Brun Parnasse.

Inside, almost no light.

Swatched a while ago, as the miraculously longer nails probably gave away, is YSL's 'No20 Brun Parnasse'.

I think brown nail polishes are under appreciated, which is odd because they can go so well with so many things.
There are no issues with the application of this polish whatsoever - it covers very decently in two layers and has a very shiny finish.

The only thing I think is something of a shame is that, even at two coats, it looks very close to black unless held near a very bright light source. You just don't get to appreciate it for the colour that it really is if you're under the impression that it's black, you know?







I did take a picture in the bright sun, when there was such a thing to speak of. As I'm typing this it is absolutely pouring down. I rather fear the summer has well and truly gone. The picture does show what a nice shade it really is in the right light.

Royal Purple.

Aside from Luscious Green, I was also given '116 Royal Purple' for my birthday, also from the Nyx brand.

Unlike its green buddy, it was clear from the start this one was not going to be able to cover on its own, and thus would require some layering. I could have just used it over a similar purple as a base, but wanted to try something with a little more visual flair.

This simple combination of triangle-tape and striping-tape has YSL's  '141 White Gold' (which I guess is what the cool kids are calling silver these days) as a base.

Luscious Green.

Another polish given to me for my 23rd birthday - and it's green! One can never go wrong with green. Or have I mentioned that before?

Anywho, this lovely - or, if you will, luscious - shade of green was given to me by my best friend, who definitely has a good eye for what I like. It's by NYX and goes by the name of '133 Luscious Green'.

I was worried it wouldn't cover well, but it only took two decent layers for me to be satisfied with it. In the bottle it seemed to have a bit of a gold shimmer to it, but it doesn't show on the nail too much.

Mer-miss.

I had these little bottles of glitter sitting around on my desk and thought they'd make a nice mermaidish gradient, which is what inspired this mani.

It didn't really work out as planned.


Miss Sporty, '346',
Essence, '04 The Dawn is Broken'.

The intended effect was lost in spacing them out too far and not having done multiple rows of each colour. I aim to repeat this mani in the future, because I think the idea - with better execution - would look lovely.

The main point of this post is to hold myself accountable to actually try this again, no matter how fiddly the process of glitter application is.

Brussels, hold the sprout.

 

Herôme W.I.C. - 'Brussels 71'

When I started putting on this interesting colour I really didn't quite know what to make of it. Two layers in and it felt like a nude that didn't suit my skintone. Add a layer and it becomes this odd greyish, lavender thing!

I really grew to love this colour the longer I had it on. It's so unusual in the best possible way!
There's a slight shimmer in it and the coverage was decent enough. Damage to the manicure was all my own doing, I'm afraid.

Shengji.

A friend of mine was showing me her nail polish collection once, and when this Shengji polish came by I told her how gorgeous I thought the shade of red was.

When my birthday party came around (she'd already given me a gift on my actual birthday) she'd wrapped it up and gave it to me! If memory serves, she bought it on holiday in Hungary, and since the sticker on the bottom of the bottle says '1997', this happened quite some time ago.

The formula has developed no problems with age, but it does have a hugely chemical smell to it, as nail polish from days past often did.

Looking past the smell, I think the colour is stunning. A very glamorous red that I'd describe as richer in tint than ruby.

I'm not sure what number this goes by, as there are stickers reading both 'No 1108' and '21' on the bottle.