This week I'm making the best of two serious cases of buyer's remorse:

Take, for example, the fetishy, pleather-esque red metallic known as OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress. I fell victim to an old marketing tactic: make it red and shiny. No matter what this shimmery cranberry polish's name alludes to—if not a waitress, then a professional SVU extra? An undercover Page Six reporter eavesdropping on David Schwimmer's lunch at The Smile? The impetus for Kinky Boots?—it doesn't exactly help me dress for the job I want, if you know what I mean.

And, in another instance, Jin Soon's Matte Maker top coat, which, when applied over solid colors, felt too flat, too 2-D. This is a great look for things like magazines and Bart Simpson, but not human nail beds. But when I layer Matte Maker on top of two coats of I'm Not Really a Waitress, it cools the brassy, boastful color down a notch, making it a little bluer, and turns the attention-grabbing reflectiveness into a velvet-y brushed-metal effect. Much better.

—Mackenzie Wagoner

Photos by Mathea Millman.