Matte comparison on a creme: Orly Matte Top, Nubar V for Men and Essie Matte About You

Today's NOTD is Orly's Charged Up:

I used to dislike Orly nail polishes -- they were all kinda boring -- but they've come out with so many great shades lately! This creme applied beautifully with a jellyish finish. Very glossy pre-topcoat!

And now, a matte topcoat comparison on this lovely creme jelly (I got bored of my NOTD by midday)! I love having matte topcoats -- it saves me the trouble of actually lemming matte polishes.

From left to right:

Index finger - not mattefied

Middle finger - Orly Matte Top, which has more of a soft satin finish than a matte finish

Ring finger - Nubar V for Men, a great matte which is only slightly closer to satin than chalk

Pinky finger - Essie Matte About You, a slightly more severe matte which is closer to chalk than satin

In terms of a matte topcoat, both Nubar V and Essie Matte About You blow Orly Matte Top out of the water. It'll be a matter of preference, of course, but I like Nubar V the best so far. It doesn't completely mattefy a creme polish, which allows it to have more of a reflective sheen whereas Essie MAY is much more of a flat matte that doesn't reflect light as much. It's probably more of a "true" matte when used with cremes, transforming a glossy finish into a (pleasantly) chalky one.

Stay tuned for more matte comparisons using polishes of different finishes!

NOTM(orning) and NOTA(fternoon): Color Club Tru Passion + Misa Dance Fever

Once upon a time, I thought I might study visual cognition. It was easier to collect data. Sit people in front of a computer, have them click buttons when they see a circle (or whatever) and let the computer collect the data for me. Then I thought, "No, my real passion is in psycholinguistics."

Boy, am I an idiot.

This type of research is painstaking. Listening to endless hours of audio, transcribing it and analyzing it and... miscounting a lot. For someone who has been in school for 19 years (plus maybe an extra year for all those summers at nerd camp), I really don't seem to know how to add or subtract. Multivariate statistics, yes. Addition, no.

To reward myself for, you know, doing my job today, I decided two manis were in order.

Color Club Tru Passion



Misa Dance Fever


These are fabulous glitters! They are very fine and brush on very smoothly (unless I get impatient and gloop them on). Both of these are four coats each. The Dance Fever, especially, just GLOWS in sunlight: it may be burning my retina to stare directly at it. Mmm. Glowy burn.

In other news, I'm pretty miffed that my university's library is undergoing major budget cuts (like every other university library, I'm sure) and a professor sent around a list of psych journals that are on the cutting block. NOOOOOOO!! If there's no other reason to go to a rich private university, it's that they'll have more money to keep their resources up when the economy's down the drain and floating fast out to sea. Unless they're Harvard or some other imprudent Ivy League that got greedy and invested everything in high yield (and high risk) stocks. Yay for not getting my PhD at an Ivy League? (Besides that there was actually no Ivy that had an advisor I wanted to work with. And none who would want to work with me. Definitely not something to cry over though!)

Yesterday's NOTD: Shiseido PN 66 over Chelsea Heavenly Signs

A picture may be worth a thousand words (as demonstrated by all the nail polish blogs out there), but a video can be worth a thousand pictures... if they would upload with no loss of quality! I had the most gorgeous, glittery NOTD yesterday and as usual, I tried taking pictures to capture its glittery gorgeousness but every photo fell short. So I took a video. On my laptop, the video showed off the glint and glitter of the polish perfectly but when I try to upload it, the quality gets compromised somewhere along the way so it doesn't show up quite as well anymore. I've posted it just the same though. First the photos:

Shiseido PN 66 (3 layers) over Chelsea Heavenly Signs


I wish I knew where to get Shiseido PN polishes. The writing on the label is in Japanese so I'm assuming... Japan. I got these from the same swap as I got my first two of BB Coutures. Chelsea Heavenly Sign's provides a creme burgundy base for this fairly glitter-packed polish.

A close-up of glittery goodness:


Does glitter get any better than that?

