And so it begins. The purpose of this blog is to 1) provide the reader with a candid opinion on varying shades and brands of nail polish and 2) provide the writer with a cathartic outlet. I am employed in an amazingly busy, stressful, male-dominated profession where the uniform is strict. I had really hit rock-bottom emotionally, feeling tired, burned out, androgynous and, let's be honest, not at all sexy (to my SO's -significant other's- frustration). I was at the grocery store when I noticed this loud, beautiful shade on the shelf and I thought, well, the only rule about nail polish at work is that, if it is worn, it cannot be chipped or cracked. So why not?
Now I have never worn nail polish. Ever. On my toes in the summer, maybe. But on my fingers? I don't think I ever did it even as a kid. Like ever. My job requires a lot of work with my hands, and I it just never occurred to me to wear nail polish because my few female co-workers don't do it.
But WOW. Can I just say how empowering it was to come to work with this gorgeous pink-lilac shade shouting from my fingertips? You ladies know how wearing bright red lipstick (a real no-no at my work) makes you feel instantly more bold, sexy and confident? This is the red lipstick of the nail world. It really knocked me out. I got some admiring comments and some not-so-discreet mockery, but there is no rule about nail color and so the staff can't do anything about it. Which made me feel rebellious and powerful. (I was the kind of teenager that thought rebellion was staying up until 10:30 at night.... purple nails are a HUGE step!)
Since then, I have varied my shade at least twice a week, for almost a month now. I am hard on my hands and manicures often start chipping after three or four days. When I do my nails, it is this magical hour twice a week that I take for myself, completely to myself, to listen to music and just relax. In my highly stressful world, it has been better than any therapy session- hence the title of this blog.
So here I am, pouring my heart out.
Anyway, let me tell you about this color. It is Flirt from Revlon, from my grocery store, for like $4. I stole the above picture from another blog because a) I forgot to take a picture of my own nails when I did it and b) of all the pictures I found online, this one seemed to be most accurate representation of the color.
I'm not sure how much experience y'all have had with Revlon nail polish, and it may be bourgeois of me to say this, but I ADORE this polish. The color is bold and gorgeous, it lasted a WEEK on my hands after only 2 coats and a top coat, dried in just a few minutes, and had the easiest and smoothest application ever. Highly recommend.
I hope to bring you a few more posts in the up-coming days, to get caught up on the colors and brands I've tried so far. Stay tuned, dear readers!
So this was my first venture into yellows! After much research, it seemed that "Pina Colada" would be right up my alley. A nice buttercup yellow, and $2.99 at the grocery store. Sweet! 
This was a little difficult to apply, but since I planned on doing polka dots (SO FUN!) with Essie "Turquoise and Caicos" anyway, it wasn't a big deal. Wearing it on its own would be difficult, since the brush strokes were pretty obvious. The best way to apply it, I found, was to do one thick coat rather than several thin coats, and then just wait for it to dry.
