July | 2010 | Polish Police 2010 July | because bad nail polish is a crime against humanity

July, 2010

MUG SHOT: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue

July 30, 2010 by pam

The truth is I thought about not blogging about this manicure.

I love Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue so much, have lusted over it for months and rejoiced like crazy when Awesome Ashley sent it to me as a surprise during our first swap, and I feel that this stupid mani just doesn’t do it justice.

But then I realized, now is my chance to write about bad manicures.

As polish junkies in the Philippines, we are lucky to live in a place that gives us access to affordable manicures, pedicures and other nail treatments. You can find women who will do your nails for as low as a dollar or two, spas that offer manicures and pedicures for five dollars.

But while this gives us a reason to rejoice, this also means we need to be extra cautious. A lot of our manicurists aren’t real nail technicians, many fly by night spas do not sterilize their tools.

I have nothing against manikyuristas trying to make a living. A number of them are pretty good – like Nelia. I love Nelia and I will always love her but we had to say our goodbyes when I moved houses. I’ve never found a girl as good as Nelia. And my nails have never looked as good as they did when she was the one doing them.

My point is that we have to take care of our own nails – because no one else would do it for us. We owe it to our nails to protect them from ingrowns, from cuticle abuse, from infections, from bad manicures and pedicures.

That’s exactly what I failed to do last Monday. And until now, I still feel like apologizing to my poor nails.

I spent the weekend reading Ji Baek’s Rescue Your Nails and I have declared that book as my new bible. Every polish fanatic – actually, everyone, polish fanatic or not – should read it.

Inspired by Ji, I kept moisturizing my cuticles the entire weekend, treating them to generous amounts of Lemony Flutter. My nails – and my cuticles – looked good. Healthy, super healthy.

My MAC On The Prowl had finally chipped (after eight crazy days!), my nails were bare and I was ready for a fresh coat of polish.

My week was going to be crazy busy – I had deadlines, meetings, cupcake orders, Cats gala night, pages to close, a trip to Davao – my only chance to get my nails done was Monday night.

Jill and I didn’t get the chance to go to our favorite nail place so she decided to call a nearby spa for home service. They sent two people over.

The thing is, I thought about doing my own nails this week. Yes, I was that inspired by Ji. But then I thought, if I can get a professional to do it – why not?

Unfortunately, the girls sent by that damn spa were not professionals.

I watched the girl doing my pedicure like a hawk, making sure she just cut my nails straight across.

When she started my manicure, the girl scraped my nails with the cuticle pusher. I normally enjoy this part of the manicure but not this time. Gentle was not in her vocabulary, she actually made me wince.

I told the girl not to cut my cuticles and she nodded so I thought she understood what I meant. But she attacked the skin around my nails with a nipper anyway. When I told her again not to cut my cuticles, she nodded again. At that point, I already felt pain in my left ring finger.

My nails were uneven too – some were longer than the others.

And oh my god, when she started applying the polish on my left hand, I couldn’t believe my eyes. She applied polish so fast, not pausing between coats and not caring that there were major streaks and that cuticle drags had appeared. She didn’t even make sure that my whole nails were covered. I tried pointing out the streaks to her – very patiently, let me stress.

She had to redo one nail and I’m pretty sure she was annoyed.

And when she started applying polish to my right hand, I was silenced. I sat there, frozen to my seat, as I watched her spread one thick coat of polish on my nails. One thick coat so she wouldn’t need to do two coats or three. One thick coat because she was in a hurry to finish.

I swear, at that point I just felt like asking her to leave.

But I didn’t. I just gritted my teeth and paid her.

Their spa charges a measly P150 for a mani-pedi. I have paid and would gladly pay much more than that for good service.

Jill, who is excellent at doing her own nails, did not have a better experience. The girl who did her nails didn’t know how to use a nail cutter properly. Her nails were uneven and one was cut so short that it actually hurt.

After the girls left, I inspected the damage. My polish was a mess, my cuticles looked sad. My left ring finger still hurt. The skin around my nails looked and felt raw. My nails and cuticles looked far from healthy.

