Pretty Nails!

I was raised with a love for eccentric nail polish. It started with my great-aunt Margie. In the summers, we'd visit her at her summer house on Silver Lake in Maine. She would paint her toenails blue because it attracted the minnows when she was soaking her feet in the lake - and she liked how they tickled her feet.

I am a little more sensitive (read: ticklish) when it comes to my feet - but the fascination for brightly colored nail polish stuck. For a while, I spent a lot of time keeping my nails in tip top shape. This was mostly by way of home manicures. I even mastered the self-French manicure!

I gave up on the nails when I started my long commute - mostly due to lack of time and energy. Recently, however, my volunteering has brought me back to thinking about my nails. I volunteer at the Northern Virginia Training Center, a state-run regional residential training center for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The ladies who live in the home I volunteer in love two things - purses and nail polish.

I've been trying to keep up with these ladies - and have been wearing different colors on a weekly basis at their suggestion. I had gotten rid of most of my old nail polish from college and was in need of new polish - on a budget.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear fits that bill. They offer a variety of colors for approximately $2.00 a bottle. Best of all, the colors are fun! So far, I've tried about 6-7 different colors (color shown is Blue Me Away!). It goes on smoothly, and stays for days - I haven't noticed any differences in quality between the expensive stuff and this.