big apple red

I'm in the middle of keeping an updated inventory of each color group, and first and foremost is red - naturally. Sorry, I'll always be biased when it comes to red.

Tucked away in a corner of my cabinet was this beauty. It caught my eye and I painted my bare nails with it quickly.

Two smooth coats, no top coat. I did nothing all day but count my nail polish. Bliss. :D

aloha (the polish!)

One of the prettiest releases from last year was Dior's Electric Tropics Duo in the summer. Having been incognito (fun fact: that's the name of an ESSIE nail polish LOL) due to work, I didn't have any means to get Paradise or Aloha, but then I had a chance to go home for a weekend, and I snagged Paradise... but my heart was very much with Aloha. It was sold out everywhere, and I thought I would never see it in person. Dior counters refused to sell me their new tester bottles. Sigh.

Fast forward a few months, and I passed by my regular Dior counter a few days ago. Yes, there was the Aloha tester bottle, and like so many times that I have asked, they still put it on display even though it is sold out. Then also like so many times that I have asked, I asked the salesgirl if there were any left.

She said yes.

WHAT.

My eyes widened as she pulled out a new bottle of Aloha, sitting prettily in its box. I couldn't believe it - the sought-after neon orange was still available... wait, that can't be right. These bottles were flying off the shelves like hotcakes. How is it possible it was still around, MONTHS later?

"Is this a re-launch?" I asked. She didn't know.

Well, when I got home, I was surprised:

What is that you see? Why yes, my bottle of Aloha is not orange-tinted. It is a clear glass bottle. I flipped the bottom of the bottle - yep, the label reads ALOHA all right. Hmmm. Tedious research on the internet was fruitless. I couldn't find any answers to my question: did Aloha get re-released? Or was it added to the permanent line? (this seems unlikely, because Dior just announced their new lineup for their permanent nail polish range, and Aloha wasn't one of them.) So... did I get a fluke?

Anyway, on to the swatch.

Aloha went on like liquid silk. I really do love Dior's curved brush, making polish application seamless. I just had to press the brush down gently and swipe, no need to curve the brush and make turns. Genius!

Creamy neon orange goodness in two coats. I added a top coat of Seche Vite for the gloss. (NEON DRIES MATTE, PAM.)

Clear or tinted bottle, I love Aloha just the same. But Chief Pam from thePolish Police Station might want to look into this curious case. :D

aloha (hi, not the polish!)

I am BACK.

WHOA, you might say. It's been... SEVEN months?! Where have you been, Nikki?

I was away shooting a film. It was the hardest one I've done yet, and I was on location, away from home that entire time - and where I was, it was a lot harder to get in touch via the internet. BUT rest assured, I had my polish with me. Out of my collection of 500+, I brought with me 20 bottles. TWENTY!?! Yes, it was so hard to pick.

Anyway, life went on.

At first I was adamant about keeping my nails looking their best, during pre-production. I had my staples: NARS' Dovima, Essie's Lollipop, Jessica's Merlot... but as time passed and our shooting schedule got a little more crazy, it was evident that I had to sacrifice my manicure on set. Towards the end of the show, I had bare nails for an entire month, not even a base coat! D:

I know.

During this time, I had my bits and pieces of news from the nailworld, only from a handful of blogs, only a fraction of what I used to frequent. The internet connection where I stayed was so slow, I couldn't get all the lovely polish pictures to load if I tried. In harder times, I only ever visited Pammy and Sabrina. And very, very sparingly too. I was out of touch with the world of polish. I got sloppy with recognizing colors. I forgot what I had on my wishlist. Nail polish no longer became one of my joys. I forgot that I was a girl.

Then, the shoot wrapped. Like I said, life goes on.

A few days after I came back home, I opened my polish cabinet. Seven months, and all my polish... collecting dust. Untouched for more than half a year, the formula had separated in many of the bottles, the oils sitting neatly on top. Something strange happened when I looked at my collection.

The desire to cull.

Nooooooo! Trust me, I gasped as loud as you did. I found myself picking out bottles that have remained unopened when I first bought them, all those months ago. Colors that were still as vibrant and pretty as ever, on their own, but time away from life at home created a necessary purge that was actually - dare I say it - refreshing.

Out of my 500+ bottles, I culled more than 130; that's more than one-fifth of my entire collection!

And it felt good.

Most of them will be making their way to sales among friends who are also polish fiends, eager to give them new loving homes. A few very special bottles will be making their way to Pammy - I spent an entire hour going through her wishlist on her site while sitting in front of my cabinet. LOL. Oh Pam. Pajammy McPam. Pam, when I was too frustrated with work to think about anything else, sometimes the thought of her smiling face and goofy grin would cheer me right up, or knowing that somewhere far away, my polish twin was waiting for my return, that after all this harsh toll, we would once again go on our "secret missions" and exchange polish love with giggles and delight like children in sandboxes.

So tonight, I logged into this nail blog for the first time in seven months, and updated everything. Including a change in my blog name and blog address. After all this time and adventure, RED is my identity more than ever. Slowly I'm recovering from the toughest job I've ever done, and I take comfort knowing that I am still excited and crazy about nail polish, and that my colors will be right there with me through it.

What better way to celebrate coming back to the world of nail polish by sharing with you all that I have FINALLY OBTAINED my own bottle of Dior's Aloha? Yes I have.

That's another post, my dears.