Autumn Colors for #clairestelle8oct

Prompt #2 for Claire O'Sullivan's nail art challenge was autumn colors, which is a WIDE open category, really. I actually chose my colors with my next baby watch picture in mind (you know, the fruits and veggies pics). It'll be with a scallion (why can't we just call them green onions??), which seems silly, but I don't suppose there are 40 perfectly appropriately baby sized fruits and vegetables out there. So clearly we're going for length and not weight with this one.

Forgive me, I digress. Again. Ahem.

I thought oranges would be a nice contrast with the green, so I started with a base of Calabaza by Rainbow Honey, which is a really gorgeously bright, slightly shimmery pumpkiny color that was a limited edition polish from 2014, I believe. Really glad I got my hands on one! Then I decided to speed things up by doing solid brown double accent nails with Mulholland by Cult Cosmetics, a rich chocolately brown that covers nicely in two coats. Added a round gold stud to each and called those good.

For the nail art, I ended up keeping it more simple than I originally intended. I just used a fan brush to layer on leafy inspired strokes of color. I started with Chuffed from Butter London, which didn't add much color, but actually gives it a bit of extra glow. And sparkle. :) Then I used Roarrrrange from Essie (did I get that right with four Rs? It was really hard to tell!) followed by Charisma by Julep - also not currently available apparently. :(

And that's it! Oh, I did use two coats of Julep's Oxygen Bonding Base Coat before Calabaza and then finished it all off with a pretty thick coat of Julep's Oxygen Performance Top Coat. Here they are!

The image didn't turn out to be as well lit as I thought it was, but I'd already posted it by the time I noticed, so I decided to just leave it. Overall I'm pleased with how these turned out, although I can't decide if I like them better matte or glossy!

Be sure to check out some of the other great pictures over on Instagram under #clairestelle8oct and join us if you dare! Upcoming prompts are listed below with a link to my previous post as well.

• 10/03: Bats

• 10/06: Autumn Colors

• 10/10: Skulls

• 10/13: Psychedelic

• 10/17: Witches

• 10/20: Pumpkins

• 10/24: Bones

• 10/27: Ghosts

• 10/31: Halloween

#theetcetera #nailart