trendshock: day-glo nails

A couple of weeks ago at the Grammy Awards, red-carpet reporters were gushing about Rihanna's bright-orange nails, or "day-glo nails", as they called them. While I had to agree that Ri-Ri's nails looked fresh and fab, I was kind of mystified by the word "day-glo", since I hadn't heard it in ages – probably not since the 80s. What did it mean? Was I alone in my confusion? Possibly, but to satiate my curiosity, of course I had to look it up, and I found out that it's actually a "trademark used for fluorescent coloring agents and materials." Interesting. Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now: day-glo was used to describe the lively coloring of a plethora of 80s fashion atrocities, including, but not limited to: headbands, jelly bangles, sweatshirts and of course, legwarmers. As all things 80s have returned to fashion (whether we like it or not), so too has day-glo, and this time it's making a colorful reappearance in nailcolor. So now that we've got my bookish nerdiness and trip down memory lane out of the way, I give you my polish picks for getting these coveted neon nails:
Creative Nail Design has a cool collection of bold brights called Hot Pop, with a rainbow of crazy colors from yellow to orange to blue and pink. Another fave of mine is OPI's Tangerine Scene, from last year's Psychedelic Summer collection. It's a super-saturated, creamy bold orange that almost glows in the dark.
My one caveat when wearing fluorescent nail shades? Keep the rest of your look simple (i.e. minimal accessories and spare makeup), since your nails will be the accessory.