Christmas Rose

As a twenty-something, I was enchanted by Pre-Raphaelites.

Florid women, goats in extremis, Ruskin blushing at his new bride, and all the detailed brushwork in a herd of sheep. Ah, commitment.

From the hair, to the knights, to the horses with impossibly long backs, to the prescient models from whom any modern hipsterista could take a page out of how to adopt the perfect laconic gaze it all just meshed.

Roses figured prominently in their paintings. Roman de la rose. Perfect beauty, perfect love, perfectly still and solemn Victorian lives. That is until the 20th century came along and kicked everyone's tush.

I still adore roses. My favorites aren't bred for color, but for scent. To me the raison d'être of a rose is to portray not merely beauty, but scent.

I love rose polishes, too. I also love shimmers that make things a little more than just a little complicated.

Three coats, no top coat.

I picture garlands of these on a wood hearth in a tudor cottage with a Rosetti maiden staring blankly into the void. Much on her mind, but visualized through the male gaze as a flaccid prop; one can see why one tires of the brotherhood.


This is a beautiful polish. Old Dollar Tree find, and of course much more gold in the shimmer. I popped the flash on this one because needed the oomph to see the pretty rose shimmer, not just the gold.

Not around the interwebz much. I am sure it will show up eventually on eBay, these crop up occasionally. Ironically I used to find a lot of international sellers with some great, obscure SH NL polishes, now with the postal services not shipping abroad with much ease, I can't find any longer.

As I stated before, DT, but at least 4-6 years ago, so it may have gone the way of the Dodo.



Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!