This week’s offering: Nail polish.  I had a whole array sent in from Revlon in the most fantastic shades - all my favourites, and bear with me, I’m coming to those in another missive.  But first, I’m really excited about a new range of colours from manicurist to the stars, Deborah Lippmann, and in particular, this one shade: FASHION.  I’ve long been a fan of the neutral nail, a nude shade, beige with the merest hint of pink.  It’s hard to find it in nail salons as you either get something far too taupe-y which makes your nails look like they died but hadn’t quite fallen off yet, or you get a sheer natural, which is not what I’m talking about at all, far too sweet and pretty.  I wanted something J-Lo might have worn, or Brigitte Bardot.. or FAYE DUNAWAY IN THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR! 

Why the block capitals I hear you say?  Because meanwhile, back at the ranch,  I emailed off to a friend the manuscript for my new novel, still called VACATION for the time being, and back came the comment, “the ending’s a little like The Thomas Crown Affair” with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.  It’s one of those films I thought I’d seen, but embarrassingly I hadn’t actually seen it (although really when you consider I’d only seen about two films by the time I was 18, Grease and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory due to severe restrictions being placed on cinema-going activities, I could hardly be blamed for having a few gaps in my movie-education here and there, could I?).  In the end, the only place I could order it was MovieMail, and about three weeks later it arrived.  

What a great film!  And what great nails!  Faye Dunaway does exactly the shade of nude nail polish I wanted!  You get to see a lot of it as she and Steve McQueen play chess, very sexily of course, with her fingers man-handling a phallic shaped chess piece, and gingerly playing with her dress, and it’s all very long, drawn-out and titillating.  Her nails are oval shaped, long, very 1960s, and I prefer mine short and square, which is handy as they never grow that long.

But it inspired me to take off the shade of dark purple I was wearing like some tired old goth, and rummage through the box of beauty goodies by my desk to try Lippmann’s shade of FASHION. In the bottle it still looks a little dead, but on the nails, it’s perfect.  It’s natural, but it’s interesting.  Much classier than a French manicure, and easy to apply.  I usually never attempt to put nail polish on myself, but this shade is foolproof.  I’ll let you know how it lasts - I put on two coats with no under coat, or top coat so we shall see! 

I’m going to watch the film again tonight, this time with my new nails.  I might even have to learn how to play chess. 

LIPPMANN COLLECTION Nail Color in FASHION, is available from Space NK, from April, £14, which seems like a long time to wait, so for those of you who are impatient, you can order directly from her website.