My first BB Coutures! (and a couple of others)

Yesterday, I wrote what was probably one of the longest emails in the existence of mankind. Which isn't too impressive because email hasn't been around so long (in terms of the existence of mankind). Like I've mentioned before, the research project I was an RA on back in 2004 is finally being written up for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The professor I worked for sent over a draft for critique. And I wrote a very, very long one. I'm not sure it was that coherent. It took me about six hours to figure out what I was trying to say and I kind of feel sorry for her that she woke to that email in her inbox this morning.

It was a lot of fun to revisit the project, which was on children's language acquisition, especially since the theoretical orientation of my PhD program differs a lot from the theoretical orientation I was trained in during college. And it was fabulous to write for the first time in a month (woot vacation! woot not being so sick that I can't even sit up!), even if it was just a rambling email. I should be doing a lot more research-oriented writing, not just because I have to be doing it, but because I really enjoy it. I love writing, I love ideas, I love letting my mind wander all over the place and reading a whole bunch of articles and eventually coming down to some sort of deadline -- usually one that has whooshed right by -- and pulling it all together. I love choosing words, reordering thoughts -- trying to say exactly what I mean. Doesn't always work but I usually have fun doing it.

Anyway, having stared at the computer for hours yesterday, I decided to stare at my nails today and do some swatching. My untrieds box was full again so I spent some time swatching about 15 polishes (and taking pictures). Amongst my untrieds were my first two BB Couture polishes that I had swapped for. Coincidentally enough, the woman I swapped with currently lives on the same street I lived in Somerville, MA for the first two years after I graduated from college! Small world. (Well, it was a big street.)

These did apply very smoothly but I can't say they were precisely my cup of tea; I haven't tried enough yet to make up my mind about the brand. First up...

BB Couture Venice Party

If the had been sun out today, it would have been easier to see the blue opalescent glitter in this polish...

BB Couture Blind Love

I thought this was going to be more silver but it turned out to be more pewter and I really don't know how I feel about pewter; one of the reasons I'm holding out on ChG Cords, I guess.

Another polish I swatched out was Chelsea Psycho Green (also courtesy of a swap!), which looks like it might turn out to be a NARS Zulu-like jelly but then dries slightly matte.

Chelsea Psycho Green

Chelsea Psycho Green layered with Anna Sui 235, which has blue and red opalescent multi-sized glitter suspended in a jelly of a non-descript shade (actually, it looks like a muddy jelly but applies clear)

Weird thing about Anna Sui polishes: they're perfumed. At first, it smells floral... and then it smells like bug spray.

BB Couture Green Goblin

I think some of my fellow feminists look at me as a hypocrite for loving something such as nail polish. To love something that seems to inherently and negatively reinforce feminine stereotypes (such as that all women do and should wear makeup) does seem hypocritical, in a way. I hate that a common stereotype with nail polish is often the woman on TV or in a movie who waves her hands around in an exaggerated fashion as her nails dry and then screams and becomes hysterical if she chips or breaks a nail while the male costar rolls his eyes. Nail polish seems to be tied to an exaggerated form of femininity and I haven't quite figured out why yet since nail polish really is just another form of makeup, and you typically don't see women on TV or in movies screaming hysterically if they slightly smudge their eyeshadow.

Despite all of this negativity surrounding nail polish, I like to think that I'm being an active feminist by wearing polish BECAUSE I WANT TO and not because of any other reason. I also like to violate the traditional "rules" of nail polish such as wearing only French manicures, sheers, pinks, or reds.

Well, my kitteh just climbed on my lap (I'm typing on a laptop) and made it very difficult for me to type, so I will end my rant! Here are some pictures of my most recent NOTD, BB Couture Green Goblin....

BB Couture is probably one of my top favorite nail polish brands. They apply so smoothly and have lots of lasting power! These pics were taken in cloudy lighting as it is a stormy day. Each picture is 2 coats with Diamont topcoat. They were taken after 1 day of wear. As usual, click on the pics to see them larger than life!

It looks like I have a chip on my index and middle fingers in these pictures but it's just the lighting.
I never thought I'd love green polish as much as I do. There is something so edgy to me about a green shade like this. I'm in love!!

