I love nail polish. I have loved it since I was in 5th grade. In 7th grade, I remember it very clearly, was when the BLUE nail polish appeared. Blue nail polish? In the past (all 13 years of my life) I thought red was a big deal. Why?
My mother didn't wear nail polish and the only nail polish in our house was either clear or sheer peach. I remember the sheer peach because when I was 13 I spent about two hours painting my nails with it trying to get it to appear more vibrate. Instead, I ended up slightly high on the fumes and the polish never dried.
When I wanted to wear nail polish, my mother told me I could only wear pink. Little girls only wore pink. End of story. I couldn't wear red, blue or any other color under the rainbow only pink.
So I amassed the largest collection of pink known to man. When I was in 6th grade, I could wear a different color pink polish on a daily basis. So I did this and my nails turned yellow. Not a good idea.
In 7th grade, I had a party in the spring and my mother bought a pack of nail polish for party favors. They were all pink based of course. That summer, I bought white nail polish. My mom was rather leary of this, as I remember, nails are not naturally white (nor are holes in ones ears....hence why I didn't get my ears pierced till I was 14 and my mother didn't take me, my aunt did.) But I had white nail polish. I thought I was the coolest person in the world with white nail polish. Then one day, I discovered I could DYE the nail polish. With food coloring.
And then I had blue nail polish. It was light blue, it was powdery blue, it was gorgeous.
And I made a huge mess and got in trouble. But I had blue nail polish! And after this, I made purple, green, yellow, etc. And my mother lost control of my nail polish buying. Sometimes she'd put her two cents in (like when I wanted mocha, she told me brown sugar would suit my coloring better and she was right), but I had blues, greens, purples, corals, yellows, golds, oranges, etc. My mother even bought me orange nail polish once, to go with this orange outfit I had going for myself when I was 16.
By the time I left for college, I had over 100 bottles of various polishes. And I hadn't purged any since I was 13. So I purged. And went merrily on way to college to amass another collection.
I always seem to end up with the same colors though, various shades of pink and red. Seriously, I believe I have bought over my life time every shade offered by L'Oreal, Revlon and Maybelline. And shades of purple. Every time we move now, I go through my collection and purge out old shades and end up with a collection of very similar colors.
This past time, I tossed out almost everything except my favs and the OPI polishes I had. I had put my faith in OPI top coat and had branched out into OPI polish. I hadn't noticed much of a different between my beloved Revlon and OPI, in all honesty. My nails chipped at the same rate.
Also, as I got older, I didn't really wear much nail polish. At my first job, I did a lot of typing, so my nail polish never held up. After I was married, I didn't wear it often because my nails just seemed to chip more. So I only wore polish on my toes. In the Dirt Hole, my toes finally began to peel, gross I know. But they were so gross looking, I continued to put polish on them. Once I moved back to Chicago, I stopped wearing polish all together.
Until one day I was standing in Target, staring at the polishes. I bought some from Revlon, bright colors. The next day, I went back because my OPI top coat didn't open any more (it almost always would get stuck and only Pilot Boy could get it open). I was standing in front of the OPI section at Target. I picked up the OPI and stared at it. I then thought, "The NICOLE is cheaper. and made by OPI." So I picked it up. Then I saw it.
Randomly sitting in the almost empty stand of OPI and NICOLE polish: And Essie bottle.
I stared at it. I had heard all about Essie. I had seen a story on it on Sunday Morning. I had been reading By Hillary and knew all about it from there. I also knew that she swore the better the brand, the better the polish. Money mattered in nail polish. I stared at the Essie bottle. It was red. They only had red. It was the shade of red that looked great on me. I picked it up. It was the only bottle there. I wondered how it had gotten there, but it was there and I was the customer so I was buying it.
I thought maybe they wouldn't let me buy it, but they did. And then I wore it. And it was amazing! I was a convert to pricey polish.
When I arrived here I was pleased to see the Target carried a wide array of Essie polish. Then I found out about Seche Vite top coat. I wanted it. Badly. But no where around me carried it. So, I was like, "Maybe Target will restock the Essie supply and they'll have a top coat or something? Because I want to wear nail polish again. I'm getting my nails back in shape."
So I did, I bought some calcium gel stuff and began wearing that. Then, yesterday, I was in Target. Staring at the Essie colors they had. They were all various shade of pink and reds. Not what I wanted, but I had gotten some blues and green from Sephora with my last order, so I was just looking for a new top coat. I picked up the Essie top coat and was about to leave when I saw it. Sitting, all alone, a single bottle of seche vite. Seriously, just like the first bottle of Essie I had seen at Target, this bottle of seche vite top coat was just alone. The only bottle.
I grabbed it and ran.
I painted my nails while watching the Gilmore Girls. And they are lovely. They haven't chipped yet and they dried at top speed. They are lovely. I want more pricey nail polish, but tragically do not live in an area that it is readily available. But I'll get my mits on it one way or another.
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