Monday, March 29, 2010

"The Corpse Look": Essie Great Expectations

It took me four manicure-fails this weekend until I finally put on a polish that worked. I've never tried on so many colours that legit didn't work for me before!! I kind of wanted to show you the fails, but I didn't want keep them on long enough for it to be light out. (That bad. Really.) After so many disappointments I had to go to a colour that worked - my hubby was visiting this weekend and I know it was kind of annoying him that I redid my nails three times...

My sure bet was Essie Great Expectations:




I got this puppy for 70 cents at Ulta on clearance (not my Ulta, but the way more awesome one that is far away). I'm finding more and more that I either gravitate towards dark vampy colours or super light colours. I seem to struggle with the middle range, especially non-neutrals in the middle range. These light polishes yield what my mother calls "the corpse look" - but I think it works for me! I have a lot of colours in the corpse-genre and they are my fail-safes. If nothing is working and I don't know what to wear, the super-pale, but not-quite-natural colours seem to go with everything, and don't leave me completely bored.

Great Expectations is a virtual dupe to OPI Moon Over Mumbai - it's a soft grey with a very subtle amount of shimmer. (Definitely not enough to the point where you look at it and think "shimmer polish!") This pulls slightly purple on me (what doesn't?) but I think it is because I used Barielle Nail Camouflage underneath it instead of a white basecoat. The effect is a semi-sheer (but opaque in 3 coats) finish that looks like a thin layer of porcelain was laid over your nails - delicate and pretty.

The other advantage of super-pale polishes? My lab-mates don't seem to notice if I change my polish colour so as long as I keep it in "the corpse look" category, I can change my polish as often as I want and not have it pointed out in a condescending fashion! Bonus!

Not shabby for 70 cents - not shabby at all.

Do you guys rock "the corpse look"? Am I just morbid?

kittytokaren