Dear Sars,

I have a very tragic addiction: nail polish. When summer rolls around and I start wearing sandals, I change the color of my toenails almost as often as I change shoes.

Unfortunately, my two favorite kinds of nail polish (Urban Decay and the Maybelline Colorama line) have been discontinued in the U.S. I’ve tried some other brands (mostly drugstore brands like Revlon) but they turn out to be clumpy and uneven.

Do you (or the readers) have any suggestions about brands I might try? I’m willing to spend a little more on high-quality polish, but I don’t want to drop $15 on a bottle without knowing that it’s good stuff first. Also, I’m a big fan of weird shades like green and blue, so I’d love to hear about lines that don’t just feature the usual pinks and reds.

Thanks so much, and keep up the awesome work!

This letter was much less stressful than the one about my brother

I’ve had good luck with two brands, as far as their being less chip-/crack-prone than others: O.P.I., and Chanel. Chanel is, well, Chanel, and may not have the craziest colors, but the polish doesn’t separate or get gluey like other polishes can. O.P.I. is a tougher polish for day-to-day use; I’m not careful of my mani at all, ever — I’m opening soda cans, changing kitty litter, hanging pictures, whatever needs doing, so if a polish is going to flake, it’s going to do so on my hands, and the O.P.I. polish I had on for the wedding held for two weeks.

The other thing you want to invest in is a bulletproof top coat. Mine is Sally Hansen’s Power Shield. It looks kind of pinkish in the bottle, but that doesn’t really show up on your nails, and it’s very effective. Use a good, thick layer and let it dry properly; once it sets, you can whang your toe into the corner of a bed frame and your toenail polish will be fine even if your toe itself is bleeding. Not that this happened to me the other day.

Readers?

Hi Sarah,

First off, I love the new “practical” advice part of The Vine! Not that I don’t love reading about people’s boy troubles, but finding out how to get yellow pits out of white shirts is great!

Now I have a question that I hope you (or someone else) has the answer to. Here’s the thing — my fiance duct-taped phone cord to carpet. When I moved in to his place a year later and we had our phone line repaired, I finally took up the duct tape and we now have strips of glue where the duct tape was. I’ve tried searching online for a way of removing duct tape glue from carpet, but have yet to find a working solution. I’ve tried various brands of extra-strength carpet cleaner, bubble-gum remover, picking at it with a fine-tooth comb, and scrubbing it with a stiff brush, but nothing seems to get it out of the fibres. The carpet is pretty low-pile, so the bad news is I can’t just cut it out (I guess the up side is that the previous owners didn’t put in shag…).

Thanks,
Too bad the cat’s doing that for us

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Dear Bad,

Let me dive into my complimentary Consumer Reports paperback, How to Clean Practically Anything…okay, it doesn’t have a note about tape on rugs, and it doesn’t have anything in the index about removing tape or adhesive. It does, however, mention rubber cement, and that seems like the closest material, so, in order, try: 1) nailpolish remover (spot-test it on an out-of-the-way portion of carpet first); 2) soapy water.

My mother’s default for sticky stuff that had hardened was to try to freeze it off, so you could also try wrapping a cold pack in a towel, pressing it on the tapey area for a minute, and then razoring off the glue bits (you could use a callus scraper for this; they’re in the nail care aisle of your drugstore). If the cold pack is too unwieldy, try a can of compressed air, which is also cold.

Readers, any thoughts on getting tape glue off the carpet?

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Hi there, Sarah:

I am bored of my music collection and looking for recommendations that are not Pitchfork-based. I’m specifically looking for good verve/swing-jazz artists, as Benny Goodman, Touch and Go, and the Triplettes of Belleville are wearing their groove a little thin.

Anyway. Any help would be much appreciated

!A

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Dear A,

…Dammit, now I can’t find that site where you type in the band or artist and it does a little galaxy for you of other artists you might like. I know I’ve posted it in The Vine before, too. …Well, some reader is going to have to hook us up, because I am senile today.

Stuff you might try, if you haven’t already:

Glenn Miller
The Bullets Over Broadway soundtrack
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (this is more of a country feel, but old-school Hank Williams stylee; if you hate it, no harm done)
Esquivel
Discs from the “Ultra-Lounge” series

None of those except Miller is really particularly “swing,” but they might have a similar feel.

Readers: verve/swing-jazz/similar. Two recommendations per email, please, and nothing too far outside the genre.

[8/4/06]

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Tags:   Ask The Readers   health and beauty   popcult   roommates