For most of us, as the seasons change we tend to change the mood of our cosmetics along with them. Generally spring and summer call for more bright and pale colors while fall and winter call for deeper, richer tones.

This year as the seasons changed from summer to fall I found myself frustrated that I spent so much money on summer colors, only to need to buy more fall tones just a mere month later. Especially if you are a cosmetics hoarder like I am, that gets pretty damn expensive after a while. Plus, I get so attached to colors and excited for them only to look for their darker counterparts once fall rolls around. So this year I came up with a solution…

As I sat at my desk staring at the endless sea of bright colors amassed before me, I wrung my hands and pondered deeply like a mad scientist. (Please picture me in a lab coat with wild hair under a bare bulb, for the sake of the story) After sleepless nights and giant equations that took up entire chalk boards I had completed my formula, which I shall now reveal to the world….

A few drops of black + A bottle of top coat = A top coat that will make any nail color a few shades deeper!

All joking aside isn’t that a fantastic idea? Its so simple and I literally feel like I have twice as many nail polishes now.

What I did was simply drip black polish from the black brush into the bottle of clear until it looked like a smokey, hazy grey. That way you don’t ruin the black and you can use it again.

For the sake of scientific evidence to support my hypothesis I have snapped a few photos of some colors which I thought it worked especially well on.

OPI- Jade is the New Black

This was the first color that lead me to this idea that night under my imaginary bare bulb. The darkened color is on the left and the original is on the right. I love the original color, but the deeper color is so much nicer for fall and winter. Ugh love it!

Nails Inc.- Baker Street

This one is SO bright. I love this color but it screams summer to me. Its like bright, beachy, nautical happy blue and the darkened version is moody, sexy, fall navy blue. Really you can’t go wrong either way.

Nails Inc. - Maida Vale

This glittery color is gorgeous to begin with, but how nice is the darkened version? The slate color that it creates bring a whole new sophistication to it.

Nails Inc.- The Boltons

Can you tell that I like Nails Inc. a little? This red is my absolute favorite, it is so glamourous it’s ridiculous. Ever since I bought it I have been searching for a deeper version of it. Now I don’t need to, I’ll just throw my handy blackened topcoat over it!

The best part about this little trick is that you probably already have a top coat and a bottle of black polish that you don’t use laying around anyway sooooo…that kinda makes it free! You just doubled your entire nail polish collection for free.

You’re welcome 😉