New Nail Polish

I have ALWAYS been a fan of nail polishes!
As a young girl, my mother subscribed to a faith that did not allow the wearing of cosmetics or nail polish (or slacks, or jewelery, or modern hair styles, or...). That faith worked for her, but as a fan of New Wave bands like Culture Club and Missing Persons it didn't work for me.

You mean Boy George is a boy?! All the better!

When my father married a cosmetologist in October of 87, every holiday spent with him was like an act of rebellion. I spent my days in the salons where she worked and played with the haircolor swatch rings, putting the samples up against my own hair (Level 5 Ash Brown, I discovered) and thinking of all the cool punk rock things I would do when I grew up. Punk would never die, after all... Not like disco!
His wife was also certified to do Tammy Taylor nails. Acrylic nails were the new hotness back then and not every salon offered manicuring services. Tammy Taylor was (and still IS in many ways) the best system available so as word got around that she used the best products, her reputation grew... And as her reputation grew, her collection of nail polish colours grew!

When I was younger, I could only paint my nails with my right hand. The boys I played "superhero" with would tease me and call that my "COOTIE HAND!" It was a bit of a duality - I only "had cooties" when I would do things outwardly girly. Otherwise, I was just one of the boys - except for that one hand.

Back then I would usually wear whatever my dad's wife had available. There were always beautiful reds but also shades like "Muted Wine", "Dusty Plum", and "Windswept Arbor". In other words, "mauve". There was also tanning beds in her salon (nothing I ever took part in) so she always kept around "California" colours like neons and pastels. I always gravitated toward neon pinks and various greens.
The mid-90's came and her design focus changed. She opened her own salon and put aside nails for styling people like Courtney Love and Beck. My tastes still leaned toward obnoxious nail colours though.  My mother and I finally came to an understanding on nail polish so I started buying from the Delia's catalogue and brands I could get at K-Mart like Street Gear and Jane.

As I grew up, I found the only thing that changed was my brands. I started wearing Orly, OPI, and Creative (now CND).  I would sometimes have to mix shades to get what I like but eventually my generation "grew up" and started making the decisions - like putting BLACK NAIL POLISH (3 shades, in fact) into OPI's fashion collection! For the first time, I didn't have to stock up at Halloween.
OPI continued the trend of previously avant-garde colours and the rest of the salon brands followed suit. Today, I can find most any shade I could ever dream of having....

And in fact, this week I found 5 shades I dreamed of having!

1) OPI Burlesque Collection; Sparkle-isicous (gold, red, pink, and blue sparkles)
2) OPI Burlesque Collection; Show It and Glow It (various pink and silver sparkles)
3) OPI Shrek Forever After Collection; Who the Shrek are You? (an intense chartreuse green)
4) OPI Coleccion Espana; Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow (dark, almost black, green)
5) China Glaze Rainbow of Hope; Ovarian Cancer/Four Leaf Clover (light blue-green)

Aren't they all just so interesting and beautiful?
I can't ever resist glitter nail polish. When I saw a preview this summer that OPI was doing a collection based off the movie Burlesque I was pretty excited. OPI polishes and strippers? Well that's gotta be a HOT collection. Then I found out that CHER was going to be in the movie and I just went over the moon. CHER?!??! I LOVE CHER!!!!! As always, these glitter polishes are a wonderful quality. They only needed 2 coats to get the coverage shown and dried as quickly as the other polishes.
Shrek and Aragon took me some convincing to buy. I have always loved green polish but I never get the coverage I expect. I loved every other colour in the Spanish Collection, but shied away from Aragon. I had a manicure at my favourite place in Indianapolis and decided on that colour and was not disappointed. It opened the door to not only add it in to my collection but to also try Shrek and the China Glaze Four Leaf Clover.
A "psychic" once told me that seafoam green is my "power colour". I'm not very sure what she meant, and she said that I would be stinkin' rich by now, but neither of those points detracts from the fact that Four Leaf Clover is one of the most lovely shades I've seen in a long time. And when you purchase any of the Rainbow of Hope colours, China Glaze will donate funds to cancer research organizations. Check out the shades - they are raising awareness for not only Breast Cancer (pink, of course) and Colon Cancer (brown, LOL) but also Male Breast Cancer (a lovely blue) and a very fall chic grey Brain Cancer.

I really love all these shades. I've gotten out of my usual practice of weekly polish changes. I'm hoping this new purchase reignites my passion for this simple accessory.