PWI Twofer: Julep Cassie and Sally Hansen Sparkling

Julep... Oh man.  Let's talk about Julep.

For one thing, their polishes were originally mostly/only available in a beauty subscription box, which is a thing that mostly means "overpriced and mediocre" but whatever we can talk about it later.  Which, fine.  Don't care, you can get them elsewhere now.  But even so... they are so expensive per actual nail painting!  I mean I know I said I don't really care about price/oz but I do not like to be insulted.

But I wanted to be objectively fair, so, inspired by my favorite beauty blog and/or my actual background as a researcher,  I did some data analysis, based on: (1) what was within arms' reach, plus (2): what prices I roughly remembered paying and/or Google suggested ish.

Brand	$USD	ml	$/ml
Sinful Colors	2	15	$0.13
Pure Ice	2	15	$0.13
Sally Hansen Xtreme	2.5	15	$0.17
Wet'n'Wild Shine	2.2	12.7	$0.17
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails	2.5	13.3	$0.19
Urban Outfitters	5	15	$0.33
Rimmel London 60 second	3	8	$0.37
Rimmel London lasting finish pro	5	13.3	$0.38
Orly	8	18	$0.44
Sally Hansen Triple Shine	5	10	$0.50
O•P•I	8.5	15	$0.57
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri	6	9.2	$0.65
Revlon	6	8	$0.75
Julep	14	8	$1.75
Sorted by $USD/ml.  Also, "formatting" this table makes  me feel better about the impending move to wordpress.

So yeah: Julep is officially insane.  They have sales all the time, but, but... I mean come on.  Julep I can do basic math!  Surprisingly many adults can do basic math.  Plus your stupid long skinny bottle gets knocked over easily.  But then my friend N came over with her enormous collection of Julep polishes, two of which she insisted looked better on me.  So now I have some Julep nail polish after all.  Ehn.

Julep Cassie:

Indoors.  Blurry but faaiirrlly color-accurate?

I actually liked the color, both indoors and out; I rarely wear pink, but this is a warm-toned and (IMO) atypically sophisticated variant.  The formula was somewhat sheer... this is three thick coats, and it could probably have used another but I ran out of patience.  Of course, the next morning I got interested in...

Sally Hansen Sparkling:

Pink glitter!  With a Cassie accent nail,
just so you can see it in (overcast) daylight.

I think they work together really well, actually.  I was really pleased with the effect. 

PWI: Elevation Polish Kilimanjaro!

Editor's note!  Since it recently came up... PWI means Project Wear-It, my effort to wear all the nail polish.  Original post here.
 
Okay so!

I don't own a lot of indie polish.  The reasons are twofold: first, many – even most – indie polish-makers mostly provide inspired mixes of glitter, which, while fine, is not my jam; second, most indie polishes cost $9-$15, which is to say, ~3-8 times my usual polish cutoff.  They may be worth it!  It's just not (usually) worth 3-8 other bottles for me.  I think actually that I owned one (1) apart from Glitter A-peel, so buying two more tripled my stash. 

I've always been impressed with (other people's pictures of) Elevation Polish.  For one thing, they make unusual cremes, not just glitter; for another, some of their glitter blends actually caught my interest and attention (looking at you, stupid retired Azure Caverns).  What actually caused me to pull the trigger was (yet another not-quite-right) green creme.  But since I was putting in an order anyway, I went ahead and added...

Elevation Polish Kilimanjaro:

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Left: Indoor-jaundice; right: indirect-daylight-kitty-backdrop.*  All
over a blue so pale and frosty it might be gray that I totally forgot
to take pictures of, damnit so I guess that will be a later PWI.  :-P

 
Okay, it's the same colors as Mole-Mentum, but it's... <drum roll> circle glitter!

...yeah.  I don't know either.  For some reason, circle glitter makes me squeal like a squealing grown-ass woman.  Maybe it's because it's unusual (being more expensive than better-space-packed hex glitter)?  I mean, from more than about 4" away you can't tell!  But still, cirrrcleess.

It makes me feel better to notice that many more serious nail bloggers are similarly daft.

