My Nail Polish Year 2012

Hey everyone!

Last year around this time I had lots of fun with the 2011 as a Beauty Year tag. I thought about a nail polish version for this year to summarize the past year on my little blog. Here it is!

* Favorite brand in 2012 *

My favorite brand this year was definitely Essie. I like that they deliver good quality and I adore the cat tongue brush they switched to. Easy access to their permanent range and a moderate price (on the high end of "ok" but still ok nonetheless ;-) ) are bonus points in my opinion.

* Favorite collection in 2012 *

This is tough. I almost felt like there hasn't been one collection that I loved to bits and pieces but then I remembered that the China Glaze Colours from the Capitol collection came out in 2012. I love and own 10 out of the 12 polishes so that must be my favorite collection of the year.

Runner ups were the Misa Wanderlust and High Society collections and the a-england The Legends collection.

* Favorite color in 2012 *

I loved purple nails this year. Who am I kidding? Not just this year, I plain L.O.V.E. purple.

* Favorite finish in 2012 *

I don't think I gravitated towards any finish this year. I'm still not fully on speaking terms with glitters, holos are nice if the formula behaves and jellys can be sexy if I feel like it. The finish that I always like no matter what is shimmer.

* Favorite base coat/top coat combination in 2012 *

My favorite combo was Microcell 2000 Nail Repair as base coat and China Glaze Fast Forward as my top coat. Though the essence studio nails better than gel nails base sealer and top sealer are a match made in heaven as well.

* Favorite season for nail polish in 2012 *

Well, my favorite collection came out in spring but the colors were very fall-ish. I also loved what essie and Misa launched in fall this year so I guess my answer is FALL.

* Favorite nail polish blogs in 2012 *

I have definitely read a lot of blogs in the waning year, from lots of people all over the world. The one that made me happy the most was Lucy's Stash.

* Biggest inspiration nail-polish-wise in 2012 *

I find the biggest inspiration in the Adventures in Stamping group and Nail Challenge Collaborative group on FB. Both groups have an additional benefit: They constantly bribe me out of comfort zone.

* Favorite nail polish related purchase in 2012 *

I didn't purchase many "nail polish related" stuff this year, I think it was only 3 things - swatchsicles, Mont Bleu glass nail files and daylight lamps. I can't nail it down to just one! I love them all!

I love the daylight lamps because they have made a tremendous difference in the quality of the pictures I take. This is important to me because good pictures is one thing (among many more) that make a blog worthy reading material for my readers.

I love the glass nail files by Mont Bleu because they are of very good quality and pleasing to the eye thanks to the lovely swarowski crystal decorations. I'm happy to report that mine are still in very good shape.

And I love the swatchsicles because with them it is so much easier to handle my large collection. I love the rainbow effect when I sort them by shade. I loved the randomness of the swatch wheelies that I used beforehand but the rainbow effect speaks so much louder to my organisation-loving side.

Oops, I forgot that stamping plates are nail polish related too. Of course I love my stamping plates (would I buy more if I didn't love the concept?) but picking favorites amongst them would be a whole different story. Would you be interested in something like that? Or a collective overview? Let me know :)

* By how much my stash has grown in 2012 *

Excluding treatments like top coats, base coats and any moisturizers I began the year at under 400 nail polishes. Unfortunately I didn't take count at the beginning of the year. It was in March that I crossed the 400 mark. Now at the end of the year I own 494 nail polishes.

In terms of treatments I own 5 quick-dry and non-quick-dry top coats, incl. mattifying ones but excluding all that contain shimmer/glitter/flakes, and 5 base coats and treatmeants. And there are currently 3 cuticle cream/gel/oil and 1 cuticle remover living in my home, as well as numerous moisturizers, hand lotions and body lotions.

My goal for 2012 was to show you as many polishes from my stash as I could. By December I had blogged about 356 polishes in total, leaving "only" 137 polishes in the waiting line.

I guess the above paragraphs prove that I'm a neat freak. LOL.

Whew! That's a lot of text and pictures. Honestly, I didn't think that it would take much time to write up this post. Anyway, I'm glad I did it! :) I love summaries, they show how much progress I made.


If you'd like to answer a few (or all) questions, please do so in the comments or leave me a link to your answers. :)

Here are the questions in summary:

In 2012 what was your...

... favorite brand?

... favorite collection?

... favorite color?

... favorite finish?

... favorite base coat/top coat combination?
... favorite seasons for nail polish?

... favorite nail polish blog(s)?

... favorite nail polish related purchase?

... favorite / biggest inspiration nail-polish-wise?

... how much has your stash grown?  (This one is a dare :D )

I'm looking forward to your answers :)

Chester :)