Heart Eyes, Vol. 225: Nail Updates and Fig and Sea Salt Challah, Take Two
Friends! Hello. Happy Friday. Does anybody else feel like this September is slooowly, gently, drawing them in and drawing them along? We probably have six more weeks of summer here—like the anti-groundhog—and yet. The light is getting that golden tint. I dug my slippers out this week. And just last night I made shakshouka and baked a loaf of bread after weeks and weeks of living the ad hoc tomatoes-corn-and-peaches lifestyle. September! I’m finding it both joyful and grounding.
Whatever it is you’re up to, I hope the light is indeed golden where you are. I think you’re doing great.
How to Do Your Nails: Cutex Ultra-Powerful nail polish remover and Olive & June nail polish
Colleague and Friend of Heart Eyes Dianna, a person with flawless design instincts who also really values an excellent home manicure, recently changed my life. I was complaining about the chore of removing my nail polish (what a difficult life I lead!) and she pointed me in the direction of Cutex Ultra-Powerful polish remover, a big-guns concoction meant for removing gel manicures and glitter polishes that also takes care of my plain old regular polish with astonishing speed. I bought a bottle that same day and it’s taken me from ten-plus minutes of scrubbing away at my nails to done in a minute or less, with just a cotton round or two. (The secret? Acetone, of course. But you know what, it’s a fraction of the exposure time of any other solvent, I moisturize after, it’s fine.) It even smells nice, like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. I’m not kidding when I say it’s changed my life, even if in a small way; knowing removing my polish will be a cinch has really revitalized my relationship with doing my nails, and I’ve been getting a lot of joy out of it.
Along with this magical change has come a moment of personal permission. As much as I try to keep my nail polish collection under control—not just a museum of past Target impulse buys—I recently looked through my drawer of ancient, in some cases increasingly sludgy polish and decided it was time for a change. I’m doing a complete refresh and it’s been really fun and satisfying: I’m tossing very old bottles and shades that never took, I’m appreciating anew the still-viable MVPs, I’m identifying a few holes in my collection, and I’m having a fabulous time trying out some new favorites.
In that spirit, although I’m still on board with my old standbys Essie and OPI, I’ve bought a couple bottles from Internet fave Olive and June, and I have to say: they’re really nice. I like the selection of colors (though I find their in-store displays are often pretty picked over), I like the texture of the polish, I like the shape of the brush, I like the long-lasting shine. So far I’m wearing and enjoying Fig Ranch, a brownish rosy pink, and Honest and True, a powdery baby blue that is not in my typical palette at all but that I cannot currently get enough of. (Could I put it on all twenty of my nails at once? Would that be weird?)
Maybe you would like them, or others like them, too? You can find Olive and June polish online or at Walmart, Walgreens, and Target.
What to Bake: Fig and Sea Salt Challah
This weekend is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and although I am not Jewish myself, I am interested in Jewish food and especially enjoy baking seasonally appropriate Jewish baked goods. On this weekend last year, I made the Fig and Sea Salt Challah from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (along with the brisket, which I wholeheartedly recommend if you’re in the market!), and it was honestly one of the most memorably off-the-rails baking experiences I’ve had in a while—and yet turned out so beautifully that I knew I would be back at it before too long.
Fast forward a year, and…no time like the present, right? This challah has been finding its way into my daydreams: its glossy crust, its tender interior, the interplay of sweet figs and crunchy Maldon salt? YES. I’m psyching myself up to try it again this weekend, taking into account my long list of notes for next time. (Ahem, more flour.) I do have high hopes for this project. Maybe you’d like a project, too.
Blockbuster Review: Oklahoma! (1955)
For all its retro Americana vibes, maybe the sharpest and most precise Rodgers & Hammerstein musical? The ballet element goes a long way, but I find the whole thing oddly engrossing.