I tried to salvage the manicure, reapplying the polish on a couple of my nails but I felt that my nails had gone through enough trauma for the night so I left most of them alone.

I swear, I actually apologized to my nails and cuticles.

Because the polish had been applied so thickly, it didn’t dry completely. When I woke up the next morning, my polish was full of tiny little dents made by my hair while I was asleep.

Again, I love Pacific Blue, have gotten a ton of compliments on this color (it is a very bright cornflower blue – brighter than this picture shows) but I really don’t love this manicure.

We are never calling that spa again (actually we want to call – but only to complain). I wish this country actually had a regulation board for spas. It seems like anyone with a tiny dark space and a handful of uniformed women feel like they have the right to call their place a spa.

But until something is done about this, there’s nothing we can do but make smart choices. And do what we can to combat crimes against our nails.

Pacific Blue and I will have another chance – and next time I’ll make sure to find a spa and a girl who will treat my nails and cuticles with the care they deserve.

Category mug shot | Tags: bad manicures,crime,pacific blue,pedicures,sally hansen,xtreme wear | 20 Comments
HEADQUARTERS: The shopping guide is up

July 26, 2010 by pam

It’s no secret.

I’m good at shopping.

I’m so good that sometimes, when I travel, my shopping boxes arrive even before I get to my destination. There is nothing lovelier than walking into a hotel room already full of stuff you bought. You feel instantly at home.

But I digress.

The point is the polish. And the point is people constantly ask me where I buy my beloved bottles. So I finally spent Sunday putting together a shopping guide for all you crazy polish lovers living in Manila.

This is nowhere near done but it’s a start. Expect continuous updates as days go by – more brands, more places, more shopping.

The Philippines is actually a gold mine for great polish – if you know where to look. We moan about the lack of access to some brands we covet but a lot of great brands from around the world are within easy reach and at good prices too! Think of Polish Police’s Where To Buy section as your treasure map.

And if you have stuff you want to add to the guide, feel free to let me know.

Ready, set, shop!

Category headquarters | Tags: manila,philippines,shopping,shopping guide,where to buy | 2 Comments
POLICE FILES: Goodies from James and Tals

July 25, 2010 by pam

I met James because of work but he has become more than just someone I work with. He is younger than most of us so we think of him as our kid. I love this boy, I really do and while he is almost a decade younger than I am, he is infinitely smarter than me. He is Genius Boy and he makes me proud every day.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with polish. Read on.

Last month, James flew to Europe to attend a film festival. He also went to the US for a bit to spend time with his relatives there. He asked me if there was anything I wanted him to get for me. Naturally, my answer was polish.

I asked him to check Sephora for my longtime lemmings. If he didn’t find anything in Sephora, I told him any drugstore polish from Europe would be great. “Don’t kill me for asking you to do such a girly thing,” I told him.

But you know what he said?

“Actually I was already thinking about buying you random drugstore polishes for fun!”

James isn’t just Genius Boy, he’s also Super Sweet Boy.

So James went to the US and went to Spain, Italy and Switzerland and he came home with goodies for me.

He found three of my Sephora lemmings.

Pretty, pretty, pretty.

I can’t decide which one to use first.

Sephora by OPI Metro Chic

Sephora by OPI Dark Room

And the crazy Sephora by OPI Mermaid To Order.

These were his drugstore finds from Switzerland and Italy.

A really bright blue.

Yes, it’s super bright.

A lovely purple.

And this killer gray-black.

James also met up with Tals who I also love and who now lives in Madrid. She sent goodies for me too, including this burgundy polish.

It feels like Christmas, it really does.

Category police files | Tags: black,blue,drugstore,friends,gray,green,italy,james,nail polish,purple,sephora,sephora by opi,shimmer,spain,switzerland,tals,teal | 8 Comments
MUG SHOT: MAC On The Prowl, day 6

July 24, 2010 by pam

Dude, this kitty has nine lives.