Thanks for visiting!

feeling hot hot hot

Wow it's been a blazing few days here!! So incredibly humid and hot! That means lots of sun and lots of BEACH!

I have a few past NOTD. First two are purple! I was feeling in the purple mood, I think my longer nails looks best with purple nail polish on. I could wear purple any day, any occasion, any length honestly. I think its my fav nail polish color! Both of these purples are super pretty with subtle shimmer that makes them glow and really makes them diff from other purples.


NYX Wild Child



Claire's Magic

Yesterday I had my first GMAT prep class so I put on a cheery Finger Paints Ripe Peach. We took a diagnostic exam to see which areas we need help most on. Honestly I need help in all areas. The real test is four hours long. Yesterday's diagnostic exam was only three hours long, we omitted the essay section. I couldn't even sit through the three hours bc i was getting serious ADD and kept staring at my nails and got restless after only 15 questions. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I take the actual test!! :(


Finger Paints Ripe Peach

When I woke up this morning I saw a box outside my door from Sephora and quickly opened it. Behold, DARK ROOM! Looks kinda blue in the bottle, sorta like a super dark teal, but after i painted my nails with it, it's DEF green!! Super dark green, but still very pretty and perfect for fall! Formula was great for me, it was a little more runny than I'm used to, but manageable.


Sephora by OPI Dark Room

Hmm, what can you do with 6 stashes?

I'd like to bring to our readers' (you know, all... three of them at this early stage!) attention that between the six of us, we have over 1400 polishes. (How many Helmers is that?!) Some stashes are bigger than others but this much is true: we got a lotta lacquer. Granted, I'm sure we share some polishes but it seems that we have a pretty wide range of tastes and I suspect there's not that much overlap.

So see that little comment box on the sidebar? It asks for reader swatch requests. We obviously cannot guarantee that any of us will have a polish requested or, if we do own the polish, that we'll be able to swatch it for the blog, but it doesn't hurt to ask. :)

And I'm personally open to franken/frankendupe suggestions so feel free to ask for 'em. :D

Skin Food NOTDs!

I want all of the polishes from this brand! Too bad it's mostly only found in East Asia. I recently got a few off of eBay from a South Korean seller and gotta say, money well spent (in terms of nail polish anyway)! They are of fabulous quality, in gorgeous colors and the brushes are perfect for my nails. One brush stroke covers most of my nail. They are more flexible than the OPI Pro-Wide, retain polish for longer and somehow they spread polish more evenly so I'm not having to "reload" my brush for every nail (nor worrying as much about gooping it on). Here are three recent ones:

Skin Food Pedi Vita #005 Blue-Purple (it's more purple than blue, IMO):

Skin Food BL512 Cucumber (teal with bright blue shimmer):

Skin Food BL505 Apple Green (my favorite one -- look at the milky green jelliness!):

A Proper Introduction and Something Completely Different

This is my second time posting, but I never properly introduced myself. My name is Grace and I finished my undergraduate degree with a double major in Biochemistry and Genetics in May 2009 and I'm starting graduate school in the fall to study molecular microbiology and/or genetics in hopes of earning a PhD at some point in the future. Like the other ladies here, I'm not particularly what people envision when they think of my field - I'm loud, pretty gregarious and I absolutely love clothes and beauty. As far as nail polish goes - I love all types of colors - in particular greens and almost any creme nail polish under the sun. I love doing everything from bright and outrageous manicures to more classic styles (though you'll never catch me with french tips).

Speaking of outrageous, one of my favorite nail related toys is KONAD (check the sidebar for a 20% off promo code!) - I've found from my experimentation that much of the China Glaze OMG collection works like magic with them.

This look is a little over the top for me, but I figure I have a few years to get this out of my system before I need to begin acting and looking more professional! For this mani I used China Glaze LOL, DV8 and the M63 Konad plate with OMG.

Adding a SIXTH blogger to the P or P gang!

I'm happy to announce the addition of our sixth blogger, D:). I'm still not sure how I'm going to pronounce that if I say it aloud. D-smile? D-grin? DCCP (colon, closed parenthesis)? Gal with Furrowed Brow? Anyway... she should be making her debut post later this week. I can't wait!

