Brown Glitter, Brown Stamp

I hope you've enjoyed this week of coppery brown polishes as much as I have!  They are a Fall staple, aren't they?

This is Orly Flagstone Rush, a copper shimmer that leans orange.

I seem to have forgotten to take a pix of the glitter on its own, but it's a thin stamp, so I think you can get the gist of Shimmer Carmen.  I do love Shimmer's glitters.  They are opaque on their own in 2 coats usually (I can't even see the Flagstone Rush anymore, can you?) and they just flow onto the nail effortlessly.  No dabbing, no brush rolling, just put it on like it's a regular polish... but oh, that shine.

I stamped over it with China Glaze Midtown Magic.  I find this is my fave dark brown to stamp with.  It just has a really good pigmentation and formula.

Do you like to stamp over glitter?

Brown Holo Comparison

When I like a certain color or finish (hello, HOLO!) I find myself buying it over and over again, even though I already have something similar.  And, somehow, it's always a surprise to me when I find dupes in my stash...

So, when I found that I had a few brown holos, I thought I'd see if any of them were dupes.

I have two from one of my fave holo Indies, Enchanted Polish.  First is Vampires' Dessert, which is really  more burgundy or wine than brown.

Enchanted Polish Hot Chocolate is like a cup of hot cocoa with .... shimmery marshmallows?  Well, that's why we don't eat nail polish, I guess.  It really does look like milk chocolate!

Glitter Gal Belgian Chocolate is a wonderful mix of brown with hints of red.  I love this.  So rich looking.

I have a version of OPI My Private Jet, but other than knowing it's not the holo version, I couldn't tell you if it's the dud or blue flash, or something else.  So annoying with nail polish companies put out several versions of a polish with the same name.  

Both fingers have on MPJ, but I put on a layer of Girly Bits Hocus Pocus - a spectraflair topcoat - over my thumb.  It completely changes the color of MPJ to a grey!

All together, now.  thumb - OPI MPJ with spectraflair, index - EP Vampires' Dessert, middle - EP Hot Chocolate, ring - GG Belgian Chocolate, and pinky - OPI MPJ unknown version.  No dupes here!

Brown holo skittles! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Even though I'm not actually eating turkey today, it's such an iconic image for this US Holiday, that I wanted to try painting turkey nails.

I was originally inspired by a picture on Facebook, and I even asked her to create a tutorial which I read, but now I can't find it.  So embarrassing.  Another blogger created a similar look, so I refreshed my memory with her tutorial -  Miss JenFabulous from Polish and Pearls.

I used some polishes from the new Jade Diamond collex to create my look - Joy, Scarlet, and Supernova.  The yellow (Supernova) was a little more sheer than I'd hoped, but all of them are really vibrant.

The body of the turkey is American Apparel Racoon, and the eyes and white swirls on the other nails were done with Sally Hansen White Tip.

The translucent white base behind the turkey is two coats of Matesse Elite Snowfall.  I really thought it would be more opaque.
 

I really wanted to see how this would look with a glitter mani, so I used Dollish Polish This is Halloween.  This polish is very Fall, and I loved it with the turkey accent.

Will you have on a special Thanksgiving mani?

Today, and every day, I am thankful for my ability to write this blog, and I am thankful that there are people out there who want to read it.  Thank you all so very much for going on this journey with me!

Blue and Brown glittery goodness

Here comes another royal blue jelly - OPI Dating a Royal.  I got this in a blog sale; I didn't know it was a jelly.  It's pretty awesome, though!  It catches the light and looks brighter in the pix than it actually is

The first glitter I used was Hedgie Hedgepack from Perception Nail Lacquer.  Unfortunately, it seems that Perception has closed its doors and isn't making polish anymore.  I'm pretty disappointed about that - I really liked her stuff!  Maybe you can find this polish floating around in a blog sale or something.  

