Sheer Madness

By Melanie Parker

With the temperatures on the rise, I have been drawn to skimpier clothes and sheer polishes. I don't do well in the heat and humidity, so this time of year brings out a minimalist streak in me. I thought with so much focus on the jewel tones coming in nails for Fall, I would change it up a bit and focus on some sheers that I think are in right now.

As previously mentioned in the Jelly Roll article, translucent nail colors are a big trend. So, I was thrilled to come across Nars Ulta Violet. In the bottle it looks like deep ruby red stained glass. On the nails, not so much... Even with three coats of color, it just looked like a sheer lavender gray. If I had to name this polish without having seen the fabulousness of it in the bottle, I would call it The Corpse Has Familiar Nails. I'm not really sure what coloring this polish would lend itself to since I usually like lavender and gray toned polishes like OPI Wyatt Earple Purple and Lovinder with my skintone.


But let's focus on the good. I have 2 favorite sheer pinks. For an opaque crème pink wash on the nails, I love the hue of Color Club's How Sweet It Is. This is a pretty, girly pink that I like to wear on my tips and on my toes with sexy shoes. I usually like a strong, bold pedicure, but there is nothing like a delicate sheer toe polish with a sexy patent leather peep toe or strappy shoe, in my opinion. I think Color Club polishes go on exceptionally smooth and last just as long as any of the other salon formula polishes. This picture was also an experiment I did by having my nail tech square off my nails. Hated it!

My other favorite sheer pink is OPI's Who Needs a Prince. I originally coveted this polish for the name, but in truth, this is the perfect light sheer pink shimmer. It flashes a brighter pink shimmer in the sunlight, but it looks very subtle. OPI I'm Yours is a color twin for Who Needs a Prince?, so if you are looking for a sheer pink with just a little bit o' shimmer, either color will do nicely.

In order to wear sheers, I find that using a ridgefiller as a base coat is imperative to avoid streakiness or the yellow of polish stains from showing through. The Orly Ridgefiller is a smoothing primer basecoat that looks white in the bottle, but dries fairly sheer. Whether your nails have ridges or not, this is an important step. One coat of this base, 2 to 3 coats of sheer color, and a quick drying top coat like Poshe or Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and you have a chic and subtle summer manicure or pedicure in less than 10 minutes.

Disclosure: These products were purchased by the reviewer, Melanie Parker.