Also, Hello! to those who have found their way to Polish or Perish from Dr Frankenpolish's blog! (For the two people who came to P or P first, check out Dr Frankenpolish for my frankendupe version of Lippmann's Funky Chunky. It's much less chunky but I think it's just as funky.)

"Hi, my name is flinty and I am addicted to hexagonal glitter!" (See my frankens below... although these both needed a lot more hexes!)

Hexsanguination:

All Hexed Up:

Quick and dirty swatch: L'Oreal Star Magnet Purple

Today has been a big growth day for Publish or Perish! We've added our FIFTH blogger, Jess, who has already introduced herself. Five geeky lacquer loonies who aspire -- at least, in the short term -- to the Ivory Tower. Five students posting about nail polish while procrastinating from their academic pursuits. If that doesn't guarantee a new post on most days, I don't know what will.

(By the way, if you love academia, nail polish and photographing your lacquered tips and toes, consider blogging with us! Email us at polishorperish@gmail.com for more details.)

In other PorP news, Kathleen at OCNailArt.com has provided our blog with our very own coupon code: type in "polishorperish" in the promo/coupon code box during checkout and get 20% off your entire order! Shipping is free for domestic and international orders over $20 (after discounts). This is a great resource for Konad kits and accessories!

Anyway, back to business:

Thank heavens it's summer vacation because I can keep an eye on Nail Board for when some enterprising NBer posts about some terribly irresistible eBay ("evilBay" in NB parlance) auction for an HTF polish. I finally got my little lacquered paws onto some L'Oreal Star Magnet polishes (AKA cheapie Lancome Le Magnetique).

For those who aren't familiar with these magnetic polishes, Boing Boing has a nice summary. You gotta love a nail polish that gets mentioned on Boing Boing. Synopsis of the BB post: polish has metal filings, polish bottle has attached magnet, put freshly lacquered nail up to the magnet and voila, metal filings in the polish create a starburst pattern. Instant geek sexy.

The colors aren't special but the magnetic part is. The bottle is terribly small (0.3fl oz as opposed to the typical 0.5fl oz) and the brush is terribly big. (Exactly how many times have I used the word "terribly" here? Too many.) I'm sure the brush would work better on big nailed gals but I have sadly small nails and polish cleanup around the edges of my nail post-application was a bitch.

But it's got magnetic filings and it creates a starburst pattern! Behold!

L'Oreal Star Magnet in Purple:

I'm not sure why L'Oreal decided to use an '80s space age computer game-like font for their logo here but never judge a book by its cover, right?

What was pretty nifty to me was that I could see the the magnetic filings being drawn into the starburst pattern while it was held up close to the magnet: a little dollop of polish even flew off of my nail onto the magnet.

On the topic of dollops, because Star Magnets are HTF, I usually do my nails in another (regular) polish to achieve maximum opacity with only one layer of the Star Magnet. That way, opaque but I'm not wasting the precious polish. Once the polish is dry, the filings are no longer mobile enough to be pulled in by the magnet so doing two coats with it is tantamount to wasting the polish.

I decided to further jazz my nails up with a couple of nail art rhinestones. Not the most interesting pattern -- or the greatest execution -- but you guys get the general idea. This is my first foray into 3D nail art. Or maybe just sticking stuff on my nails on top of my polish.

You know what I'd love to try but would probably suck at? Acrylic 3D nail designs! It's not really the sort of thing I can wear while teaching and holding office hours but seems like a lot of fun to try out!

Intro to Jess

Hello! My name is Jess (daydream222@MUA) and I am so excited to be part of this blog. I graduated from undergrad in 2008 and proceeded to take a year and a half off between undergrad and grad school. Now I am going back to school beginning in August for my Masters in Women's and Gender Studies. Yes, I am a feminist. No, I am not a stereotypical feminist. Sometimes it is difficult to be a feminist when so many other feminists (note: not ALL feminists) look down upon women loving things like fashion and makeup. The important distinction here is that I wear nail polish because I love color and because polish makes me feel pretty. I wear it for myself and no one else, and I am grateful that I can freely choose what colors I want to wear without anyone telling me what I should wear.

