Friday, I’m in Love…

IMG_8652

…with Essie’s Lilacism shade. And no, Essie is not paying me for this review, but I would love it if they did!

Essie is my brand. This ho is loyal. I even choose Essie gel shades when I go to nail salons. For years, I held food service jobs that forbade painted nails in the workplace. But now, more than ever, finally freed of that torture, I need my nails to be consistently on point—people grab my hand to check out my ring constantly! The *joys* of being newly engaged…

Lilacism is by far my favorite shade out of the 20 or so Essie polishes I’ve accumulated (runners up being Bikini So Teeny, Chinchilly, and Sand Tropez). It’s a “grown-up” purple—neutral enough to be professional, but still fun and funky. It’s a perfect pastel for spring and summer.

IMG_8653
I don’t think looking at this ring is ever going to get old…for me. I’m pretty sure everyone else in my social media-sphere wants to shoot me by now.

The odd thing about my obsession with this color is that I don’t even like the color purple. I’ve long found it completely obnoxious. Purple bridesmaids dresses, purple flowers, purple home décor—PASS! I don’t think there is a single purple item in my wardrobe. I’m all about pink, pastel blue, and mint, so it’s not that I don’t like traditionally “girly” colors. Purple just doesn’t really do it for my eyes and brain. That being said, this purple polish is so muted that even I, the purple-naysayer, find it completely aesthetically pleasing. It even makes for a pretty little tableau:

IMG_8651

What are your favorite Essie shades? Are there other polish brands worthy of my devotion?

Sound off in the comments!

-DellaBites

Old School Js Like Beyoncé’s Fiancé

Friday, I’m in love…with Etsy. I had seen this post on Pinterest which made me long for a Feyoncé shirt to call my own. Luckily, I located this shop that hooked me up with a great tank (it is July, after all).

Fiancé shirt, boyfriend jeans.
Fiancé shirt, boyfriend jeans.


The following photo, which was something of an outtake is the only one in which you can see my fakey-fake ring that I’ve been wearing to numb the pain of my real one not being back from the jeweler.

Mani is Essie's Lilacism. I want to write a love song to this nail polish.
Mani is Essie’s Lilacism. I want to write a love song to this nail polish.

The fake ring is kind of a wacky story. As a kid, I spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house. She and I are pretty close. One day, snooping through her jewelry box, I found this ring and snagged it, thinking it was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. I kept it for years, through various moves, truly thinking it was my grandmother’s engagement ring, deeply ashamed of having swiped it. My old job was located next to a jeweler—they tested the ring to discover that the diamond was a fake but the gold was real (although low-quality and not worth much). I developed theories about the ring. Was she given a fake? Was it a replica of her ring from the sixties? How did this fake engagement ring find its way into the back of a tiny drawer in my grandmother’s jewelry box?

When I finally got engaged for real, I went to tell the news to my grandmother. I decided it was a good time to come clean about my thievery at least a decade prior. Instead of being mad, she thought it was hilarious—apparently the ring had been my aunt’s…and no one had known that it wasn’t real! Drama! My aunt has been divorced for probably nearly 20 years, so it’s water under the bridge, but it’s still fascinating that this little bizarre artifact found its way into my hands. My grandmother laughed again and told my mother, “Imagine if she’d made off with a real diamond!” It was kind of a cute family moment.

My actual engagement ring is my mother’s from the nineties. We’re having the diamond reset into the ring (it was removed to be weighed & graded), and having the ring dipped by some sort of magic/alchemy to be white gold instead of yellow. It’s a marquise cut with tiny chip diamonds along the sides—my totally unique dream ring. But for now, I’ve got my fakey to help everything feel real.

In any case, thanks, Etsy, for making my engagement dreams come true, Mom, for saving her ring to pass down to me, and Grandma/Aunt Michelle for helping keep me sane while I wait for my ring for another week.

top/Etsy Tees Store, jeans/Banana Republic, cluth/Rebecca Minkoff, shoes/Seychelles
top/Etsy Tees Store, jeans/Banana Republic, cluth/Rebecca Minkoff, shoes/Seychelles