As I mentioned in a recent post, I’m in Vegas for Cosmoprof which is an annual trade show where beauty brands, typically professional salon & spa lines, sell their products to distributors & buyers all over the world. It’s pretty amazing and after three years of attending it doesn’t get any less overwhelming or tiring.

Today I met with some great brands including China Glaze, CND, Dashing Diva, Orly and Zoya and I finished out the day with a stop by the Nubar booth to meet Nail Files star Katie Cazorla, owner of The Painted Nail salon. I already adored Katie after speaking with her over the phone and, in person, she’s even more adorable. Affable, hilarious, larger than life and yet totally down-to-earth. No matter what you think of her show or reality TV in general, you can’t help but love Katie. She’s a star and all you have to do is meet her and you can see why TV Guide Network would want to give her a show.

Now you know that I went all fangirl over Katie’s gorgeous purple, Legendary Lavender. I’m actually rocking my second pedicure in a row with that color. This is no fling my friends. My love affair is strong. That left me curious to see how some of the other summer collection shades would fare so I decided to try The Painted Nail Citrus Sparkle next.

I’ve been doing quite a few interviews lately for various publications about summer and fall nail trends. Of course we know that crackle is EVERYWHERE, nail art isn’t dying out anytime soon and neutrals have been making a resurgence. But what I find funny is when looks that are pretty much “old hat” in the nail community end up being the “new” hot trend.

I was recently asked by the Style Network’s StyleSpy about the “new” celebrity accent nail trend and the best ways to wear the look. Of course, this isn’t exactly a new look but since so many celebrities have been rocking the accent nail it’s now a thing. My advice has always been to look for contrasting or complementary color combos. Black & white, purple and gold, lime and fuchsia, etc.

For this summer my favorite combination is orange & blue or teal & coral, so I rummaged my untrieds to create a fun accent nail manicure and came up with Deborah Lippmann Lara’s Theme and Orly Frisky.

I’m starting to see a pattern here. I seem to be gravitating towards beiges, periwinkles and oranges lately. Any shade of blue or purple really isn’t a surprise but beige and orange? They aren’t exactly my siren call.

However I’ve been on such an orange kick and I can’t seem to get enough of them. Case in point is Perfect Color Calypso from Perfect Formula. I’ve been dying to wear Calypso but, as you may recall, when I shared Perfect Color Cubist with you I promised to do a wear test to see if it lived up to its Perfect Formula name.

Even though Summer doesn’t technically start for a few more weeks, in the US, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to the season. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. And not just because my birthday usually falls on that weekend but because it means the start of the boating season, trips to Put-In-Bay, cookouts etc. We spent yesterday touring the local wineries with our neighbors and, outside of a few drops of rain, the weather was absolute perfection.

Since orange is looking to be one of the big trends this summer I decided to pull out one of the new Fingerpaints Peace, Love & Color collection nail polishes, Outta Sight Orange.