I think that is enough ranting for today. I will gladly take any questions about this subject! Now, onto the pictures....

My typical nail routine involves swiping my nails with Zoya Remove+ followed by Nubar Nu Nails basecoat, 2-3 coats of polish, and Nubar Diamont topcoat. All of the pictures below follow this routine.

Click on each pic to see it larger!

First up is Sephora by OPI Skinny Jeans. This is 2 coats. This picture was after 2 days of wear! SOPIs wear like iron on me.

Second we have Sephora by OPI IM Beauty. Like all yellows, this one was streaky. It only took 3 coats to even out though and the end result was very pretty. Coworkers told me it "just wasn't pretty," though I heartily disagree. This NOTD was SpaRitual Solitude on every nail but my middle nail, which I painted Precision U Rock & I Roll. Both colors are 2 coats. I love doing manis with contrasting fingers like this.

Last but definitely not least is my most recent and current NOTD, Orly Enchanted Forest. This color is to die for!!! This is only 2 coats (though I probably could have only used one). It is a beautiful blue-based green that works very well with my cooler skin tone.

And that is all for today! Thank you for looking! :)

A KOTD for Evil Angel, our first blog follower!

A funky french KOTD for the first person who listed us on their own np blog! The image plate used was also from a swap with her.

Skin Food RE106 Black Cherry with White Konad Special Polish (using Hot Topic "fauxnad" plate) and orange Nail Star nail art pen.

Barry M, love 'em, hate 'em -- I do both.

Over July 4th weekend, I was very excited to see that Barry M, a UK brand, was doing free shipping to the US and a 20% off deal. The polishes are affordable and look spectacularly pigmented. And free shipping is always my cup o' tea. Because there was a minimum purchase to get the 20% off, I ordered a bunch of polishes for another NB'er/np blogger located in Canada.

Fast forward 2+ weeks later, with no notice of shipment from Barry M in the intervening time, the polishes arrive in a thin bubble mailer. Okay. Sure. Cross-atlantic and then cross-continental shipment... sure. Polishes were intact but one of the NBer's was missing (out of stock, first I had heard of this news because I haven't had the money refunded yet!) and one of mine was just not there (no explanation whatsoever). I've emailed them twice now asking WTF, where are my polishes and if I don't see some polishes soon, I want to see some money refunded into my account. No response. Am I going to have to call the UK?! (Probably.) So I'm not feeling good towards Barry M's even though the polishes are quite nice. They are almost opaque in two coats and apply very smoothly. Very pretty colors but I seem to have dupes for all the ones I ordered (my fault, I suppose).

Barry M Marshmallow Pink (I'm sure I have an Essie of this color somewhere)

Barry M Spring Green (reminds me of Color Club Wild Child)

Barry M Grey (reminds me of China Glaze Recycle)

Barry M Cobalt Blue on pinky and middle fingers

Essie Mesmerize on ring and index fingers

They look identical indoors and only slightly different in the sunlight.

Half moon

Hello! I'm Adrienne (al0221 on MUA). I'm very excited to be apart of a blog that loves nail polish as much as me and is involved in the world of academia. I just graduated from undergrad and just trying to pull it together to figure out what I want to be when i grow up.

With all this free time, I've been trying to do some half moon manis. They are definitely time consuming. I did my first one about 2 weeks ago.

Essie Blanc, Sally Hansen Nasturtium

Thought the the half moons were kinda big so on my next attempt i made them smaller


Milani Timeless, LA Girl no name navy

As soon as I put on this navy I absolutely loved it! I'll have to do a regular mani with it! LA Girl makes some awesome polish, love everything about it formula, brush, color assortment. Only thing is, is that they don't all have names.

And my current mani


Milani Vintage, OPI You Don't Know Jacques

This one def turned out the best. Reminds me of coffee! Ha and you can also see how my nails have grown since the first pic. I plan on doing a purple half moon mani, just not sure which colors yet, but I'll keep you posted!!

NOTD Lancome Midnight Glam

Would've never bought a Lancome polish for myself (except for Le Magnetique) but I got it in a mystery polish swap and remembered why I LOVE mystery polish swaps: it forces me to try brands I might not consider otherwise!

It looks lovely in the bottle (very dark blue with bright silver and blue shimmer) but when I started applying it, it seemed thickened and goopy. But it settled down quickly into a nice even sheen that had this beautiful subtle shimmer (much more subtle than in the bottle anyway): it looked like blue velvet. (And now that song is stuck in my head.) It was my first Lancome polish and I may have to try more of them if I can find them for cheap!

Lancome Midnight Glam

Nubar Going Green!

I was wanting to introduce myself with a polish that reflected my love of all sciences, but sadly there was little sunshine today and some much needed rain is finally coming to central Texas! Don't worry, I have some wonderful previous nail of the day shots to share from the amazing Nubar Going Green collection (flinty had previously posted Forest from this collection).

Conserve - a lovely blue-green shimmer that leans strongly towards green.

Earth - another blue-green shimmer, but this one leans more towards blue. Definitely different enough from Conserve to have both.

Reclaim - an absolute masterpiece, a true green holographic polish.

The shimmers from this collection are phenomenal! They have a depth to them that makes it seem as if the nails are shimmering jewels. All in all this is a perfect collection for the aspiring academic - green is supposed to be associated with intelligence after all!

The "perish" in "polish or perish"

Explaining a joke or a pun is never funny. So, excuse my unfunniness:

The title of this blog, Polish or Perish, should be an obvious reference for those familiar with the academic industry. "Publish or Perish" refers to an aspiring professor's need to publish articles, chapters or books in order to get a job. The smart, go-getter graduate student needs to have her eyes on the prize, the prize being authorship credit on as many quality papers as possible.

This morning, almost completely out of the blue (mmm, blues... I have a great dark blue Lancome polish on right now... but more on that later), I got an email from my Unofficial Advisor from college: she's resurrected an old language acquisition/developmental psych research project that I had worked on five years ago as an undergrad. She spruced a manuscript and sent it to me, the other undergrad RA who worked on the project and a former grad student of hers to provide criticism before she submits it for publication in one of the most competitive journals in the field. (They have an especially quick TAT for rejections so an author doesn't lose much time by aiming high.)

(...it is weird to talk about "TAT" in terms of academic journals. I'm used to talking about etailers' TAT and when I can expect to receive whatever salt scrubs I've ordered.)

Years ago, when she prepared the working paper for a conference and asked for feedback, I didn't have the confidence to provide useful criticism. Today, I knew I could help (at least, a little bit), even though it's been years since I've done research in this particular subfield. In a way, I know less than I did when I was a senior because I'm no longer familiar with this subfield but somehow, I've gotten better at knowing what's good, what's bad, and what's promising but infused with bullshit. That shouldn't surprise me: it's in my job description as a grad student and I've been at this job for a year now. But during this past year, I was so busy adjusting to graduate school, I kind of forgot the bigger picture of why I was in graduate school.

This paper is the first paper being submitted for publication (since starting graduate school) that will list me as a co-author. This is real. I'm doing this whole thing -- not just because I love it -- because I'm building my career (and by extension, making a couple of lifestyle choices). I'm choosing "publish or perish". And that's why I'm in graduate school.

NOTD: Massini Slamming Red

I am so grateful to the MUA swapper who threw this into a recent mystery swap package. It looks beyond amazing in the bottle: shining, shimmering, splendid holo EVERYWHERE, suspended in a sea of rich fuchsia glitter.

I loved it when I saw it.

