Beauty Buzz: Spring Colors For Your Nails (And Grey Is One Of Them)

It’s transition time: the halfway point between spring and summer. It’s also time to bring out the peep-toe pumps.

If you’re anything like me, baring your first pedicure of the season to the world is never the most fun thing. And let’s not discuss the state of my winter-white hands.

So I always try to start off on the right foot (heh heh) with a fun, trendy nail polish color. 

My favorite (but only for feet, I’m not brave enough to wear it on my hands) is China Glaze’s Celtic Sun ($2.68). A bright, sunny yellow, it reminds me of daffodils. The warmth of the color might be overpowering for those of you with cool-toned skin, but with the right shoes, anything is possible.

Also high on the list are sweet pastels. Spring is the time of new beginnings, and what better way to celebrate than with baby pinks and sweet peaches? An oldie (but goodie) is Zoya Bailey ($6), a sheer, shimmery pink that’s flattering on a wide array of skin tones. Also check out Essie’s Tie the Knot ($8) for a gorgeous shade of buff.

Now, we come to the two trends I just don’t understand (possibly because they’re corpse-like on my warm-toned skin) - dove grey and lavender. Grey is the hot color of the season. If you’re interested (and I totally was), check out Essie’s Great Expectations above. ($8)

For lavender, Zoya’s Miley ($6) is an understated, yet current shade.

Find the perfect sandals to pair with your pedicure in our Guide to Spring Shoe Trends.  

Deal Of The Day: 25% Off OPI Polishes At Drugstore.com

Pedicure season is off and running. Prep your tootsies for their sandal debut with salon-quality polishes from OPI. Everyone is (naturally) enamored of classic shades like the 25-year-old line's debut hue I'm Not Really A Waitress, but there are tons of other funky colors with even funkier names to experiment with. Use this 25 percent off sale as an opportunity to test drive colors you've never tried. Who knows? You may just find a new must-have classic to add to your lacquer collection.


Cotton candy pink and so very ladylike, nail lacquer in Strawberry Margarita ($6.14, was $8.19) can skew either Spring Break or Charlotte from Sex and the City. With a bangin' bronze glow and bright white flip flops, you'll be recalling your favorite beach bash moments. But pair this polish with a Jackie O-style shift and black patent peep toes, and the look becomes pure Park Avenue.


The new neutrals — tawnies, creams, and oysters — are in for spring, and metallics are here to stay. That's two marks in the plus column for Will You Mari-Achi Me ($6.14, was $8.19). The shiny shade takes on different hues in different lights; sometimes it's lavender-infused gray, other times its pinky beige, so it's bound to match whatever you wear for as long as it lasts. Bonus: metallic polishes hide little flubs and air bubbles better than matte polishes.


You wouldn't brave April showers without a raincoat, so why would you expose your freshly painted nails to the elements? Classic OPI Top Coat ($6.14, was $8.19) strengthens nails as it extends the life of your mani or pedi. Use it to boost your new favorite OPI shades, or just add a coat on top of your drugstore polish to give it a professional-looking sheen and a few extra chip-free days.

More deals for net-savvy shoppers:

Form-fitting tees from Velvet by Graham & Spencer are 25% off at Tobi.

Hit "The End of Sales" at YOOX and take up to an extra 80% off.

Spend $50 at Sephora and enter the code SHIPPING50 for free shipping through the end of the month.

SheFinds Solution: Don’t Ruin Another Pedicure

I was so excited over the weekend to finally have some time to get a new pedicure (I think my last one was in January - I know, I should be punished), get some shopping done, and relax with the fashion mags that have been piling up on my coffee table. The plan was pedicure first, shopping second, relaxing third. Well, the pedicure was great. I chose a deep and kitschy Boris And Natasha from OPI, and made sure to sit under that toe-dryer for 3 whole rotations before taking my freezing, thong-clad feet home - whereupon I waited another 45 minutes before pulling on my socks. After a day of shopping, I returned, pulled off my shoes, put my feet up to relax, and UGHHHH - noticed that the polish on my big toes had smudged. How was this possible? Would I ever be able to get through a full 24 - or even 12 - hours without screwing up either my mani or pedi? Since I know I'm not alone in my frustration, I decided to seek out the best products for getting your nails dry and preventing the dreaded smudge factor. 

For a quick spritz and run, opt for the Orly Non-Aerosol Spray ($7.95) to help dry polish faster. The drying liquid comes out as a very light mist, so there's no danger of big, messy droplets falling from the bottle.   

The OPI Drip Dry ($12-$24) acts like a fast-drying oil of sorts. It comes in a dropper, and after two drops of the liquid on each nail, your nails are not only dry, but your cuticles are plenty moisturized.

The market is saturated with tons of top coats all claiming to dry your nails in no time flat. So instead of feeding into the hype, I rely on the one that all my friends swear by (and of which I am now a huge fan): Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Top Coat ($5).

Goth Waitresses From Coney Island Love OPI Nails (And So Do We)

And OPI said, "Let there be I'm Not Really A Waitress." And it was good. So was Lincoln Park After Dark and Coney Island Cotton Candy. So good, in fact, that these cleverly-named colors became OPI's best-selling nail polishes ever. Why? Well, we like to think it has something to do with the kitschy names, but mere words do not a beauty best-seller make. It takes more than that to earn a coveted spot in the Hall of Fame.

I'm absolutely not a manicurist (in fact I'm an exceedingly terrible nail-painter), so I was thrilled when Lincoln Park After Dark went on cleanly, without gloppiness--quite professional looking, really. This miracle was due primarily to the extra-thick brush, designed to hold more paint and spread it more evenly. The polish is also thick enough to only need two layers, which saved me from my own future mistakes. This OPI polish left my nails nicely glossy, and the deep purple, almost black color is just rich enough to be intriguing without looking goth.

