To Paint or Not to Paint?

I have always liked wearing nail polish. For as long as I can remember my finger nails tended to split and be weak near their tips no matter what I did to try and remedy them, so I found covering them with nail polish makes them look better (obviously). Also, in the warmer months I always have my toe nails polished so that they look their best in all of my open toe shoes.

However, my love with nail polish in general wavered (how fickle am I?) when I started realizing that Kate and Pippa don't really wear nail polish, or coloured nail polish, themselves.

Since Will and Kate announced their engagement in November of 2010, Kate has stuck to painting her nails with a clear polish, or a sort of pearly white or very pale pink semi-transparent colour. I wouldn't be surprised if generally both sisters weren't big coloured nail polish wearers (maybe it's a Sloaney thing), but I'm sure wearing a blue amethyst on your finger definitely makes it difficult to wear any other colour on your hands :)

Anyways, this was sort of a struggle for me. Did it mean that they were more refined for not wearing coloured polish? I found it hard to just stick with clear or softer more nude colours, as they are harder to apply I find. But I did try. I went out and found Kate's wedding nail polishes and applied them religiously for a while.

All this time later though, I have started to apply my old colours again (pinks, both bolder and paler, as well as sparkly blacks when I felt more daring). However, today I decided to see if either sister ever even painted their toe nails a colour at least! Because now that it's summer again, I really prefer to have my toe nails painted.

So here's what I've dug up!

We know that Kate did have her toes painted, in my opinion, a more daring red a few years ago when she and Will attended an event in London (and she wasn't even wearing pantyhose! Something that, apparently, royal women should always do, even when wearing open toed footwear -something I hate personally as I think it looks awful!).

And here we have a picture of Pippa (I don't know from when) out and about in London - her toes are also painted in a red colour. Interesting.

Personally, I only like red toe nail polish in the fall or winter months. In the summer I prefer bolder or pale pinks or mauves. Red, without a tan, can make your feet look more pale and white and that just doesn't scream summer to me.

In these other pictures though, Pippa is wearing no colour (it appears) at all on her toe nails. She is also wearing pantyhose.... but I guess she was sitting in the Royal box at Wimbledon, so she might have felt compelled to. Good for her I guess, under those circumstances.

At times like these I wish the sisters could share their likes and dislikes and fashion tips with us some way :) Maybe Pippa could write another book, but this time not about cooking but about fashion and accessories (nail polish included)!

So based on this I will continue to polish my toes, but maybe when I do, I will keep my finger nails either natural or painted in a transparent polish or semi-transparent colour. NOTE: I have found that cuticle oil does make a difference in the health of my nails. Applying it with some consistency appears to have made them stronger.