Continuing On
Pearl River Mart had to move its flagship store again, due to another rent increase and problems from lockdown and rising anti-Asian bias affecting sales figures. They're now at 452 Broadway between Howard and Grand, returning to SoHo. I've long suggested Pearl River Mart as a fun and interesting place to visit during a trip in Manhattan.
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So, a while back, I noticed that wearing nail polish was making my hands and especially my fingertips hurt, something that got increasingly worse as last year went on. Although polish has been a part of my self-expression and decoration for decades--I can't wear rings for neurology reasons--I decided that maybe I just needed a detox. I took off my last coat of nail polish in the middle of December and didn't apply another. In March I tried a clearcoat from defy & Inspire, which is supposed to be free of all of the most toxic things nail polishes might have, on one nail on my right hand. The finger immediately got cold and soon the hand and arm to my elbow started to experience the deep ache I feel when I pet dogs or cats a bit and don't immediately wash my skin. It died down and went away after I removed the polish. A month later I tried Sally Hansen's Double Duty clear coat on one fingernail and experienced the same.
Crap.
I still wanted to decorate my nails though and thought maybe I could apply nail polish stickers, which surely wouldn't be nail polish directly on my nail surface and thus okay. Any brand that demanded I apply a base coat of nail polish beneath them I immediately eschewed. Color Street didn't have any designs I liked. I found some stuff from two brands on Amazon that looked good and had decent ratings. Today I applied one sheet from one of the brands, Torokom's "marble" nail art polish stickers.
It was a bit difficult, especially using my left hand to apply them to my right hand's nails. Some of them I should've streteched a bit more to fully fit my nails, and applying them to my nail surface somewhat awkwardly meant that there were some wrinkles here and there but the "marble" effect made that somewhat less obvious. This is how they turned out:
I applied them to all of my nails and was happy. For about 20 minutes. Then the deep ache started in my hands and went all the way to my elbows, and I was incredulous because really?!? At least it took longer this way, but I still couldn't keep them on while they were doing this. I peeled them off and then did many swipes with a non-acetone polish remover to try to get the remaining stick'em goo off but then I had to stop that because the remover made my nails and fingers start to feel a burning sensation. I know it's the nail stickers because the ache started dying down after I took them off.
I guess I am now super sensitive; temporarily or permanently, who knows?
I'm keeping the remaining the sheets because they're pretty and maybe someday I'll be good to use them. (And they're a much appreciated birthday gift.) I'm not trying the other brand right now because this might happen with them too.
Oh, and my fingertips occasionally hurt sometimes even when I'm not wearing any polish for months because why not.
I hope I don't have a bad reaction when I next try to dye my hair because goddammit.
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My root canal on Friday will get its own entry later. It went worse than I expected though not for the reasons I thought it would.
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I actually found two bits from Inside that weren't smote off of YouTube.
Bo Burnham's own channel has a vid of his "Welcome to the Internet." (Some NSFW moments, and a few small trigger warnings.)
A Netflix official channel has "FaceTime with My Mom (Tonight)," which isn't my favorite from the show but it's amusing (and sad) and shows some of the ways he plays with aspect ratios for effect.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.
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So, a while back, I noticed that wearing nail polish was making my hands and especially my fingertips hurt, something that got increasingly worse as last year went on. Although polish has been a part of my self-expression and decoration for decades--I can't wear rings for neurology reasons--I decided that maybe I just needed a detox. I took off my last coat of nail polish in the middle of December and didn't apply another. In March I tried a clearcoat from defy & Inspire, which is supposed to be free of all of the most toxic things nail polishes might have, on one nail on my right hand. The finger immediately got cold and soon the hand and arm to my elbow started to experience the deep ache I feel when I pet dogs or cats a bit and don't immediately wash my skin. It died down and went away after I removed the polish. A month later I tried Sally Hansen's Double Duty clear coat on one fingernail and experienced the same.
Crap.
I still wanted to decorate my nails though and thought maybe I could apply nail polish stickers, which surely wouldn't be nail polish directly on my nail surface and thus okay. Any brand that demanded I apply a base coat of nail polish beneath them I immediately eschewed. Color Street didn't have any designs I liked. I found some stuff from two brands on Amazon that looked good and had decent ratings. Today I applied one sheet from one of the brands, Torokom's "marble" nail art polish stickers.
It was a bit difficult, especially using my left hand to apply them to my right hand's nails. Some of them I should've streteched a bit more to fully fit my nails, and applying them to my nail surface somewhat awkwardly meant that there were some wrinkles here and there but the "marble" effect made that somewhat less obvious. This is how they turned out:
I applied them to all of my nails and was happy. For about 20 minutes. Then the deep ache started in my hands and went all the way to my elbows, and I was incredulous because really?!? At least it took longer this way, but I still couldn't keep them on while they were doing this. I peeled them off and then did many swipes with a non-acetone polish remover to try to get the remaining stick'em goo off but then I had to stop that because the remover made my nails and fingers start to feel a burning sensation. I know it's the nail stickers because the ache started dying down after I took them off.
I guess I am now super sensitive; temporarily or permanently, who knows?
I'm keeping the remaining the sheets because they're pretty and maybe someday I'll be good to use them. (And they're a much appreciated birthday gift.) I'm not trying the other brand right now because this might happen with them too.
Oh, and my fingertips occasionally hurt sometimes even when I'm not wearing any polish for months because why not.
I hope I don't have a bad reaction when I next try to dye my hair because goddammit.
+++
My root canal on Friday will get its own entry later. It went worse than I expected though not for the reasons I thought it would.
+++
I actually found two bits from Inside that weren't smote off of YouTube.
Bo Burnham's own channel has a vid of his "Welcome to the Internet." (Some NSFW moments, and a few small trigger warnings.)
Click to viewA Netflix official channel has "FaceTime with My Mom (Tonight)," which isn't my favorite from the show but it's amusing (and sad) and shows some of the ways he plays with aspect ratios for effect.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.