So, this is a bit of an experiment. I was excitedly bragging to my wife, Sally, driver of the money-incinerating machine that you can ride in and looks like a VW Tiguan, about our traffic numbers recently, and how our percentage of women readers is greater than I’ve ever seen on a car site. That’s fantastic, because cars are for everyone, and we take that seriously. This got her thinking, and she decided to have some fun and celebrate our female-identifying readership, or, really, however you identify, as long as you like painted nails. That’s because she came up with a palette of automotive-inspired nail colors, and was wondering if, maybe, these existed as a thing in reality – Autopian curated car-inspired nail varnish sets – would people be interested in them?
The palette she picked has five car-inspired colors:
Fire Apple: Based on Hunter S. Thompson’s fire-apple red 1971 Chevy Impala convertible from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Yellow Beetle: Based on my own 1973 Beetle! VW called the color Texas Yellow, and it’s just a great, bright, friendly, plucky yellow.
Angelyne: An unashamed, confident pink, based on LA’s famous, enigmatic Angelyne, a woman famous for being on billboards and driving her pink Corvette around LA, and that’s about it
BRG: British Racing Green! The color of all those Jaguars and Bentleys fast enough to escape the clutches of Lucas, the Prince of Darkness
Pao Pow: Okay, so I got two of my cars in here. This one is based on my 1990 Nissan Pao, but the retro quality of this aqua-like color stands in for so many wonderful midcentury cars.
It’s a good palette, with good car references. So, car people who paint nails or know people who do, is this something you might be interested as Autopian merch? We’re just exploring ideas at this point, but we’d love your input, so comment away!
I want to see colors in both Polestar Blue and Shock from the GM palette. (See Corvette, Camaro, and Bolt (yes, the Bolt)
This is a magnificent idea. Pao Pow goes HARD.
I will pay good money for helios blue metallic, hell I would probably buy a subscription to that color if I could.
I think my coworker has that minty shade of green known as Pao Pow on her nails right now. It’s good!
“our percentage of women readers is greater than I’ve ever seen on a car site.”
I neither paint my nails nor am I close enough with anyone who does to make use of this, but I did want to chime in to say this is awesome! It speaks volumes about the work you’re doing here that your audience has expanded beyond the “traditional” automotive demographic of white dudes with really bad taste in car mods. 🙂
Nail polish/Paint scratch filler by The Autopian
You can’t do this without a Miura Green:
https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3994374684_889e3b1ea5_b.jpg
Do they still sell automotive touchup paint in the metal tubes with the nail polish style brush? Okay, they might not come off very easily, but they are available…..
I still have a vial of 1999 Prius Green. Anyone want to buy it?
I don’t wear nail polish, but I would buy these. Might try them as nail polish, but maybe just use them to paint miniatures.
I think my girlfriend would maybe like them as nail polish, too.
Need to add:
Add Some Coolant – fluorescent green/yellow
Flooded Engine Oil – milky-white brown
Hell yes, I’m absolutely in. God only knows how long it’ll last on my hands with how much I abuse them, but I want that green and fire red.
I absolutely adore this idea, and my wife loves it. She’s in on the pink, I’m in on Pao and BRG. You do this, we’ll buy.
Pretty sure my wife would enjoy Pao as a spring color. She was very sad British Racing Green is not available as a color on non-JCW minis* when we bought our last car… It’s a little ‘severe’ for a nail color, but maybe good in fall/winter?
*There is a color called British Racing Green, but it’s metallic with a yellow hue, both of which disqualify it IMO, whereas the JCW color is that lovely traditional dark green
Also, to reassure Master Torch, Mini did studiously avoid making the turn signals look like blinking arrows pointing the wrong direction.
I regret to inform Master Torch that I can only vouch for the F56 Cooper in that respect. I was behind a late model Countryman yesterday at a left turn. Its turn signals were… sinful.
If I were going to paint my nails, British Racing Green would 1000% be the color.
I even looked for some once. But then I realized that it would look like shit after 1 day of doing proper work, so there wasn’t any point.
You really need to make British Racing Green nail epoxy.
Jason, you have to stop eating the week old bean dip. What are you smoking lately?
These fever dream ideas are awesome but rather strange.
Are you kidding?!? This is some of the best Torchtopian to date!
Jason, whatever you’ve been eating/drinking/smoking/snorting/anal suppositorying lately, order the industrial size!!!
yes i was .
Yep, I’d purchase for my girlfriend, who would love this. New merch!!
What, no Hot Wheels Spectraflame? Color me dissapointed.
I’d like ’67 Pontiac Glacier Blue Please.
Hey, if you do that I might consider starting to paint my nails! Maybe I’ll paint my left pinky in the colour of my first car (wine red), and my right pinky the colour of my current one (white).
BTW, I once started a conversation with a girl with the line “your nails are the colour of my car!”. It was the right amount of crazy to get her interested, and a good litmus test for me :-). Didn’t lasted long, but it was fun and ended in good terms.