Azuré, however, had a great application. This was very easy two coats. The first coat is a little streaky, but the second coat evens everything out. There are some brushstrokes apparent in this metallic polish, but it evens out, and is not nearly as bad as a lot of metallic polishes out there.

Azuré retails for $27 and can be purchased at Chanel or Nordstrom.

Fancy Pants is a gorgeous blurple with pink-purple shimmer. This polish leans more toward the purple side of blurple in real life, even though it may seem like it leans blue in swatches. It’s a beautiful color in person. The shimmer does kind of disappear on the nail, but it is there. If you like purple or blurple polishes, this one definitely does not disappoint. Beautiful formula with two coats.

China Glaze polishes can run up to $7.50 in stores, but retail for around $3 at e-tailers.

Traditionally, I’ve never gotten into the indie craze. Most indie brands are very glitter based, and I really just don’t have the patience for glitters. Contrary Polish, however, is probably one brand that is not nearly recognized enough. Contrary Polish is an indie brand that is mostly shimmer based, but they have some absolutely amazing colors. She even has a shade from her Spring Collection very close in color to the coveted Illasmaqua Raindrops (Check out Jen’s comparison over at The PolishAholic here).

Gilded Oak is a plummy brown with beautiful golden shimmer. There might be some purple and silver shimmer in there as well. Sometimes it looks more plummy, sometimes it looks more maroon. It’s still a very unique shade as well as stunning. Contrary Polish has excellent formulas in their polishes, as well as very good wear time as well.

You can purchase Contrary Polish at Llarowe for $11 a piece. Carrie also offers mini polishes for $5 on her website, but those are very limited from what I understand. However, these polishes are so beautiful you’re going to want a full-size bottle.

Four Leaf Clover is a very bright – almost neon – teal-based green creme. This is the most difficult polish to photograph. I really don’t think there is a color accurate swatch around. This is one of those polishes you have to see in person. I think the camera picks up the teal tones in this polish, making it just impossible to photograph this shade accurately.  It is a very essential St. Patrick’s Day shade, hence the name. It is much more green in real life, as it looks very teal in the swatch. This will probably be my go-to St. Patrick’s Day nail color from now on.

Originally from the Up & Away Collection from Spring 2010, this is definitely one of the highlights of that entire collection. Formula wise, this polish was a dream. This may just have reawakened my love for China Glaze polishes.

Four Leaf Clover is part of China Glaze’s permanent collection and can be found wherever China Glaze is sold – ULTA, Sally Beauty, and many online retailers.

This year’s trend is a little different in that it’s just a different finish. Much like mattes polishes, “textured” polishes are just another type of finish that nail polish can give your nails. I always like a clean and finished look to the nails, which is probably why I’m not very keen on these kinds of polishes, or any of the previous trends. My favorite finishes are cremes, shimmers, and metallics. I’m not a big fan of glitters, or even polishes that have a more waxy finish.

Just like Crackle took over the nail polish world, the same seems to go for Texture polishes. They are called “sand” with OPI, “pixie dust” with Zoya. Everyone is making them – China Glaze is coming out with some soon, and I’ve seen drugstore polishes already have their own version of this “texture” trend. When I first saw promotional images of Zoya’s PixieDust texture collection, I really did think it might be interesting. I wasn’t sold on the texture idea, but the way it sparkled like Tinkerbell did give me some hope. Then I saw swatches of the collection with a top coat on. I thought it looked amazing with a top coat.

I am probably the only person that doesn’t like this trend. Every single blog I have read just raves about them, and I just don’t get it. I’ve tried it – and I wasn’t impressed. They are sheer – and need 3-4 coats minimum. They don’t dry as slow as advertised. However, what made me so dissapointed was that I really thought I could use a top coat to make these shiny. I was so dissapointed in the fact that these literally EAT topcoat. I tried several coats of topcoat, with the same results. It would look shiny for a little while, and then it would eat through the top coat, and was back to that gritty texture. Maybe there’s a strong enough topcoat that won’t eat through this texture, but I’m not that hopeful. Even if there was, you would be dealing with 4 coats of polish with a possible 2-4 coats of top coat. That’s a lot of work.

This trend is just not for me. Many people love it. I just don’t. It feels like sandpaper on my nails. It just feels like that uncomfortable feeling you get when you get sand all over your skin before you rinse it off. I don’t know why people like it, but to each their own. And unfortunately, this trend isn’t going away. I groaned when Zoya annouced they were introducing 6 more shades this summer. The colors are pretty, but it’s not enough for me to deal with when I don’t get the results I want. The removal is not easy, regardless of what Zoya or OPI says. The removal is just like a glitter.

