Greetings from 35,995 ft!
When I grabbed my colors for the week, I was thinking about back to school and fun primary colors. I guess I was also subtly thinking about my usual commute! (I have a FIFO job.)
I couldn't resist the comparison shots with the seat back literature.
💙 : Holo Taco Playing with Sapphire
❤️ : Holo Taco Thirst Trap
💛 : Painted Polish Animal Style (PPU July '26)
I just wanted a little summer drama, and I think this delivered. Shout-out to doggo Fuse for pausing long enough on our walk for me to snap a good picture of my nails!
⚫: Trick or Trash
⚪: Sugar Rush
⛔: We Passed the Setting Sun (unofficially 2.0) by Great Lakes Lacquer
I do not always catch release streams, but I hopped on this one to catch some of the comparisons for the new Spice Rack shades.
If you'd like to hear Cristine weigh in on some of the logic about the business and preview some things in thoughtful ways, the second half of the stream is for you. I don't have time to toss out time stamps, but I'm sure the comments will include some good times.
Topics covered in calm and thoughtful ways (in no particular order):
- supply chain issues related to microflake pigments. (Will affect all makers, not just HT.)
- why Holo Taco is bringing back similar shades.
- gatekeepers aren't being nice, so maybe not?
- how some future retirements will be handled in the supply chain context.
- the customer base for HT is growing and changing.
- the Ulta customer base is different from the website base.
Since I got absolutely roasted in the other HT community for defending HT basically duping themselves with Coastal Cremes, I thought I'd share some of the logic that the business owner and chief decision maker has now released to us. Hope other data folx find some of the information in this stream helpful and kind.
My wife wanted to get in on theme nails this week, so y'all get two looks!
My wife wanted to match the logo, and we took her picture while we waited in line at the Togethxr House. (Yes, those are rainbow seersucker shorts. I love her gay dad vibes.) She's wearing (L ➡️ R):
- Milky White Shimmer
- Disco Cowboy
- One Coat Black topped with Shooting Star Taco
- Orange Drink
- Twice in a Blue Moon topped with Wireless Mode
I'm wearing just three colors: Disco Cowboy is my dark shiny orange. Box Office Bomb is my light orange. Milky White Shimmer is my white and white accent.
Bonus pictures include a cringe cutesy hand pic we took on the flight to Chicago and the jumbotron from the skills contest last night. Totally worth the tickets! Be gay, watch sports. (W chat totally welcome on this post. But also, do it for the Dream. 🍑)
I fell hard for a polish in this month's PPU but didn't order it because I thought, "I could dupe that. I've got polish at home!" This started as a dupe event, but I really like the turn it took. Summer of sandos, I guess.
Base color: Hot Wire Pink
Filling: Gummy Candy Clusters by Jior Coutour (May '26 PPU)
Topping: Glossed and Found
If you look at the base of my thumb, you can see the original color of the Hot Wire Pink peeking out. I really wanted to catch that angle because it shows the contrast of what the jelly adds to the layers. The linear holo under the jelly is great. I will be doing more of these tone-on-tone jelly sandos!
I can't be the only person absolutely shocked and somewhat delighted by the appearance of an email from Jeffrey Kahane—former musical director of the SA Philharmonic—announcing this fully-fleshed out new project.
I put the whole text of his letter in the email below, but there's more that I didn't include. I want to know the tea. I want to know which musicians came over and who their development director is and if things will suck less than the SA Phil and TOSA. (Nope. Haven't forgiven the Tobin yet for their union-busting.)
We were season ticket holders for the SA Phil, and we actually kinda liked the Scottish Rite as a venue. Granted, my wife and I are able-bodied which makes a huge difference. We were feeling the ache of not having classical music in our life, so we did spring for YOSA season tickets. (They're 25% no code needed until October. We paid $138 per person for all 7 concerts with seats in row N. A bargain! YOSA is a delightful show. Would recommend if it's in your budget.)
