I’ve got to take off this copper nail polish. It started out gorgeous, but now it’s chipped so bad, there’s just a circle of polish in the middle of each nail. Yesterday before writing group, we stood around and looked at each other’s nails. A– was wearing dark gray polish, L– had just had a pedicure and had blue polish on her toes, and N–‘s hands had a sort of maroon red, very shiny polish. N– said my copper nails looked great from far away.
N– said L–‘s blue color was probably from the OPI Smurf line. She agreed with A– that some colors are too young for women of a certain age. That surprised me. I thought nail color was like dessert: you order whatever happens to catch your eye, and as long as you can pay for it, no one judges. But A– and N– said no. Hello Kitty colors, neons, and pastels are out of our range. Actually, pastels should not be worn by anyone.
N– also mentioned a trend called crackling. Yep, just like furniture refinishing. First you do a solid layer, maybe black. Then you do a crackle coat, like maybe red or gold. It goes on like distressed laquer on a dresser. Pretty ugly. That’s the fun of nail color, though. You can choose ugly just because it catches your eye.
I had no idea N– was so knowledgeable about nail care. I took a closer look at her nails and was struck by how pretty they were and how right they looked. She said she did one coat of some color I can’t remember, and then a coat of a lighter color I can’t remember. It created a sort of brownish red that contrasted perfectly with her fair skin. I asked if she painted them herself and she laughed. “I leave my nails and my taxes to the professionals.”
Then writing group started, and we took our nails downstairs and sat in a circle and read stories to each other.