Nyx is a beautiful color – a soft periwinkle. I love periwinkle, and it’s one of my favorite colors on the nails. The color is absolutely gorgeous – I just wish it wasn’t in this texture that I just can’t get on board with. Sorry. The swatch you see is right after a couple coats of top coat – when it was still somewhat shiny. This didn’t last long, unfortunately.

These are available at Zoya and ULTA stores for $9.

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Denim is a gorgeous purple-based blue with small white flakes. This is the shade that made me notice Picture Polish. In some swatches, I’ve seen this appear much more blue. It does look more purple in my swatch, but blurples are quite hard to photograph, and this one does lean somewhat periwinkle.

Amethyst is the purple version of Denim – as this is a much more truer shade of purple. I like Denim & Amethyst quite a lot, but I thik I like Amethyst a tiny more, just because I am crazy about purple. I believe this was three coats. This shade is part of their “Collaboration Collection,” I believe it is called, where Picture Polish collaborates with bloggers and members of their network. This one is a collaboration with Star Trinkets.

Cosmos is another favorite from the Picture Polish line. It was sold out the first time I tried to get it, but they restock their polishes fairly frequently, so patience does pay off. Cosmos is a gorgeous indigo blue with small multi-colored flakes and holographic particles. It reminds me of the stars at nightime. This one is just stunning – which my picture showed it justice, but alas I photographed this with nubs! This one is a collaboration with Pshiit, which has amazing photos even though I can’t understand most of it.

Mallard is one of the most recent additions to the Picture Polish lineup. It is in collaboration with Jen of The PolishAholic, who anyone knows if you follow nail blogs at all. She was one of the first nail bloggers I ‘met’ when I first started my blog, and she’s a sweetheart to boot, so I’m thrilled for her that she has her own polish! Sorry this is a crappy swatch, I should have brought out the real camera for this one! Might have to redo photos and make Mallard it’s own post.

Mallard is a deep forest shimmery green with multi-colored flakes, particularly green, gold, and orange. Even if you didn’t know the name of this polish, it’s hard not to associate this color with a duck! The formula on this is fantastic. I was shocked how opaque this was. Perfect two-coater, with the first coat being much more opaque than I expected. Usually polishes I’ve tried with flakes are very sheer, but not this one.  I did start to get chipping on Day 3 with this polish. If you change your polish often, no big deal, but most polishes average 3-5 days on me, so I would say this polish has average wear time.

Mallard has been expanded to be part of the permanent collection at Picture Polish, so it should be easy to find in the future. Right now, it’s hit and miss if it is in stock. Keep trying though – I waited and checked fairly often until I found it in stock.

Picture Polish ranges from $12.50-$14.50. You can view the network of Picture Polish retailers here. I have had great success with Llarowe – they ship quick and fast.

Venous by Illamasqua is a goregeous teal creme, that leans green. I found this shade by accident when browsing Sephora, so I believe this a relatively new shade. As with Illamsqua polishes, this was a beautiful formula that was opaque in two coats.

I don’t know if I posted this before, but Into the Night by OPI was one of my favorite shades of 2012. This shade was part of the Spiderman Collection last year. It’s a gorgeous blurple that leans blue with a metallic shimmer. I love these kinds of shades, but I know many aren’t too fond of metallic formulas.

Katherine by Zoya part of their small selection of jelly shades they introduced last fall in their “Gloss” Collection. I wish they had done more than 3 shades, because these are some of the best jelly shades I have tried. Personally, I’d rather they make more colors with this gloss formula than concentrating on current trends I really don’t care for. The formula is excellent on these. Even though they are sheer and need 3 or 4 coats for opaque color, the wear time is amazing on these. I got at least 5+ days of wear with the Gloss formula, which is very rare on me.

I will be updating the blog sale page soon. The reason it is taking so long is because it will be massive (I have an entire Helmer drawer of polish that need new homes), and I’m going to be taking pics of the items this time. I hope to have that up next week, that is my goal anyway.

Sinful Colors – Neptune

China Glaze – Argo

Nicole by OPI – Purple Yourself Together

Grape is a perfect medium purple. All of these shades from this collection or a hybrid between a jelly and a creme. Jellies don’t always behave on me, so these were the perfect balance. This one was my favorite. All of the shades were sheer at first, but buildable. Three coats.

Blue Raspberry is a gorgeous color, but I did have some application issues. Some bubbles and a little thick in places. I really like that color though. Three coats.

Blueberry is a electric and bright blue. It’s very similar to Revlon’s Royal. I know Revlon’s Royal is very popular, but I had issues with it. I like Blueberry better, but it’s not perfect. I found it to be a little thick, but it is a nice alternative to Royal.

The Jellybeans Collection retails for $8, and can be purchased directly from Nubar. I have found Nubar cheaper on eBay, though.