Nfu-Oh 556

It's a clearer, brighter version of China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway.
Three coats plus Diamont. Natural light (evening).

Nfu-Oh 569 + Nfu-Oh 39

I think I have a new favorite combo.

Tomorrow's polish today: Zoya Casey

Tonight, one of my favorite TV shows, Chuck, returns to what feels like every TV but mine. You see, for almost every show I watch that's still airing, I'm on streaming delay.

In honor of the S3 premiere, I'm wearing one of those polishes I own because it shares a name with a TV character I like, in this case, Zoya Casey in honor of Chuck's John Casey.

Casey's a deep, deep vampy brown with a plum tone to it. It's jelly-ish, though by the three coats it takes for even coverage, you lose a lot of the effect.

Zoya Casey: l - halogen; r - fluorescent

Casey is also super shiny. I had a hard time getting my camera to focus on it because of the glare off the finish, and that's before I put a top coat on it.

How to get through a no-buy month by shopping your stash (and starting a [second] polish blog)

So at some point, looking at my budget, looking at my overflowing fraternal twin Helmers, I decided that, after the holidays, no really, I was going to go on a no-buy. And, of course, start actually trying some of the many, many untrieds in the place.

After three days of that, and daily photos sent to my Tumblr (where I have been sending photos of my nails whenever I remember to do so for a while now), I realized, nope, that wasn't going to cut it. Too quick, too easy, too much time left to go drool at picspam over at the nailboard and "accidentally" make large online orders of polish that was just too good a deal to pass up.

So I'm going to try my hand (my left one, because it won the coin toss or drew the short straw) at actually blogging about polish for a while. And what better way to start than by talking about me and nail polish?

The first time I remember counting my polishes, I had over 100. That was 1998. I  hit 200+ before 1999, a polish volume that remained more or less constant for the better part of a decade.

And then I started reading nail polish blogs. And reading the Makeup Alley nail board. Suddenly, 200 polishes didn't seem like that many, and hey! If you stuck them in one of those Helmers everyone was talking about, they'd take up hardly any space at all.

I think I have over 500 polishes now. I had to get a second Helmer about six months after the first. My blue, green, and purple drawers are all stuffed to the gills, and my glitter drawer is getting there.

And speaking of purple...

Today's nails are Nfu-Oh 554, a stunning true purple jelly that photographs a lot bluer than it is in real life.

Nfu-Oh 554

Three coats to bottle color (the first two were a streaky mess), and it's worn fairly well on a day when I've been more than usually active. The formula is typically Nfu-Oh drippy, so I had a purple polish stigmata look going on for a while, but if you're more patient than I am and actually wipe your brush before you apply, you shouldn't have that problem.