Offbeat Chic: Not-So-Perfect Nail Polish

by Cassie Lipp

If you are a woman who talks with her hands a lot, you may obsess over how your nails might look while you are doing it, especially in situation where you want to look well put-together. I try to give my nails a fresh coat of paint to match my outfit for special occasions, such as the time I painted my nails a pretty but not too flashy mint green before my first post-college job interview. To me, looking “professional” meant looking like I spent time to look nice for the interview (a situation with lots of potential for talking with hands). If I lacked the knowledge of HTML code necessary for the job, I would at least paint my nails and print out extra copies of my resume.

I wasn’t always one to think that freshly painted nails were a necessity for any situation. Painting my nails used to be a two-part activity for relieving boredom: painting them when I was bored at home, then picking it off when I was bored in class or at work. I didn’t realize that chipped nail polish looked bad until a (male) coworker noticed my half-eroded nail polish and said I needed a manicure. I only mention that he was a man because this means he had likely never painted his nails before and therefore would have no idea how easily that stuff chips off. Seriously, even the expensive nail polish chips off as easily as the cheap brand. Whoever said the only certainties in life are death and taxes must have also been male, or said this before nail polish was invented.  I also wondered if anyone could even afford a manicure on what we were getting paid to scan tickets and drive a zoo train.

It was his voice in my head that made me paint my nails, or just remove chipped polish in situations where I wanted to look nice. This didn’t last long. When I look back at how much time I put into preparing to look nice for that interview, it was because I had the time. I was in between jobs at the moment and didn’t have much else to do than paint my nails.

I had a lot less to do at this time compared with the time I taught my first creative writing class. I remember being very nervous my first time teaching. What if my lesson was boring? What if it was too long or too short for the class? What if the students thought I was weird? Eventually those fears faded away as I realized all I had to do was stand in the front and talk about my most favorite thing (poetry) with people who were also interested in the subject.

Then came the part where my hands were projected on a large screen in the front of the class while I held a poem we were reading under the document camera. You’d think that this would have been my greatest nightmare, having painted my nails in the past especially for an occasion I knew I’d just be talking with my hands. Yet as I held the book under the document camera to read with the students, I was more focused on my class than my nails. 

I realized that my students probably weren’t thinking my nails looked horrible like my coworker had thought. They were probably more focused on the lesson I was teaching about how different poets interpret subjects in different ways. Instead of my chipped nail polish making me feel insecure, I felt empowered. I was a woman who had so much more to do than paint her nails. And it was projected at the front of the room for everyone to see.

Since then I haven’t cared so much about my nail polish. Whether it’s perfect, whether it’s halfway there or nonexistent doesn’t matter to me, and probably never will. I show others that I am serious about my job through the work I do and the energy I put forth for it. Yes, dressing the part does help show that you are serious in an interview or on the job, but it isn’t the only thing. The next time I go out for a job interview, I’m probably going to spend more time updating my resume with all the things I’ve done since I last worked on it, like writing my first book or becoming a teacher.

Chipped nail polish is a look that any woman could and should pull off. It shows that sometimes you do care about your appearance and like to have some fun, but it’s obviously not the only thing on your mind. Give the societal expectation that women should look perfectly put-together a big middle finger, complete with the polish that chipped off that fingernail. The only way you could go wrong with this look is by intentionally painting only a portion of your nails so that they look chipped. That would be like buying brand new jeans that are already ripped.