Nail Polish Lingo

Mari shared this with me to try and bring some laughter to my night... Since my night is being consumed by a Law School Appellate Brief (*angry face*). Enjoy! Oh and if you know what all these mean before reading the definition... YOU ARE AN ADDICT!

NOTD – Nail of the Day (basically, whatever nail polish one is currently wearing.)

HTF/VHTF – Hard to Find or Very Hard to Find. Definition varies based on place of usage. Example: HTF is NARS Zulu. On Ebay VHTF is Essie Mademoiselle or OPI Bubble Bath.

RAOK – (verb form ROAKing, ROAK’d) Random Act of Kindness (giving someone else free nail polish for altruistic reasons.)

No-Buy – (1) The status of realizing that one is ridiculous, and spends entirely way too much money on nail polish. One consequently over-compensates by vowing to not buy any nail polish indefinitely, followed shortly by a major failure, see related words: Binge. (2) A mythical impossible task like Sisyphus rolling the rock up the mountain.

Stash – One’s nail polish collection, usually hidden from loved ones.

Binge – Uncontrollable desire to buy a seriously ridiculous amount of nail polish, followed by actually making the ridiculous purchase, followed by feelings of guilt and worthlessness, followed by the No-Buy vow.

Lemming - Having an uncontrollable desire for a particular polish after seeing a picture of someone else wearing that color.

Shrinkage - A coat of nail polish that shrinks on one’s nail to create a visible white space with no polish on the tip of the nail. It’s generally a very undesirable side effect of using fast drying top coat over very thickly applied polish. No relation to cold water.

Tip Pull - Looks the same as shrinkage except Tip Pull occurs after a few days of wear. It’s the most common kind of nail polish wear and tear (generally associated with typing) other than regular chipping; An excuse to change one’s nail polish.

Cuticle Drag/Cuticle Pull – The polish-less splotch centered close to the cuticle that comes from using a crappy nail polish that basically removes itself when one applies additional coats; One of life’s most frustrating occurrences.

“The Place that Cannot be Mentioned”/”The Place that Shall Not be Named” – Ebay.

Franken - Mixing a new color from various different polishes.

Dupe – Short for ‘duplicate’. A nail polish that looks exactly like another polish. This is a rare occurrence, especially to someone plagued with the nail board eye.

The Nail Board Eye - A disease that causes the sufferer to be able to distinguish even the slightest difference of color between polishes that are seemingly the same, forcing the sufferer to decide they must own both polishes even though no one else will know that the colors are actually different.

VPL/VNL - ‘Visible Polish Line’ – referring to the nail white that is visible under some sheer or jelly polishes.

Credit to Polish Addict!