Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Today's NOTD (Zoya Gaia) and manifestation of OCD (poster design)

I'm trying REALLY hard not to be a perfectionist. But I'm being driven crazy by my little "experiment"... and my actual experiment.

I'm playing with Zoya Armor/Anchor to figure out whether Zoya and I can coexist peacefully. I recently received my Zoya Exchange loot, which included one of my favorite polishes, Zoya Gaia. I had swapped away Gaia long ago because Zoyas just don't stay put on my nails... and I had been pining for it ever since. I think it's an absolutely stunning color, for all that it needs to be built up. A lot. But then I decided to give Armor/Anchor a shot because Zoya really does have some very pretty polishes and a lot of good promotional deals.

What do I get in exchange for my good faith? BUBBLE HELL.

Zoya Gaia


Such a clean and pretty polish. Sheer milk white with peachy gold microshimmer. I mean, this is elegance and loveliness in a bottle. I didn't even mind that it took me five coats to get it to be unstreaky. (Okay, I minded a little bit but not that much.) I didn't even mind when two big bubbles popped up in the first few hours. Fine. Bubbles happen when you use five coats of polish. But then I went to bed and the next morning, BUBBLES BUBBLES EVERYWHERE.

Close-up of Gaia
Check out that shimmer! And check out those bubbles! Gah.

Because I'm trying to figure out whether Anchor/Armor is really good at making my polish last, I'm trying to keep this mani on for a few days to see if it I've just been using the wrong base- and topcoat all this time. Besides, I have little time to change polish today. But the bubbles are really exasperating and I just want a new mani. Now.

If that weren't enough to drive me nutty, my labmate with whom I am coauthoring the poster I'm presenting at APS next weekend just sent her revisions back to me... and it messed up the formatting of the Microsoft PowerPoint file, which means I have to go back and reformat the entire thing. Do you know how many hours I originally spent trying to get every single little thing aligned perfectly? Centered perfectly? How many hours I'm going to devote to this now? No one really is going to notice these little details except me but as long as I have control of the design of this thing, I want it to be perfect. Except I don't have enough time to make it perfect. Hence, the crazy-making.

BTW, BeautySak is having 20% off your entire order with code BSAK20% (and free shipping over $50). Time to buy those Lippmanns and RBLs you've had your eye on...