This is part one of a series of posts highlighting a few of my favorite gold tone polishes that I feel really flatter those with brown/dark skin.  It can really be hit or miss with most gold tone polishes when it comes to finding the right one for us brown beauties.  Most often times we shy away from golds and browns assuming that most are colors that just won't look well against our skin.

I can honestly say however that every color looks great against our skin we just have to be able to pick the right shades.  I don't have a magic formula or even really sound rules that I follow, but through trial and error I've learned how to eye what will look good on me.   Golds with a warm to medium tone shade are generally what tend to look best.

The first polish shown here is China Glaze's 2030.  In my personal opinion it's not one of the easiest colors to work with, but it is a really nice shade that compliments brown skin quite nicely.  2030 for some reason photographed to look like it was really similar to the Sally Hansen polish below, but in all actuality the two colors look nothing alike.  2030 is a medium to warm toned chrome polish that happens to start setting fairly quickly.  It dries smooth to a dull mirror like finish and looks like molten gold on the nails.  You need to apply one coat of this polish and let it dry before applying your next.  Doing this will help you work out any imperfections and correct any visible brushstrokes.

This Sally Hansen Complete Salon nail color in Guilty Pleasure just may be my top pick out of this bunch.  This formula is so smooth and easy to work with that it makes application quick, easy, and headache free.  A lot of people complain about the brush with this particular polish, but I actually really like this brush.  My nail bed is wide so it offers great coverage and it's not as big as the one in the InstaDri's.  With the formula being so smooth the brush really isn't a problem and the polish held up to my wear test.  This picture is a true representation of Guilty Pleasure, which to me looks like a nice smooth gold foil.  Two to three coats are all you need with this polish and it gives you plenty of time to work out brush strokes before drying.  Drying time is good, but it can be iffy with Seche Vite, especially if you apply it really thin.

Last but not least in this post we have Bronze Beauty from Cover Girl's Boundless Color line.  This is such a gorgeous polish and makeup wise reminds me of the new Orly Foil FX polishes.  It has that mixture of a gold shade with finely milled silver particles, but this one has bronze ones as well.  The color is just beautiful on brown skin!  It combines those micro glitters perfectly to create this wonderful iced latte shade with this awesome metallic shimmer throughout.  Perfect in two to three coats with a great drying time, I've been nothing but pleased with this polish.  It's actually a polish on the cooler side of the color spectrum when it comes to gold, but I think it works well because the yellow undertone is well balanced with the silver and bronze particles.

Northern Lights Hologram Topcoat

compared to

Cover Girl Sparkling Topcoat

On the Nails:

L-R: Cover Girl Sparkle Topcoat in Goddess, Out the Door Northern Lights Topcoat in Silver, Cover Girl Boundless Color Topcoat in City Lights

The Out the Door Northern Lights topcoat is worn on my ring finger (in the middle) and actually consists of two coats, while the Cover Girl topcoats are on the other two fingers and only consist if one coat.

Can you see the huge difference between the two?!  Only one coat of the two Cover Girl topcoats seems to equate to about 4 or 5 of the Out the Door Northern Lights.  And the interesting thing about all of this is that the Cover Girl Topcoats are about $3 dollars cheaper.  Depending on how subtle you want your holo effect to look would determine which of these would be your best choice, but remember Cover Girl is widely available in any local drugstore while Northern Lights is only available at your beauty supply stores such as Sally's.

I'm not sure why the Cover Girl topcoats are in two different bottles with two different names (marketing maybe), but they are certainly the exact same product.  I picked up the Cover Girl Sparkling Topcoat on sale for about $1.25 while I had previously purchased the Boundless Color Topcoat for around $3.50 maybe a month or so prior.  I still definitely plan to keep both the Cover Girl Topcoats and Northern Lights in my stash because sometimes a little subtly can go a long way.

So what about you... do you have any Hologram topcoats in your stash?