This is three coats, which is a shame, picture-wise, because it turns out I liked one coat better.  It's nice?  Not as life-changingly different as I maybe irrationally hoped, but fun to wear, and I got nice comments.  I like looking at it as much as I suspected, anyway.  So... sure!

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* For those of you who are concerned that fur is murder,** the big picture:

He is not murdered!  He is just laaaaaaazyyyyy.

** Also I don't hate your moral stance but please get a dictionary

PWI twofer: Sinful Colors Secret Admirer and Winter Wonderland, plus, Zoya!

A bit ago, I asked my sister what color I should paint my nails, and she said gunmetal gray.  This is taking a while because I apparently have too many dark gray polishes!  I wanted to post these two together.

Sinful Colors Winter Wonderland:

Dark gray or maybe black, with a bazillion
little blue and gold shimmer particles.

And Sinful Colors Secret Admirer:

Dark gray or maybe black, with a bazillion
little silver shimmer particles.

Since these were taken in very different lighting, I painted my ring finger with Winter Wonderland and left the rest Secret Admirer.

Yyyyyeah.

I mean, you can kind of see the difference.  WW reads as paler and a bit bluer.  But come on, this is kind of ridiculous.  It's the same brand!  They're both very pretty, and they both look like macadam to me (although I don't think of macadam as "pretty," really, so that's a bit weird).

Anyway.  Dupes they be!

PWI Sinful Colors Gorgeous (Attack of the Teal Foils)

Doing so much life job talky stuff is hard!  SO let's talk about nail polish, eh?

When I PWI'd Sinful Colors Aqua, I mentioned that it was insanely similar to...

Sinful Colors Gorgeous:

SC: check. Metallic foil: check. Clearly teal: check. 
Obvious distinctions from Aqua: no check.

They're not dupes; Aqua is noticeably bluer in both bottle and hand:

Shots taken while balancing weird grip are
noticeably blurrier!  Or maybe I was just
sleep-deprived, who knows.

But... I mean, come on.  They're both teal foils.  They're both good coaters that are prone to showing brushstrokes.  I don't quite feel the need to get rid of one, but knowing what I now know, I probably wouldn't have grabbed both.  (And that's actually rather saying something.)

Aqua; Gorgeous.  Different, but.

PWI twofer: Essie Penny Talk and OPI Gaining Mole-mentum

I know a lot of you reading already know this, but I have something of an obsession with copper.  It's not my fault!  It's genetic!  Passed from my grandmother through my mother to me.  

I like lots of copper.

I like amazingly new, weirdly super-pink copper.  I like more often-encountered, beautiful oxidized copper.  I even think verdigris is pretty cool, personally.  Not surprisingly, this has joined forces with my nail polish obsession.  I will buy pretty much any damn thing that is copper, or coppery, or copper-ish, or SAYS copper.  Sadly, in nail polish as in life, there's a shockingly lame level of access to copper things!  (give me more copper earrings or give me death)

ANY way.  I started seeing things on the nail-o-blaggityblog-o-sphere about a copper polish,  Essie Penny Talk, which is outside my usual price range but cooopperr.  So I ordered it, got the bottle, and it was clearly gold.  I mean look:

Essie Penny Talk:

I even whined to Mr. Fix-It, and
he was all "Uh...hm. Gold is nice?"
So I put it on my nails.

So I put on my new gold nail polish.  Which did go on gold ...until it wasn't.  Like the weirdness of Push'n'Shove, over about a minute or two, it slooowly changed (cured?), until I was looking at this:

Totes copper.  Specifically, the very pink color of brand
new, totally untarnished copper.  *happy sigh*

What the hell, y'all,  Chemistry is magical.

So I really like Penny Talk!  But I didn't top coat it, and like most foils, it chips if you move your hand through oxygen molecules, and after a day the edges were all ragged and sucky.  So I added

OPI Gaining Mole-mentum:

Up close you can see that it's made of little shard glitters in gold, silver and copper.

From a little further away you can see that
it's just sort of... confused sparkle?

I dunno.  When I did Rouge Rush, also with shard glitter, I liked the depth and the almost-flaky-level glow?  So I thought I would give this a try.  But I'm not so sure.  Also, layering it over copper made the copper glitter vanish, which I did not care for.  So I'll try it over something else before I do anything drastic.

