Drinking while Polishing: A Cautionary Tale

As a person obsessed with polish and committed to bringing that love to the people, I want to also educate the people so that the bad things that happen to me do not befall you. There are several things one should not do while drinking adult beverages: drive, call ex-boyfriends or girlfriends, and polish one's nails. Last night, while I was not drunk, I had a few vodka and tonics, and rather than just live to fight another day and leave yesterday's perfectly serviceable manicure on, I figured, take it off! Do something else! So I did. I could not bear to share with you a picture of what it looked like before clean-up, so we're just going to pretend everything turned out okay in the end as the photographic evidence proves. But it was bad. Bad like the first time you painted your nails and got more polish off the nail than on bad. Bad. Shiver. Anyway.

Now, I picked the combo when I was still sober, so it's no mistake that I put one of the most difficult to remove glitters, China Glaze Nova, over Color Club Gossip Column. I really did mean to do that, though I know I will pay when it comes time to remove it tomorrow. But I just couldn't resist. I had a horrible week, and I needed glitter. Big, loud, holographic glitter.

As I mentioned yesterday, I love Color Club with a deep passion, and Gossip Column is no exception. It is a lovely creme, opaque in two coats (but I had vodka, so I did three against my normally better judgment), that, when you are not blurry-eyed with drink, applies so smoothly and evenly that it makes you want to cry. This picture is actually with flash which shows better than natural light pics how sort of dark and stormy of a teal it is. I have a matte MAC eyeshadow this color, and it's really one of my favorite kinds of shades. Vibrant without being bright, bold without being loud. And Nova? Well, what can I say. It's a dense as all heck, silver holographic glitter, hexagonally (is that a word? It is now.) shaped, and a real pisser to get off. Oh well. Thankfully tomorrow is Saturday, so I can spend all day wrapped in acetone. Even with the China Glaze glitter, which I find dries very slowly in general, this was perfectly dry in 30 minutes after a good coat of Poshe.

So, yes, kids, be careful, and do not mix polish with vodka. Because you will have to get up early the next day to painstakingly remove the excess from your fingers. And you will still be secretly picking it off your cuticles by lunchtime. Until next time, Polish to the People!

Layering Fun and an Ode to Color Club

I know, I know, I have been neglecting the people, and for that I apologize. Over here at Casa Polish to the People, we have been engaged in a month long cleaning project that has been rather rough on the old blogging time (not to mention rough on the old nails!). However, in the end, we prevailed, and I even got one of the illustrious Helmers from Ikea to store my stash. I hope to have some sexy pictures of the newly organized collection soon!

Anyway, on to the polish.

I got a couple of these sheer glittery polishes from Savvy Femme Couture. I am not sure how they wanted to market them, but I instantly saw them as layering gems. The uninitiated I am sure will wear them alone as sheers, but that isn't quite my style, is it? Here you see Purple Potion, a reasonably sheer base loaded with pink and purple teeny tiny shimmer glitter, over Color Club Power Play. Power Play is a neon fuchsia that pulls much more pink in this photo than it really is. Neons are notoriously difficult to photograph, so I don't feel too badly. Over all, I really like this combo.

Now, a word on Color Clubs. I decided I had to break one out because I just ordered a few colors from their new fall collection, Untamed Luxury. For such a cheap polish (usually around $2.49 each from various online retailers), and for how relatively inaccessible it is in brick and mortar stores, this is such a wonderful polish. They have great colors, lovely seasonal collections, and the application and wear is phenomenal. What you see here is after my second day of wearing it, and despite how much I type at work and how generally hard I am on my nails between cooking and dishes, it is still perfect. Their neons do tend to require more coats (this took three to be opaque), but in general they are opaque in two to three coats and go on so smoothly, it's hardly any effort at all.

So, that's my reintroduction to you. I hope not to be away for so long again. Until next time, Polish to the People!