Mannequin Hands: Zoya Kennedy

Wearing nail polish over time has definitely stained my natural nails. They are a yellowed tea-like color that no amount of scrubbing with olive oil and salt will remove. I do have a nail whitening treatment, a powder that you mix with water and put in a manicure bowl for soaking the fingertips, but I haven't tried it. I imagine it's kind of like Efferdent (a denture soak) for finger nails.

On occasion I've smeared a bit of whitening toothpaste to each nail, one hand at a time, and let it sit for five or so minutes. I think that helps some. I also have a cuticle/stain remover product from Orly that helps some. Another thing that helps lighten the staining is smoothing and buffing the nail surface, which I do from time to time to lessen the impact of my nail ridges. But you don't want to do this too much or too often because it thins and weakens the nail.

If I had to for whatever reason I would go without nail polish despite the staining because I'm like that and I have no shame. But I expect I'd be at least a little self-conscious about it. I mean, I don't WANT to freak out the cashier at the grocery store, necessarily. And besides, I think on the whole I'm better off without any chips in my armor, know what I mean?

Luckily for me I can wear brightly colored polish any time I want to. But sometimes I'm just not up to it. That's the time to go for a nice nude-colored polish and I have one to show you in this post. It's by Zoya and it's called Kennedy.

Zoya describes Kennedy as "pale french beige cream." I'm going to have to disagree. I mean, it's pale all right but the color is not what I think of as French beige. Actually, I think of French beige as not unlike the color of my natural nails now that they are stained! Kennedy is what I'd call a very light, pale-grey-based cool-toned pink-leaning clay color. It's very creamy and sleek looking and feels calm and capable on the nail. I like it very much.

For this manicure I applied three coats of Kennedy over basecoat and two coats of Seche Vite. Now I didn't need all those coats. This is an very well-pigmented polish, designed to be opaque in two coats. But Kennedy turned out to be one of the rare Zoyas with a heavier, slightly thick, slightly sticky formula and I just wasn't completely satisfied with how it looked after two coats. There were edges with conspicuous overlap and some random tiny patches of pulling. So I added three drops of thinner to the bottle and did one more coat and that one smoothed everything out. Blame for the extra coat of Seche Vite I will lay squarely on the doorstep of the dent gremlins.

Zoya Kennedy, bottle shot

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

at the window...

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy

the claw, modified

Great polish! Zoya Kennedy has a comfy tenured spot in the "mannequin hands" category of my polish collection. Every nail polish enthusiast should have a few mannequin hands polishes and I am now happily assured that I have at least one that I can wear for those times when I'm feeling less than ornamental.

love,
Aunt Liz