Tuesday, 31 December 2013

2013 Year Review


So, we've come to the end of 2013! In this post I'm going to do a round-up of my favourite blog posts, polishes and collections from the past year, and talk about a few other highlights and general favourites of the year.

Where to even begin!? I was apprehensive about making this post because I am awful at choosing favourites and I know I'll miss things out, but I'll do my best! Firstly it deserves a little mention that my blog turned 2 years old in 2013. It's kind of a big thing for me not to get bored after 5 minutes, so I am suitably impressed by that ;) 

Favourite Nail Art

I've decided to only pick 5 for this to make it less time consuming. If I was doing a top ten I would still be here at the end of 2014. Also, they're in no particular order. 


This is one that turned out even better than in my head, which is rare! I love the combination of colours and the added depth from the use of a-england Saint George. 



This was so much fun to do, I love being able to make a mess and still have it look good! 




I was chosen to be part of the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013, and this was my entry. I loved the colours I had to work with and the retro feel of the outcome!



Pastel gradients always turn out so well, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the easter egg print stamp in my Bundle Monster stash!



Although the gradient may be a little run-of-the-mill, I loved how Elphaba turned out! 


And there you have my favourite nail art posts! It's very evident how much I change my hand poses, looking back over the pictures. I think there's been a marked improvement in my skills (both art and photography) since the beginning of 2013. At least, I hope there has!

Favourite Polishes

For a nail blogger, you'd be surprised to find that my stash is actually relatively small. Huge for the average person, yes, but for a blogger not so big. I don't have a lot of indie polishes and it's rare that I'll like a polish enough to actually buy it, so I don't have hundreds to choose from. I've picked 5 from this year that I truly love (ones that I've tried and tested myself)


I swatched this as part of the Royal Glitter collection, and it's unlike any other texture polish I have. Congratulations to Barry M on this!



A holo based on my birthstone, I had to have it and I was not disappointed!



Unfortunately my picture isn't too great, I do feel my swatches have improved since I did this back in January! One of my all-time favourite collaborations with piCture pOlish, Mallard is a truly unique shade and I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it!




Another green, I know! I'm obsessed with green polish, so you can imagine my glee when faced with this duochrome from Dance Legend's Chameleon collection. Adore!



There's nothing not to love about this polish. The combination of wintery night blue and red glitter is too much! A true joy. 



Narrowing it down to 5 turned out harder than I expected! 


Favourite Collections

It's been a great year for collections, particularly with British brands. It's been a busy year for Barry M with  Royal GlitterMatte and Confetti, not to mention the Spring and Summer Gelly plus the release of Nail Art Pens! We've also seen Models Own Fireworks and Velvet Goth, and 2true had a good year with lots of new things. Color Club also launched a UK distributor this year! All in all a wonderful year for collections. 

I've chosen my 2 absolute favourite collections for 2013, and they are Barry M Royal Glitter and Models Own Velvet Goth. I loved swatching both collections and they remain at the top of my most viewed posts for this year! 

Blogging Highlights

It's been a great year for my blog. I feel like my swatches have improved and hopefully my photography too a little bit! (although I swear I will never be satisfied with it) and my page views are definitely up this year too. As for nail art, I think I've improved in some areas and still need to work on others. Always room for improvement with everything though!

My biggest highlight was definitely the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards. Being nominated for Best Established Beauty Blog out of 48,000 (I think!) blogs and being invited to attend the event in London! Even better than that though was getting to meet and spend time with fellow bloggers - Sammy from The Nailasaurus, Alice from One Nail To Rule Them All, Lucy from Lucy's Stash and Amelia from xameliax, who all turned out to be such lovely people. We all had such a laugh together! I look on them all as friends now <3


Other blogging highlights from the year include - 

- Being featured in Nail It! magazine
- Reviewing for Barry M, Models Own, OPI, piCure pOlish, Clinique and Lancome to name just a few
- Hitting 10,000 Instagram followers
- Taking part in piCture pOlish's Blog Fest 2013
- Having my swatches featured in the Models Own newsletter 
- Being featured on Superdrug's Look At Me as a Nail Art Love

As for setting blogging goals for myself, I'm not really into that. So long as I'm keeping up with it and improving, that's ok with me. Oh, one thing...I want to keep the same damn hand pose for more than a month!

That ended up being a bit of a big post didn't it!? Finished now, I promise ;) just time to say thank you to all my readers, old and new, across every platform. I hope you all have a wonderful 2014!

- Allie x x x
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3 comments

  1. Your Wicked nail art was definitely my favorite of the year :)

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  2. I'm just writing a similar post for tomorrow and came to your blog for link url to link back to you and noticed this lovely post. meeting you and girls was definitely my highlight too <3

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  3. Lots of pretty polishes and manicures. Looking forward to this year!

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