Blurple!

During the past winter quarter, I TA'ed for a psych of language course where students had to write a paper about how and why new words enter our lexicon. For this paper, they had to go about their lives with their ears open towards finding new words. The papers weren't fun to grade -- they rarely ever are -- but the words the students reported were often hilarious: sometimes the words themselves were clever and sometimes it was amazing that they had never heard certain words (I'm sorry -- "kosher" is not a new word! Also, "rhinoplasty"). My favorite one had to be "social not-working". I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

A neologism of MUA origin that I recently picked up is the term "blurple": it is used to describe that color that is purply blue or bluish purple. Now I've gone on a blurple rampage, except it's not actually too common a color of nail polish. At least, it isn't in my collection (and because of shipping costs and an impending Chinoiserie.net order, the lovely Clarins 209 will not be joining me anytime soon).

Anyway, in honor of the word "blurple", some blurples, both obtained for about $2 each.

Diamond Cosmetics Not Just A Hum Drum Plum (an example of a purply blue)

This polish is actually more purple than it appears in the photo. Early evening light was playing tricks on my camera. Three coats, easy application, striking color. $2 each for a normal-sized bottle of polish and this company is one of the few online polish retailers that I know of who don't charge an arm and a leg to ship 10 polishes.

I have a love-hate with Diamond Cosmetics polishes: they seem to be the new inexpensive darling but their application has been hit or miss in my experience (I've tried out about 18 of their polishes now). Metallic polishes and the more obvious shimmery polishes apply just fine (they usually do) and the dark cremes are very easy for me; the light cremes and those with subtle shimmer, however, seem to be goopy AND runny on me. But I also tend to apply thick second coats (because I have not yet learned that I'm a perpetual three-coater type and that if any coat should be thick, it should be the last one).

Sally Girl Your Majesty (an example of a bluish purple)

I was surprised at the quality of this polish: I mean, it was a cheapie impulse buy for $1.50 (or something like that) at the register at Sally Beauty but the color was stunning. To my pleasant surprise, it applied like a dream: it took three coats for maximum opacity and appeared to be a nice squishy jelly because of its super glossiness (it's really not jelly at all). The bottle is TINY though and the only bottle that I've ever had spontaneously explode was a Sally Girl bottle, which makes me wary of them: they do seem delicate.