Interview with a Polish Blogger: Jerlene (Musical Houses)

Meet Jerlene. She has a wonderful polish/makeup blog that you can check out here. You'll find a ton of awesome swatches there! So wanna meet the girl behind the blog? Keep reading!!

1. How did you get so interested in nail polish?

I wasn't into nail polish originally, and I've only been into nail polish since June last year, although my obsession didn't fully blossom til a couple of months later. My first love was makeup, and I frequented the makeup forum on MUA. Sometimes the girls on MUA would talk about nail polish, so from there I was clued in. And then I found the world of nail blogs, and those seriously sparked some terrible lemmings, and introduced me to so many wonderful brands. I haven't looked back since!

2. What's your collection like size wise? Have you counted?

I don't know exactly, and its hard to count exactly because half my nail stash is in Singapore, while the other half is in the UK. My UK stash has about 70 nail polishes (and about 10 more coming in the mail), while my Singapore stash has around 40-50? So that's a total of 120-130, as a guesstimate. I know that's a baby stash by most standards, but still, who knew I could accumulate so much in 6 months?

3. What's your favorite polish brand?

Nails Inc for application, but OPI for the range of colours. And Nfu Oh for the cool things like flakies. I also really like Revlon, especially the old-school ones. They have some cool colours, and they apply well on me.

4. If you had to choose only 5 polishes to use for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Oh man, that's a tough one! Well my great love is for taupey, mushroomy shades, so I'd definitely keep either Nails Inc Jermyn Street or $OPI Metro Chic. And I'd keep a perfect nude shade so I can wear polish to work, so I'd keep Nails Inc Basil Street. And I need a nice vampy purple, and I'd pick Zoya Yasmeen for that. I'd also want something cool, like a flakie, so I would keep Nfu Oh #51. I'd be crazy to give that one up. And I want something holo, so I'd keep GOSH Holographic. I really can't wear just 5 though, it would be torture.

5. What colors have you been rocking most lately? Is there any color you do not like wearing?

Lately I'm really into purples. I'm a huge purple fan...I think easily a third of my collection is made up of purples. I love purple bags, and purple accessories, and purple nail polish. Honestly, there are lots of colours I don't really wear. I'm a colour wimp, relative to the other nail bloggers, although my real-life friends think I wear too much colour. I don't really wear neons, oranges, yellows or greens, but you know, everything changes...I have a few greens now, and am waiting on my first yellow polish. So you never know!

6. How did you decide to start your blog? What was your motivation? How did you choose the name?

There are two reasons. The first is that before I started my blog, I was actually active on the MUA boards. I actually was already swatching and posting my swatch pictures, but I was doing it on the forums. However, I realized that if for whatever reason my account should get deleted by the admin people of the boards, I'd lose all my swatch pictures. That spurred me to start a blog of my own - at least I'd know all the time and effort spent swatching wouldn't go to waste. The second reason is that I realized that my friends in the US wanted UK and Asian makeup swatches, so I decided since I was in a position to provide these, I should do so. The name of my blog came about because I wanted my blog to be about makeup and nail polish - and hence, of faces and fingers.

7. What do you think is the most essential tool/technique/product needed to achieve the perfect manicure?

I'd say cleanup is really important. I suck at it, and also I'm usually too lazy to really clean up, as you can tell from my pictures, but if you are really into photographing your manis cleanup is vital, because cameras in macro mode pick up all sorts of imperfections. The best technique for cleaning up is to get acetone (or if not, some nail polish remover), and dip a stiff, small, synthetic brush in it, and go around the edges of your nails with the brush. I'd also say using some sort of cuticle lotion or balm really helps in making your cuticles look less raggedy. I personally love the Burt's Bees Lemon Cuticle Cream.

8. You're like me, you love animals: What's your favorite animal?

Dogs! I'm really really a dog person. I love dogs of any breed and size! I'm the weirdo who will approach you if I see you walking your dog and say, "Your dog is so cute! Is it a girl or a boy?" and start conversing with you about your dog. I used to grow up with two dogs when I was a kid, so I really do have very fond memories of playing with them and spending time with them. I was so sad when they died, I cried my eyes out. I love pets in general though, I also used to keep a rabbit, so obviously I really love cute furry animals. I used to keep fish for awhile, but I didn't really like fish as much, because the interaction level is much lower...Like you can't hug fish, or pet them, or see them respond when you call their name. I guess I like pets I can play with!

9. Where are you from and have you traveled a lot?

I'm from Singapore, but I've lived for 3 years in Chicago, and am currently living in London. I think I'm lucky that way, it's really enabled me to see so many things and meet so many types of people, and also, I've been able to accumulate makeup and nail polish items from all over the world! LOL. Travel-wise, I've been to other parts of the US - Boston, Florida, Las Vegas, Minnesota, San Franciso - and I've also been to Canada. I haven't travelled much in Europe sadly, but I did go to Germany once for a couple of weeks. Within Asia I've travelled a lot, because that's where I grew up. I've been to Malaysia quite a number of times, and Indonesia a few times, and I've also been to China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand (just Phuket, the overcrowded tourist spot), and Australia (technically it's not quite part of Asia, but it's geographically nearby).

10. What do you do for a living?

Currently I'm a student, doing my Masters in Management, but I'll be starting work soon in a few months. I can't believe I'm starting work already, and I feel apprehensive and ambivalent about entering the working world. I'm worried that I won't have as much time to indulge in my makeup/nail polish/blogging hobby once I start work, and I hope I don't die in the cross-fires of office politics...I'd be really uncomfortable if I have to deal with things like that. Oh well, guess I'm not Peter Pan...

11. What's your favorite makeup item?

Lipgloss! I'm a total gloss girl! My first love in makeup was lipgloss. Even when I was a kid, long before I really got into makeup, I was always saving up my allowance to accumulate enough to buy the cheapie lipglosses they have at the drugstore. And by cheap I really mean cheap, like random-no-name-Asian brand. Revlon and L'oreal were high-end to me at that time, because they were beyond my kid's budget. LOL. I ended up actually having around 10 or so of those really crappy lipglosses even before I got into makeup. The colours I picked then were really bad (think hot fuschia pink, orange and brown), but I was so proud of my mini-stash back then.

12. What polish brand do you think is the best kept secret? (not popular but fabulous)

Nails Inc. They're not that un-famous, but outside the UK few people have heard of them. I also just got a couple of KOH polishes, which I really like!

Thanks for a great interview Jerlene!!!
You can visit Jerlene's blog here and you can also keep up with her on twitter here.