Absolutely Orange: Part 1

Orange is by far the "it" color in the upcoming spring trends. It's bright, fun, and it absolutely screams warm weather. I've been wearing orange nail polish non stop in order to share my favorites with you. I also would like to share some nail care tips with you because these colors will be drawing a lot of attention to your hands, so they better look perty!

1. Prevent chipping/discoloration - Use a base AND a top coat! A lot of companies make a dual base and top coat, so you don't have to buy two different bottles of polish. Reapply a fresh layer of top coat every day to help the polish stay put. A base coat helps keep the polish on your nail, as well as prevents discoloration which is a big problem for me when using red or orange polish. I use Nail Envy by OPI as a base coat. This is a nail strengthener and works great, but it can make your nails very brittle, which brings me to..
2. Moisturize - You want your nails to have some give, or else they will break right off. You should apply hand lotion after washing your hands, showering, or doing the dishes since soap aids in drying out your hands and nails.
3. Cuticles - Moisturizing also helps keep your cuticles looking neat. The best time to care for your cuticles is after you shower, so they will be nice and soft. Use an Orange Wood Stick to push back your cuticles (I tried to find a link to show you to no avail. They carry them at Ulta for about $1.50 for a pack of 20. They are with all the higher end polishes, not the drug store brands.) Do NOT cut your cuticles! This can cause infection around the base of your nails. Apply a cuticle oil to your nails once or twice a day to keep them supple. I use Avoplex by OPI.
4. Keep them neat - When applying polish, start in the middle of your nail and then push back towards the cuticle to spread it out. This help prevent putting a huge glop of nail polish on your cuticle, so you have less touch ups at the end. If you're having a hard time using that technique, I've found that showering or washing your hands, once the nails are completely dry, really loosens up the polish on the skin and it will wipe right off. If you're in a hurry, you can always use polish remover on a cotton swab, or one of the Orange Wood Sticks.

As I said before, if you're going to be wearing the bright and trendy colors this spring, you want to make sure your hands are presentable since you will be calling so much attention to them. Now onto the colors!

Haute as Hello by Essie

I have a strong love/hate relationship with Essie. I absolute love their colors, they make the most pigmented and beautiful pastels I have ever seen. Almost all of the polishes I use by Essie, however, require three coats. (I'm wearing three coats in this picture) The pay off is usually worth it, but it is very time consuming. You should wait a few minutes between the base coat and each other the layers so the polish doesn't pull and it does help with the dry time in the end. However, even with a quick dry top coat, it usually takes my polish a long time to set. Regardless, I LOVE this color. It's a great spring time color, it's very fresh and innocent. I think this is the perfect color if you want to wear orange, but don't think you can pull off something too bold.

Atomic Orange by OPI

This is a fabulous orange that perfectly captures the vibrant orange trend. I only needed to apply two coats of polish, the pigmentation was awesome. It also dried super fast (I did my first coat when I was on break at school and was able to do hair within 10 minutes without ruining my nails) and applied the second and top coat once I got home. My favorite thing about this color is that it looks great with pale skin from winter, but people with darker skin or who like to tan are also able to pull off this versatile color. (This is almost a duplicate of A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find by OPI, so if you have that, you won't really need both in your collection)

Having these fun and bright colors to look forward to really has me anxious for Spring! Do you have a favorite orange that you are planning on rocking in the next few months? Please share them with me, I would love to know your favorites. Also, please let me know what you thought of my nail care tips, and if you would like to see more. Any feedback is good feedback and I would love to hear from you! Stay tuned for Absolutely Orange: Part 2 where I will be talking about your kisser!

xoxo