*Some Press Samples Included*
Hi everyone! Today I have a wrap up of my favorite polishes of 2016 to share, but first I wanted to give a little synopsis of my year so that I can lead into where my blog is going from here. 2016 was not a good year for me blogging-wise, even to the point that I considered quitting at the end of the year. My personal life has been a bit chaotic and I really let that affect how I viewed blogging. Not only that, I started to have feelings that I was just old news (this blog is almost 5 years old y'all!) and that newer, flashier bloggers and swatchers with impossible glamour shots were all the rage now so I was just fading into oblivion.
I got a surprise promotion at the beginning of 2016 after my boss passed away suddenly and it came with a ton of responsibilities that I had to adjust to and a LOT of work I had to do to get our department up to date which took almost the entire year. In the midst of that, my husband lost his job and has been unable to find another one, so that added even more stress. I was very mentally drained, stressed, and depressed, so when it came to blogging I could barely make myself go. For those of you who have never struggled with depression, it affects people differently. In my case, I wasn't sad all the time, but instead it was a major task for me to do ANYTHING. I could function fine at work, but at home it was a task to make myself get out of my chair. It took me a long time to even realize that I was depressed and seek help. I stopped blogging for fun and did only what I had to do and it became like a "job", which isn't what I got into blogging for. I got behind on a lot of my commitments and then things snowballed and I had SO MUCH STUFF TO DO, I just wanted to throw in the towel.
Going into 2017, I have a handle on my new job, things are running smoothly now and I'm actually enjoying it! My stress level is back to normal and I'm feeling like my old self again, so I'm going to put my focus back on blogging for fun again. I'm still going to review things of course, but I'm also going to make time for me. I want to explore my collection (which has to be at around 3000 bottles now, with lots of cool older stuff) and share that with you guys. I want to do more nail art because that is one of the things that I find the most fun about nail polish...playing with it! Heck I even want to do some features on layering which was my original form of "art" when I started this blog almost 5 years ago (hence the name!). I want to blog about my purchases, because I have bought from some cool new or new to me brands this past year that I haven't gotten to feature on my blog. All in all, I'm going to try to bring the focus back to what I love in 2017 and make blogging fun again.
Anyway, just wanted to "explain myself" I guess for how things have been on the blog this past year, because I felt like getting it out there would hopefully help me move past it in the coming year. It's sometimes embarrassing to admit your shortcomings and it's just easier to act like everything is normal and okay, but it's also very cathartic to get it all out there on the table! New year, fresh start!
So now, how about we check out my favorite polishes of 2016 now? After looking at a few "favorites" posts from other bloggers, I can tell that I have so many amazing polishes in my untrieds that very well would have made the list if I had had time to wear them (the number of untrieds I have is epic at this point!). I realized when I started making this list that there were also a few of my favorites that I neglected to take photos of, so I did a mini swatch session to prepare for this post (on my fresh baby nubs even)! There are a few things that really stand out about my picks this year: orange, green, blue, and purple. SHOCKER! Also flakes...all the ultra chrome flakes. And complex holo finishes really dominated the list as well, especially those involving my favorite holo shards/bits that finally became widely available this year!