PWI: Sally Hansen Grape Going! Plus, JERBS

For those who are following along at home, here's the interview scorecard:

• 1 (R) – A good school, a decent interview.  I wasn't smitten, and I doubt they were.  I didn't make a fool of myself but I don't expect followup.
• 2 (F) – A fantastic research fit, but a social fit that really concerned me.  OTOH, they made me an offer, and they offered me the moon and the stars.  If they want me that badly, I'm willing to try to make it work.
• 3 (G) – A fantastic research fit.  A fantastic social fit.  A fantastic place.  I would sell... something important to work there.  They loved me, too; they told me so.  But they've interviewed some truly amazing people, and it's all down to the shouting, now.  It's an engineering department.  There will be shouting.  (But please, please, please?)
• 4 (U) – Smaller school, less of a research fit, but I would fill some painfully obvious holes they have, and socially it was awesome.  People were direct, honest, forthright, and kind.  I enjoyed the heck out of my visit and I would work there if they offered.  Also, the closest to Super Woman and Dr. D of anyplace I interviewed.

I expected to hear from #3 today, but didn't.  I actually managed to work myself into a state where I was womity just from nerves.  Finally I said screw it and fell back to my usual reaction to adversity: sulking and nausea.

And, oh, food.  Coq au vin (traditional style, so it took 4 hours), cauliflower puree, skinned drumsticks in batches in the freezer, and oven-roasted Brussels sprouts in brown sugar and bacon glaze.  (Um... I have leftovers... help?)  I actually managed to fight down the urge to call an impromptu dinner party and make everyone individual Cornish game hens, but it was a near thing.

And, as happens when the going gets confusing and adult, I have been painting the crap out of my nails.  It is consequence free.

Today's offering is Sally Hansen Grape Going!:

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Reddish purple!  [hand tilt]  Bluish purple!  ...am I more excited than this warrants?

A blue-purple duochrome,* which is pretty awesome.  That said, it has some problems.  One is sheerness, as this is like 4-5 coats, meaning way more chances to screw up.

The second, and far worse, is how subtle the color shift actually is.  I needed this super-direct setting-sun light to get a real purple – the mildly uninteresting mid-tone blue on the right is more the default look.

Anyway!  Tomorrow I will hear something maybe or maybe not!  Please, um, just please cross your fingers, or pray, or whatever your superstition is and all, or nothing.  Just... please.

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* Two different colors in different lights / at different angles.  The word is also used for polishes that shift among >2 colors, which makes Grammar Hulk aaaangry because it should obviously be multichrome.  You wouldn't like me when I'm... using the red pen

PWI: RED. (By which I mean OPI Red, plus threefer Jane Megawatt and Pure Ice Bare It All, but whatever. RED)

Soooo, two things about red nail polish!

1. One is always looking for the perfect, flattering, amazing red polish. (And lipstick!)
2. People* are Concerned that red polish may make one look Fast, and, perhaps, Loose.**

That said, one of my oldest polish acquisitions is...

O•P•I Red.

Red.  This shot makes it look pinkish maybe?  But it's so primary,
unapologetically red. Maybe a hair blue leaning?  It's not 3-free
or 5-free or vegan or whatever, and I know there's a newer version
that is, but this is my canonical and beloved Fast Lady red.

There's a new post-reformulation red.  I feel like I ought to try it, I guess.  Because I am not completely happy with my existing, classic, vampy, and hot red.^†

Anyway!  There are only about 4, 5 "nail art" things I'd be interested in?  The simple ones!  So I am interested in the "glitter gradient."  Basically, you take a glitter polish with medium-to-bad coverage, and paint it in receding layers, so a gradient comes out.  Which is my thing!

The glitter is two things: JANE Megawatt – which is the solid glitter on my index finger – and Pure Ice Bare It All.  They are identical.  Weirdly so – they are both gold glitter with random copper glits.  The PI BiA has thicker coverage, so that's a difference, the only one.  I'ma get rid of one, probably the Pure Ice, because it's less usable for gradients.

My index finger is the Pure Ice.  Less gradient-y but otherwise identical.

But anyway: RED.

