When it comes to posting photos from my iPhone, nothing ever makes its way onto Instagram these days without a run through some of my favorite apps. My four go-to’s at the moment are:

• Afterlight: Hands-down, the app I consistently use for every single photo I edit on my phone is Afterlight. Each option has a slider bar so you can decrease an effect with ease. The sheer amount of creative effects, from beautiful filters to tons of light leaks and a number of simple frames make this indispensable. Frames consisting of letters, numbers and shapes add a unique touch and even better, you can add on a pack of Polaroid frames for 99 cents.

• VSCO CAM: All of my pro photographer friends religiously use this app and absolutely swear by it and I’m finally giving it a spin. The effects are simple, subtle and proof that when editing, less is often more.

• A Beautiful Mess: This app is more decorative but perfect for adding a fun flourish or two. I especially love the collection of words handwritten by Elsie — “travel” above is an example. The ability to change the doodles to a number of fun, saturated colors makes this even better and there’s a ton of add-on packs available.

• House Industries Photolettering App: I just downloaded this app but already love it so much — it’s the perfect addition for type aficionados. Even though packs of some of the fancier fonts are 99 cents a piece, the uniqueness of the offerings make them totally worth it. I used Quaint to add the white and yellow “Y” above.

What photo editing apps do you swear by? Is there anything else out there I should give a try?

* All photos from nubbytwiglet on Instagram.