Tag Archives: polish days

Polish Days: Sentimental Polish

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It’s Polish Days again and this time the theme is ‘Sentimental’ which kindly allows me to avoid subjecting anyone to yet further nail art attempts.

I initially struggled a bit with what to do for this month’s Polish Days as polish isn’t something I’m particularly sentimental about, owing largely to always being a terrible nail biter up until very recently and thus rarely ever wearing nail polish other than on my toes. I don’t have a polish for special occasions or a colour that I prefer for particular events. Sadly I’ve not been not chewing my nails long enough for those loves and preferences to develop.

So in the end I settled on a fairly simplistic but broad interpretation of the theme: the first polish I ever saw that made me want to wear something other than work appropriate pale beige and pinks on the hands, and a statement piece of jewellery that is very dear to my heart.

My sentimental polish is Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

I’ve described in earlier posts how I caught the nail polish bug. It was earlier this year. I was reading InStyle magazine and, being the January issue, they had the usual article reviewing the best make up and skin care products of the past year in various categories. For nail polish the recommendations were Essie Au Natural, Essie Wicked and Chanel Rouge Noir. So off I went googling images to see what these polishes looked like. Damn I should have stopped right there. Little did I know then that I, once a girl not given to spur of the moment online shopping, would fall wholeheartedly in love with all things nail polish and nail care related. That is how I discovered the world of nail polish blogging.

Initially I ordered a bunch of stuff from Trans Design, all of it either pink, red or beige to one degree or another. But through devouring several blogs from start to finish I came across what I now know to be ‘swatches’ of the most beautiful blue jelly and aqua green glitter polish by a brand that I had never heard of before. I’d never ever worn such a colour on my finger nails before but the gorgeousness of this polish sucked me in. It also didn’t hurt that the polish bore the same name as my favourite George Harrison song. So off I went searching for an online stockist that delivered to Australia. It took a little while but I eventually happened across a reference to Revolve Clothing as a stockist with international shipping – that was it, I was off. I ordered Across the Universe, Bad Romance and Ruby Red Slippers. To this day, Across the Universe remains my favourite Deborah Lippman polish.

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

It’s like staring into the ocean. *Le sigh*

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

And despite being a glitter, this isn’t one where you have to go fishing. With two or three normal layers the shimmer and depth of glitter builds up beautifully. These pics are three coats of Across the Universe between my usual base coat of OPI Matte Envy and Lilacquer’s Hong Kong Girl top coat. What’s even better is that this stuff doesn’t stain:)

Now for the bit that is my broad interpretation of this month’s Polish Days theme. I’ve seen a number of nail polish blogs lately featuring posts of polish paired with statement pieces of jewellery, particularly rings. Now I’m not a costume or statement piece kind of woman. I don’t own much jewellery at all. I wear the same small diamond stud earrings day in and day out and my engagement ring. That’s about it for me and jewellery. So beyond my engagement ring and a couple of rings my mother passed on to me I only have two other rings – a simple thick silver band that I bought at Camden Markets when I lived in London an age ago, and the ring my parents gave me when I graduated from university (the first time round) way back in 1994.

It’s my graduation ring that I wanted to feature with Across the Universe today.

My graduation ring and Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

It was made by a jeweller in Hobart, Tasmania, named Jong de Jong. Mr de Jong used to own a studio and art gallery up Mt Nelson near the matriculation college I attended. The ring was part of a collection he made called Derwent Rose. If you are familiar with Hobart, which I doubt you will be, Hobart is settled around the Derwent River.

My graduation ring – inscription ‘Graduation ’94′

My graduation ring and Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

The last time I visited the National Gallery of Australia I noticed that some of Jong de Jong’s pieces were in the collection there. I have no idea if he is still working and crafting these beautiful and unique pieces of jewellery but I sincerely hope he is.

This ring is incredibly special to me representing as it does the love and support of my parents, the marking of the achievement that was my law and arts degrees, my birthplace and the city that was my home for the first 23 years of my life.

I hope you don’t mind the liberty that I have taken with this month’s theme.


Polish Days – Polish Geometry

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Hullo.

Being (a) generally lazy, and (b) crap at nail art, has largely kept me out of Polish Days. It wasn’t because I hadn’t tried. I’ve twice attempted manis for previous Polish Days events. It was simply that on both occassions, to quote Mark Weber, I ran out of talent.

And my initial effort for today was awful too, a complete fail. But after chatting on Twitter with A Lacquered Affair, I thought I’d give it one more crack. And it’s far from perfect but well, who cares. I give you my first second attempt at a tapped mani.

OPI Deutsch you want me baby & Jade Fascinio Violeta

I didn’t mean for it to look quite so pentagram-ish. All a bit sinister and witchy-poo really. Or would if it weren’t bloody bright orange and holo purple. This is two coats of OPI Deutsch you want me baby because that’s what I happened to have on my nails already. Refer to first paragraph above re ‘lazy’. Having whacked on some tape I applied two coats of Jade Fascinio Violeta and then waited what felt like an age (but turned out to be not quite long enough) before attempting to remove the tape. Let that be a lesson to me. Patience is a virtue, particularly when it comes to nail art it would seem. Anyway, after only slightly buggering my index and middle finger nails in the tape removal process, I slapped on two coats of Gealous and a coat of Seche Vita.

OPI Deutsch you want me baby & Jade Fascinio Violeta

So this is my slightly wonky take on ‘Polish Geometry’. My take away from this exercise? Make sure your top colour polish is a quick drying, very opaque one coater.

I gather that Hannah’s Polish Days events are getting more and more participants each time so checking out all the participants’ posts is going to take a while but get cracking because there’s certainly been some very talented lacquerheads take part in pervious Polish Days.