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* To a certain Type of Person, don't you know.  (The kind that sits on hiring committees.)
** ...why? Red? It's a color? I don't... even...
^† Yeah, no, I really am.

PWI: Rimmel London Pink-A-Boo and Sunny Days

Maaaan all that interviewing stuff was crazy.  And, contrary to my expectations, it's kind of ongoing!  I had a phone thing with someone from Place #3 this morning, and I'm expecting to have another with #2 shortly... it's complicated, is all.  I plan to post more (spoilers: #4 was great and #3 was a-MAYY-ziiinng), but I kind of think I write in this blog because nail polish is easy and super fun for me, and I could so use that right now.

So here's a thing that happened before I went off to get my brains scrambled interviewed.

Rimmel London Pink-A-Boo and Sunny Days:

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I tried to use these colors as a half-moon mani, but everything went wrong.
...everything.  I don't wanna talk about it.  (Okay since you insist the yellow is
streaky and transparent and the pink dings if you look at it funny which I did you
can see it and everything gets everywhere after like 9 coats of polish, aaarrrgh!)

The yellow, uh.  Needs a lot of coats.  But it's a very true yellow!  The pink's fine, very very pink, but fine.  After a complete fail of a half-moon manicure, I decided to go with rocking the asymmetry, which I kind of always love:

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Mr. Fix-It took photos!  With my crappy camera
phone!  I do not think he cared for it at all!

Ahhh yes.  That feels better than worrying about my future, yes indeed it does. ^_^

If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you (PWI: Rimmel London Sweet Lavender)

Since Mr. Fix-it made me realize I have no lavender nail polish (huh?), I obviously needed to buy nail polish.  Obviously!  Rimmel London makes these little $2 bottles – they're really small, actually, 8 mls instead of 18?  But I have literally never once used up a bottle of polish (except, like, base coat), so I really don't give a crap about the per-ounce price.

Rambling! Rimmel London Sweet Lavender:

Honestly it's more lavender in person. A little bluer, a little dustier, but
it's fine!  Because I've sorta reached détente with my phone on color.*
* Translation: it wins, while I secretly pine for a camera manufactured by Pantone.**
** Not that secretly.  Mr. F and I just talked for 20 minutes about what that would be.

I'm (semi)-unexpectedly home for a day plus a bit, so I'm screwing around... quite a lot actually.  Because (1) it relieves stress, and (2) my talk is done.  Done done.  No more practicing, no more fussing with it.  It's as good as I can make it at the moment, I've practiced giving it... it's done.  Which hasn't been true for the previous, what, two months?

I realized in the course of looking at this that I don't really have any pastel colors.  I mean maybe a couple accidental ones, but on the scale of my polish-buying, that's odd!  Also, I realized that lavender doesn't actually suit me.  The pic looks okay, but even Mr. Fix-It agreed that in person it looked off.

SO I am going to buy pastel colors and see what happens!

Meanwhile: the whole season-based color thing is a bit passé!  But, because pastels are usually associated with spring/summer coloring, I decided to try a thing.  I went and took every online test I could easily find about seasonal coloring...

Ok that's not quite true.  We should talk methodology.  Which kind of takes us to another post.

PWI: Urban Outfitters Smush

The other day I found that my grocery store has green olives stuffed with feta cheese, AND green olives stuffed with raw garlic, which I am now happily alternating.  I thought about entitling this post "How to never be kissed again."

I recently mentioned my random bottle-grab Smush as a dumb name for a color.  But then it was on the surface, so here's Urban Outfitters Smush:

Indoors, obv.  This didn't stay on long enough for a daytime
shot!  Read on to find out why I have one weird green nail...

I was applying this, and I was thinking, "Seafoam, hm hm, seafoam... ... didn't I just do an Urban Outfitters seafoam color?  Is this a PWI fail?"

So of course I looked in the box, and discovered that UO Girrl Like You is a green seafoam, not a blue seafoam.  Silly me!  Hence the accent nail, for comparison purposes.

I've a bit of a dilemma.  Smush is a cool color, something I would like to have, but the formula is god-awful.  It's streaky, chalky, draggy and miserable.  This is three coats, and the pinky still has a drag line; I chose the accent nail because the middle finger had the worst coverage.  I did not enjoy playing with this polish, which is super unusual!  Keep or ditch, keep or ditch?  Either way it's hall of shame.

