My Top 10 Spring Nail Picks

I’m Back! Things have been fairly crazy for the past few months and I just haven’t been able to find the time to post. Now that the uni year is winding down and summer is fast approaching I hope to be able to start to posting much more again. I’m jumping back in with some of my spring favourites for this year. This year I’ve been thoroughly sucked in by conventionally spring-y pastel shades, but i've been mixing in a few of my brights that have been thoroughly neglected over the cold months.

Revlon 'Sheer Sunburst'

I do have to admit that this polish takes a fair amount of work, and I didn't actually see the word sheer in the title before I purchased it, I just saw it and thought DUPE FOR CHANEL HOLIDAY! MUST BUY! As far as the colour goes it is actually fairly close to Holiday but it has a different finish because this polish is obviously much more sheer. It takes three careful coats but if you’re patient enough then this does give a really beautiful finish, quite squishy looking.

Butter London 'Trout Pout'

This is the perfect light pinky coral shade and I love it, I already know that it will be on my nails a lot throughout spring and summer. A bonus is the lovely butter London formula, it applies like a dream and dries to a lovely glossy finish, this is probably my fave polish for spring and summer and I can’t see anything taking its place any time soon. I have a post on this from last summer that you can read here.

Essie 'Ballet Slippers'

I wear this on rare days when I want my nails to look neat and polished but I don’t really want them to be a noticeable colour. This is just the most beautiful very light, milky pink that applies to the nails very sheerly and just leaves them looking very clean and sophisticated, I know a lot of people like to use this as the base for an at-home French manicure. I never really had too much of a problem with the thin Essie brush but for this polish I definitely prefer the thicker brush that's on the polishes in the Boots/Superdrug diffusion line, gives a much smoother and cleaner finish.

Butter London 'Fiver'

This polish has replaced Essie’s mint candy apple as my favourite light minty greeny blue!  (I’m just fabulous at descriptions, aren’t I?). This is a little lighter than mint candy apple, and with a tiny bit less green, I just find that this looks a little bit more chic on the nails, like a more grown up approach to a seafoam nail polish. Again, this has an awesome formula that's opaque and ready to go in 2 coats.

OPI 'If You Moust, You Moust'

This came out last year in the vintage Minnie Mouse collection and to be honest I bought it, used it once and then it kind of just got lost in the shuffle and shoved to the back of a drawer until I was re-organizing my collection about a month ago and came across it. Lovely bright pastel pink with blue undertones, I find that it can be more forgiving then pinks with more yellowy undertones which can sometimes make pale skin look a bit funny.

Bourjois 'Adore-Bleu'; 2 coats of 'Adore-Bleu' in direct sunlight

This is the prettiest pastel blue that I’ve found as yet and the formula is pretty nice. I loved ‘Bikini so teeny’ from Essie’s summer collection last year, which was a similar shade of blue but I found the formula to be quite streaky and hard to work with so I’m glad to have found an alternative. This is what i've got on my nails right now for some of the first really sunny days here in the UK and I just love the way it looks.

Sinful Colours 'Boom Boom!'

This is not really a conventional spring colour, but the weather is heating up and I think it looks really nice in the warmer weather. It’s a darker bright pink that has some purple in it, very pretty and very flattering, think it would probably look great on all skin tones as well. I was ecited to see that they had started to sell sinful colours in boots, and for only £1.99 a bottle, I may have squealed a little. I’m very impressed with the formula as well, over all I’m a very happy camper!

Chanel 'Fracas'; Look at the subtle but beautiful shimmer when the light hits it!

As a very pale person, this is about as bright as I can go without the colour making my hands look dirty. I’ve worn this quite a bit already (although I think I’ll wear it the most during summer, I’m thinking it’ll be an almost permanent fixture on my toes!) and just find it to be the most lovely bright but not too bright pink with a tiny bit of a sheen. Good formula too, which I’m glad of considering the high price point!

Bourjois 'Amande défilé'

This is the only colour that I really have like this in my collection, I have so many light minty greens that have quite a bit of blue in them but this is my only pastel green that's more yellow based. I liked it a lot, I like this new Bourjois formula too, this isn’t quite as easy to handle as the blue but its not too hard, especially considering pastel crème polishes can be notoriously difficult. This looks very fresh on my nails.

Essie 'Cute as a Button'

I got this polish towards the end of last summer so I didn’t really get a chance to wear it much before I started wearing darker, more vampy colours for autumn and winter. A friend was looking through my stash and re-discovered it and I’m so glad that she did! This is a lovely darker pinky coral that happens to be really flattering on my skin tone (or at least I think it is) and just makes me think of warmer months. The formula isn’t the best that I’ve ever come across as it can be a little streaky but if you’re careful then it should be fine.

My picks from the OPI Germany collection

When I first saw photos of OPI's Germany collection i'll have to admit that I was slightly underwhelmed. I mean, there are definitely pretty shades but they were all highly dupeable, or so I thought. When I actually saw the collection in store, my opinion changed somewhat.

The nude colours were nice and the kind of thing that appeals to me but they all very closely resembled polishes that I already have in my collection. Despite owning similar polishes I slightly regret not getting 'Berlin there, done that' which is a greige creme polish. Its similar to Essie's 'Chinchilly' which is  one of my favourite autumn nail polishes, only the Essie polish is a tad greyer. But now onto my two purchases from the 

collection.