I updated my original MAC On The Prowl post to show how my On The Prowl mani still had no chips even after four days.

But this deserves a new post altogether. Because after six days, my MAC On The Prowl mani? Still no chips. Zero. Nada.

Look:

Amazing.

Last night, I was telling my friends about this crazy mani and they said, that’s gonna end tonight.

Oh yeah, I said, because we were going to spend hours in the kitchen baking and baking sessions always wreak havoc on my nails.

But guess what? We spent four hours in the kitchen, baked three different kinds of cupcakes and my mani is still intact. There’s a teeny tiny chip on my left thumbnail but it’s so tiny you can’t even see it unless you look really closely.

Now I’m wondering if my nail girl used Epoxy as my top coat.

I’m torn. I am madly in love with this color (and people are too, judging by the number of compliments I’ve gotten while wearing it) but half of me that wants a fresh coat of polish. But then my other half just wants to find out how long this baby will last.

We’ll see.

Category mug shot | Tags: crazy,gray,hello kitty,love,mac,mac on the prowl,nail polish | 11 Comments
POLICE FILES: Meet nail queen Sophy Robson

July 23, 2010 by pam

My feature on super cool Sophy Robson came out in the paper today:

Here’s a link to the online version.

And here’s the text with more photos and the full interview:

ALL HAIL THE NAIL QUEEN

By Pam Pastor

They call her nail queen.

But Sophy Robson didn’t set out to be London’s hottest manicurist, the woman fashion magazines and hot designers turn to when they want eye-popping nail art and unbelievably clean manicures and pedicures to grace their pages and the catwalk.

If the young Sophy could have chosen what kind of royalty she would be, there’s no doubt she would have gone for something else entirely – hip-hop. “I was really into music and a real tomboy when I was younger. I worked in a record shop called Blackmarket.”

Amazing nails

Sophy may have been a hip-hop DJ but even that early, nails were slowly becoming part of her world. “The hip-hop look was about accessories… hair, shoes, bags, earrings, nails. There was a hip-hop magazine called The Source where I always looked at the nails. A lot of the artists I was into – SWV, Roxanne Shante, Lil Kim – had really long amazing nails. I became obsessed with doing a French manicure on myself as there weren’t many salons you could get your nails done then.”

It was the birth of her daughter in 1998 that altered her world. “I changed professions as I wanted to do a job where you could work in the day and not at night! Nails seemed like the natural profession choice. Nail bars were starting to become much more popular in London and I had lots of offers to work as soon as I trained at college. I had an edge over a lot of other manicurists as I was hungry and ambitious and I was dedicated to what I was doing. I literally spent every spare moment of time I had working on nails.”

Not content with just working in a nail salon, Sophy devoured magazines and began building her portfolio by offering her services to glossies that needed manicurists for their photo shoots. Her hard work paid off. She was signed by an agent and started being booked by magazines like Vogue Italia.

High-fashion favorite

Soon, Sophy was a high-fashion favorite, doing not just magazine work but fashion shows and big campaigns. She has become Tom Ford’s go-to girl for his shoots, shows and campaigns and he’s not alone. Sophy has worked with the world’s biggest brands and designers – from Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood to Louis Vuitton and Chanel. She’s played manicurist to countless models and celebrities including Alexa Chung, Kiera Knightley, Gwen Stefani, Erykah Badu, Dita Von Teese and Kate Moss.
Today, Sophy continues her love affair with high fashion but also devotes time to her passion for giving people great manicures and pedicures. Her own nail boutique in Fortnum and Mason continues to draw people in for many reasons, one of them being her legendary pedicures.

In this exclusive interview, Inquirer Lifestyle talks to Sophy about her life in fashion, why she loves the internet and the rainbow nails that she made famous.

Have you always been into nail polish even as a little girl?

Not really but I do remember painting my nails with Tippex (whiteout) when I was at school.

You have a daughter. How old is she now? Is she into nail polish and nail art too?