Man.  Now I'm out of olives.

Half Moons! plus, PWI twofer: Urban Outfitters Bandeau & Sinful Colors Frenzy

"Half moons" (those white arcs at the base of your fingertips) are often re-represented on nails in a variety of silly colors.  Traditionally this is done by masking off the base of your nails with these:

Which is, you know, pretty amusing.

I've tried this look before, but since I exclusively use peel-off base coat,* I always end up just peeling off the entire nail's polish.  ANY way, the other day I was reading some blog about nails (don't remember whose, sorry!) and the blogger said something like, "Then I put hole reinforcements on my nails, being sure to stick them to the back of my hand first of course..."

Of course.

So obvious in retrospect.  I mean if I had really sat down and formulated the question as "How do I make these less sticky,"  I would have answered it immediately.  Formulating the right question when you see a problem is, sometimes, the only hard thing.  Or even realizing you should treat it as a solvable problem.  Engineering is hard!

But!  It means you get to see my first ever successful (ish) half moons.

Here's Urban Outfitters Bandeau:

Indoor.  I doooon't need a new camera (I don't) but
would a lamp be such a bad idea?  ...I'm doomed

Which is a fairly nice purple creme; 2 coats.  In low light it reads as black, in bright light it looks about like this, satiny dark purple.  In sunlight, however, it is glowingly purple, as shown below.  The odd, slightly satiny finish is accurate.

With Sinful Colors Frenzy, a nice purple-and-plum glitter.

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Purple!  Indirect sunlight/direct sunlight.  Glitter's hard to take a good picture of.
I feel like I would need a star filter or something.  For the camera. That I don't need.

I don't think this color choice was that successful.  I'm not sure why, but it feels off from a bit of distance.  Dunno!  Maybe I'm just not used to it.  Also, waiting for three layers of Frenzy to dry was kind of awful; next time I want something fast for that part.  The stickers did pull some of the Bandeau up, I'm guessing because it wasn't fully dry.

But!  Still!  Lookit!  Half-moons!  Purple ones!

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* Subject of upcoming post

PWI: Island Girl Polynesian Heat

Mr. Fix-it took my request to heart (okay, I poked him), and suggested lavender nails.  Whereupon we discovered that however the hell many little bottles I have, I don't have a one of those.  Gah!  The closest I could come was this, which is more like a pale pink, although I tried layering it over purple, which sometimes works but didn't really here.

Island Girl Polynesian Heat:

Indoor lighting, because then I took it off.  Please
ignore the one weird finger, that's a failed experiment.

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Left: indoor; right: flash.  (Oo!  Flash!  Whatever's next?)

Okay, first off I'll just get this off my chest:  "Polynesian heat"?  Doesn't that make you think of something in the red/orange/yellow family?  Or at least something saturated?  Something not, say, delicate, frosty pinkish-lavender?

Meh, whatever, it's a pretty color.  Which is a shame, because the formula is fail.  It's everything people hate about "frost" finishes: it shows every imperfection and every brushstroke, it's thin and runny and doesn't stay where you put it, it's not self-leveling.  It looks mostly okay from a little distance?  But it's not really worth the hassle.

I tried rescuing it by putting a topper on it I'm excited about; the two nail polishes played together poorly, with Polynesian Heat crinkling up and going all weird.

Hall-o-shame!  Shame, I say!  Burn the witch.

PWI: Wet'n'Wild Through the grapevine (aka ORCHID!)

First, a note: this article on mental illness in academia, while perhaps a bit extreme, is exactly the sort of thing that possible-academics should know and be asking themselves hard questions about.

More fun that that though:

I had dinner with my friend N the other day, and we hit a drugstore on the way home to feed our little obsession.  (Okay, I did and she came along.)  Towards the end I said, "Okay, pick something for me." And then, to avoid the embarassment of spending 15 minutes saying "Already got that one... and that one...", I added, "Pick something you don't think I'd pick for myself."

Introducing Wet'n'Wild Through the Grapevine:

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Left: indirect sunlight; right: actual sunlight hitting my actual body you guys!  I think
these capture the pink-to-blue variation pretty well.  Under indoor lights it's very pink.

