Gaga Greige - Essie Master Plan

No greige collection would be complete without Essie Master Plan. I've worn it before I just didn't take pictures of it at the time - it's one of my favorites. It's a really surprising polish - I remember when I first looked at it, I thought, no, this is just your average light tan. But when you put it next to light Caucasian skin, something magic happens! It does look tan in some lights, including apparently the one in which I took these photos, but the contrast of the grey, purple, and tan next to the pink in my skin is dramatic and interesting while being the same general shade. In other lights, the purple really comes out, which is the hallmark of a real "greige" IMO. 

Essie Tart Deco and a bit of nail art for fall

There's no doubt Essie Tart Deco is a staple. Coral is one of those colors I have many of, and this is definitely one of the best, if not my favorite. It's bright but also dark as corals go, a really rich and vibrant hue. Plus it's Essie, which actually dries properly without a topcoat and won't imprint on your clothes or sheets the same night. I didn't take comparison photos (yet) but it seems most similar to the rich shade I liked of Covergirl Coy Coral, but with a better formula.

Orly Seagurl and a rose

This was actually one of those polishes I was considering whether to get rid of, so I wore it - and fell in love with it again. Orly Seagurl is kind of a must-have, because it's both a really great version of dark silver, which should really be in everyone's color palette, and it's a really nice metallic shimmer with a fascinating tan/burnished/bronzey tone hiding in the silver. For like the first day I wore it, I felt like it was just a cool silver shimmer, but the warmth in the tones came out the longer I wore it, and I really started to enjoy it as a unique color.

The Lilacism phenomenon - that weird thing with Essie's lavenders

Guess what? The polish I'm wearing and the bottle in this photo are BOTH Essie Lilacism.

Essie Where's My Chauffeur?

This is one of my favorite polishes of all time. Essie Where's My Chauffeur? is a gorgeous deep turquoise. If I had to pick only one of Essie's turquoise/teal shades, it would be this one. It's also one of those great Essie formulas that really does only need 2 coats, and no top coat to dry without getting sheet prints that night (it seems to be properly dry, so it won't dent or imprint, in a few hours as opposed to the next day). I love this perfectly intense blue-green - it looks green in some lights, blue in others, and is fun to look at next to a variety of other colors. 

Nicola Tyson

An artist I'm obsessed with right now: Nicola Tyson. I fell in love with one picture in February's Art in America and off I went. I'm especially into her pencil drawings; something about the textures and both delicate and hard lines, plus the amazing abstract/anthropomorphic shapes is just fascinating!

    

An artist's favorite car designs

I'm not a gearhead by any means - I barely understand how a combustion engine works, or the difference between corporation, make, and model. But recently got interested in pinning down my favorites. So this is an artist's take on cars - the pure aesthetics of car design throughout the years (a lot of my favorites are the classic 60s and 70s models)

I meant to write more, but I found this draft and decided it was worth posting as is. As you can see, a lot of them are favorites from movies, which is the primary way I end up seeing neat car designs, and and others are just favorites from my random browsing of car designs throughout history. I think it's interesting how car designs come to have a certain "personality," and say something about their drivers - which is on reason they're great for the movies, not only to play out the gearhead fantasy, but to build a character: you get a surprising amount of impression about a character, baddie or good guy, from their "signature" car alone.