My daughter just turned 12! Yes she is really into nails now and is always asking me to do her and her friends nails. She is learning, and has been to a few shows and many shoots with me.

Did you ever think your love for nail art will take you this far?

How could I! No I never dreamed that I would even work out of London. Opportunities and experiences just get better and better. It is amazing.

You’ve worked with a lot of celebrities and models – any favorites?

Oh yes loads! I love Daphne Guinness, Kylie, Dita Von Teese, Pamela Anderson, Laetitia Casta, I love Freja Beha, Alessandra Ambrosia and Natasha Poly, Daisy Lowe, Alice Dellal, Hannah Holman, Akexa Chung. I could go on all day!

You’ve done campaigns and a lot of magazine work – any favorites?

Most of the best beauty pictures I’ve worked on are with Solve Sundsbo (YSL/Tom Ford/etc.) and Mert & Marcus (Gucci/Tom Ford White Patchouli/Bulgari/Iceberg). I have also worked with Tom Ford when he has taken pictures and he is lots of fun to work with, and I also love working with Katie Grand who styles Louis Vuitton and is the editor of LOVE magazine and Carine Roitfeld at French Vogue. You always know it’s going to be something exciting!

You do a lot of work on fashion shows. Who are your favorite designers to work with and why?

I love Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood, Tom Ford, Henry Holland, Gareth Pugh, Giles – the ones that appreciate the importance of a good nail.

What’s the most difficult manicure you’ve done? What was the most difficult project you’ve had?

I am a bit of a prefectionist so I’m not often entirely happy with what I’ve done. If I am pleased then that is a job well done! The first time I worked on the Louis Vuitton show in Paris, me and my team had to do 54 models’ hands and feet with the mannequin look. Marc Jacobs is also a perfectionist. I was so nervous the night before, and it was quite hard explaining to the team exactly how to match the polish color to the models’ skin color as obviously they are all different shades, but we pulled it off and I felt quite triumphant afterwards.

You’ve done a lot of nail art – do you have a favorite? Which one do you consider your masterpiece?

Ha ha! Well I’m English so I find it difficult to describe my work as a masterpiece! I love all the luxury logo nails I do and I love making my own patterns up such as the Marimeko Daisy and the animal print motif. The rainbow tip also seemed to please a lot of people. I am also very proud of the “new French manicure” I did for the last Louis Vuitton show. I love it when people copy my designs…it is the sincerest form of flattery.

Can you talk about the rainbow manicure that you made famous?

It was just and idea I had as I had always done different colored tips on the end of the nail and there were so many rainbow bright nail polishes coming out that year, I thought it would be nice to make it look kind of like a rainbow. I was making pictures for my website and that was one of the ideas for that in 2007. I also used it in a couple of editorials. I had no idea it would become so popular!

What’s the most number of manicures/pedicures you’ve done in a day?

When I was working for Bliss Spa, I was regularly doing seven pedicures a day as well as managing the nail department so I am not shy of hard work. Sometimes I do 12 different manicures in one day for campaigns and at shows. I lose count!

Is it harder or easier to do your own nails? Why? How often do you do your own nails?

I find it fairly easy to do my nails. The problem is allowing myself time for them to dry. I only like them to look perfect and unfortunately when I am working they are always getting messed up, but when everybody is on set at a shoot is always a good time. I try to do them every four days or so but sometimes my manicure lasts over a week!

How do you relax?

I always listen to and download music and I love to go running. I am also a bit of a shopaholic and I love lurking around the internet. I love seeing my best friends as they have been with me through thick and thin. I also love karaoke.

You are very internet savvy – you have a website, a blog, you’re on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Is the internet something you really enjoy? Do you like interacting with fans of your work?

I love the instancy of the Internet. Twitter is a great way of promoting yourself. It brings the right people to you as they are actually interested in what you are up to and it is a great way of showing work to and communicating with an international audience, as not everyone reads fashion magazines. I think al ot of people like Twitter as you can be witty and funny on there. You always get the news and gossip first on Twitter! I also have a Facebook fan page, but I find it much harder to attract a big audience on there. So if anyone is reading this, it’s www.facebook.com/sophyrobson!