I did up most of my toes with I'm Not Really A Waitress, a reliable red that's attention-grabbing but not drastically so, and one lone big toe with the pinkish Coney Island Cotton Candy. Personally I preferred the red for my toes, because it's a stronger color, and would probably reserve the subtle Cotton Candy for day-to-day use on my hands. These three colors are OPI's best-sellers for good reason. They're classic and sophisticated, fast-drying, and hard to chip. But the company has also come out with some new bolder, funkier colors, so check out their website for more options. 

Get Yours: $7.50 at Drugstore.com or Amazon.

Beauty Find: Precious Metals For Your Fingers And Toes

Friday is a good day to buy yourself a gift. Maybe not an all-in, blow-the-week's-paycheck gift...maybe just something that mimics real bling. These precious polishes are the perfect stand-in: Splurge on the set, and wear a different one every day this weekend.

Steel-ing the Scene by Essie ($7) is a dark silvery-gray color that - even though, we know, pale winter toes aren't the ideal state of affairs - looks pretty good on pale winter toes. 

A great shade if you've only got ten minutes to self-manicure, Lippmann Collection Nail Color in Diamonds and Pearls ($15) is tough to make look messy. A sheer, shiny topcoat-like polish flecked with iridescent bits of sparkle, it's a glamorous but low-mainetnance alternative to naked nails. 

Buy Me a Cameo by Essie ($8) has been my standard vacation shade since I've been getting pre-vacation pedicures; it looks equally chic with floaty florals and severe stilettos, on tanned and on woefully un-tanned skin.

Beauty Trend Alert: Fake Nails Are Back

What: Kiss Broadway Glue-On Nails, $10.24

Huh?: In high school, I was a huge fan of the acrylics. The majority of my allowance money went towards the maintenance of my nails - now granted I grew up in New Jersey, so it was somewhat of a requirement to have long nails and large, pouffy bangs - of which I had both but we'll save the bang conversation for another day. When I departed the jerz for the bright lights of the big city, I thought I had left my adolescent fashion choices behind never to resurface. Until I was introduced to Kiss Broadway Glue-On Nails. Touted as the modern day, upgraded version of Lee Press-Ons, I scoffed at the concept of reverting back to not only artifical nails in general, but plastic, do-it-yourself ones. However for entertainment's sake, I tried them out. Lo and behold, a week and a half later, these guys are still firmly planted on my fingers. And I love them! They look completely natural, and can be cut, filed, and shaped to fit any nail. Each kit comes with instructions, nail glue, and a set of 24 to 48 nails in 12 different sizes. The back of each nail has a sizing number so you can go up or down if it's not a fit. Each nail looks smooth and polished, and there's no annoying polish chipping, cracking, or smearing - which always haunts me after a manicure. I swear, I took home six boxes and plan on wearing these for a very long time. Who knows - I might even start teasing my bangs again.

Get Yours: Amazon.com   

The Latest Classics:  New Color For Your Nails

I've always been inclined to experiment with nail color.  In high school, I proudly sported the neon yellow, and in college I moved onto gothic black - much to the chagrin of my preppy social circle . But few colors stuck around for long (thank God). Here are a few of the newest classics that have taken the nail world by storm. These polishes are painted on the fingers of fashionable gals season after season, proving that no matter the trend, they are here to stay.

Opi's Lincoln Park After Dark seemed like a passing fad at first - one of many uber dark polishes that were sure to fall to the wayside once the dark nail craze died out. But lo and behold, we are still flocking towards this midnight purple years after its debut. I continually have a hard time finding a nail salon that can keep it in stock. This color brings a rocker edge to every hand it adorns without going too far into goth territory. I am also a fan of Chanel's Vamp - which appeared over a decade ago but is still a coveted favorite among many fashion forward celebs. (if they can find it on ebay!)

Nude nails have always been a classic, but only recently have they won out over french tips and pinkish hues. The neutral beige of Estee Lauder's Peach Sorbet has risen ahead of the competition, mostly due to the subtle sophistication it exudes.

The color red conveys statements of power, allure, and attention-grabbing ferocity. Gone are the days when our red nails were the color of stop signs or cherry tomatoes. The new red is a dark, seductive color with a touch of woody brown, as in this Jungle Red by NARS . It is sexy, mature, and sure to remain a modern beauty staple.

Three-For-All: Dreamy Dark Nails

The dark nail trend has flourished and faded and flourished again ever since Chanel introduced their iconic Vamp shade in 1994. You can no longer buy the first favorite of vampy vixens and gothic-minded fashionistas (although Chanel's Madness shade, $19, comes pretty darn close), but the dark berry nail trend is again on an upswing, so there are plenty of deep, daring shades out there.

The Shining Star: Creative Nail Dessign's Baroque shade ($6) is a plummy polish the pros would pick. The deep boysenberry shade has a hint of pearly shimmer, so mistakes are less noticeable (read: you can do digit detail on the train and arrive at your final destination with a dry, flawless-looking manicure).

The Bargain Buy: E.L.F.'s polish in Dark Red only costs a buck, so when the trend inevitably goes the way of culottes and cutouts, you won't have to feel guilty about dropping a lot of dough. Take a trendy test drive with this matte polish, but be prepared to apply a couple coats to get the desired almost-black effect.

The Classic With a Twist: Essie is best known for their sweet, girly shades like baby pink Ballet Slipper and and peachy Dune Road, but that doesn't mean Essie doesn't have a dark side, too. Their merlot-hued Decadent Diva polish ($5) will go on perfectly and stay chip-free (credit the well-designed brush and salon-quality formula for that), so you can rock the trend 'til it goes out of style.

Did we miss your favorite? Tell us all about your chic dark polish picks in the comments section.