A few months ago, I wrote about my quest for a new nail color.  I’d been stuck in a red rut for years, and while I’ll always love that classic, glamour-girl shade, I really wanted to branch out.  Fabulous TFH readers gave me some great suggestions, which solidifed my resolve to try something new. 

For some reason, though, experimenting with a new nail color intimidated me.  Luckily, the OPI website has an awesome feature called “Try On This Color” that allows you to customize an image of a hand with your nail length and skin color and then check out different polishes.  Just playing around on it restored my sense of fun re: manicures.  I had definitely been taking it too seriously. 

Next I dragged my Mister into Sephora, where he waited patiently while I pored over every last color in the SEPHORA by OPI Nail Colour Collection.  Ultimately I settled on a medium purple, Don’t Go There.

I love this shade.  I wore it on fingers and toes for a solid two months with great success.  It’s such a seductive, feminine, unusual color, and I got about a bizillion compliments on it– even from manicurists. 

Don’t Go There is also versatile.  It never looked out of place or distracting with anything I wore, and I would recommend it to almost anyone.  It’s a sassy enough color to warrant its own post in the Sephora blog, which is where the above photo came from.

Purchase SEPHORA by OPI Nail Colour Don’t Go There for $9 on Sephora.com

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With that success under my belt, I went for a bolder shade: SEPHORA by OPI’s Queen of Everything.  Like so much of the SEPHORA by OPI collection, it’s truly unique- primarily silver but with a whisper of gold undertones.      

Undoubtedly, this was a bigger risk than Don’t Go There.  Since I only used it on my toes, the effect was somewhat understated.  Regardless, it’s just a polarizing shade.  My husband actually called it “Mr. Roboto,” though he wisely revised that to “Sexy Terminator.”  So I didn’t get as many compliments, but I still like it and think it would look sizzling hot if I had a good tan.  Or were on a Mexican vacation, which is an excellent idea for multiple reasons.

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This week, though, I even shocked myself by walking into the nail salon and picking a color off the wall.  I have always wanted to be the carefree woman who does that, but since I’m pretty purposeful about my style, it hadn’t ever happened before.  I chose OPI’s Shrek-inspired What’s with the Cattitude?.

Keeping it real, I probably wouldn’t have chosen it if I’d looked at the name.  That’s because:

• I don’t care for cats.
• I’m not into Shrek.
• I don’t like cartoon-related beauty products in general. 

I hate to admit that the name has such an influence on me, but it’s true.  However, it’s a good thing I missed the unappealing name because it’s quite a lovely robin’s egg color.  If classic girly pink polish could be blue instead, it would be this color.  It’s very different for me, but so far I’m loving it. 

Summer fashions allow for a breezier approach, which has been a good thing to remember.  I spent ages looking for the perfect non-red polish, which kept me from ever trying anything.  Since I took ”perfect” out of the equation, I’ve had a lot more fun.  After all, like most women I rarely feel I have much room for error.  Pedicures, at the very least, can be perfectionism-free…

Lucie Amberg is also a contributor to Powder Room Graffiti.