Smokin' Hot!

Here's a fun fact: The first recorded use of grey as a color name in the English language was in AD 700.* Since then, grey has come to be associated with depression, boredom, neutrality, indefiniteness, old age, and contentment. However, as a gal who loves grey, I can't say that I agree with these rather bleak connotations. Rather, shades of grey overwhelm my closet, and as I've confessed in past weeks, grey has recently overtaken my beauty regime as well--and trust me, it's smokin' hot...

Quite literally, in the case of Smokin' Hot, a new polish from Essie's Winter 2010 collection. At first, I wasn't sure about it; I'm not a huge fan of purple, and its appearance in the bottle had an undeniably purple tone to it. Yet, the Essie website calls this nail color a "stone-cold fox gray that burns hotter than any flame," and when applied to the nails, this smoky grey is truly smoldering. As a styling tip, this color is particularly flattering for those with short, square nails; the look is subtly Parisian chic and--appropriately--smokin' hot.

And not to digress, but grey was all over London during Fashion Week this past fall, both on and off the runway. According to Olivia Bergin from the Daily Telegraph online, Grey [enjoyed] a moment as the versatile shade to perfect tricky, trans-seasonal dressing. I would venture to say that, in addition to smoothing the seasonal transition, grey also transitions rather seamlessly from day to night. It is this very fact that makes grey a staple for the gal on the go. A smart grey dress with opaque black tights and black heels is equally office friendly and dinner worthy (especially when you throw on a bit of smoky shadow en route!). You know what they say: where there's smoke there's fire, and my newly polished grey nails are equal parts versatile and (obvi) smokin' hot.

*Okay, okay, so my "fun fact" is from Wikipedia--so please feel free to correct me in the "comments" section if I'm wrong. From what I hear, the truth will set you free!

Psst... Click here to see more images from Olivia Bergin's "Fashion trend: Shades of grey" at the Daily Telegraph online.

Images, in order of appearance: (1) Smokin' Hot nail color by Essie, photo thanks to Essie (www.essie.com); (2) Image from London fashion week, photo thanks to the Daily Telegraph online (http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk).