Polish Personals: Comfort Polish

Hello Lab Partners!

It's been a while since we've done a polish personals post, so I thought we'd have one today. This past week got me thinking about how I turn to certain polishes, namely Zoyas, when I'm feeling stressed, upset, or generally icky. I'm not sure why I turn specifically to Zoyas, other than they're the first brand I started seriously collecting. I had polishes from other brands before I ever had my first Zoya, but when I really got into polish, my Zoya collection is what grew fastest. Last weekend, I was having a wear-comfy-clothes-stay-inside-and-burn-gingerbread-candle kind of weekend. Gone was my lust for glitter or funky colors--I just wanted the comfort of Zoya Natalie on my fingers. Forget comfort food; just give me my comfort polish.

Zoya Natalie

So I'm curious--do you have a certain polish you turn to when you're feeling blah? Maybe a certain color family or a certain brand? If so, why do you think you turn to those polishes in particular?



Sending you lab love,

Allison

A Follow-Up to Your Comments on Our Last Giveaway

Hello Dear Readers--

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your wonderful comments and questions you submitted on the entry form for our last giveaway. We do read the comments carefully and take note of what you say. Here's what we learned:

• You liked the Spinal Tap theme (credit goes to Ace for that one!)
• Many of you are particularly fond of Zoya polishes. Good to know, as we have a lot of Zoyas! I tend to think of Zoya as my "comfort" polish. You know how people have comfort foods they turn to when they're feeling under the weather or have had a rough day? When it comes to nail polish, that's how Zoya is for me. Not that I only wear Zoyas when I'm feeling icky . . . but I do tend to go to them when I just want to curl up in jammies and lounge around my house, burning a gingerbread candle. Hmmm . . . sounds like a topic for a future Polish Personals, no?
• Some readers want to know how to get their polish to dry more quickly. We'll address that in a future post.

Two final points of note:

• There was a question on today's Mystery Mani Monday post about when we post the answer. Each week, shortly after 9pm Pacific (midnight Eastern time) we post the answer to the MMM both in the comments section of the MMM post and on our FB page.
• Would you like us to periodically feature a Q&A post? 

If you ever have questions or comments that you'd like us to address in a future post, please feel free to email us at thepolishlab@gmail.com. We can't promise that all questions will be turned into a post, but there's a good chance!

Thoughts? Please comment below! And as always, thank you for following us!

--Allison

Unicorn Puke, The Pope, and I

Happy Sunday, Lab Partners!

So what do Unicorn Puke, the Pope, and I have in common? Sounds like a bad joke, doesn't it? But it's not. Answer: We were all at Buca di Beppo having lunch yesterday, along with some other polish and beauty bloggers . . . and some non-blogging polish addicts, as well. Okay, so it wasn't really the Pope. Not the Pope. It was this one:

The "Pope" blessing our nail polish. Or at least the Pope's head.

So there's one mystery solved--you now know what the Pope and I did yesterday. But where does Unicorn Puke fit into this picture? Well, this whole shindig was arranged by none other than the lovely Maria, from Cult Nails, who presented me with--angles sing--the Unicorn Puke I bought on pre-sale! Let's gaze at it's loveliness, shall we?

Cult Nails Unicorn Puke, bottle 66 of 275

So what do a bunch of polish addicts bring to lunch? Sounds like another bad joke, I know. Answer: polishes to trade, of course! Boxes and boxes of polish.

A sampling of boxes and bags filled with nail polish after nail polish

 

We ate, we  dug through boxes of polishes in an all-out polish frenzy (we left some behind for the servers, by the way), we laughed, and we dug through more boxes of polishes. Oh, and we took photos!

Left: Stephani from Imperfectly Painted. Right: Kari from Once Bitten (look at Kari's awesome hair!)

The whole gang! That's me in the back row, far left (look for the red hair!)

It was so nice meeting some of these bloggers I've been following, and meeting new (to me) bloggers and friends. I was surprised to learn that several other bloggers live quite near me (who would've guessed that Kari from Once Bitten and I shop at the same grocery store?!).



After lunch, we headed to Lush and Sephora, where I managed to restrain myself from purchasing Illamasqua Veridian, my number one lemming. I confined myself to gazing longingly at it. It was while at Sephora that Maria showed us her nails, painted with Cult Nails Mind Control from the upcoming  winter collection. I promise you that the pictures on Maria's blog, R3Daily, do not capture the full awesomeness of this polish. When Maria held her hand next to a grey top, the polish appeared a very dark--almost black--grey. Next to other colors, the purple and pink dominate.

I came home full from baked ziti, loaded with polish scavenged from my fellow polish lovers, and longing for Cult Nails winter collection. And yes, I also came home the proud owner of my very own Unicorn Puke, which undoubtedly received the blessing of bodiless pope.

Until next time, sending you lab love!

Allison

Polish Personals: Reflections on Perfection

Good day Lab Partners.

One of our aims here at The Polish Lab is to generate discussion among our followers on various nail polish topics that go beyond the scope of paint, swatch, and review. It is the interplay of differing perspectives that is our largest experiment. With this aim in mind, I'm asking you to think of perfection as it applies to manicures.

I find it refreshing when I see a photo of a mani in which there's a little smudge here or an errant dot of polish there. I'm not speaking of a mani that was applied with obvious carelessness, but one which--despite the wearers best efforts--fell slightly short of perfection. For me, such imperfections are reminders that I'm looking at the hands of a real human. Someone to whom, like me, life and all its inconveniences and messiness happens. Those imperfections preserve the human connection between me and the owner of those painted tips. I find this connection comforting in some way. Yet I want my own manis to be as close to perfection as possible, failing to see their imperfections in the same endearing light.


What about you, readers? How do you feel about the less-than-perfect mani? Do you demand perfection from every mani--whether yours or someone else's? Or do you find yourself appreciating the human element that reveals itself in flaws, the flaws that let the light get in?

We hope you will choose not only to share your comments and experiences, either here or on our FB page, but also to engage in thoughtful discussion with others who comment. To repeat my earlier statement, it is the interplay of differing perspectives that is our greatest experiment.