Beauty: Would You Rather. . .

I haven't been up to too much today so I've decided that instead of not posting (boooring), I'm going to hijack this tag from Steph over on Bonjour Belle. Feel free to do it yourself if you're interested!

Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks, and lipglosses or lose all of your palettes and eyeshadows?
Mascara and eyeliner are really the only thing I use consistently, though I could care less about lipstick and gloss. I'm more of an eye makeup girl.

Would you rather chop off your hair or never be able to cut it again?
Easy, chop off my hair. . . since I basically already did! I just really hate the feeling of long hair. Something about it seriously weirds me out, and as much as I love my hair, it's not a love dependent on quantity.

Would you rather have a coral cheek or a pink cheek?
I prefer coral as a colour, but I'm not sure it would flatter me as well as pink does. Plus, I love the blush that I have right now (Sonia Kashuk beautifying blush in "Flamingo").

If you had $1000 (I'm not converting from pounds haha) to spend, would you rather buy clothes or makeup?
Definitely clothes. I don't tend to deviate an awful lot from the few specific makeup products I like, but I really love buying clothes!

Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner or eyeliner as lipstick?
Definitely eyeliner as lipstick, even if it had to be traditional liner colour like black or brown. I just couldn't stand the texture of lipstick on my eyelids. That would feel too awful.

Would you rather shop at MAC or Sephora?
Sephora. As much as I love certain products from MAC, Sephora would have (obviously) way more variety. . . and less expensive options.

Would you rather use only one eyeshadow colour or one lip colour for the rest of your life?
One lip colour. Like I said, I'm an eyeshadow girl.

Would you rather wear winter clothes in summer or summer clothes in winter?
This question is insane! I'd rather wear summer clothes in winter because I cannot stand being overheated.

Would you rather dark nails or bright nails all year round?
Dark nails! I usually gravitate towards the darkest colours (except for black) in any collection. Lighter colours are much more unusual for me.

Would you rather give up your favourite lip product or your favourite eye product?
Lip product. Eye makeup girl!

Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a ponytail or messy bun?
I can't do either of these with my hair haha but I'd pick ponytail.

Would you rather never being able to paint your nails again, or never using lipgloss?
I'm actually not a particularly huge fan of either of these. . . but I guess I'd go with no more nail painting. As problematic as many glosses are, my short hair pretty much makes them a non-issue.

Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all, or Sharpie them in every day?
In the interest of NOT applying a toxic marker to my face daily, I'd go with no eyebrows.

Would you rather live without makeup or without nail polish?
I'd way rather live without nail polish. Even when you take great pride in your nails, there's way less of a chance of people noticing them. That sounds like I'm going for vanity on this one, but I'm just speaking in a practical sense. Most people would likely rather use makeup in a way that makes them feel good about their appearance, and I don't see nails as a big contributor to that.

It's supposed to be fantastic weather here tomorrow, so I'll try to get an OOTD up!

-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