Renaissance Spices

Here are three reds that evoke that mix of umbers, ochres and siennas. Close your eyes, you are in Florence, it is summer, you see Giotto Bondone adding shadow and directional light to paintings. Filippo Brunelleschi is teaching the world about perspective. You may not see more than the power of the church, but the subtext is the power of the human mind. Heady stuff when you think about the last  thousand years.

Back to the polish, it's some good stuff. I love shades like this, they are just full of energy. Perfect for this time of year.

L'Oreal Spiced Up

This is two coats, perhaps three, but only two were necessary at all. No top coat.

Three free, but still older and found at Dollar Tree. Man, is this not great? 

This polish is ostensibly a creme, but has little shimmers of the same shade, so the shimmer isn't super secret, just subtle.

Love it a lot. 

Might be around on eBay, but no love at the current moment.

Diamond Cosmetics Sitka Sable

Two coats, no top coat. 

There is a shimmer in this creme and it's a mix of gold and copper and it really amps up this polish.
I love it because it's red, but you feel the heft of Lorenzo Medici's silken robes.

DC is now only private label, but you might see a similar shade within Priti or Ginger+Liz. I just saw that Priti has a Venezia collection for fall 2015, so maybe it will show up there. You never know!

Shiseido Copper Cedar

Beautiful redwood shimmer. Two coats. You can see it shows brush "errors" very easily. The formula was stellar, and I was surprised because I wasn't sure how it would go down.

Lovely, easy to work with and the color is so perfect. 

Found several of the Shiseidos on eBay and really haven't seen them around much since. Very odd how stuff pops up then vanishes. I do see it, as I write this, on eBay for a much higher price than I paid. I am not sure it has the "cult of personality" to support that price, but who knows. Meanwhile, I really have nothing like this that feels so warm yet still clean and not muddy.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal.