You know it's the beginning of the end when...

...you start ordering nail polishes only available on other continents. I'm currently eagerly awaiting a Barry M order from the UK, a Skin Food eBay lot from South Korea, and a Face Shop swap from Singapore. I'm also trying to negotiate another Singapore swap for some Etude polishes. And I managed to sidestep shipping costs for the purchases, thank heavens. I wonder how much the Singapore swap(s) will cost...

It's also the beginning of the end when you start a blog that features nail polish. At least I'm in good company... or so I'm led to believe by the sheer number of individual polish blogs out there! I check 60+ np blogs almost daily -- it doesn't take long, about 20 minutes total -- so I know mine will be but a drop in a pretty full bucket.

My hope for this blog though is modest. I hope to recruit at least two or three other academic/polish bloggers so there can be updates from at least one of us most days. I also hope to feature guest bloggers -- those whose blogs I enjoy and/or those I have happily killed time with on the Nail Board.

I'll have no say over what types of stories they will tell or what types of polishes they will feature. But for myself, I hope to be able to feature some under-represented brands (in addition to the usual suspects -- my preferred brand is still China Glaze!) as well as my frankens (both dupe attempts and originals) and my forays into nail art (Konad, marbling, foils, gradations, layering and who knows what else).

On the academic side of the blog, I hope to have people from different fields who are at different stages in their academic careers. I'm sure there will be plenty of the typical "mortifying advisor encounters" and "undergrads do the darndest things" but I hope that in between swatches and NOTDs I will be able to write about what to expect in the app process and what is entailed in pursuing a master's and/or doctorate. I will also be blogging about nifty stuff from my field, psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology. It will be a real hodge-podge and I hope the readership of this blog are the types who like hodge-podge.

I can't wait to really begin this blog with my newly formed Polish or Perish gang! If you are interested in blogging with us, please email us at polishorperish@gmail.com!