It’s the first day of winter! This only excites me because it feels nothing like winter here in Charlotte. After living in Ohio for a number of years I was cured of loving snow and winter. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still enjoy embracing winter color trends. Especially when it comes to nail polish.
The fall 2012 nail trends were mostly focused on creme finish polishes. Not so for winter! I’m definitely excited to venture out of cremes and get some shimmer and glitter into my life.
My list of the 5 must have polishes for winter 2013 are below the jump. Make sure to leave a comment with your 5 must haves!
1. Emerald: Pantone’s 2013 color of the year! This is a definite must have color. And a great way to add color during the cold winter months. The great thing about this color is you probably already have it in your current collection. My favorite is Revlon Top Speed in Emerald (which PS is currently on clearance at CVS!). Emerald is a dupe for OPI Jade is the New Black which is of course another great option for this color.
2. Chianti: AKA Burgundy aka the most talked about color of fall 2012. It’s hanging around just in a slightly different form. Chianti is moving towards a shimmery texture. A recently discovered favorite that would work fabulously for this is NYC Broadway Burgundy. Other good options are Finger Paints Merry Mittens and OPI Cabernet for the Lady.
3. Deep blue: Rich, deep blues are everywhere! This color is difficult to incorporate into a makeup look but super simple to pull of on nails. Whether it be a creme finish like Orly La Playa or OPI Road House Blues or a shimmery option like Essie Midnight Cami or Rimmel Midnight Blue, this is a great color for winter. It’s less harsh than wearing black polish and more unexpected than wearing a deep red.
4. Gold: Gold has made a comeback! Silver and rose gold have been popular for years but recently traditional yellow gold has been beating out other metallic colors. Alot of this is thanks to the baroque trend in fashion at the moment, but it’s easy to embrace on the nails as well. Gold flake top coats are EVERYWHERE! OPI Man With the Golden Gun is probably the most well known though many other brands have similar polishes and it’s even an easy DIY project. Other ways to rock gold are using a glitter polish like OPI GoldenEye or a metallic polish like Essie Good as Gold.
5. Multicolor glitter: AKA rainbow glitter! Rainbow glitter polishes have been around for ages though probably peaked in popularity as far as the nail polish community is concerned when Deborah Lippmann released Happy Birthday. Finally this trend is reaching the masses which is totally ok with me. It means I can pull out my now neglected bottles of rainbow glitter! My favorite rainbow glitter polish is Lex Cosmetics Acroiris though I do like China Glaze Glitter All the Way for a slightly less traditional take on the rainbow glitter trend.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this winter’s nail polish trends. And don’t forget to leave your favorites for winter in a comment!
Alli
Katie
The Daily Varnish 
I love Revlon Cloud’s gorgeous, snowy blue-white, and Essie Buy Me a Cameo – the perfect champagne for New Year’s Eve!
After looking up Revlon Cloud… it is my new polish crush – I’m going to have to find it tomorrow!
1. Light blues like Orly Snowcone or OPI What’s With the Cattitude
2. Dense, full coverage glitters like essie Beyond Cozy or Sally Hansen Gemcrush in Showgirl Chic
3. Holographic shimmers like Zoya Storm, Blaze, and Aurora
4. Texture! Like OPI Liquid Sand or Zoya PixieDust
5. Nail art! It’s been on the rise and winter allows for a multitude of designs inspired by the season like snowmen and snowflakes!
I love light blues! One of my favorites is Julep – Jessica – which I think I ended up sending to Alli. Essie has some awesome light blues too 🙂
I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about Julep polishes. Do they work well for you?
Depends on the polish -which I guess is true for any brand. I’d never buy them outright since I think they’re totally overpriced, but the maven boxes are a pretty decent deal. I have probably 20 in my “to swatch” box… but, there are a lot that I’ve really really liked.
