Nail Polish Review: China Glaze - No Plain Jane

Fair warning: this first paragraph is going to be philosophical, or perhaps a bit navel-gazing, so feel free to skip it and go straight to the nail polish review if so inclined. I haven't written a post in a while because I couldn't think of what to write about. Not that there was nothing to write about, but nothing that seemed "important" enough for a "whole post." And I couldn't decide what direction I wanted to take this blog. I feel like I've covered the "going gray" topic (though I'm certainly happy to write more about it if anyone comments and tells me what angle you'd like to see me cover.) I like to share recipes on occasion but I don't want to do a cooking blog. They (expert beauty bloggers) say that you need a niche, and I just haven't found mine yet. I want to stay general enough that any woman (particularly but not exclusively women over 40) can benefit from reading it. And yet, I don't have the expertise or resources (or frankly the time or inclination) to cover every new important makeup release. So while I still haven't chosen a solid or exclusive direction, since I have been draped a Soft Summer, I am going to write about SSu-friendly colors. That doesn't mean that no one else can wear the colors I'll be reviewing! But the bottom line is that I've decided to stop dithering and just write. Because that is why I started blogging to begin with.

I'd like to get ahold of newly released polishes for future reviews, but I'm starting with what I already have in my collection.

No Plain Jane by China Glaze is an older polish, but it's still available, at least on Amazon. It's a beautiful, sparkly, metallic purple. It's a true purple, not a lavender or lilac, not a plum or aubergine.

No Plain Jane in direct sunlight

Bottom of the bottle

No Plain Jane indoors

The texture of this China Glaze polish is nice, and it applies quite easily. I started with a base coat. After one coat of No Plain Jane, the polish was sheer and streaky - no good. A second coat did the trick; I got full opacity. The color is just as beautiful on as it is in the bottle. In the photos, I'm also wearing Seche Vite top coat. Which, incidentally, is fantastic stuff. I can't recommend it highly enough. Seche Vite is a quick dry top coat that actually deeply dries your polish in minutes.

I wouldn't call this an exact match for Soft Summer, but it's pretty close to ss7.8 on the fan:

No Plain Jane by China Glaze with SSu Fan

It's probably just a smidgeon too pink; Soft Summer's purples tend to be bluer or grayer. For me, it's close enough - it's just my nails! Why bother matching nails to your seasonal fan, anyway, when your fingers (not to mention your toes) are usually pretty far from your face? Because, for me at least, the seasons are all about coordination. If everything I'm wearing is truly Soft Summer in color, everything just sort of hangs together and looks right. Dressing in my season from head to toe helps me look more pulled together.

Bottom line: I love it! This is definitely a polish I'll be using in my regular rotation.