Nail Polish: To Pastel or not to Pastel

Mar 18, 2010 by Natasha

There is no better feeling than to know that spring is around the corner.  No more winter jackets or -more importantly – no more winter boots.  I cannot wait to dust off my peep toe shoes and feel the cool breeze between my toes.

To get ready for leg-bearing apparel, I’m in need of a pedicure. This week, I’ll make an appointment to have my feet messaged, conditioned with some paraffin wax and my toes beautified. This is one of the first things I’ll be doing to get myself mentally prepared for the -hopefully- large amount of sun we’ll be getting this year. If it’s been uncharacteristically warm this winter, it’s only fair to assume summer will follow the same uncharacteristic route. And no, that doesn’t mean we’ll get snow in August. That would really really be wrong.

Back to my almost-happy toes. Choosing a colour for the nails is always a hard thing to do. Sometimes, one decision at the salon ends up looking poor one or two days later. Neon purple does seem cool when you’re there flipping through fashion magazines and feeling the power of colour surging through you. Then, you go home and walk around in flipflops looking like a second grader that just stumbled upon some magic markers and painted away at her toes.

I usually go with an almost nude color for spring, and this year’s heavy favourite seems to be a beautiful pastel pink by OPI called “Sweet heart”. And I think I may have that done when I go for my pedicure. But I can almost hear @nellleo in the background lusting after some colours from the Hong Kong collection. I went to check out the selection and it’s very interesting indeed. Not quite cheery but not pastel either. It looks as though the tones are deep and saturated, and of course the names are too funny to pass up. “Bling Dynasty”, “Dim Sum Plum”, or “A good Man-darin is Hard to Find”.

And while I’m at the site, it’s hard to resist playing with the virtual “try me on” tool that allows you to pick your skin tone and nail length before trying on the colours. It’s a really nice way to see what you like before heading to the store and sneakingly sampling the polishes there.

Hmm, now that I’ve played with several tones -I’m not 100% sure anymore of “Sweetheart”. It just got some major competition.

In any case, you can find OPI nail polish in most salon0s, beauty shops like Trade Secrets and some Shoppers Drug Mart, and they usually retail around $10.

I’ll report back on my eventual nail colour of choice!