2 coats of OPI's 'Every month is Oktoberfest'

'Every month is Oktoberfest' is an ideal autumnal shade. Its a metallic purple with a hint of red and some red micro-shimmer. It was quite hard to photograph this polish true to how it appears on the nail. In darker lights this looks almost black but in sunlight the shimmer is really beautiful. This kind of colour just screams autumn to me, the purple and red duochrome kind of reminds me of the changing colour of leaves. When I saw the original images of the collection this was the one that really stood out to me that I knew I had to get. I know that Jessica has some very similar colours in the autumn 'Spicy Dream' collection but I haven't actually seen this in UK stores yet.

1 coat of 'Deutsch you want me baby?'

'Deutsch you want me baby?' is a deep orange colour with some micro-shimmer and a metallic finish. I really love this colour, it seems to me like its a autumn/winter version of my favourite summer orange; 'Holiday' by Chanel. This polish seemed like a bit of a miracle actually, in 1 coat it dried to an opaque, streak free and glossy finish - I was amazed and a very happy bunny. The colour isn't as red as it looks in the above photo, in person it is a true deep orange in all lighting situations.

Recent additions to my nail polish collection

(Left-Right) Barry M 'Strawberry Ice Cream', Barry M 'Navy', Barry M 'Peach Melba', Barry M 'Mint Green', Essie 'Cute as a Button', Essie 'Fiji', Essie 'Dive Bar', Essie 'Fear & Desire', Deborah Lippmann 'Across the Universe'

This post is now severely out of date and I have posted on a rather large portion of the polishes mentioned but I thought i should post it anyway just in case anyone was interested in seeing the other polishes that I had been buying and had not yet posted on.

Over the summer I was away from home for quite a while (7 weeks to be exact!) and I was missing the majority of my trusty nail polish stash so I couldn't resist making a few additions to my collection and thought that you might like to have a little look at the polishes that I chose. It may seem like a lot but like I said, I was away for quite a while and some of them were on offer.

Deborah Lippmann 'Across the Universe' which I got from House of Fraser for £16

I've looked for this one for a while now, I saw some swatches online which got me very interested and I finally found it last week. I used it as soon as I got it home and I really like it, its very unique. I've done an individual post on it already so check that out.

Barry M 'Mint Green' which I bought from Superdrug, 2 for £5

I have very few green nail varnishes but this one just attracted my eye straight away and I was hooked, my two favourite colours this spring were mint and coral and it was on offer so I thought, why not? In Superdrug it was 2 Barry M nail paints for £5 and I think Boots may have a similar offer on at the moment.

Barry M 'Strawberry Ice Cream' which I bought from Superdrug, 2 for £5

i really don't have too many light pink colours like this and i thought it would be a very nice, kinda effortless colour for me. I've applied it once and I have to say I didn't love the formula but I was tired so perhaps I was just painting badly. I hope so because I love colours like this I just never really pick them up.

Barry M 'Navy' which I bought from Superdrug, 2 for £5

I thought this one would be great for autumn and winter, as you can probably tell from my past posts I love blues and this is a wintry alternative to my favourite summer turquoises and teals. I also have a sneaky suspicion that this may be a pretty good dupe for Chanel 'Blue Satin' which I also own - i'll keep you updated with a comparison post when I get around to using this.

Barry M 'Peach Melba' which I bought from Superdrug, 2 for £5

I put this on my nails the very first day that I got it. I really love this colour for summer and it reminds me of Essie's 'Tart Deco' which I also really love. Its a pretty light, peachy pink. I've used it and application wasn't perfect but it wasn't terrible and I really love the colour.

Essie 'Fiji' which I bought from Boots for £7.99

I've already done a post from this one and I like it, not sure I love it though. It's a nice neutral that's pretty and versatile for summer. I imagine that it would look amazing with a tan but alas my fair skin will probably never know the joy of looking sun-kissed. I

do think i'll end up wearing it a lot though, because it will go with everything.

Essie 'Cute as a Button' which I bought from Boots for £7.99

This is that polish that i've picked up many times, always loved, but never quite got around to buying because I have so many similar shades but I finally got around to buying it when I was away. I love the colour and I love the name. Sadly, it hasn't been worn yet just because of the amount of corally pinks I have but i'm sure i'll get around to wearing it soon.

Essie 'Fear and Desire' which I bought from Boots for £7.99

This polish is lovely and bright, it was perfect for the (unusually) hot UK summer. i wrote about this quite a few posts back, its perfect for us pale girls - its about as bright as I can go without my hands looking dirty. I think that Chanel's 'Holiday' is still my favourite summer orange though.

Essie "Dive Bar' which I bought from Boots for £7.99

I almost can't believe I didn't already have this colour, it screams me in autumn and winter. its a lovely, moody, blackened shimmery teal that I think will be perfect for cold winter days, the shimmer stops it from looking dull. This one has a lot of depth, I really like it.

So a bit of everything really, there were a few shades I didn't really need (although, the eternal question springs to mind - who ever really needs a nail polish?) but i've been working hard so I thought why not treat myself. there have been quite a few additions since this, mainly because of the new Selfridges beauty hall, so i'm sure i'll be doing another one of these posts in the not too distant future.