Now, not so much. This is one of the hardest polishes I've ever tried to apply. I almost don't want to post the pictures, my mani looks so messy. There's a reason it looks like it's all glitter: it is, in fact, all glitter. It comes out like thin, sparkly, fuchsia Elmer's glue and the rather long and flexible brush picks up a ton of it at a time. This'd be great for someone with big nails but I have little nails. Little nails, big mess. All over. Pain in ass clean-up. And CHUNKY. I mean, it looked clumped on my nail and rather dull clumps too. Putting a coat of Nubar Diamont helped gloss it up and smooth it out slightly except the glitter ATE the gloss and it became dull in an hour. I went outside with it and though it was pretty and sparkly in the sun, it looks dull and dark indoors. And clumpy. So clumpy. And because it was a glitter polish, it took about twenty minutes of hard scrubbing with acetone and felt to remove.

I'm sad because I've heard tell of Massini glitter polishes (some of which are direct dupes for Color Clubs) and some of the photos are stunning. This one... fail. Big fail. Ugh. Here it is. (Lookit how pretty the bottle is! Look at the bottle! THE BOTTLE. NOT MY FINGERNAILS.)

Massini Slamming Red

I still have hope for Massini though (especially since I really like Color Club polishes) and will get another shot at them very soon...

Woot! 3 bloggers at Polish or Perish!

Polish or Perish now brags three bloggers, myself (flinty), xfoxglove and gracewaste! This practically guarantees our lovely readers (if there are any yet) a post most days of the week! We will have no set schedule for blogging but between the three of us, Polish or Perish should be good for a couple minute's procrastination per day. For all of us. :)

And just so this isn't just a boring blog update, two popular teal polishes, both of which apply beautifully and are reasonably priced:

Misa Dirty Sexy Money

Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away

Orly Prince Charming

I am really enjoying the new Orly collection! It's got a nice variety of colors, all very "fall" feeling. Though Pixie Dust was the prettiest pretty that ever prettied -- there's no other word for it -- I think I prefer the mushroomy Prince Charming. What I like about taupe/mauve cremes is that they kind of change: they're not brown or grey or purple but they appear more as one than the other depending on the light. (My favorite example of this is China Glaze's Channelesque. It looks like I've changed polishes when I'm going from sunlight to indoor lighting.)

Absolutely no problem with the application of Prince Charming (and with a coat of Nubar Diamont topcoat, I don't even have tipwear after two, three days). I've never had issues with Orly's formula but until recently, the colors were incredibly blah. Thank heavens, no more. Or maybe I shouldn't be so grateful: it just means there are more polishes out there that I'm going to want to buy.

Orly Prince Charming

And for comparison's sake, another taupe Orly from a collection from earlier this year:

Orly Country Club Khaki

You know it's the beginning of the end when...

...you start ordering nail polishes only available on other continents. I'm currently eagerly awaiting a Barry M order from the UK, a Skin Food eBay lot from South Korea, and a Face Shop swap from Singapore. I'm also trying to negotiate another Singapore swap for some Etude polishes. And I managed to sidestep shipping costs for the purchases, thank heavens. I wonder how much the Singapore swap(s) will cost...

It's also the beginning of the end when you start a blog that features nail polish. At least I'm in good company... or so I'm led to believe by the sheer number of individual polish blogs out there! I check 60+ np blogs almost daily -- it doesn't take long, about 20 minutes total -- so I know mine will be but a drop in a pretty full bucket.

My hope for this blog though is modest. I hope to recruit at least two or three other academic/polish bloggers so there can be updates from at least one of us most days. I also hope to feature guest bloggers -- those whose blogs I enjoy and/or those I have happily killed time with on the Nail Board.

I'll have no say over what types of stories they will tell or what types of polishes they will feature. But for myself, I hope to be able to feature some under-represented brands (in addition to the usual suspects -- my preferred brand is still China Glaze!) as well as my frankens (both dupe attempts and originals) and my forays into nail art (Konad, marbling, foils, gradations, layering and who knows what else).

On the academic side of the blog, I hope to have people from different fields who are at different stages in their academic careers. I'm sure there will be plenty of the typical "mortifying advisor encounters" and "undergrads do the darndest things" but I hope that in between swatches and NOTDs I will be able to write about what to expect in the app process and what is entailed in pursuing a master's and/or doctorate. I will also be blogging about nifty stuff from my field, psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology. It will be a real hodge-podge and I hope the readership of this blog are the types who like hodge-podge.

