Contains gifts
Oh hello everyone. Despite defending my dissertation last June, I was unable to walk at graduation due to rules in the doctorate program where your defense must be completed two months before the graduation date. So I had to wait 11 months to walk in my extremely expensive custom doctoral gown. It felt like forever (well it was almost a year!) and then I felt meh about it. As soon as I put that gown on though, I got excited all over again. And of course I wanted to wear some special nails, despite having broken them all two days before graduation so let’s check it out.
I love white nails, and I tend to reach for this special Stella Chroma custom for important nails. I actually
wore this custom during my dissertation defense as well, so it was nice
to bring it back out as I don’t think I’ve worn it since then. And
because why not, I pulled out my 18 karat gold top coats that really
don’t get enough love and decided to pair them together. Nobody tells
you how much those academic gowns cost. I had the option of a cheaper
version that was just under $600 or I could spring for the custom
academic one for $1600. Nobody tells you these costs when you enter the
program so I’m just sharing it here in case any reader ever wants to
know how much the academic doctoral gown cost. Of course, when I saw myself next to the $600 gown, I really saw the difference in quality.
I forgot how watery the Sephora gold top coat is and I really do need to
just leave the bottle open so it can dry out a little. I liked the
combo because the OPI one is thick flakes and the Sephora one is small
flakes and I think the combination was subtle and nice.
- Base: Stella Chroma custom (that I wore for my dissertation defense and passed!)
- Gold: Sephora by OPI It’s Real 18 karat gold topcoat, and OPI The Man with the Golden Gun 18 karat topcoat
It was a hectic chaotic few days. First I had my separate doctoral hooding ceremony and the next day I went to the humongous commencement event. So of course I just very quickly took pictures of my nails outside when the sun peaked out. But I still think you get the gist of what this looks like. Nothing crazy as I didn’t want to distract from my gown. I like how yellow gold the bigger flakes look despite both being 18K.