Did you know that it's actually, literally impossible for me to sit still for long enough to allow a manicure to dry properly before getting myself involved in one kind of activity or another that completely destroys it?

I know, you're shocked; go ahead and sit down for a moment if you need to.

Anyway, I've discovered a fantastic little solution for those times when you screw up one or two nails badly enough that you really should just take it all off and start over, but - oops - you don't happen to own the same exact color they used on you at the salon.

At the DKNY shoot last Friday, one of my colleagues had the most beautiful ombre-ish manicure, with the nail on her index finger painted just slightly darker than all the others; a subtler, more elegant version of that ring-finger nail art trend that's been circling around forever and ever now. And so on Saturday, when I decided to splurge on a beautiful pale-grey manicure only to arrive home, tickle my child, and immediately divest my fingernail of every single iota of its former prettiness, I just looked in my drawer, found a slightly darker shade in the same general color family, painted the index finger on both hands, and presto:

Have to say: Elizabeth Arden is killing it with the packaging design lately. First came the 1950s throwback Rose Aurora Collection, and now this new collection for Spring/Summer 2013: New York in Bloom. Pretty flowers on the lid, even prettier colors inside.

My favorite piece from the collection: the Eye Shadow Trio in Violet. It's rare that I see a palette in which I'd use all three shades equally, and this one is straight-up stunning. Try lightening up your lids with the pink shadow (I start with a pale nude or pink shade every single time I apply eyeshadow), then apply the taupe shade for daytime and darken up the creases with the deeper color for evening.