I feel like I haven’t written a pure beauty post in ages! Recently, my nails have become inexplicably stronger than they ever have before – and I decided to start growing them. I’ve actually quite enjoyed having long nails for the first time ever, and obviously, long nails deserve painting which means I’ve been painting my nails more than usual too. I decided to share all my favourite nail polishes, because, why not? 

I love Essie polishes. I know people like to find dupes and cheap versions, but I really feel like the quality makes them completely worth it. I can literally get a week and a half out of their gel couture range! I find that using their gel couture top coat on their regular range lasts for ages too, they’re such high quality. So anyway, here are my favourite shades!  

Angora Cardi 

A warm, deep, sophisticated shade that’s perfect for jut about every occasion, especially in the colder months! I still haven’t found anything this colour doesn’t go with. Buy it here

Eternal Optimist

Absolutely adore this shade – it’s a muted pink, so rather than that bright, neon pink that can look a bit childish, this pink is grown up and sophisticated, but still noticeable, unlike other muted pinks that can camouflage against skin like mine. Buy it here

In Stitches

I think this is probably my favourite nail colour of all time – it’s SO gorgeous. A rich red-brown, deep without being dark, I absolutely love it and it suits my skin colour perfect. Buy it here

Drop the Gown

A perfect red – not garish, but still bright enough to be recognisable as classic red. I’ve tried loads of the cult-red nail polishes and I always feel tacky wearing them (Dior Rouge was the most expensive let down ever) but there’s none of that with this stunning colour! Get it here

Top Coat

And of course, there’s no blog post without recommending Essie’s phenomenal Gel Couture Top Coat. Which I totally forgot to get a proper photo of, but it’s the all-white bottle in the first photo. It’s brilliant. It dries like a rock, with a super high shine finish and lasts foreverrrrrr. It isn’t UV sensitive like some gel-effect top coats, which means it doesn’t go stringy and weird when you try to use it, but it has all the same effects. It’s great, I can’t recommend it highly enough! Get it here