I can't wait to really begin this blog with my newly formed Polish or Perish gang! If you are interested in blogging with us, please email us at polishorperish@gmail.com!

Blurple!

During the past winter quarter, I TA'ed for a psych of language course where students had to write a paper about how and why new words enter our lexicon. For this paper, they had to go about their lives with their ears open towards finding new words. The papers weren't fun to grade -- they rarely ever are -- but the words the students reported were often hilarious: sometimes the words themselves were clever and sometimes it was amazing that they had never heard certain words (I'm sorry -- "kosher" is not a new word! Also, "rhinoplasty"). My favorite one had to be "social not-working". I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

A neologism of MUA origin that I recently picked up is the term "blurple": it is used to describe that color that is purply blue or bluish purple. Now I've gone on a blurple rampage, except it's not actually too common a color of nail polish. At least, it isn't in my collection (and because of shipping costs and an impending Chinoiserie.net order, the lovely Clarins 209 will not be joining me anytime soon).

Anyway, in honor of the word "blurple", some blurples, both obtained for about $2 each.

Diamond Cosmetics Not Just A Hum Drum Plum (an example of a purply blue)

This polish is actually more purple than it appears in the photo. Early evening light was playing tricks on my camera. Three coats, easy application, striking color. $2 each for a normal-sized bottle of polish and this company is one of the few online polish retailers that I know of who don't charge an arm and a leg to ship 10 polishes.

I have a love-hate with Diamond Cosmetics polishes: they seem to be the new inexpensive darling but their application has been hit or miss in my experience (I've tried out about 18 of their polishes now). Metallic polishes and the more obvious shimmery polishes apply just fine (they usually do) and the dark cremes are very easy for me; the light cremes and those with subtle shimmer, however, seem to be goopy AND runny on me. But I also tend to apply thick second coats (because I have not yet learned that I'm a perpetual three-coater type and that if any coat should be thick, it should be the last one).

Sally Girl Your Majesty (an example of a bluish purple)

I was surprised at the quality of this polish: I mean, it was a cheapie impulse buy for $1.50 (or something like that) at the register at Sally Beauty but the color was stunning. To my pleasant surprise, it applied like a dream: it took three coats for maximum opacity and appeared to be a nice squishy jelly because of its super glossiness (it's really not jelly at all). The bottle is TINY though and the only bottle that I've ever had spontaneously explode was a Sally Girl bottle, which makes me wary of them: they do seem delicate.

my decision to apply to graduate school.

My decision to apply to graduate school was made quite simply. Somewhat simply. Alright, not that simply but it was a very simple statement that got me off my ass. I took two years off between college and my master's -- long story, will tell it some other time -- and every month from the time I graduated college to applying to grad school, I emailed this one professor (my Unofficial Advisor) repeatedly for advice. The exchanges went like this:

June

Me: I wanna go to grad school but I'm afraid of applying! Help!

UA: You should apply! You'd be great!

July

Me: I wanna go to grad school but I'm afraid of applying! Help!

UA: Oh, you've got nothing to be afraid of. You'll be great!

August

Me: I wanna go to grad school but I'm afraid of applying! Help!

UA: Don't worry so much. You'll be great!

And so on and so forth every month until the following July:

Me: I wanna go to grad school but I'm afraid of applying! Help!

UA: Seriously, apply this year.

August

Me: I wanna go to grad school but I'm afraid of applying! Help!

UA: Just suck it up and apply!!

[Her words. I still have the email somewhere.]

...so based on that sage advice, I decided to apply.

Orly Pixie Dust.

Just pretend like you don't see the dry and messy cuticles and the SV shrinkage. I will. Or rather, I'll try.

Orly Pixie Dust (in sun)

Orly Pixie Dust (in shade)

This is one of the newest Orly polishes from their Fall 2009 collection. I kinda ordered it on whim but it's actually quite pretty! It's this blue-grey that takes a couple of coats (the above is three coats) to be opaque but is suffused with tiny iridescent shimmers that appear silver in most lights. I resisted ordering Enchanted Forest (the green creme) but that resistance is breaking down... fast.