Yeah, I would not have picked it!  I actually think it's pretty flattering on me (?), but I'm not really a FLAMING ORCHID kind of person, and this is bright.  Nonetheless, I love it when people pick polishes for me, either to wear or to buy; it's astonishing how often it's a complete learning experience.  (Black on one hand and white on the other, chosen by a labmate, was so good that I want a matching dress.)*

If you don't know, Pantone** has always had some geek love, and they've realized it and decided to make a profit off it – you can buy notebooks, watches, mugs, etc.  One of the things they do now is declare a "Color of the Year" (and season), which cosmetics, clothing designers, etc. dutifully note.

This year's color is Radiant Orchid.  That's probably why I have bright pink fingers!

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* If you have an idea (that you tell me) I will do it to my nails if physically possible, and post it.  This is a promise.  It can also be a dare, that's fine.

**A company whose business is "reproducible color."  You can buy physical swatches of thousands of colors, and the Pantone color number is just... that color.  That exact color.  No monitor differences, differences between batches, or creep: Pantone 13-1406 ("Cloud Pink") will always be the same.  For example, the University of Tennessee's official colors are UT Orange, White, and Smokey, while the University of Texas' orange is Burnt Orange (#159).  You can see where that's useful when thousands of people and hundreds of departments are doing their own thing.

PWI twofer: Wet'n'Wild Sophisticated Lady and Sally Hansen Ice Queen

I bought this at the same time as Wet'n'Wild Champagne Toast, from the same display and, apparently, in the same mood.  Behold!

Wet'n'Wild Sophisticated Lady:

pink nail polish is pink

I don't really get the name.  It's pink.  What's sophisticated about pink?  I mean it's too pale to be bubblegum pink, but?  ...whatever.  It's pretty, it's subtle, it's fine.  I feel like if I mixed this and Champagne Toast  I'd have a more opaque Nomad's Dream.  Nice to have around.

Then, because I make the same mistakes over and over, I layered on the partially-contrasting Sally Hansen Ice Queen:

Bugz!  Little teal bugs on my hand!  Ugh.

Big pink glitter, big teal glitter, teeny iridescent multicolored sparkles.

This does a good job of showing why I don't really like multicolored glitter.  Up close, it looks fine, but from any distance the teal glitter just looks like I got scunge on my hands and should wash them.  Also, getting the big hex glitters out was a giant pain; getting this many glits took three-ish coats and a mountain of dabbing.

So I'll either get rid of this or use it for the teeny sparkles.  Meh.

PWI: Pure Ice French Kiss

I think a lot of my color photography problems stem from variations on blue.  I thought it was awesome that Eurso Euro (I don't need to link it again, do I?) photographed so beautifully.  I now think it was luck.  Specifically, I'm beginning to think that my camera just gets way overexcited about blues.  It sees blue and just jumps up and down in its little... camera... space.  Thing.

(You do all know that when I say "camera" I mean "iPhone", right?)

Anyway, this is a sort of navyish blue, which my "camera" waaaay oversaturated.  I got something closer to color-true by dropping the saturation enormously, hence the skin tone.  (I mean, I know what color my skin is.  I can just look.  It's nail polish I need want some record of.)

Pure Ice French Kiss:

Taken in an alley with rain coming down, because I'm trying to add some
grit and drama to this blog.  (No I'm not.  Alleys just come in rainy here.)

It's blue, all righty.  Yep.  Sure is blue.  I have a lot of blue polish, mostly from my long quest for a perfect indigo.  Not this one.  I just bought this one.  I don't know why.

I guess that's why I have so much blue polish.

My capitalization of brand tags is inconsistent, and to fix it I have to edit posts individually.  This does not please me at all.  In fact I am quickly reaching "unacceptably annoyed" by formatting limitations imposed by Blogger!  But any other blogging choice is a lot like work.  Bah.

PWI twofer! OPI: Vant to Bite my Neck? and SOPI: Beam Me Up Hottie!

I did not choose to put these polishes together because they are both complete sentences with punctuation.  I would have, but I only just noticed.  Dumb sentences, sure, but better than [grabs a bottle at random] "Smush".

