52wkCrumpet8: books and brown

This is week eight of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: books and brown (either each alone or combined). I combined. I was convinced a lot of girls would be doing the newspaper transfer mani so I decided to paint bookshelves and be different. And then I noticed lots of girls did bookshelves, so I wasn't so clever after all!

The base is two coats of Essie Sable Collar. I have had this colour for-ever it seems. I bought it in the wrong time of year, then forgot about it in winter. I like the silkiness of the colour but I am still not a fan of Essie. I find their polishes way too thin. I would have needed a third coat to wear this on its own but settled on two as I knew I was painting on top. There must be a reason why I only have four Essie polishes!

I hand-painted all the bookshelves and books – and my wee cat Harvey sitting on top of one shelf – using acrylic paints and thin brushes. Top coat sealed the deal and brought it all together. There are a couple of reasons why I only did my left hand: 1) lazy! 2) too many nail studio clients and I needed my dominant hand to remove their polish and 3) was almost dinnertime.

left side more in the shade

So on my right hand I applied the beautiful – and very, very similar shade to Essie – Fake Tan from Gelicious. This is a rich shimmering coffee brown colour. I kept it pure, so I have lopsided hands this week! But people will think it is on purpose! And I have removed numerous polishes (with non-acetone remover) and the mani still looks top!

That's me for this week! And now I am wondering what Crumpie means with "brush stroke".

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