I have a habit of gravitating toward the same two colors for my nail polish: red or mauve. So naturally, when taking a trip to pick out nail polish with my niece (who is 13 and way cooler than me), I asked for her input. I love red and mauve, but I don’t want to get stuck in a rut. She and I picked out a handful of colors and headed back to paint our nails: the palest blush pink that almost reads white for me, a buttery yellow for her.

She’s very into pastels, lately, and not to be all “I’m not a regular aunt, I’m a cool aunt” but I totally am hopping on that train. I love pastels in general, but for some reason it’s rare that they grace my fingertips. Of course, I also bought a steely blue-grey that was weirdly speaking to me, so maybe I just like everything.

In a Blush

I’m currently wearing “In a Blush” — the palest of pinks by essie from their Treat Love & Color nail strengthener collection. Perfect for dry and brittle nails like mine, it gives you stronger nails in a week with 60% less peeling and 35% less breakage. I’ve been using since the holidays and I’ve already seen a significant improvement. They were weak and peeling from a gel manicure I got in October, and kept breaking if I did so much as type at the wrong angle. 

What I love about these polishes is that you don’t need a base coat or a topcoat — it’s just one step — so they take up way less time and are perfect for traveling. I’m currently on day 6 of this polish and it only just starting to wear at the very tips of my left pointer finger, so I’m going to touch it up and probably try another color in a couple of days — but considering I usually don’t make it past day 2 without chipped nails, I’m pretty impressed!  I picked up a bunch of colors to try (so far I’ve only used “In a Blush” and “Power Punch Pink”), so I’ll show you the rest as I go. I might try “Pinked to Perfection” next!

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