Eternal Optimist: Is There Any Feminist Nail polish?

Eternal Optimist: Is There Any Feminist Nail polish?

Jo’Nella Queen Ellerbe August 2013

So, I am in my room sitting on my wicker basket chair, choosing the next shade variant of purple red or blue I will use to paint my nails and I have a stunning revelation, or rather, I’m merely curious about a simple question.  Is there any feminist nail polish? There are literally so many brands of nail polish, some with more practical names than others but why haven’t I seen any called “Womyn in Charge” or “On Her Grind.” I’d like to paint my nails with that. I chose “Eternal Optimist.”

Essie is one of the most popular nail polishes in my collection has some reasonable names such as “Marshmallow” and “Chocolate Cake” whose color thankfully matches the real thing and some funny ones such as “Show Me the Ring” and “Butler Please” Interestingly while on their site I found a yellow tone called “Shifting power”  “Chubby cheeks” and some that are problematic.

“Tom boy No More” a red tone insinuates that it is a bad thing to be a “tom boy” or that bold attractive nails can be achieved once girls let go of their “tom boy identity”. Another color “Mucho Dinero”, a lot of money in Spanish wasn’t even green, which is awkward; it was pale beige, essentially clear polish. I wonder what the reasoning behind this name was because it doesn’t make sense to me. I later looked into who decides what Essie nail polishes are to be named and… they are all allegedly named by one woman, the founder of the company, Essie Weingarten. There is a creative team involved that makes name suggestions, but she ultimately always has the final say.

Through sorting through my nail polish collection and with the power of Google, I learned that find that some of the more offensive misogynistic nail colors existed in lesser known nail polish brands and that OPI prefers the punny approach. Personally, I wouldn’t purchase nail polish called “Lonesome Dove,” “Conquistadorable,” “My Silicone Popped,” “12-inch gang bang,” “Pounded on the Kitchen Table” or “Pearl Harbor” but at least “I only eat salads” is actually green, right?

I do appreciate “Not just a pretty face” “No baggage please” and “Recessionista.” Essie has been pretty solid with props to Brown University in their shades of brown series using names such as “downtown brown town” and “brownie points.” Maybe a color such as “Brown@Brown” is in the near future.

Sites referenced:

http://www.essie.com/Colors.aspxhttp://fashionista.com/2011/04/ever-wonder-how-nail-polish-gets-named-essie-weingarten-yes-that-essie-reveals-her-secrets/http://www.thebeautyclutch.com/opinaponap.htmlhttp://www.thefrisky.com/2010-05-14/the-13-raunchiest-nail-polish-color-names-of-all-time/http://www.bellasugar.com/10-Worst-Nail-Polish-Names-9583336http://www.buzzfeed.com/joannaborns/the-25-most-depressing-nail-polish-color-names-of-8tij