If you have tea about Harmonium, I wanna hear it! (I especially want to know the range for season tickets...)
Their website is here: https://www.harmoniumoftexas.org/
-------------------------
Dear friends and supporters of Harmonium of Texas,
On behalf of the musicians, board, and staff, I want to express our enormous gratitude to all of you who have already generously supported our efforts to bring a new and different energy to the already rich musical life of San Antonio, a city that I have come to consider a second home. As you can see, we have put together a thrilling season of musical experiences, highlighted by some of the world’s most illustrious musicians, including Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, and Tessa Lark, in addition to our special partnerships with the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, the San Antonio Mastersingers, the San Antonio Chamber Choir, and the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio, and our first artistic partner, Roomful of Teeth, all of whom will play prominent roles in the season.
While the richness of the season and the diversity of its offerings make it challenging to pick highlights, I want to call special attention to the fact that in honor of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, we will be performing all nine of his symphonies and all five of his piano concertos over the first half of 2027. We will also be performing Bach’s monumental and intensely moving St. Matthew Passion, a work which has not been performed in San Antonio for decades, as well as the complete Brandenburg Concertos under the direction of harpisichordist David Belkovski.
We are also thrilled to announce the appointment of Cuban conductor Cosette Justo Valdez as our first principal guest conductor, and Spanish-American cellist/composer Andrea Casarrubios as our first composer-in-residence. Our opening concert, which will take place at the Lila Cockrell Theatre in downtown San Antonio, will feature Carl Orff’s hugely popular Carmina Burana, the first performances in San Antonio of Michael Torke’s bluegrass violin concerto Sky, written for our soloist Tessa Lark, and an electrifying work by Gabriela Ortiz, who has in recent years become widely recognized as one of our greatest living composers. Hometown favorite Nancy Zhou will perform La Minerva, a gorgeous new violin concerto by Juan Pablo Contreras, and we will also present a major work by Enrico Chapela, Los Braceros, which is a cantata for mariachi and orchestra. Emanuel Ax, one of the towering giants of classical music and a favorite of audiences around the world for 50 years, will join us for a special concert on which he will play Mozart’s most dramatic piano concerto, the Concerto No. 20 in D Minor*. These are only a handful of the many wonderful concerts that we will be offering in a range of venues across the city. (It is our sincere hope that you will join us for as many concerts as you can, and we also humbly and respectfully ask that you consider supporting us with a donation: it is no secret that no orchestra can survive on ticket sales alone, and it is our firm intention to be financially stable and to operate in the black from the outset. We have already raised close to $900,000 just since the beginning of March, roughly double what we had hoped to raise, which is, needless to say, a minor miracle and a very auspicious beginning! We will, however, need to raise a good deal more in order to ensure our continued fiscal health through this season and beyond.
We wish everyone a great summer, and I look forward to greeting you in person at our first concert, and many more beyond that!
- Jeffrey Kahane, Artistic Director
I know that Lemon Spritzer (from the pastel rainbow) is high on everyone's list to find a dupe for. (But no, actually...it's a very good polish. I love it.)
It's not a 100% dupe, but to my eye, Clionadh Cosmetics ChromeBob is 98% there: https://polishpickup.com/products/clionadh-cosmetics-chromebob
PPU opens July 3-5, so contemplate if you'd like to jump on the pre-order...but not too long. Cheers!
It's my annual pilgrimage to a cricket match week, so I decided to go big and try water marbling. (Yes, I know Cristine has Thoughts and Feelings™ on the topic. Me too, y'all.) I saw a short from TheGrayterGood doing a water marble look with the new Coastal Cremes, and I just had to seize on a bad idea.
I used Elmer's glue as my barrier instead of liquid latex, and it worked pretty well. I'd slather it on thicker next time. (This was the tip that convinced me to try a water marble!)
Please learn from my mistakes and maybe don't use a jelly-based glitter in your water marbles. It worked but was big stress. I also picked up a tip somewhere to paint a base color before you go in. Good tip! The nails that look extra cool are because they had a base of yellow down first.