This first one I kinda already knew would disappoint.  It's from the same collection as Eurso Euro (have I blithered on enough about that one yet?), and when I got EE in all its indigo perfection, I hoped the purple would be equally glorious.  (Spoiler: it isn't)

OPI Vant to Bite my Neck?:

These are both pretty color-accurate, because your human meat eyeball with its high dynamic range can
see a lot more color depth at once.  So the way-overexposed shot on the right that shows the purpliness is,
in human eyeball terms, just another part of this polish's "depth of color".  Stupid excellent meat eyeball.

So, in other words,

Eggplant.  Very dark purplish-black.  (Unless it's white.  Did you know it's called an"eggplant"
because of the smooth round egginess of the white ones?  I didn't.)  Aubergine.  Lovely color.
Source: the wikipedia article on "the color aubergine"

Look, aubergine is a lovely color that is mostly black.  Seriously, when your canvases are 1cm², this is just... black.  In direct sunlight (well "sunlight") it's... black.  (Black with an excellent, long-lasting creme formula, because OPI.)

With hints of eggplant.

So, since I don't actually really like this polish, I decided to try to spruce it up by doing something I know I dislike, which is adding a highly-contrasting glitter topper.

SOPI: Beam Me Up, Hottie!:

Left: what it actually looked like, which is, mysteriously polka-dotted nails.  Right: They're very holographic
polka dots!  And I learned that a blurry picture actually captures the holo colors better.  I learned this from
real bloggers with better cameras.  Which I do not need one of.  Because I don't need another hobby.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  ...no, no it didn't.  It seemed like something I could reach without dislodging this cat.  So that's like a good idea, kind of.

This is just a bottle full of silver holographic glitter hexes in a clear base.  Seems like my kind of looking-futuristic thing, but the formula is such a total goddamned PITA.  This is several layers, with much dabbing.*

So... all things being equal, total fail!  I'll probably keep Beam My Up Hottie! for use over silver, where its holographic awesomeness can blend and glitter distribution is less obvious.  I kind of feel like McAubergine here is bound for a new home.

* (Basically what it sounds like – sort of "patting" the nail with the brush, pushing individual glitters (glits?**) around.)
** I am pretty sure an individual glitter is a glit

PWI twofer: Sinful Colors Aqua and Shattered Rocket Fuel

Occasionally  I look at the little bin of things that are post-Project Wear-It, then at the burgeoning bin of things that are still waiting, and I make a little sad noise.  Then I remember that it's just nail polish for crying out loud, if it makes me sad it's a stupid hobby.

Then I make a little sad noise.

I made lunch (and dinner) from scratch today!  Chicken stew.  But I was playing around, as I do when I have no-one else present to poison, and it's... well.  I should have made more instacurry.  I would describe it as barely edible.  So I am sad about that (and a little hungry)... which means I should show you nail polish!  Yes.  Yes it does.

Sinful Colors Aqua:

Pretty color!  It's not quite this... electric in person.  However, since
it was a horrid gray rainy day even by Seattle standards, I'll take my
bright colors where I find them.  Even in misleading photographs.

This is so similar in the bottle to SC Gorgeous, when I find it I'll show you.  This is a very pretty blue-leaning aqua, and Gorgeous is a sliiiigghhtly green-leaning aqua.

But I had an ulterior motive, which was to provide a base for a polish that must be 15 years old minimum, about which the Internet knows nothing.  (damn kids)

Behold!  Shattered Rocket Fuel:

Green and blue bar glitter everywhere!  I, I swear.  Honest?  This isn't even
lighting, it's just teal, honestly the camera adds drama here, I  don't
understand photography apparently, why does the camera add drama.

Yes, it... also looks pretty teal, doesn't it.  Hrm.

See this is actually a mix of beautiful blue and green bar glitter.*  In the bottle it looks like some kind of jewel.  But in person it looks.. well, aqua.  Especially from more than 6 inches away.  It's pretty, especially in indoor light, but compared to the bottle it is disappointing.

What the bottle looks like; what the polish looks like with a little distance. Here
the bottle looks less exciting than in person, and my nails look more exciting
and glowy.  It's the same damn polish, camera.  What do you want from me.

