Anyway, since I like to post poppy reds for the holiday, here's one that came all the way from my favorite Canadian reader-slash-correspondent, Jess. She sent me a belated winter holiday package in January that was absolutely stuffed with so many things I cannot get here in the States ... such as this Joe Fresh polish. I have never set foot in a Joe Fresh clothing store in my life, although I remember when Canadian bloggers & MUA NBers would post them and I've been wanting to try some out for science ever since then. And sure, my Canadian readers probably are cracking up over me coveting polishes they can pick up at the grocery store (Loblaw's), but omg let me have my moment. Thanks, Jess, for slaying the lemming and enabling me! :)

Two coats with SV.





I have this thing where sometimes I don't wear reds like this for several months, but then when I put on one, I always wonder why I fall into that pattern because this is so lovely. In truth, I didn't think there would be much to this red because what else can there be, really? Well, I wasn't wrong ... but at the same time, I also kind of was. I also didn't know what to expect from Poppy because I wasn't pulling up much in the way of Joe Fresh polish reviews on Google.
I think Poppy is more of a neutral red on me, neither warm nor cool. The formula was pretty good, too, easy to work with and covered the nail opaquely in one coat! I did use two for these photos because piling on more seemed unnecessary, though I have to say I did play around with one nail and achieved bottle color with four coats -- it looks deeper and darker then, which led me to classify this Poppy as a jelly-creme finish that is slightly more creme than jelly, maybe a 70:30 ratio. The brush seemed a little stumpy to me, but it wasn't bad at all. Dry time was average with SV, but I kept smashing and denting my nails into things and it was kind of a disaster to get them to look okay after this photo sesh.
As of "press time," this polish goes into its fourth day of wear. Obviously I haven't removed it yet, but I'm going to assume it's a stainer because you'd be hard-pressed to find a red that isn't these days (plus I had to re-do a nail completely and had to bust out the Orly Cutique, ugh).
Despite the generally lovely things I've heard and read about Joe Fresh polishes, the one thing that kept coming up was how quickly they chipped. I was intrigued, seeing as everyone's body chemistry and base/top coat choices are different. Knowing I was going to be out of town this past weekend, I added a layer of Gelous before applying SV, since this combo has helped other polishes give me long weekend wear. Sadly, that did not have any effect on Poppy, because it chipped within 24 hours. I was pissed. By the third day of wear, four nails had chipped, and all I had done with my hands that would affect wear was (1) shower and (2) dig in my wallet/purse for my credit & Metro cards. NEGL, Hercules was me and I was Hercules.
However, I wouldn't call Poppy a complete failure because I really liked this red (wayyyy more than the last one I blogged for NYE!). Though -- I am HELLA curious to see what happens with my other Joe Fresh polishes now. We will see! Jess picked out some gorgeous JF colors for me, so you'll see at least one this summer. Thank you again, Jess! You rock.
Okay, speaking of summer ... I guess it's here now. I picked the best AND the worst weekend to go to D.C., because it was hot and humid AF and the metro started single tracking and there was a Nats game Friday night and Memorial Day weekend brought so. many. people. into the city. On Saturday, my girlfriend tossed around the idea of going to Right Proper for post-brunch beers, but it was so damn hot that beer, much like milk, would have been a bad choice. So we skipped it. (And although we had a patio brunch, my right arm wasn't totally in the shade, hence the sunburn. Sadface!) When Stephanie and I met up Saturday night, we even did a dessert bang-bang ("Louie" reference) with gelato AND ice cream because the heat was unbearable. It was pretty gross on Sunday, too, and the humidity finally gave way to rain less than two hours after I left Fairfax, where I had brunch with my high school best friend and another HS classmate. I would have liked to do more in the city while I was there, but as it is, I'm quite happy I was able to spend a little time with some of my favorite people. They do my heart good. :)
Here are 3 pics you've already seen on IG, but I liked them so much, I'll post them again, damn it.
I scored a Craigslist ticket for the Friday night performance of Garrison Keillor's last Wolf Trap weekend as host of "A Prairie Home Companion." I feel like he's been on at least three farewell tours prior to this one, but this one had a real air of finality to it. Super bittersweet. I will miss him. (GK is sitting to the right of the piano.) Getting to Wolf Trap was a disaster of epic proportions, which made this show extra meaningful and satisfying to me.
So I didn't even crop this photo properly when I regrammed it from Steff but this is from dessert bang-bang stop No. 1, Dolcezza. OMG it was so good. So good. And also, aren't we cute? (My fading lipstick is UD Menace, a.k.a. the best clearance lipstick purchase I've ever made. I hadn't touched it up since brunch or dinner that day!)
Out of the short D.C. wishlist I posted last week, Kramer's was the only place on that list I actually visited ... so it makes total sense that I didn't buy anything. I was super tempted, though -- Boy, Snow, Bird isn't listed as an ebook selection at the library and I have been wanting to read it since it came out. SOON.