I also used a little paper water cup that my wife brought home from run group instead of ruining a glass. Finally, I would not suggest your dumb cat drink from the cup mid-mani. My dumb cat tried that and got scolded before she water marbled her damn nose.
🟡: Banana Hacks
🔵: Water Works
🔴: Left on Red
New menu, new adventures. This go-round, we have a tri-fold menu...and new snacks!
There is the limited edition coke (Coke Zero Cherry Coke) and the gluten-free cookies! My Celiac wife is delighted because Siete is a great brand.
As always, has anyone had the pleasure of flying with Mia N? She looks fun!
I finished Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck in print format, and I've had trouble making the next words-on-page book stick. (My audiobook life is humming along nicely.)
I tried Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon (good but not for me right now) and The Seed Collectors by Scarlett Thomas (liked Oligarchy, but this one felt trite). Both failed to hold me past 2 chapters. I need something to drag me back to the page with the subtle nuance of being entirely too human.
I reach for lit fic first/always, and I've read just about every piece of fiction the NY Times has mentioned (for good or for ill) in the book pages in the last 5 years. Lacking on a lot of classics. Mystery, romance, and books that center showing off how many WWII facts the author knows rather than plot are a pass. Lauren Groff and Sigred Nunez are my shit list authors. Kristen Arnett and her disaster lesbians are always somehow delightful.
The last print-format book that left me feeling like this was Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.
Thanks, book people! I'm excited to hurt my heart for fun.
I spotted this on the 14 this morning, then got to explain the joke to a kid. Watching his face as he processed how tall Wemby is...priceless!
(He also called the nuns "tiny popes" rather than penguins. Quality content.)
Plz to enjoy this little weirdness if you haven't been on a bus today/this week.
Spotted at 1a in Terminal A of SAT on the 7th of June.
There were at least two other quote screens including a statement from Mike Judge, but I couldn't get clean pictures of them. I was too busy wondering if this was a waking dream.
It's time! Slutty summer nails are here for the Northern hemisphere!
I wanted the kind of nails that the 1990s Have-A-Seat lady at your local trucking company/self-storage place/doctor's office/high school attendance office would unironically call her "talons" with a sly wink that absolutely says she has a hot date three nights a week that no one needs to know about.
And boy did she deliver. These have felt delicious all week. It's giving "daylight Morticia Addams".
The créme is Left on Red, and the accent is Favorite Sister. (Thirst Trap was my other choice.)
I'm in week two of playing with the jellies, and they're pretty solid. I have changed my application technique to deal with the gloppy nature of the jellies, but I'm going to try thinning them when I have space in the bottle.
I forgot to do a jelly sandwich last week. Sad, because this is awfully fun! I'm not sure I can explain how this polish glows IRL. People who don't normally check out my nails have been stopping me this week to get a good look because they're so eye-catching.
🍞: Milky White Shimmer
🫙: Meltdown
🥜: Shooting Star Taco
🍞: Glossy Taco
Pulled into BNA on my flight around noon, and there was a Spirit plane on (I think) C8 with a jetbridge pulled up to it.
Any clue what weird little moment I witnessed?
Added: it was C9. Here's the view from D8: https://ibb.co/nsN1sKFQ
Got a niche technical question that we ran into today.
I'm the companion. I'm ALP. My passholder is AL.
Under this system, I get 2 free checked bags no matter how I fly (by myself = my ALP status covers my bags, as the companion = companion bag allotment of 2 freebies).
Until today, my passholder has also gotten all of my ALP perks (2 free checked bags, free ELR seat selection at booking, ALP boarding group) when I fly with her. When we checked our bags this morning, the system tried to charge her for her second bag. This was not true on Friday, May 1 when we flew to the weekend vacay.
Was the policy updated over the weekend? Are we no longer passing companion status perks up to the passholder?
Her boarding pass still says "ALP" as her boarding group in the official app.