"wow. sparkles." - NJ

I did not grow up a girly girl, although my mom swears I would only wear dresses until the age of 5. Then something happened and I wore jeans every day until my junior year of college, when I discovered that sometimes skirts were okay. In early adolescence, you could find me in the woods with the neighborhood boys, playing kick the can and touch football. In high school I acted every year and learned how to cake on makeup with the best of them, but refused to wear a drop of it during the regular school day.

While not as advanced as my sister, who could probably stock a sephora with her beauty products, I have since come to embrace the addition of sparkles to my life.

Consider, for example, the nail polish phenomenon. I hate nail polish on my fingers, it chips too easy and looks raggedy about 20 seconds after applying it. But toes? Toes with colors on them are the best thing in the world. In the winter, it's like you've got a secret underneath that boot, and in the summer, it's like saying, "Hey world! Look at me! I sparkle and I like it!"

Real Simple has some good color suggestions. My favorites right now are OPI's Conga Line Coral, described as a "hip-shaking, fiery, orange-rose," and Rimmel's Pulsating, which is a lovely purplish-pink that changes as the light hits it. Love it.