Summer Trend #1: Nail Art

Each year when summer makes it’s entrance, for the fashion and beauty world there’s always a “new” trend on the horizon. Last year the high-low skirt was a hit. Leopard print was (seemingly) everywhere. The wedge sneaker was, and is still in vogue. Yet this year the biggest trend I’m fully indulging in has nothing to do with clothing or shoes, but is just as necessary to complete a chic and polished look: colorful and polished nails. I’ve seen everything at this point thanks to pure street style encounters and through the help of Instagram. There are many different styles to choose from that may or may not cost you a pretty penny. Are you going the natural route? Acrylic? Squared acrylic or stiletto? Gel nails? Do you like brightly colored nails or are you more of a french tip girl? Do you like your polish shiny or matte? Diamonds? Bows? Tribal print? Neon?

Well, whatever you choose your nails should never be disregarded as non-issue. Whether many of us realize it or not everyone at some point notices your nails. (Unless you club for a living.) So if you’re strolling through the day with a chipped up mess or an apparent lack of nail care it won’t go unnoticed. Your colleagues, girlfriends, friends, customers, boyfriends, suitors, enemies, frenemies, barista, nosy neighbor and boss will notice.  Ladies. Even if you don’t have the time or the budget for a professional nail session do NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE with jacked-up fingers. A well done manicure says just as much about a woman’s hygiene as much as her hair maintenance. But I ain’t come here to preach.

I came to share some of my favorite colors and polish brands thus far. I’ve typically become a huge ESSIE fan but I also love Cover Girl and Sally Henson’s polishes as well.

This is Essie in “Mint Mojito”

Also an Essie polish: “Meet Me at Sunset”

Not my own design. Something I saw and thought was quite cute.

Cover Girl’s Outlast Stay Brilliant Polish in a pale blue.

This one is an Essie Polish, “Miss Fancy Pants.” Great color if you like neutral looks.

I’m still playing around with different colors each week, and this is for sure one of my new favorite past times. I prefer to keep my nails simple (read: I’m not that ill yet), but switching up the color every few days gives me a chance to tap into some creativity. Do you have any polish brands and colors you love? Do tell!

Things That Inspire:

(via Kanyewest.org)

“I used to have tracks that sounded like Timbaland; I had tracks that sounded like [DJ Premier]. But Jay-Z was an amazing communicator that made the soul sound extremely popular. And because I could make the soul sound in my sleep, it finally gave me a platform to put the message that my parents put inside of me and that Dead Prez helped to get out of me and Mos Def and [Talib] Kweli, they helped to get out of me: I was able to put it, sloppily rap it, on top of the platform that Jay-Z had created for me.

Before, when I wanted to rap, my raps sounded like a bit like Cam’ron; they sounded a bit like Mase; they sounded a bit like Jay-Z or whoever. And it wasn’t until I hung out with Dead Prez and understood how to make, you know, raps with a message sound cool that I was able to just write “All Falls Down” in 15 minutes.

Is that true?

Yeah, that’s how I discovered my style. I was just hanging out with them all the time in New York. I would produce for them. You know, I was able to slip past everything with a pink polo, but I am Dead Prez. And now, because I was able to slip past, I have a responsibility at all times.”

-Via The New York Times

#SheDidThat

Alicia Keys for Marie Claire UK July 2013 (Photo courtesy of The Fashion Bomb)

Slayed.

Solange Knowles at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in Stephane Rolland Couture