Hard Candy Mr. Wrong

I resisted this polish for months. Why? a) the cheap plastic ring that comes with the polishes; I felt like I was five years old again and at the dentist's office picking out my prize, b) Walmart's lighting sucks and didn't make this color look too pretty despite the great things I read about it online, c) it's $5...I get China Glaze at Sally for $4.49 (and online for $2-3).

One day after a particularly disappointing day of nail polish shopping at Wally World, I decided what the hell and bought Mr. Wrong.

Oh. my. god. I kinda hate myself for not getting this sooner. It's hot as hell. Foils are my favorite finish, and I love how multifaceted this polish is.






And that container (Yes to Carrots C Through the Dry Spell) I'm holding in the pictures? One of the best hand lotions I've used. I use it in conjunction with my other hand and nail moisturizers (CND Solar Oil, Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream), and it's great at sealing in the Solar Oil and Cutile Cream. Plus it makes my whole hand feel super soft.

An appreciation of Pure Ice

I love this brand. I really do. They're cheap ($1.50), come in a multitude of colors, and wear like iron on me.

Recently, my ghetto Walmart restocked their Pure Ice supply, and I got a bunch of my longtime Pure Ice lemmings.

Crappy iPhone picture, I know, but I never got around to taking a proper picture.


...one of the new Nicole mattes/suedes that is not related to this post, Heartbreaker, French Kiss, Kiss Me Here, and Strapless. Hah, notice a pattern in the polishes' names.

Heartbreaker is my current layering obsession. I put it on China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald last week, and it lightened up EF a lot (making it more green) and added a nice shimmer. A big FAIL for not taking pictures of this. At least I don't think I did; I need to go through my camera. French Kiss is the most gorgeous medium blue creme, and I've wanted Kiss Me Here ever since I heard it's dupeish for China Glaze Recycle. Plus I'm on this weird gray/taupe/greige obsession right now. And Strapless is a glitter, which you can never go wrong with.

Pure Ice also holds a special place in my heart for being my first ever coral polish that began my slight coral obsession. Here's a really old (and really bad) picture of Coral Reef -

My first ahhh-my-polish-refuses-to-dry chaos

I've heard stories of polishes that refuse to dry for whatever reason (mixing old and new polishes and top/base coats, too many coats, etc.), but I've never had that problem.

Until yesterday.

Until I decided to paint my nails a few hours before going to a concert without showering or getting ready beforehand.

I had selected a nice coral for the show (Arcade Fire, woo!), but since I was running late, I decided to borrow one of my mom's polishes, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Racey Rouge, thinking ohh yay, quick-drying polish. Not so much. My first mistake was putting a quick-dry topcoat on the color; I don't think that combination meshed well for whatever reason. Then, because I couldn't leave it alone, I grabbed Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure to layer on top...with two coats. This was my second mistake. My third mistake? Using quick-drying topcoat again.

At this point, I had seven layers of polish on. Seven layers that refused to dry. When I've gone layering happy in the past, I just use one of those aerosol sprays that dry your nails, but I didn't have it with me.

I sat around for THREE hours with wet/still dentable nails. The only thing I could do was take a blow dryer to them, which I don't normally do because it causes bubbling but at this point, I had wet nails, half an hour to shower and get ready, and Arcade Fire waiting. I was desperate. It worked somewhat; it got them dry enough to let me shower. My nails finally dried sometime during the opening act.

All the drying drama aside, my nails looked fab. They looked like little embers (hmm, wonder why I chose this mani for Arcade Fire). And I was quite proud of my polishing skills without any clean-up: I did a nearly perfect gap on my own without the help of acetone and a paintbrush. Actually, my gap-leaving skills have improved a lot over the past few months.

NOTD: Orly Lunar Eclipse + Sinful Colors Hottie

So I love nail polish; this love borderlines on obsession, but I figure there are worse vices to have (e.g. I'm not a crackhead). I also love literature. I love it so much I decided to major in English at college, and I've now decided I want to get my PhD and become a professor. The merging of my love for literature and my love for polish led to this blog's name. George Orwell is one of my favorite authors, and Animal Farm is one of my favorite books. I figured what better way to pay homage to my two favorite things in life than by using them both in a nail-polish blog. I intend to use this blog for nail polish, but don't be surprised when literature creeps in. Especially when companies have literary allusions in their polish names (I'm looking at you OPI).

Anyway, this is my current manicure - Orly Lunar Eclipse (from Cosmic FX) and Sinful Colors Hottie. I had Lunar Eclipse on for a day by itself and loved it (electric blue with pink and purple duochrome, sign me up), but like always, I got restless and felt the need to change it. So I did what I always do and slapped on a layer of glitter. And this is the result - little galaxies on my nails!

By the way, I'm aware of the tipwear on my middle nail and glitter on my skin, oops. I didn't realize the glitter was on my skin, but my camera did. :)