My Top 40 Polishes Of 2016
Hi there! It’s the last day of 2016, if you can even believe it and to celebrate the coming of 2017, I have my top 40 favorite of 2016. I started with about 150 polishes I loved this year and oh man, did I try to whittle the list down. I was able to settle on my top 40 polishes but just couldn’t eliminate anymore. I just loved so many but these are the ones that really had my heart in 2016. Please note, these are out of the polishes that I was able to try this year. There were a lot of brands and polishes I didn’t get a chance to try so these are just my personal favorites from my stash.
And on a side note, if anyone was curious, I decided to forgo my year-end, “Best Of” event this year where readers could vote for their favorite polishes of the year. I just heard so much flack from people who didn’t understand the voting process and would get upset over who did or did not win. I’ve kept my blog a drama-free-zone so far and just didn’t wish for the drama to start now so I decided not to do the voting and Best Of 2016 event this year. This is my consolation this year, I hope you enjoy! In no particular order…
Why It Made The Top 40: In a world where glitter toppers aren’t as common as they used to be, this one made its debut and my glitter-loving heart fell in love. I still love glitter toppers so much and the color combination in this one is just amazing.
Buy Pahlish Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
2. Lynnderella Berry Merry Berry
Why It Made The Top 40: From the first swipe, I knew this was something special. The base color is stunning, a brownish berry shade accented with gold. My cup of tea!
Buy Lynnderella Here! This polish is limited edition.
3. KBShimmer Chai-huahua
Why It Made The Top 40: This bricky red tone of this polish is what had me sold. It’s a little different from the other red polishes I own too which made it extra special.
4. Lynnderella Love The Little Ones
Why It Made The Top 40: First off, it’s a glitter topper so I love it for that alone. Then tack on the fact that it’s the most perfect Valentine’s polish… it was destiny!
Buy Lynnderella Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
5. OPI Spoken From The Heart
Why It Made The Top 40: I honestly could have included the entire Hello Kitty Collection. It’s been almost a year since the collection was released and it’s still a favorite of mine. I use colors from that collection very often. Spoken From The Heart stood out because of it’s brightened shade of coral and the fact that it’s a crelly. ♥
6. China Glaze Bite Me
Why It Made The Top 40: Bite Me was from one of my most favorite Summer Collections this year and it’s hot pink, so yeah… I think that speaks for itself!
7. Deborah Lippmann Ever After
Why It Made The Top 40: 2016 was the year of dusty rose. It. Was. Every. Where. It’s been one of my favorite shades of pink for a long time so I was excited dusty rose got it’s day in the sun. This was one of my favorite dusty rose polishes for the year.
8. Cirque Colors Astra
Why It Made The Top 40: I loved Hatch from Cirque Colors so this was naturally a favorite with it’s blush pink base and flakies.
Buy Cirque Colors Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
9. Glam Polish Lilo, You Lolo
Why It Made The Top 40: Hot pink, red, white, rose gold, gold and silver mixed together to create this magical holographic glitter bomb. Do I need to say more!?
10. Cirque Colors Sin City
Why It Made The Top 40: One of my favorite neons to wear is neon red, or the closest thing to it and this is really close. Stunning, opaque and eye-searing!
Buy Cirque Colors Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
11. China Glaze None Of Your Risky Business
Why It Made The Top 40: It was the year for amazing neon colors and this neon mac n’ cheese color really stole the show!
12. Cupcake Polish Not My Vault
Why It Made The Top 40: I was OB-SESSED with the Olympics this year and I loved Cupcake Polish’s ode to this amazing event. This pumpkin orange holographic was by far my favorite in the collection and one of my faves of the year too!
13. OPI Freedom of Peach
Why It Made The Top 40: Ok, I’m just going to be straight with you here, you’re going to see quite a bit of this collection here. I had every polish on my favorites list and narrowed it down to a handful of them. I just can’t help it, this entire collection was incredible and one of my all-time favorites from OPI. Freedom Of Peach was the perfectly different shade of autumnal peach.
14. OPI Yank My Doodle
Why It Made The Top 40: Another polish from the fantastical Washington DC Collection. A burnt red-orange with red clay vibes… swoon. I wore this two times this Fall which is saying a lot for me!
15. Cirque Colors Counterculture
Why It Made The Top 40: Bright, perfect primary yellow with the most perfect formula which is hard to come by in a yellow polish. Yep, killer!
Buy Cirque Colors Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
16. OPI Never A Dulles Moment
Why It Made The Top 40: Not only did this yellow have a nice formula, but it is also a lovely muted shade of yellow which I didn’t have in my collection before.
17. China Glaze Girls Just Wanna Have Sun
Why It Made The Top 40: Three favorite yellows this year! It’s a crelly with a great formula and a so-pale-it’s-almost-white yellow color to it. Perfect!
18. KBShimmer Stalk Market
Why It Made The Top 40: Honestly, all of the Megaflame polishes KBShimmer has to offer are amazing but something about Stalk Market really stood out to me and had me begging for Spring!
Buy KBShimmer Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
19. Lynnderella PinkerMint Stick
Why It Made The Top 40: It’s got a mint microglitter base mixed with Christmas colors and one of the reason Lynnderella is one of my faves!
Buy Lynnderella Here! This polish is limited edition.
20. Cirque Colors Central Park After Dark
Why It Made The Top 40: It was also a year for army and sage green shades! I was so happy to add lots of unique greens to my stash this year, including this one.
