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?

Sunday Stamping - matte

 

This week's challenge was to do a stamping mani incorporating a matte polish - and I happened to have Man Glaze Fuggen Ugly sitting in my untried pile!

Nothing ugly about it!  Stunning matte grey.

I got out my MEGA Cheeky plate and Wet & Wild Root of All Evil and picked one of the stamps that drew me to that plate in the first place.. only to find that my nails are too small for you to see the whole stamp!  It just looks like some random ribbons.  So bummed.

So, I made lemonade out of lemons and found another little stamp on the same plate and used Wet & Wild Lethal Injection to add the little scroll details.  And, I love it!

The only thing I don't like about using a matte for a stamping mani is that I can't protect the design with topcoat, so it's short-lived.  Ah, but it was gorgeous while it lasted.  One of my faves so far!

Do you stamp with mattes?

Carribean Blue Monday

Blue isn't bad, don't be sad - here's some cute blue manis to brighten your Monday.

My first Megan Miller polish - Caribbean!  I have lots of blue polishes, what makes this one so special?  Well, it's not the cork top, though it is pretty cool, or the raffia tie, which doesn't do much for me.  It's the texture of this polish.  Yes, it's a jelly! It's one of the few instances of a jelly making sense, actually giving depth and texture - almost a movement to the polish, really making it look like the clear-water aqua blue of the Caribbean.

I was inspired to transform this look by this mani from Set In Lacquer.  I really liked this OPI called My Big Break.  It's purple, but in the bottle it has a strong aqua shimmer, which comes across a lot more subtly on the nail, but you can still see it.  I thought the aqua went really well with Caribbean.
 

Then I took a small paintbrush and some Sally Hansen LustreShine in Firefly and painted the swirls, and made a few dots with My Big Break. 

 Topcoat and done.  Right hand:

Mani #2 starts with ManGlaze.  They make the best matte polishes, hands down.  ILF is an aqua blue that looks great matte, and amazing with a glossy coat.

I decided to play up the glossy side with a layer of Nubar Sour Candy, a blue and silver holo glitter in a blue jelly base. I love Nubar polishes, but there are better, less expensive glitters out there. 

I played around by adding a layer of Finger Paints Motley, a blue flakie.  You'd think I'd learn by now - iridescent blues only really play nice over dark colors.  It didn't add much to the light blue polish.  In person, it added a little bit of flash, but not much, and pictures couldn't really capture it at all.

Feeling blue? naw.  Feeling like wearing blue?  Me, too!

Sparkly, Spooky Black

I have some black combos to share with you today!

I know it's called ManGlaze, but women like it, too!  I have to confess, I'm seeing more blogs with men painting their nails, and it's pretty cool.

Matte is Murder, a matte black, is one of the first polishes ManGlaze came out with, and it's pretty much their signature color.  In my opinion, they make some of the BEST matte finish polishes available.

I used it as undies for Dandy Nails You Set My Soul Alight, but this glitter didn't really need any undies.  I'm loving Dandy Nails, they just keep putting out great glitters.  I don't usually wear plain black nails, but these multicolored tiny sparkles make it perfect for me.

The undies for this next mani is Sonia Kashuk Tango Mango.  I like her polishes a lot.  Very consistent formula, high shine, great color payoff.  This is a little bright for me, but it's a great Halloween orange!

 ..not that this polish needed any undies at all!  Joe Fresh Twilight is a flakie in a black base.  I thought it would be sheer, but it wasn't at all!

You can only barely see the orange around the edges, which I did on purpose to see if it would pull more of the orange color out of the flakies, but it really didn't.  To be honest, I was al ittle disappointed with the flakie payoff in this polish.  I wanted more.. MOAR flakies.

So I added my own!  Finger Paints Twisted, a lemming I never thought I'd get.  I managed to collect all the Finger Paints Flakies, and this is my fave, by far.  So gorgeous, especially over black.

Another sparkly black mani for you today!  It started off with Revlon Black Lingerie, which I got at Big Lots for about a dollar.  This is a great black!  My camera actually had trouble photographing it because it's so shiny.

Over that, I used Girly Bits Howl at the Moon.  Girly Bits is a very high quality Indie, and this polish is no exception.  Love that glossy black and the gold glitter - perfect for this season, or any season!

Bonus mani!  This one starts with Borghese Notte Black.  It's not as glossy as the Revlon, has a bit more grey to it.  I'd be hard pressed to choose this one over that Revlon or some other deep dark black polish.

This one I covered with Orly Androgenie, which looks like a galaxy in a bottle, but not so much on the nail.  I think it would take quite a few coats to get that look on the nail.

I amped up the sparkle with Lorena Cinderela.  All flakies just look gorgeous over black, don't they?

A little bit of holo sparkle from Out the Door Northern Lights.  Now that's a sparkly party!

 Do you like shiny, sparkly black all year 'round, or is it just for Halloween for you?

Lesbi-honest, but not brutally

Oh, Manglaze, you are brazen with your bold colors and choices of names and graphics.  You are hard to resist.  I fell in love with Lesbi-honest, a matte raspberry polish with incredible depth.  It goes on beautifully..

...dries matte....

 ...and comes almost full circle with topcoat.  Seche Vite couldn't bring all the intensity back, and I just didn't feel like going matte that day.

So, what's a girl to do?  Break out the coveted Sticks 'n Stones, by Cover Band (available through Ninjapolish.com.)  Most lacquerheads know that this is a dupe for Llynderella, but I have little hope of ever getting that polish, and don't really care for the drama.  This is a great interesting topper on it's own.  Square! Circle! Small! Big! Bars! White! Black! Punctuation marks and SHOUTY CAPS!  

This definitely is a great match in my book.