I think the name had something to do with a Mommy Mani group, but I didn't belong to it.  I just liked the combo of ice blue and brown squares.  I'm not huge into square glitters, but I liked this one for some reason.  Maybe because of the simplicity of the two colors and one shape.

You get a bonus glitter today!  This is Hit Polish Sand and Sea.  Even though it has bar glitters (booo) I still like it because it doesn't have many of them.  Now, I remember putting this over Dating a Royal, and I can't find any pix of undies that would contradict that.. but it just doesn't look right.  I'm thinking this might be OPI Ski Teal We Drop. 

I love brown and blue together, though.  If you do, too, then you might like these glitters!

Fall Brown & Owl

I love fall and winter nail colors, though I don't wear a lot of them in my wardrobe, I dig them on my nails.  So glad it's finally Fall!

This gorgeous polish is Sally Hansen Haute Chocolate.  It's a nice red-toned brown with a lot of shine to it.

I decided to use it as undies for another beautiful Fall polish, Girly Bits Crunchy Leaves.  Flawless application, like most of Girly Bits' polishes.  I love how this just compliments the Haute Chocolate so much!  It's like a glitter version of the same polish.

The leaves made me think of Fall trees, and I decided to play around with some nail art and make a tree with a little owl in it.  I used a lot of polishes... lemme see if I can remember them all!

OPI Loyalty Islands Lilac was the base of the owl, L'oreal Greycian Goddess, Zoya Jules, Essie Penny Talk, and Sally Hansen Black Diamonds for some of the details, China Glaze Midtown Magic for the branches, OPI Uh-oh Roll Down the Window, Pretty Serious VT 100, and Maybelline Bold Gold for the leaves.

 Hoot, hoot!

A good brown and .... a not so good one.

I love brown-toned polishes, usually.  I wanted to love Creeping Moss by Contrary Polish.  Technically, she calls it an olive-green with shimmer.  I call it muddy.  The shimmer is so hidden, there's no shine, no depth.  This polish was such a disappointment!  

The next combo I really liked.  It started with a color I wasn't sure about.  I don't have anything else the color of Finger Paints Catwalk Queen.  I'm not even sure what color it is.  Beige-yellow? Bile?

I topped it with KB Shimmer Band Geek.  I loved this polish in so many ways.  First of all, I was a band geek!  Alto and Tenor Saxophone, depending on the band.  Symphonic, Jazz, Marching... I was Queen of the Band Geeks!

Second of all, it's a beautiful polish!  I love different metallics blending together - copper, gold, bronze, silver - it really does look like a melange of band instruments.  Application was smooth, and it was pretty opaque in two coats. 

Would you wear any of these weird browns?

Fall into Browns

I know it's not something everyone is into, but I love brown polishes.  Well, most of them.  Today, though, I'm going to show you some that I do really like.

First up, L'Oreal Owl's Night.  Which is lucky for one owl, I suppose.  If it were the night for all owls, it should read "owls' night".  I love grammar.

It's definitely a great polish for me, though!  I really enjoy these shimmery polishes, especially ones like this where the shimmer seems to come from within the polish, rather than just on top.  This polish looks brown and green in the bottle, and you can see it looks brown from the angle on my pinky, but really brings out the green and gold on the nail.  Gorgeous!

Next up, this is Creative Nail Designs (CND) Cashmere.

You're probably thinking.. ew?  yeah, I wouldn't wear it alone either.. but get a look at that golden/bronze shimmer.

Then, take a look at this dark, rich matte brown from Man Glaze called Santorum.  Thick, muddy-colored, but with a perfect formula and quick-drying matte finish.

Now, put them together.  CND Cashmere alone on the index, Cashmere over Santorum on the other fingers.

It's like they bring out the best in each other, like a good partnership.  The CND even shows some reddish and gold highlights that weren't evident before.  Together, they are greater than their individual parts.  I love polishes like this that glow like they are... well, lit from within.

 Do you rock brown polish?