21. Pahlish Wild Air & Loftiest Muse
Why It Made The Top 40: Ok, so I’m kinda cheating here but they are the best together! Wild Air and Loftiest Muse are of the same shade of minty blue-green, one because a crelly polish, one being a glitter topper. Can’t beat that!
Buy Pahlish Here! These polishes are not currently available. :(
22. CrowsToes IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER
Why It Made The Top 40: It was the most unique white crelly based glitter polish I’d seen in a while and I just fell in love with it!
23. Nine Zero Lacquer Singer’s Auto Salvage
Why It Made The Top 40: If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know my thoughts on ugly-pretty colors and this one is the epitome of that! My favorite ugly-pretty shade of the year!
24. OPI Suzi – The First Lady Of Nails
Why It Made The Top 40: Another polish from the Washington DC Collection so you know why it’s here! Also, because it’s an amazing army green that I realized I don’t have enough of!
25. Powder Perfect Robin Hood
Why It Made The Top 40: I just couldn’t get over the beautiful greens this year! The blue tinge in this one just set it apart from others.
Buy Powder Perfect Here! The shop is currently closed.
26. Cirque Colors Shred The Gnar
Why It Made The Top 40: I’m wearing this gorgeous shade today actually! It’s soooooo deep and dark but still appears blue and not black. Love it.
Buy Cirque Colors Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
27. Deborah Lippmann My Boyfriend’s Back
Why It Made The Top 40: This muted denim blue is just plain gorgeous. I’ll always have a special place for the dusty shades, especially a good dusty blue.
28. Glisten & Glow Harmonious Healing
Why It Made The Top 40: A muted turquoise crelly that doesn’t stain is what I’ve been hoping for my whole life! This entire collection is another one that I just adore. Every color is amazing but this one is my fave in the collection.
29. Glam Polish Hawaii Kai
Why It Made The Top 40: I loved these Hawaii themed polishes from Glam Polish. The collection came out the month I was going to Hawaii, where my family lives AND they were all gorgeous. Now when I see them, but especially Hawaii Kai, I think about being in Hawaii. ♥
Buy Glam Polish Here! This polish is not currently available.
30. Lynnderella A Penticorn Walks Into A Bar
Why It Made The Top 40: I was taking glitter toppers where I could get them this year and this was another one that I was living for! It was so sweet and magical and the mix of the colors is superb. Plus it has starfish glitters in it!
Buy Lynnderella Here! This polish is not currently available.
31. OPI It’s A Boy
Why It Made The Top 40: This one is special to me because my third nephew was born this year and this polish came out a few months before he was born. I even gave this polish out as prizes at my sister’s baby shower. It’s such a perfect baby blue with a warm tone and it’s a crelly, which I love.
32. Zoya Lake
Why It Made The Top 40: This is the sweetest robin’s egg blue crelly. One of my favorite pastel polishes of the year!
33. OPI I’m Gown For Anything
Why It Made The Top 40: The uniqueness of this polish landed it a spot on my top 40 this year. It’s a bit pink but mostly purple. Slightly dusty and a nice formula despite the paleness of the color. I wasn’t thrilled with the Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection as a whole but this one was a definite stand-out.
Buy OPI Here! This polish is not currently available from approved retailers.
34. Pahlish Balloon Flower
Why It Made The Top 40: These types of polishes are the reason I fell in love with Pahlish. This was my favorite one from 2016. I could take a million polishes like this!
Buy Pahlish Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
35. Cupcake Polish Believe
Why It Made The Top 40: Much like the Megaflame polishes from KBShimmer, I loved this incredible and sparkly collection! I wish I could have included them all but I love this one the most!
36. OPI I Manicure For Beads
Why It Made The Top 40: OPI really nailed it this year. Almost all of their collections were phenomenal! The New Orleans Collection was another of my faves and this purple really just topped them all!
37. Cirque Colors Tanzanite
Why It Made The Top 40: Blurple. Flakies. BLURPLE. FLAKIES. ‘Nuff said!
38. OPI Inside The Isabelletway
Why It Made The Top 40: I feel like brown polishes are underrated. I tend to overlook them, sadly. This one however, is unforgetable!
39. Cupcake Polish Bad Hare Day
Why It Made The Top 40: This is really one of those polishes you need to see in person to believe. The sandy nude base mixed with rose gold and copper shimmers, swoon!
Buy Cupcake Polish Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
40. Cirque Colors Don’t Forget The Cannoli
Why It Made The Top 40: Last but certainly not least, this incredible off-white creme. It’s practically a one-coater which is unheard of for a white-ish polish. Seriously one of the best polishes of the year!
Buy Cirque Colors Here! This polish is not currently available. :(
This list was almost a top 60 list but I narrowed it down even further and decided to add these polishes as honorable mentions! There were so many other great polishes and I enjoyed trying them all this year! Here’s to 2017!
Honorable Mentions!
- Different Dimension Cat’s Eye Nebula
- OPI OPI By Popular Vote
- KBShimmer Grin And Gerbera It
- Zoya Dixie
- OPI What’s The Double Scoop?
- Cirque Colors Whitney
- OPI SPF XXX
- Cirque Colors Electric Daisy
- China Glaze Lime After Lime
- Pretty Serious Cosmetics Bunny-Foo-Foo
- Zoya Wyatt
- Cirque Colors Dioptase
- China Glaze Combat Blue-ts
- Colors By Llarowe Helen
- Different Dimension Monroe
- Lynnderella Cupcake Lake
- Lynnderella Electric Petunia
- KBShimmer Tiers Of Joy
- OPI It’s In The Cloud
- Pahlish Munchkinland
Related Posts:
