Rainbow of nail colors
The other day I went to a yoga class. I’m still sore. But while I was in the class, I had ample leisurely time to study all the other women’s pedicures. And you know what? Every. Single. One. had a recent pedicure. And ALL of the pedicures were in really bright colors: lime green, hot pink, yellow, silver…. I had on a barely-there pink iridescent pedicure. I was definitely Out Of Touch in my toes.
So another clear trend for Summer/Fall 2012 is the bright/fun manicure and pedicure. It used to be that when you went to a nail salon, there were 50 shades of red. While red is still a pretty dominant color in real salons, the pages of Glamour only showed red/pink nail polish where required to fill out the rainbow of shades. In the cover picture, Victoria Beckham is wearing polish so dark purple as to be almost black. There are blues and greens and gold sparkles.
There’s also a lot of decorative nail art. There are nail stencils, that allow you to do fun designs with no skill required. There are crackle finishes. Possibly one of my favorites, which I’ve so far managed not to buy, is magnetic nail polish. You put it on and then you use a magnet and filings in the polish make patterns. That’s almost as cool as my photosensitive nail polish!
Now I love colors. I have about 90 pens on my desk, all in various interesting colors. I actually keep a few boring one son my desk in case someone needs to borrow one that is more serious. So obviously, this whole nail phenomenon is great! I love colors! And they’re “stylish”, so I have every excuse to wear them… right?
This is a situation where I feel like I need to be careful. I think it’s a bit risky to wholeheartedly embrace this trend, even though it’s extremely tempting to. Remember that just because something is fashionable does not necessarily mean that it is professional. (You would probably get kicked out of most work places if you showed up in clothing straight from a fashion runway. Either that or they would call an ambulance…)
So here’s how I’m splitting the difference: I can wear fun nail colors as long as they match with my outfit. For instance, I went to Atlanta the other day. While there, I wore a beige suit and a “statement” red necklace. I got a manicure with polish to match the necklace. If I had a meeting and I was going to wear purple, then I’d do a nail color that matched the purple. This helps take the trend and tie it more firmly to your style. You can have fun, but not edge to far from professional.
And hey, I found this really fun manicure blog, The Daily Nail. I can barely get polish onto my fingers, but this person does some truly amazing art on her hands.
So… do you have a manicure/pedicure? Is it always the same color, or is it a variety? Do you love the fun colors and wild effects, or do you feel like they’re too conspicuous. Do you think nail art is professional? What’s your take?
Technically Pretty 