That's exactly what I'd call it if I had one

Today's quotation is an adapted line from the television show "2 Broke Girls." Some of you are already aware of my quest to find a nice pink nail polish. Well, I've succeeded. I picked up Essie's "Muchi, Muchi," the only thing is, when I looked online to try to figure out which collection this colour came from, I found something odd. I think this might be the same as another Essie shade called "Guchi Muchi Puchi," at least from what I've read and images I've seen. So call it what you will, but this is one gorgeous pink!

Essie's "Muchi, Muchi"

I also received my long awaited piano book in the mail today. Thank you, UPS man! Amazon played a nasty trick on me though; yesterday they changed the status of my order to say that it wasn't going to be shipped until the end of the month or early September. On the bright side, it was that much more exciting when I got it today because it felt like it came ahead of schedule!

Thanks again for the nail colour suggestions! Any other piano players in the house?

-C
P.S. These pictures do show the polish very true to shade.

A paperclip and pin and a tiny violin

This post's title is something a little different for me; instead of my usual novel quotation, I've used song lyrics. These lyrics come from "Clean" by the band Olenka and the Autumn Lovers, who I mentioned finding out about in my last post. Between reading, writing, and watching films, I've been quickly getting addicted to their brilliantly unique sound.

I've watched two amazing, and vastly different films over the past couple of days. The first of these is "Brick," a modern take on the '40s film noir, also categorized as "neo-noir." This movie is so far from anything I've ever seen before (anything current, because it is undeniably Hammett-esque) and it surprised me throughout at how well it worked. Going into it, I expected the hard-boiled detective speak to come off as forced and somewhat ridiculous. However, the language as well as the physical performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt were entirely and spellbindingly convincing. If you're a fan of classic films like "The Maltese Falcon" and/or JGL, I would heartily recommend this as a must-see movie.

The other film is one I mentioned taking out from the library over a week ago now (mentioned here): Roberto Rossellini's "Il Generale della Rovere." This is a serious Italian-language WWII film, but actually less violent than "Brick." The film stars Vittorio de Sica as a crafty Italian con man who finds himself in a tough spot when caught in his fraudulant act by the Gestapo. He is compelled to impersonate and enter prison as a valuable Italian general whom the Nazis have mistakenly killed. The film is all about "Il Generale"'s moral evolution from con man to a man of strength and conscience.

On the lighter side of things, I have a new NOTD to show you. As some of you may already know, I've been looking for a nice pale pink polish (read here) and finally managed to settle on Essie's "Fiji." However, the store where I planned to buy it were all out of this shade (and just this shade. . . of all the rotten luck!). Rather than traipsing all over town for one measly nail polish, I've used a darker, sparklier pink that I already owned.

"Rose Petals"

Are there any detective story lovers in the audience? Ever since I took an English course in Mystery and Detective Fiction, I've been looking for new recommendations as far as literature in the same genre.


-C

De nails

My, my, my, this post's title looks almost normal, doesn't it? That's because you're missing the necessary audio accompaniment. This very short quotation is derived, again, from Shakespeare's Henry V. In the scene from which it comes, the French princess, Catherine, is attempting to learn some basic English terms in case of a British takeover. Naturally, she opts for the most useful of words: naming the hand, the fingers, the nails, etc. Obviously I'm kidding about the practicality of studying the names of only a few physical attributes during a major military attack, but I thought that the focus on purely aesthetic qualities wasn't a terrible fit for a blog often centred around clothing and makeup. The real humour of the scene I've described is in Catherine's rough pronunciation of the English words she's taught. . . hence "de nails" instead of "the nails" (in both the Olivier and Branagh film versions of the play, "nails" is also said more like "niles"). Likely not the most politically correct interpretation of the French, but the whole point of the play was to make them look foolish and portray the English as the deserving victors. You can also tell that I'm not trying to insult anyone by proxy since Catherine's English likely sounds equally poor as my Italian when I speak it to my professor in class. I'm sure anyone who has taken grade 9 French can relate.

Now that we've wandered a sufficient distance down the Shakespeare trail, let me get back to the real topic of this post. Nail polish. We love to put it on, we hate to take it off, we pretty much want to maim or seriously injure (phrase cred to Dobby the house elf) anyone who causes it to come to any harm. I've had a love-hate relationship with my nails. They're strong and they grow very fast, which many people of lesser strength, short nails, will no doubt be envious of. The issue for me is that this rapid growth (that sounds a bit gross, actually) makes it difficult to text, play the piano, or accomplish other tasks for which the use of the actual finger pad is required. My solution has always been to just cut my nails as short as I could (without inflicting pain), but I also like to paint them and once they're cut that short, it becomes quite a trial. Getting nail polish all over the ends of your fingers is not a very fun time. Plus, you then have to get the polish remover out to fix everything up and the whole process ends up taking twice as long as you'd planned!

In an attempt to sidestep my previous issues with the clipping/painting of my nails, I've been letting them stay long for a little while, and I'm actually enjoying the change. The only thing now is that I've realized I need new polish. It's not that mine is incredibly old or anything, but I find that I tend to go back to my three favourite colours (Sephora by OPI's "Special Request" and "Opening Night," and China Glaze's "Midnight Kiss") time and again, and I'd really like to try something different. Below are a few of the polishes I'm currently considering. Have you tried any of these? Are there any colours you've been loving that you'd like to recommend (especially if you know of a nice light pink)?

Essie's "Flawless"

Essie's "A Shine of the Times"

Essie's "Mademoiselle"

OPI's "Italian Love Affair"

OPI's "Gouda Gouda Two Shoes"

Julep's "Hayden"

Butter London's "Knackered"

-C