection. Minuit has a deep blood red base filled with lots of gold and red flakies. In low light, the polish has a hint of purple in it. While I absolutely love the color, I wasn't really happy with application. The formula is not too bad, just a little too sheer for such a dark color, I needed three coats for opacity. But the brush handle is a pain to use. This golden knob isn't really easy to hold, so the brush was hard to control.

The square gold studs I used are part of a nail art set from Born Pretty Store. I used a drop of clear polish to place them and secured the whole mani with one generous coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top. The studs stayed securely on the nails for two days, but then some of them fell off. I removed the mani after three days, and Minuit still looked pretty good, apart from some slight tipwear.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, I hope you will be able to spend the holidays with friends and family, like I do.