Enough is never enough

What is it about nail polish that makes you just want more and more of them? Have they put something in the formula, so that when you lovingly do your mani on a pampering Tuesday night in your PJs over a nice hot chocolate it goes straight to your head with the message - buy more of me? Whatever it is, it's got its hooks into millions of us, and I for one willingly oblige!

You could argue that after 24 days of a new mini polish every day - YES, I'm talking about the Ciaté advent calendar - I should have had my need for nail polish met, and in theory at least I should also have had enough of Ciaté. BUT.... when Ciaté has a sale on and you can get the most incredible shades starting at £4 - you start to think about what's missing from the polished polish collection. I realised that I didn't have a very particular shade of glimmer, and that gap would be filled perfectly by the stunning Ciaté shade The Hamptons (£4) which is a sparkly turquoise blue green exactly like the color of the sea in the Caribbean. I was also missing a lovely creamy and dreamy pastel lilac, but with Spinning Teacup (£4) I'm all set.

As you know I'm all about experimenting with different nail effects and for me Ciaté is market leading, in terms of coming up with innovative new concepts. Admittedly the sets can be a bit expensive, so even better reason to pick up a bargain in the sales. A modern classic by now is the velvet look and I bagged myself the Velvet Manicure in Blue Suede (£5), and it's also the shade that started the very eye catching and original trend. Another little set that I picked up is the Caviar Manicure in Cotton Candy (£5) which is a lovely sherbet colored bead mix of pink, orange, baby blue and silver beads - perfect for the pastel Spring & Summer trend.

China Glaze isn't a brand that you see mentioned very often in the UK, which is a bit strange because it really has a great formula and a wonderful range of shades. After my first nice and wide brush with it (see what I did there...) in the shade With Love, reviewed in my Red Edition, I was very impressed by China Glaze and decided that I would get some more shades in the BeautyBay.com New Year Sales. There were several offers on with up to an amazing 75% off but I stuck to my list and quota, and got exactly what I had planned. yeay - go me! After a lot of browsing of all the colors, one more beautiful than the other I bought two timeless and sophisticated shades; Queen B (£6.26), a creamy muted deep dusky purple blue and Mahogany Magic (£6.26) which is a lovely genuine golden chocolate brown. I also wanted to get some colors that will go well with all the beautiful Spring & Summer make up collections that will be released very soon, so I also decided on the fresh and fruity light coral shade Peachy Keen (£6.26) and Keep Calm, Paint On (£6.26), a lovely cool, blue pastel green Honeydew with a subtle shimmer.

As it is the beginning of the year, there have been a lot of posts about Top 3 or 5 or 10 products in 2013, and some have also covered nail polishes. I've really enjoyed reading those posts, but every time I've thought to myself that I could probably never decide on top 10, or have mercy - top 3?! I would get stuck on even trying to decide on which my top 3 blue or purple polishes are. I hate to state the obvious, but in my case when it comes to nail polish: enough is never enough.