Collection in Swatches # 4: Browns

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a wonderful week. Mine was busy. I work from home and had taken about 3 weeks off for Christmas and New Year's due to trying to finish up knitted Christmas gifts and then traveling for New Year's. The time off was wonderful --- trying to catch up on everything I missed, not so much, LOL. Somehow I thought I had made things easier on myself by doing collection swatches during my busy season around the holidays, but I found out swatches take a lot of time so kudos to you bloggers out there doing a lot of swatch and reviews! Today I will be showing my brown polishes; all polishes will be shown with a base coat of Nutra Nail Strengthener and a top coat of Seche Vite. Brown is one of my favorite colors, but I have a hard time finding polishes that I like and that are still pretty, good for my skin tone, and a little bit unique. So, if you have any you love, leave them in the comments, please!

Individual swatches after the break! *NOTE: This will be another picture heavy post!



First up is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails # 540 'Bedrock'. This is a really pretty mauve-y brown creme. I really like the formula on the Hard as Nails line from SH. Application is very smooth and the opacity is great. The picture here is 2 coats with top and base coat.

The second polish is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri # 310 'Slick Slate'. I thought this was an interesting name because when I hear slate I tend to think grey, but this is definitely a lighter brown creme polish. The formula is good, a bit thick but that is the same for almost all of the Insta-Dri polishes I have tried. It was opaque in one coat, but I used two just to even it out a bit. (it was probably just a rough application on my part. I'm not a fan of the short wide brush that these polishes use.) 

Polish number 3 is # 949 'Nirvana' from Sinful Colors. I had never used this polish to paint my nails before, only attempted to use it in a water marble. All the Sinful Colors in my collection are fairly thin as far a formula goes, which makes them good for water marbling. This polish was the exception. It would not spread in the water so my concern was that it was going to apply thick and gloopy. Unfortunately, I was right. It had good opacity too, but because of the difficulty in applying it evenly since it was so thick, it came out looking patchy. However, I added some Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner and then applied a second coat. That helped a lot and it leveled out the polish well. Also, this color is very similar to the 'Slick Slate' from SH, but in person you can tell this one is a bit darker and warmer toned. 

Up next is NYC In A New York Color Minute # 218B 'Fifth Avenue'. This is a gorgeous copper shimmer polish. It had a nice formula and applies well. The only downside would be that like most metallic polishes, it does tend to show brush strokes. Pictured here is 2 coats with a base and top coat like all the others. 

The last polish in my brown family is a fairly new addition to my collection. It is # 52 'Dark Brown' from Kleancolor. All of my Kleancolor polishes I bought from ShopMissA for $1 USD each and a flat rate shipping fee of $3.95 USD. You can watch a live swatch review and my first impressions of the brand on my Youtube channel here. I was a little skeptical about the quality of a polish that I only spent a $1 for, but I bought them because I had heard they make good stamping polishes, which in my limited experience, is true! The formula is a little thick, but still applies well. The pictures below are with 1 thick coat. One thing to mention, this polish brand in general has a very strong, distinct odor so I recommend using it is a well ventilated room.

Also, I must apologize for there only being one picture. I had a VERY hard time getting the true color to come through, it looked black in all the other pictures I took. For this one I held up a flashlight and even then you can see on the index finger at the edge of the picture what it looks like on camera when not in direct lighting. In person, it does wear as a lovely chocolate creme color. 

So, which was your favorite? Do you have any other brown polishes to recommend? Also, for anyone wondering why all my pictures are in front of a computer....a quick note on that. I don't have any extra space in my apartment to do my nail art, not even a kitchen or dining table. My office desk is also my nail art space so that is why there is a computer in the background. I will try to keep the monitors off or something in future pics so anything onscreen isn't too distracting, LOL. Anyway, that is all from me today! I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend and I will see you on Monday!