Monday, April 03, 2006

Utility and Aesthetics

I am on permanent prowl for items which do what they are meant to do, current project: a nailbrush. Wood and bristle, the sort found in bleak clean Edwardian bathrooms with Pears soap and massive taps.

The simpering inadequate I am currently using is white plastic, with a set of soft white bristles standing straight up on the topside. It might get artichoke butter from under an aesthete's manicure, but it is not equal to gardening, especially for those little bits at the side of the nail that get stained. Why even make such a thing?

Mary passed on a Harper's to me so I read it in a bemused way, even enjoyed it. I gather white is big when we get to summer, belts and waists are back and shoes are hideous tarts' trotters. I am pleased to see that I am ahead of some trends simply by falling so far behind on the last lap. Unpainted, buffed nails. Trimmer hair - I always disliked that jagged, licked-by-the-cat, bed-head look. Capacious handbags. Powder not foundation.

Teeth here are impossibly perfect thanks to porcelain veneers, a new kind which don't leave a tell-tale dark line at the gum, and tooth whitening, and many mysterious expensive processes in between. It is discordant to see a grown woman with the gently scalloped incisors of a pre-teen but the overall result is good. Where does one stop with all this? My dinner companion on Saturday was charming, bright and so well-presented I had to resist casually inspecting behind her ears.

3 Comments:

Blogger Stefan said...

Have you tried this brush?

10:26 PM  
Blogger Tricia Rose said...

It needs to have a row of short stiff bristles set at an angle along the top of the brush, otherwise it doesn't reach the corners. The dirty corners.

9:14 AM  
Blogger Tricia Rose said...

Sheila said via email:
I'm glad you got the right info. re. a nailbrush. Whew
that was a relief. Of course you could have done more
white painting -or like me - put talc in your rubber
gloves - but the nailbrush is altogether a purer
answer don't you think?

10:52 AM  

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