Ah, well.  Pretty is still a good thing.  I vaguely recall doing roommate E's nails with this over purple and liking the results, maybe after PWI I'll try that.

(PS: Also: It may seem as though our living room floor is covered in random objects.  In fact, they are cat toys.  I don't know what to tell you.)

* Bar glitter means "long thin glitter".  It tends to hang off the sides of your nails or stick straight up or otherwise be a pain.

PWI: Maybelline Emerald Elegance

I am amazingly wiped out.  Walking to school yesterday, and back two hours later, necessitated a nap.  Putting on nail polish seems like a chore.  (Buying it, not so much, it seems.)  I think I was all wired up on anticipation and adrenaline for my Job Interview, and now that it's over, my strings have been cut, and I am tired.

I wasn't that impressed with the Maybelline Color Show Brocades collection.  (Too many words!)  But I eventually picked one up, which led me to looking at swatches, which led to the inevitable purchase of...

Maybelline Emerald Elegance.

Big green glitter, smaller green glitter and teeny-tiny gold
and green glitter, and it was easier to find that out on the
internet than by looking at the actual polish, by the way

Rather truer color at half-dark, 5 minutes after previous picture.
Thanks Seattle! When I need "darkness" you are there for me

Two coats. Thick and gloopy as all hell, but not actually hard to work with. The addition of teeny gold glitter makes it lean towards a yellowish green.

I feel like "brocades" is surprisingly apt (especially given the history of cosmetic companies on this). These are glitter polishes, but not sparkly; they end up giving the sense of complexity and something-happening without being glittery or obvious about the mix of colors.

From six inches, anyway. Beyond that, they look "green". This is the tragedy of fancy nail polish. Le Sigh.

PWI: Rimmel London Burgundy Flirt, or, an interesting cheat; plus! L'Occitane Neroli

Well, I was going to do Rimmel London Burgundy Flirt. But... here's the thing. I just did UO Spiked Punch, and they're the absolute same. Really. Same creme/jelly* formula, same effort, same final color. The interim color was a bit different, but who cares? I had originally convinced myself that RL BF was a teeny bit browner, but, you know... it's not. So, they're BOTH going in the PWI bin.

I will not insult your intelligence with additional pictures.

So instead I will talk about perfume again! (wheee)

First, and important, there are two formulations of this, old and new. This is important because it is true of MANY perfumes (and some other cosmetics). This is because of either IFRA requirements (suuuuch a useless link) or EU requirements; basically, both have the same aim, which is eliminating perfume constituents that people are allergic to.

As a hopelessly pan-allergic creature myself, I love it. I never ever ever want my perfume to interfere with someone's ability to breathe. (This is also part of why I favor low-sillage** perfumes.) But, a number of pre-existing perfumes had to be reformulated to comply with one or the other, and how much they changed is extremely variable.

So, L'Occitane Neroli (bitter orange blossom).

Some eBay seller. Thanks dude and/or lady!

I have a sample of this, and I have no idea when it's from (I got it second-hand). My best guess is that it's the original: exactly what's shown above, a beautiful deep red. The newer versions seem lighter, plus I haven't seen a new one in a little box-let. The internet suggests that the pre- and post-reformulations are moderately different. Also it ... kind of smells allergenic?†

Review: y'all. I hate it.

I mean I can admire things about it! It has personality! It's interesting and not the same as a million other perfumes! It has novel notes and dry-down! Just... they're kind of a bad idea? (On me.)

It's a very unisex smell, but not in a very soapy way; bitter orange is strong, and it's backed by strong, strong cedar and spice (I get cloves and coriander). Sounds like it would be up my alley, but... it's chokingly strong. Like, after 20 minutes of a fairly mild spray, I couldn't take it anymore. Washing it off led to a lingering neroli/spicey/mildly soapy smell, tolerable... but not good.

This is someone's perfect perfume. Go, someone! (You can have my sample.)

* I really need to get on a domain-jargon post
** reeeaaaallllyyyy 
† Look, it sounds pretty hippy-dippy. But when you've been this allergic for this long, you actually start to be able to smell when certain things are a bad idea. I'm not crazy.