Polish Finishes

Are you new to nail blogging or just have a hard time describing nail polish finishes (like me) or have a hard time differentiating these terms and need some help? Well I have some answers (more like found) and want to share them with you!

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25 Different Polish Finishes
1. Creme: A creme is one of the most popular finishes we know. This is just a plain color without any glitter, shimmer, etc added to it. The finish is glossy and smooth.
2. Jelly: A jelly is just like a creme, but the main difference is the substance: more jelly-like. They tend to be sheer but they make up for it by being xtremely glossy.
3. Shimmer: The shimmer finish is a colored base with shimmer added to it, most of the times that color is silver but we're seeing contrasting colors more often.
4. Glass Flecked: Glass flecked polishes look like they contain small glass particles, often mixed in a jelly base. The finish is very smooth, yet sparkly.
5. Neon: You could say neon describes color, not finish. But most neons do have a particular finish, very bright colors that often dry semi-matte.
6. Frost: A frost is a very fine shimmery polish with obvious bruststrokes. These kind of finishes are losing popularity and mostly seen in older polishes.
7. Pearl: The pearl finish is quite similar to the frost finish, but it has a more pearly sheen to it.
8. Foil: Foil polishes often have a metallic base color with very fine glitter added to it. The finish is very smooth yet sparkly.
9. Metallic: Metallic finishes make your nails appear like metal. Metallic polishes are especially popular in copper, gold or silver.
10.Glitter: Glitter is one of most flashiest finishes. These glitters are often put in a jelly base. The amount of glitter can vary a lot. Sometimes you'll need top coat to smoothen the surface.
11 String Glitter: Mostly glitter in a clear base so they're often used as a top coat. String glitter consists out of glitters in rectangular shapes, often in silver or iridiscent colors.
12. Round Glitter: Just as string glitter, these are mostly used as a top coat. The glitters in this clear base are round shaped.
13. Square Glitter:  Another glitter top coat, but with glitter in the shape of squares.
14. Hex Glitter: A very popular glitter shape: hex or hexagonal. These are very popular and more common these days. Often used in regular glitter polish as well.
15. Shape Glitter: This is a very special glitter top coat, in this picture you see stars, but there are also glitter top coats containing hearts and diamonds (rhombus).
16. Matte: This finish dries completely matte, no shine whatsoever. These dry quickly and sometimes end up being streaky. Handlotion is to be avoided because it decreases the matte effect.
17. Satin: Satin finishes end up matte as well, but not entirely matte. There is still a slight shine, but not enough to classify it as glossy.
18. Suede: Just like mattes, suedes are completely matte. Suedes contain shimmer though, so that's what sets them apart from regular mattes.
19.Holographic: Holographic polishes contain rainbow colored glitter, which changes color on the reflection of light. This finish is very obvious in sun light.
20. Holo Glitter: Holographic glitter in a different color base. The glitter is often more sparse and while it does change color upon different light, there is no rainbow effect to be seen.
21. Flakies: Flakie polishes consist out of a jelly base with very fine opal (often duochrome) particles in it. They're mostly used for layering as the jelly base is often sheer.
22. Duochrome: Duochrome polishes change color on the reflection of light. True duochromes are very obvious and often show 2 colors, but sometimes even more.
23. Iridescent: This finish is often confused with duochrome or shimmer. An iridiscent finish is a color that flashes a different color. These are not obvious enough to be a duochrome.
24. Sheer: This is a half transparent finish, often used in French manicures to show off the white tips. A lot of sheers are salmon, nude or pink.
25. Water: This is a strange and not that well known finish. A water finish resembles the characteristics of a jelly, but is less opaque.

Be sure to check out her in depth description and detailed photos here. 

Thanks to Michèle from Lacquerized we have this awesome information! I don't think she blogs anymore but she has a ton of polish information. So take a look!

Hopefully that was helpful because it sure was for me!

Did you have hard time describing polish finishes before reading this?
Anna