I love your selection!!! Especially rich and full colors are exactly down my lane. My picks would be
1. Cult Nails Bitten – a rasperry/burgundy shade with glitter
2. Duo or multi chrome shades: Color Club Portfolio
3. Indie polishes – at least to me they seem to grow remarkably. Representing them here: Contrary Polish Desert Fruit
4. Effect Top Coats: Representing them here: Zoya Paloma
5. intense Blue: for example China Glaze Manhunt
What are your favorite indie brands? I’ve been dying to jump into the indie game, but I don’t know where to start 🙂
I’ve been there too – LOL!!! Contrary Polish has an awesome shimmery white (in Ref to your reply to beachgal), Hare Polish, KBShimmer, Enchanted Polish, Cirque, Candeo Colors. These are my top 5.
I will definitely be checking those out! Thanks for the recommendations!!
Good picks – Such a year filled with color we have not seen for yrs – fall and winter collections with major bright shades usually only see in summer! Love. I also notice the move to yellow gold and even some polish co. have put out good ones (so many have put out cheap ick looking golds). I love the pink gold from Orly Rage…and I am nuts for the gold flake look. I have OPI and the Zoya ones. I like the sheer jellies that came around this year – fun to change them out with flakies and glitters. Again another year for some fun toppers – Cult Nails and a few others continued to wow us. Like Christine, I also love some of the brilliant blues this yr – Baker Street from Nails Inc., Essie Mesmerize continued to be a fav, We saw a return to the nudes and nude sheers being welcome again – that’s always so clean and classy looking and easy for most to wear (if they find a nude that works for them). Yeah to OPI for coming out with a white that works when Optic Whites don’t – OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls goes up there with last yrs’ Orly Au Champagne in my non traditional whites that get a work out for me. Not feeling the continued move to textures be they read of faux – I don’t like grit on my nails – I am sooooo tired of seeing magnetics – they all look alike after awhile because you cannot get a lot of variation in colors and still hide the magnetic particles that make those work. Fun this summer with neons – I bet they go into hiding this next yr and we all are stuck with a ton of neons for the next 5 yrs until they hit again. Loved the bright oranges thanks to Panatone Tangerine Tango. I know we are going to say it’s OK now in 2013 to wear shades of green normally most would only wear at holiday and for St. Patty’s day – the green polish fans are soooo happy! I loved seeing even more glass fleck this year. Love it year round so thank you to the few co who put them in winter and fall collections. Not a fan of a lot of the metallic many cos tried to get us wrapped around – cannot deal with major brush strokes showing. Yeah goes out to all the bloggers who work and work to keep up with items, ideas, themes. I saw a lot of cleaver things for voting and the Olympics this yr (you 2 gals did some great ones here). On to fav polishes released this yr. …I have to really think. I am one who finds things and they become a fav and I keep going back to them. Lots of pretty reds out there but for holiday I cannot find anything that tops the old OPI Dear Santa for a gold based red!
Which OPI white are you talking about? I always flirt with the idea of white cremes… but I hate everyone I own. I long for a perfect shimmery white but I haven’t found one that doesn’t require a trillion coats.
PS – as far as I’m concerned neons can stay far far away for the next decade. Soooo not my thing.
To beachgal: I see, we have some common preferences aka Nails Inc Baker Street – I think we will see this a lot on “best of” lists. Essie seems to have a dupe in their winter collection. And what a great round-up!!!!
I am dedicated to the Pantone trend reports so I think the color of the year will translate into nails in a big way. I also think that the brights and nudes combos won’t leave us this year. I am seeing a shift to matte glitter, just as another alternative to the standard glitterbomb- but still sexy. 🙂 I also think gray ( creme or microglitter) will continue to be the new red. I am with Christine, the indie market will continue to explode- and I am beyond addicted to it.
I would say my five to represent those trends are:
1. Illamasqua’s Viridian
2. Julep’s Fiona & Teresa ( can’t wait to get my Maven box)
3. Whimsical Ideas by Pam’s Cookie Monster (it’s an indie too!)
4. OPI’s Nein, Nein, OK Fine or OPI’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
5. Cirque’s Planet Caravan
I still can’t decide which maven box to get. Ahh!