My Top 5 Favourite Nail Polish Finishes:

Hello everyone! I love cosmetics and I’ve always dabbled in makeup and other aspects of beauty but what has always bought me back to nail polish, and especially indie nail polish, is the various different formulas and finishes to experiment and play around with. I had wanted to write a post about some different polish finishes but then decided to rank them into my Top 5 favourite nail polish finishes! Hopefully this gives you a bit more insight into what kind of polishes I love, so let’s get stuck in. 

NO.5 – CRÈMES:

Coming in at fifth place is crème polishes. Crème is the most common nail polish formula, you find them drugstores and also from indies, but are sometimes quite divisive in indie nail polish communities; on one hand some people think they’re overdone and boring, others however, think they make great palette-cleanser shades and can be simple yet very effective. Personally, I love crème nail polish. I feel like everyone who shares a love of all things nail polish starts with crème nail polish and when you venture into indies they get forgotten but I always come back to crème nail polish. Royal blue is my absolute favourite colour and nothing makes me happier than the perfect royal blue crème. Mainstream crème polishes have such a smooth, buttery formula and indie crèmes are also brilliant because they can often be used for nail art too (watermarbling, gradients or stamping). I have put some of my favourite crème polishes in the collage below; some of my favourite mainstream crèmes are made by Zoya, OPI and Barry M and some amazing indie crèmes are made by Glisten and Glow, Prism Polish and 516. 

NO.4 – FLAKIES

I will be honest, I nearly put flakies at number 5 and crèmes at 4. Flakies were never really my thing, I never understood the hype or the appeal until very recently. In case you aren’t aware, flakies polishes are slightly sheerer than usual polishes and are packed with lots of little cut up pieces of colour-shifting film, which are now referred to as flakies. Before this year, flakies were never my favourite, they were too sheer for my liking and I could never see the appeal of the colour-shift, it always felt too subtle and sometimes the flakies would melt into the base. Photos of flakie polishes always looked stunning but they never seemed to look the same in real life on my nails. However, after learning that flakies photograph best in indirect or overcast lighting and buying some new flakies, with a much better formula than my older ones, my opinions have certainly changed. Flakies have so much depth! When done well and in ideal lighting, the colour shift can be very noticeable and very effective. See some of my favourite flakie nail polishes are made by Glam Polish, Polished for Days, and Live Love Polish, as seen in the collage below. 

NO.3 – HOLOGRAPHIC

The first shade to crack the top 3 might be a controversial pick! Holographic nail polish, and particularly linear holographic nail polish, were a huge catalyst in the growth in popularity for indie nail polish and have always remained a strong fan favourite among favourite special finishes but mine not so much. Believe me, I love rainbows and I own a LOT of holographic polishes. The only reason they aren’t higher is because they can become a little too repetitive at times and even though I see nice holos that I would want, they always stay on the wishlist but never make it into the shopping basket. One thing I definitely love about holographic is it can be very versatile and some brands have been quite experimental with their use and inclusion of holo and those I love! Some of my favourite brands for linear holographics are Cupcake Polish, FUN Lacquer and Enchanted Polish. I am also a fan of Glam Polish’s holographic micro-glitters often used in their shimmer polishes, Emily de Molly’s glitter and linear combinations and the holographic/flakies combination shades often released from Polished for Days. 

NO.2 – CRELLYS

I absolutely adore crelly polish. It was so difficult to choose between putting them at number 1 or number 2; eventually it came down to the fact that crellys are often glitter-dense and a pain to remove, unless you use a peel-off basecoat. If you’re unaware, the name ‘crelly’ comes from the base of crellys usually being not too sheer but not very opaque (in between a crème and a jelly) with the intention being the base is light enough to suspend lots of glitters or flakies in and still be opaque in 2-3 layers. I love crellys because they have so much depth to them and are so eye-catching and so unique! If you’re very familiar with my Instagram, you are probably aware of the fact that I love white crellys! Crellys with a white base and packed with neon, multi-coloured glitters are some of my favourite-ever nail polishes! Some of my favourite brands for crellys are Glam Polish, Emily de Molly and Glisten and Glow to name a few!

NO.1 – MULTICHROMES

Multichromes! Once again, if you’re very familiar with my Instagram page you probably knew this was coming. Multichromes are polishes filled with colour-shifting pigments which mean at different angles, and in different lighting the polish will appear a different colour, or multiple different colours. I’m obsessed with multichromes, they’re my kryptonite and I hoard them. On a personal note, it was a multuchrome swatch of mine which got me my first ever PR, but also, in my opinion, they’re the kind of polishes that could completely distract you from whatever you are doing just to stare at them. I also love the variety you get in formula too; for example there are multichromes with holo running through them, there or duochromes which only have two main colour-shifts and multichrome powders which as blinding in their multitude of colour shifts. Either way, I love them and I always stare at them when they’re on my nails and everyone needs more multichromes in their life. Some of my favourite multichromes are made by Live Love Polish, FUN Lacquer, Quixotic Polish and many, many more!

That’s it for my all-time Top 5 picks! What did you think of my choices? Did you agree or disagree? Let me know by leaving a reply down below and also let me know if you’d like a part 2 to this, as there were so many formulas I missed out. If you made it all the way to the end, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post.