Fall into Autumn 6: Autumn Leaves

Today, I'm returning to the Fall into Autumn challenge with the sixth theme, Autumn Leaves. I was postponing this theme a bit, because there wasn't much of an autumn feeling around here. No falling leaves! But last week was quite rainy and windy and all of sudden, there were lots of leaves on the ground and I finally felt like thinking about this mani.

Two years ago, around this time, I was still in Japan and we waited and waited for the leaves in the mountains of Tochigi prefecture to turn red. 2010 was a very hot and long summer in Japan and, in Tochigi at least, the leaves barely turned red. They turned brown at the end of October, when it started snowing a little bit. So sadly, we didn't get to see the burning mountains... But we did a little bit of sightseeing in the region. We were visiting Nikko, for example. I don't remember if I really saw it there, but I remember seeing beautifully painted paravents with fall scenes on them. That's what inspired me.

For this mani, I finally got to use my essie Good as Gold. I'm really glad it dries fast, because I was a bit impatient that night, hehe. On my ringfinger, I used H&M "Blue" as my base. But I guess there are a lot of "Blue"'s out there... I applied it over one coat of Good as Gold, because I wasn't thinking when I was painting my nails... and I was too lazy to remove it...

The branches and leaves were painted with acrylic paint.

The next day, I found my ringfinger a bit too dark, so I re-painted the leaves with essie Good as Gold and Orly Solid Gold to brighten it up. Also, I mattified the mani to make it less shiny.

Which version do you like better? I really like the essie mattified. It looks very pretty that way.

Even though I liked this mani, I consider it a part fail, because half of the people I showed it to, wouldn't recognise my leaves. "Oh, red cherry blossoms! Pretty!" Why would I paint cherry blossoms in October... I wasn't sure if I really needed essie Good as Gold, but after this mani, I'm glad I bought it.

Do you recognize the leaves? Do you live in a region where the leaves turn to a bright red? I don't... just yellow and brown.