You do tutorials on Youtube, teaching people how to do your nail designs. Some people freak out about that, saying you’re giving away your secrets. How do you feel about that?

I am simply sharing information. I will always think of new ideas as that’s the way I am. No one can copy my originality!

What inspires you?

I am inspired by my culture, my clothes, my shoes, art, objects or accessories I see in shoots. I have random ideas all the time and then I have to wait for an appropriate time to execute it. Some people have pointed out that I have taken ideas from street culture and made it couture. I think that’s a fair assessment. I’m still a b-girl at heart and I still love what goes on in hip-hop culture. I have always looked out for interesting nail images and now with the internet it is so much easier. There are some great websites for example 2bitchezdeep.blogspot.com or www.missomnimedia.com where people post pictures of far out nails and I love that. I do not copy the ideas there but it’s just the culture I feel I can relate to. It inspires me to know how much girls love their nails and the extremes they will go to to look good. I saw a picture recently online of nails with cheese as the tips and a little rat on the nail… It was incredible!

What are some dos and don’ts that women should keep in mind when it comes to
nail care, manicures and pedicures?

If you take a little bit longer by using a base and top coat, the polish will stay on for longer and look so much better.

What are your nail polish/nail art/manicure/pedicure pet peeves?

I just can’t bear sloppiness – good nails require a fine attention to detail.

What is your stand on fake nails?

I love fake nails and often have them. It has never caused any lasting damage to my own nails! The trouble is they are a lot of maintenance and I often don’t have the time.

Any tips for women who have never tried nail art but would like to?

Try something simple like a contrast color tip. Leave yourself plenty of time.

Any tips for women who can’t decide on their nail shape?

Use your own cuticle outline as a guide and mirror it.

Any fearless nail trend forecasts that you can share with us?

Everyone is asking for 60′s or 70′s Helmut Newton nails. I think the glamorous nail is definitely back in fashion.

What colors are going to be hot in the next few months?

Military, earthy tones, and 60′s retro colours.

What is your secret in keeping your own nails healthy?

I put tons of Solar Oil on them and I wear a protein strengthener when I don’t have polish on to protect them.

What are your favorite nail polish brands and why?

All the ones I mention on my blog!

How many bottles of polish do you own?

I have never counted but probably more than a thousand.

Favorite nail treatment/product?

The medi-pedi.

Favorite nail polish remover?

Sally Hansen

Is there any particular shade of polish that you use the most? Which one?

I have been wearing Nouvelle Vague by Chanel a lot this summer and using it in lots of pictures.

Any upcoming releases that you are excited about?

The new A/W Chanel collection is fabulous but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet!

If you can wear just one shade of polish for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

That I could never do!

What does someone have to do to get their nails done by you?

Pay me lots of money, be really nice to me or be someone really cool.

Tell us about the All For Eve Red Nail Polish you created. How can people buy it?

You can buy it online at www.allforeve.co.uk/products/brands/sophy-robson and at Harrods and John Lewis in the UK. All the profits from its sales go to charity so it feels really to be good to be working with the brand.

Who is your favorite nail icon?

I think it has to be Sharon Stone in Casino and Lil’ Kim.

What do you love the most about your job?

Travel, food, working with and hanging out with amazing talented people

Is there anything you hate about it?

Running a business is extremely frustrating sometimes, and you can come across some very difficult people who can temporarily make your life miserable, but I wouldn’t use the term hate. Hate is a very negative energy to carry around with you. Working in the fashion industry consumes much of your time and energy, and can be exhausting but ultimately the rewards make it worth it!

How do you feel about being called Nail Queen?

Ummmmmm I LOVE IT!!

Category police files | Tags: all for eve,celebrity,fashion,feature,interview,manicurist,nail art,nail polish,nail queen,rainbow nails,sophy,sophy robson | 10 Comments