the polished pedant

I like books and nail polish.

[polishedpedant]

Text: Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1658) Polish: Deborah Lippmann Superstar Finger burn: courtesy of a biscotti-making mishap last week. (I acquire my injuries in the most foppish ways.)

[polishedpedant]

Text: Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1658) Polish: Deborah Lippmann Superstar Finger burn: courtesy of a biscotti-making mishap last week. (I acquire my injuries in the most foppish ways.)

[onenailtorulethemall]

Day 17: Glitter Nails. With a mattified gradient (shock horror).

[polishedpedant]

Passed my exam, woooo! I'd celebrate with this manicure if I had the skills and patience. Instead, I'm going to order Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop, which I've been lusting after for months and months. Nothing says "time to write a dissertation prospectus" like an explosion of rainbow glitter.

[polishedpedant]

Date: Oct. 15, 2012 (DOWN TO THE WIRE, people)

Text: Marchamont Nedham, The Case of the Commonwealth Stated

Polish: Essie Geranium

[nailside]

Dark zigzag

[polishedpedant]

So cool.

[polishedpedant]

Date: October 9, 2012

Text: John Milton, Paradise Lost

Polish: OPI If You Moust You Moust

[polishedpedant]

Date: Oct. 7, 2012

Text: Stephen Greenblatt, Hamlet in Purgatory

Polish: Essie Sexy Divide

[polishedpedant]

Date: Oct. 6, 2012

Text: Harry Berger, Revisionary Play: Essays in the Spenserian Dynamics

Polish: Deborah Lippmann Cleopatra in New York. (This is a swatch from my local Bluemercury, hence the appearance of only one nail: I couldn't very well give myself a full manicure, though I wanted to. I should also note that Bluemercury is my happy place and I can cure my exam anxiety, if only for a moment, by trying on a dark-red lipstick and watching the light play on rows and rows of glittery nail polishes. And to think I didn't own any makeup until three years ago.)

[polishedpedant]

Date: September 22, 2012

Text: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)

Polish: Sally Hansen Black Out and Essie Set in Stones

(I have an exam date: Oct. 18! Also, I promise my fingers don't really look like wrinkled sausages. I have extremely unphotogenic hands--one of many reasons I'll never be a real beauty blogger.)

[polishedpedant]

Date: September 17, 2012

Text: Gerrard Winstanley, The Law of Freedom (1652)

Polish: Essie Sexy Divide

[polishedpedant]

Date: September 13, 2012

Text: John Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

Polish: Essie Chinchilly and Set in Stones

Likelihood that Milton is writhing in his grave in horror at being featured on a nail-polish blog: 100%

[polishedpedant]

Date: September 9, 2012

Text: Francis Bacon, Essays and Counsels Civil and Moral (1625)

Polish: Essie Lilacism (a present from my mom: thanks, mom)

[polishedpedant]

Date: September 6, 2012

Text: Albert Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn, Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature

Polish: Essie Lollipop (like Machiavelli, I refuse to mess with success)

[polishedpedant]

nail polish i can't bring myself to wear

-Anything frosted or shimmery (I love glitter, though).

-Any shade of green. I tried to get on the mint bandwagon this spring, but mint nail polish makes my fingers look red and nightmarish.

-Most shades of brown. Case in point: Essie's fall collection last year, ostensibly inspired by leather purses. You know what else is brown, Essie? Vomit.

-Bright orange. I know it's the color of the year, blah blah blah, but I just don't like it on myself. Orange-red is fine; screaming carrot orange is not. ESPECIALLY IF IT HAS SHIMMER. I will not shake the hand of anyone wearing shimmery orange nail polish.

-That '70s brownish pink that is inexplicably still around. Dress Me Up, from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection, comes to mind. No one in the Capitol would wear that. Come on.

[polishedpedant]

Date: August 28, 2012

Polish: Essie Chinchilly

Text: Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605)

[polishedpedant]

Date: August 25, 2012

Text: Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis (1627)

Polish: Essie Lollipop

(This is the best red polish ever. The application is flawless, it dries almost immediately, it's pretty much opaque in two coats, and it's the prettiest tomato red. It's also the only nail polish I've ever repurchased, if that says anything.)

[evachen212]

ready for fall! these new Essie shades are perfectly chic and I’d like a cashmere sweater in each color, please (Taken with Instagram)

[polishedpedant]

I hated Essie's fall shades last year (a full spectrum of vomit) and am not blown away by most of these, but I adore Recessionista, the plum one on the lower right.