The Trend: Accent Nail

I made public my intention to bring you more nail polish trends, and I’m staying true to my word.  Perhaps you’ve noticed young women with manicures in which the third (ring) finger is a different color from the rest of the nails.  I’ve seen this trend on my favorite online lookbook Atlantic-Pacific, on the show Pretty Little Liars, and on the hands of strangers.  Although it won’t be a staple of my manicures, I dig the look for a little variety, and for the great color combinations.  It can be a really fun way to get creative.

Pink and Taupe

This was my first attempt at the trend.  I painted all my nails except the third one with L’Oreal Penthouse Pink.  Then I painted the third nail with Revlon Bare Bones.  I like the effect of two pastels together in the manicure.  When I first bought the Bare Bones, I found that painting my entire hand in it made my hand look corpse-ish, so it’s a good way to use polishes that perhaps don’t look great in large amounts.

Red and Coral

For years we were told that red and pink did NOT go together…then somebody smart decided that was bunk, and now red and pink is a great color combination.  Here I’m using a more coral pink along with a deep red tone.  For the red, I used Rimmel Stiletto Red and for the coral I used essie Cute as a Button.   This is another instance in which I used a more “difficult” polish for the third nail.  In this case, this particular shade of polish from essie takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to dry so I rarely apply it because I have to commit to three hours of not touching anything.  But for just two nails out of ten?  I can handle that.

Mint and Green

Like the example before, I stayed in the same color family for this mint and teal-green manicure.  The main color is Revlon Minted, while the accent color is Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion.  A word to the wise on the Revlon Minted.  Although I gushed about this shade in a previous post, I’m finding that it doesn’t age well.  I’ve probably used it six or seven times, and it’s already become thick and dries bumpy.  The more exposure your polish has to the air, the faster it ages, leading to those air bubbles under the coat of polish.  I would expect this from a polish six months old that had been used, say 10, 12, 15 times.  But I got this shade just three months ago.  Maybe it’s my particular bottle, but just wanted to put that warning out there.

Mint and Sparkle

If this trend is a bit too wacky for you, why not try something more subtle?  In this example, I painted my whole hand with Revlon Minted, but then just put a couple coats of Ulta Love Fern over the top of the third nail.  You still get the effect of some variety on your hand, but it’s a simple embellishment and you can still see the main color underneath.

Has anyone else noticed this trend?  What do you think?  Would you wear it?