The first time I noticed brown nail polish was in 1998, during a marathon of the Seattle season of MTV’s The Real World. The Korean-American cast member Janet was always rocking a chocolate brown hue and I found it so chic. Not as jarring as black vinyl, and a different kind of edgy than say fruity shades of loud lime, orange, and turquoise.

Following Marc Jacobs’ show for New York Fashion Week S/S ’14, The Wall Street Journal wrote of the designer’s usage of brown nail polish, as he was seemingly the only one whose runway wore it. He also had his custom made shade for the show named “Bark”, that’ll be available to the public via Sephora come springtime. Brown polish has mainly been an overlooked color, coming and going as “trendy” throughout the years. Some brands have even gotten rid of their one brown polish, like M.A.C’s “Molasses”, and others include brown but often intermixed theirs with heavy undertones of burgundy, barely cappuccino or taupe.

While NYFW was a bit all over the place with the options for nails, ranging from elaborate nail art to debutante neutrals, get like Jacobs and be different by wearing an unexpected brown shade. The next selected 7 polishes are legit chocolate-y shades you should give a try. And as always with a well-made polish, you can deepen the intensity of the color based on how many coats you apply.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.