“What’s On Your Nails?” with Carla from Product Girl

What’s On Your Nails? is a series focusing on my fellow beauty bloggers and industry insiders, their favorite nail polish and other hot nail topics.Another week, another WOYN? and this week we’ve got Carla from Product Girl who is FINALLY sharing her NOTD with us (j/k Carla). Kids, this girl is a true “product girl” as her knowledge astounds me. Her love of makeup is deep and real and she can recall color names, collections, etc. like no one I’ve met. This girl has it down! Since we chat regularly on IM I get to hear about her beauty hauls which makes me want to run to the mall and spend, spend, spend. That’s the last thing the boyfriend wants to hear. I can’t justify $45 for La Mer lip balm but hearing her rave about it is extremely enabling. For that reason alone I’m avoiding the La Mer counter. Read on to learn more about “Product Girl”, see her favorite red and learn which Sally Beauty find is her go-to top coat.

Introduce yourself to the ALU readers. Tell us a little about you and your blog.
I started Product Girl in September of 2005. I had a personal blog for years and I found myself talking about my beauty purchases more and more. Eventually I decided that those posts needed their own home because I really enjoyed talking about beauty products and that’s how Product Girl was born.

What is your favorite nail polish?
I am absolutely in love with Chanel’s Lotus Rouge nail polish. I’m a sucker for a red, especially blue reds and this red definitely has quite a bit of it. Unfortunately, I don’t wear it as much as I would like to simply because I only have 1 bottle but you actually suggested some shades that help me make do. Plus reds make me feel good, they make me feel a little glamourous.

What is on your tips and toes right now?
Right now I have Essie’s Geranium on my tips and my toes are bare. Geranium is an almost perfect duplicate of NARS Hunger, Hunger has a little more orange to it but you wouldn’t pick up on that unless you compare them side by side.

Do you consider nail polish a beauty necessity or accessory? Why?
To me, it’s an accessory… for now. I’m a reformed nail biter and for years I didn’t really give much thought to what was on my nails. I also got the short end of the stick when it comes to nails. Everyone else in my family has these gorgeous broad, long nails and I have short, stubby, weak ones. I’m starting to work on them though and I definitely have started building a collection of polishes.

How many bottles of nail polish do you own?
I don’t have an exact count on how many bottles I own, mainly because I have products scattered all over the place but I know I have at least 40 of them right now. For the most part, they are different hues of red, mauves, nudes and browns. I’m starting to expand into grays and some more adventurous colors.

How often do you change your nail polish?
Sadly, not as often as I should. It took me about a month to do my nails this time. It’s one of those things that gets put on the to-do list but somehow never gets done until it’s the wrong time. Like this time, I decided to do my nails right between loads of laundry.

Do you have a favorite nail treatment you think my readers should know about? Why is it so fab?
Right now I’m loving INM’s Out the Door top coat. As I mentioned, I often decide to do my nails at the wrong time, like right before bed, and I’m very impatient when it comes to drying time so a speed dry top coat is a must for me. I tried using Seche Vite and didn’t like its consistency so then I started using Poshe. That works like a charm for me but I saw Out the Door in a beauty supply store and picked it up on an impulse. This works even faster than Poshe.

What do you think will be the big nail trend for summer?
It always seems to go back to bright, vivid colors which is great but it seems like I’m seeing more pinks and oranges around this time it seems. I’m not really good at predicting trends though, I just know what I like and what works for me.

What nail trend do you wish would go away?
I do not understand why a person would get a French pedicure, that just seems ridiculous. Just because it looks nice on your fingertips, doesn’t mean it belongs on your toes. Seems like a lose lose situation; either your nails are too long and have the white tip (which then can be uncomfortable) or your nails are too short for the white tip and that just doesn’t look cute either… to me anyhow.

What is the biggest nail faux pas that women make?
Walking around with horribly chipped nail polish, so badly chipped that there’s barely any color left. This is something I’m guilty of doing myself from time to time but at a certain point, your nails are just begging for the nail polish remover.

My thanks to Carla for letting me bully her into showing off her nails. Fanatics make sure you visit Product Girl and see if Carla can enable your next beauty purchase.