I may have posted about this before, but it’s what’s running through my head keeping me up right now. I was having a coffee yesterday and noticed the sun gleaming off my toes. I’ve got mooncat’s clair de lune (https://www.mooncat.com/products/clair-de-lune) on, topped with Holo Taco’s Polar Princess (https://www.holotaco.com/products/polar-princess), and the effect is “obnoxiously shiny pink metal”. I love it! It’s unapologetically femme (edging toward high femme), while also having a touch of geekiness. I’m signaling that I’m happy to be noticed for my polish, and that I’m comfortable with a more avant-garde presentation. (No shade to anyone who prefers a basic crème color! Rock what you like!) In a way, it’s also armor. I know I’ve gotten side-eye from people judging me for my polish. Kinda hard not to notice the tradwife-looking lady behind me in the checkout line scowling at my hand resting on the counter, who glances up briefly before looking away when she sees she’s been spotted. I see your French manicure, bitch. It looks great. It’s just not for me. I need sparkle and shimmer and colors typically associated with poison in nature. I suppose in this way it’s like aposematism: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/003/277/556/ce8.jpeg The compliments I get on my nails (mostly from female- and enby-presenting people) very often feel like a combo of “I see you and like what I see” and “hey we’re kinda the same”. Going back to the shiny metal bit, and then I guess I’ll head back to bed. While I don’t identify as altersex (https://stainedglasswoman.substack.com/p/panel-lines), I definitely get it, at least a little. The clean, artificial lines of a mani or pedi, especially when the color and sheen look like something you’d see at an auto show. It feels right in a way I never would’ve guessed prior to my egg crack and experimenting with polish. I’m reminded of Molly from Neuromancer, her burgundy tips hiding her lethality, as she moved with grace and inhuman speed. Or, going further back in my childhood, I had a special love for the show SilverHawks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilverHawks). Specifically Steelheart, because There Were No Signs. 😅 Metallics on my nails bring me back to that time in my life.