A purple patch.

In the middle of some intense days of work, I took a little time out (30 minutes to be exact) to have my regular manicure.  It's a habit that I go in and out of, depending on what else is going on in my life and how the cash flow is.

When I'm feeling constrained by the requirement to wear a suit, I love to splash on some colour - or go dark and gothic.  Maybe I wear colour on my nails the way men wear ties.

My favourite place to go is the OPI nail bar in David Jones in the Bourke Street Mall.  Prices start at about $10 to just have your nails painted.  The prices go up, the more you have done, but are still reasonable.  It's a great place to sit and watch shoppers.  With all of the OPI colours on display, I love to watch shoppers browse the range and try to predict what they will choose.

I've had some really interesting conversations with other women while we have our nails done too.  It's a networking hot bed!  I've also noticed that I'm usually the girl with the wildest colour choice.

I hadn't been for a while because of life circumstances and I've been three times in the last three weeks.  There are new people there and we're all acquainting ourselves with each other.  The first week, I chose a grey-blue called "I have a herring problem" from the new Holland collection.  The following week I went dark and chose "Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow" which is a green based black from the Spanish Collection.

This week, I went back to Holland and was the first person ever (at the OPI nail bar in David Jones Melbourne) to have their nails painted with a glorious, perfect purple called "Dutch 'ya Just Love OPI?"  Every time I look at the colour I fall in love.

Perfect Purple (c) divacultura 2012

Purple is notoriously difficult to photograph.  Add a little more red and take out a smidgen of blue and you've got the colour.

While I was being painted purple, I admired the New York City Ballet collection which is all very soft pinks, lilacs and blues.  The woman painting my nails shook her head saying they were very nice, but "they're not for you - too subtle!"  What's next?  I really want to surprise her by choosing "Don't Touch my Tutu" but I think I'll go back to Holland and choose "Vampsterdam".

In case you're wondering how I remember all the names and colours - there's an app for that!