My Favourite Autumn/Winter Nail Polishes

I love painting my nails in the winter. With the festive season coming up, it's seems to be when I get most creative with my nails (expect to see a festive nails post during blogmas!). For most of the season, I like to whip out more darker, vampy colours, but they're not always appropriate, and I think I have found my new favourite nude polish to wear on those days when something a little more subtle is required.

l-r: Almond, Plum, Euphoria, Forest, Bordeaux

1. Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Almond. So, starting off with my new favourite nude, which I featured in a monthly favourites post not too long ago. Almond is a grey toned brown, which I think looks very sophisticated on the nails. I love the Gelly Hi Shine formula, as you can probably tell from previous nail polish posts. This particular shade I find to be opaque in just one coat, which is ideal if you're painting your nails in a hurry.

2. Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Plum. I don't know why, but I was expecting this to be a slightly lighter purple with a hint of red tones to it. It's a lovely colour, even if it wasn't what I was expecting when I purchased it. Again, I found this to be opaque with just one coat, which is great. I really like wearing this polish with my favourite lipstick, MAC's Plumful.

3. Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in Euphoria. The colour of this nail polish is absolutely stunning, and a bit more neutral for those that aren't a fan of darker nails. It has a slight iridescence to it, so the colour shimmers and changes slightly as you move your hand around in the light. The only problem with this one is that it's very sheer, so you need a good few coats (I used four for the look above) to get near opaque. At least the formula is fast drying, so you don't need to wait long between coats!

4. Barry M Silk Nail Polish in Forest. I love the effect that the Barry M Silk polishes give - it's sort of matte with a hint of shimmer to them, without being sparkly. I had a bit of a moan about the tricky formula of the Silk polishes when they were released in the spring, but the new autumn polishes seem to be much easier to work with. Forest is a beautiful green/blue shade which is a lovely shade for this time of year. I also have the shade Poppy from the Autumn range which is equally as gorgeous, but as I already have a red polish in my favourites, I thought I'd feature Forest instead.

5. Essie Nail Polish in Bordeaux. This is the ultimate vampy red in my opinion, it's very much like a deep wine colour, I've been wearing this one a lot recently and I think this will continue into December. Essie polishes, although a little pricier than I would like to pay for a nail polish, are really good quality. You could get away with applying just one coat of this if you were in a hurry, but I like to apply two just for good measure.

And not forgetting a bit of festive sparkle....

Ciate Paint Pot in Serendipity. So glitter polishes are notoriously difficult to remove, but they are just so pretty and festive that I can't resist wearing them this time of year. I was so excited when I pulled this polish out of my Ciate advent calender last Christmas Eve. The glitter is a beautiful pinky red - very festive - which would look great layered up on it's own, or on an accent nail over a regular nail polish. I'm not sure if this is available in their permanent range, sorry, but Ciate are the king of glitter polishes, so I'm sure there's going to be something you'll like from them. I used two coats above, but if I was looking to make sure I had maximum glitter coverage, I would probably have gone in with another coat.

What's your favourite autumn/winter nail polish?