The Evil Red

That’s a bit of a play on words (when is it not?) but also how I feel about this polish, one of those looks-can-be-deceiving troublemakers that simply does not play well with others. This is You’ve Got Red On You, a Shaun of the Dead-themed lacquer from Dollish Polish’s recently released Cult Movie Classics Collection. I want to love this polish SO MUCH, because I’m nothing if not a devoted Shaun of the Dead fan (not to mention a lover of glittery red nailstuffs) but it’s being needlessly cavalier with my affections. Formula-wise, it’s problematic, gooping up thickly on the brush and spreading out on my nails about as well as pie filling. Amazingly enough, neither one of those is a total deal breaker with me (high gloss topcoats eradicate nearly all nail sins; these nails are sporting one thick coat of Seche Vite to even out the bumpies) but in combination with its appearance on the nail – dark at my tips, light at my cuticles and lacking in any true visual depth – I’m unsold. Except for that part where I bought it, so actually, that would make it really rather sold! A miss, and a waste of a perfectly droll Shaun of the Dead quote.

There might also be a small lesson in here on why you shouldn’t buy polishes based on their cutesie names, but since I’m currently eyeing up a lime green holo that goes by the moniker Holiday Road, that’s obviously a lesson I’ve yet to learn! Um, do as I say, not as I do, friends? 😉

I Myself Am Strange and Unusual

Here’s a great example of a polish that’s more than the sum of its apparent parts thanks to a super cute name and a lovingly faithful recreation of a beloved movie character, in polished form! This is I Myself Am Strange and Unusual, a Beetlejuice-inspired lacquer from Dollish Polish’s recently released Cult Movie Classics Collection. The name comes from a declaration that gloomy goth girl Lydia Deetz loftily makes that she can see ghosts because, like the ghosts themselves, she is herself strange and unusual. The name is cute, and the polish itself is nice enough, although probably not something I’d buy were it not inspired by and named after one of my favourite movies. But the perfect touch on this polished sundae – the thing that takes it from a maybe-buy to a must-buy, particularly for Beetlejuice fans – is its flawless attention to detail in capturing Lydia’s general essence. The colour, for one, is perfect, a greyed-out periwinkle the colour of violently stormy skies shot through with glass shard glitter as brittle as Lydia herself. This polish also features a healthy scattering of plum and blue micro glitter, which in certain lights makes it look like the exact colour of Lydia’s bedroom walls. They’re little, but important, touches, particularly for fangirl types like me! 🙂