Live Like Your Nail Color,
Even If You Have Naked Nails
Also by Mary Foley
Bodacious! Woman: Outrageously In Charge of Your Life and
Lovin’ It!
Bodacious! Career: Outrageous Success for Working Women
Live Like Your Nail Color,
Even If You Have Naked Nails
Discovering Sanity, Confidence, and
Fun at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes!
M F
Live Like Your Nail Color, Even If You Have Naked Nails
Discovering Sanity, Confidence, and Fun at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
Copyright © 2010 Mary Foley. All rights reserved.
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Live Like Your Nail Color® is a registered trademark of Bodacious! Ventures, LLC
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ISBN 978-1-60037-685-6
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is book is dedicated to every woman who has ever wanted
more sanity, confidence, and fun in her life. May she always find
the perfect nail color with an inspiring name when she needs it.
Contents
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Step 1: Get Naked. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Step 2: Protect Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Step 3: Pick a Polish on Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Step 4: Top it Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
You Nailed It! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
row Your Own Live Like Your Nail Color Party! . . . . . . . . 97
Who Makes at Nail Color? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
- vii -
About the Author
Mary Foley has a reputation for her spunk and experience.
Fresh out of college, Mary set aside her hard-earned engineering
degree from Virginia Tech, to search for a career she loved. She
took a job as an $8 an hour customer service representative “just
to pay the bills” at the then-unknown America Online.
Within 10 years of AOL’s hyper-growth, Mary was promoted
four times, survived six layoffs, and became AOL’s first head of
Corporate Training. While her career shot up, Mary’s personal life
was challenged by a difficult, sometimes threatening, marriage.
When she unexpectedly hit the glass ceiling, Mary reached deep
inside to find the inner courage - the bodaciousness - to recreate
her life. at decision set her on a path where she has never
looked back.
After earning her Master’s degree in Organization
Development from Pepperdine University, she authored two
books, including Bodacious! Woman: Outrageously in Charge of
Your Life and Lovin’ It, became a popular speaker to women’s
groups, and became co-host of the “Girlfriend We Gotta Talk”
radio show.
In her media adventures, she has been on the cover of
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and spoofed on the E!
Entertainment TV Show “ e Soup.” Spoofed or not, Mary
takes it all in stride. She says wearing red nail polish helps! Wanna
know more? Go to www.LiveLikeYourNailColor.com
- ix -
Acknowledgements
I may seem like a Bodacious Wonder Woman, but that’s only
because I’ve had a lot of help!
To my Mom and Dad, thanks for the gift of laughter and showing
me that there is everyday humor begging to be recognized.
To Leslie, Amy, Angeline, Ashley, Sara, and Aunt Mary, thanks
for enthusiastically trying each new nail color I created and how
I’m helping women live like them.
To Charley, Tim, Louie, and Mitchell, thanks for putting up with
all the family estrogen.
To Tiane Mitchell-Gordon, Joanne Rae, Deborah McComas,
Carolyn Burton, Julene Donnay, Norma Pierce, Debbie Wood,
Tammy Motola, Michele Schutt, Rosalind Battle, Lynette
Patterson, Amy Burman, Claudia Ogborn, Christine Cavenaugh,
and Zoey, thanks for your terrific stories of how you live like your
nail color. May you have many more!
To Casey Quinlan, Susan Banton, Vickie Griffith, and Susie
Galvez, thanks for being my Live Like Your Nail Color Party
companions and allowing me to share our experience with
others.
- xi -
To all the gals of the American Business Women’s Association
throughout the country who invited me to share how to live like
your nail color with the gals in your area, thanks for your amazing
outpouring of enthusiasm and support.
To Vicky Wells and Debbie Ally, thanks for your caring support
in the office, on the road, and online. You are the best cheerleaders
an entreprenuer ever had!
To Susie Galvez, thanks for your friendship, laughter, and kick
in the pants when I needed it. I so appreciate your creative and
generous spirit…and love for a good glass of wine!
To David, Cindy, Jim, Margo, Rick, Megan, Bethany, and the
entire team at Morgan James Publishing, thanks for partnering
with me to put my message in print and get it out into the world.
To Clara Wallace of ClaraWallace.com, thanks for your creative,
fun illustrations that truly capture the live like your nail color
spirit. e bonus is I’ve found a way to instantly look 20 years
younger without any hassle!
To Amy Burman, thanks for finding all of my out-of-place
commas and out-of-whack verb tense. Your lightening fast editing
expertise continues to amaze me.
To Kate Smith, thanks for your sparkling spirit and love of color.
You are one class act!
To Kathleen Parrish, thanks for getting me to think about the
greatest gift any woman can give herself.
- xii -
To Sharon Heggie, thanks for sharing your Mom’s wit and
wisdom. I will never forget it!
To Tara Reed, Shela Dean, Susie Galvez, and Libby Gill, thanks
for your valuable feedback that made this a better book.
To Susie Hayman, thanks for a fresh pair of keen eyes that always
seem to catch typos others don’t, especially mine.
To Libby Gill, thanks for your wisdom and guidance in shaping
my message and brand. Your clarity has been priceless!
To Jennifer Saunders, thanks for your friendship and sincere,
enthusiastic comment that became an important ah-ha moment
in bringing the live like your nail color message to life.
To Jane Ferrara, thanks for your support and passion to help your
daughters start living like their nail color early in life.
To Elizabeth Cardaropoli, thanks for your massage therapy on
my aching back and my spirit when they both felt worn out.
And, to Bill Eastman, my Crazy Glue, extra special thanks for
keeping me laughing, well fed, and feeling loved. You were worth
the wait!
- xiii -
Inspiration at the Tips of
Your Fingers or Toes
I
t happened quite unexpectedly five years ago. At the time I
usually sported simple “naked nails” and didn’t pay much
attention to my hands. A manicure felt like such a luxury
of time and money, something I imagined done only by wealthy
country club women who worried about head-to-toe scrutiny
by mint-julep sipping women. Such frivolity was certainly not
something for a working girl like me with a demanding full-time
career, responsibilities, and a hectic schedule.
Well, except for special occasions. at night was one of
those special occasions. I was going to a business event where I
wanted to look fabulous from my head all the way down to my
fingertips. So, I snuck in a late afternoon manicure at a nearby
nail salon to have my hands prettied up, and took a desperately
needed break.
To me, the best part of getting your nails done is watching
your plain, ordinary fingernails that usually blend into the rest
of your hand suddenly transform into these wonderful bursts
of color. e worse part of getting your nails done is waiting…
for…the… nail color....to…dry. Ugh. Let’s just say waiting and
being patient are not my top strengths.
I was determined, however, to look good that night, so I did
my best to sit quietly with my hands under the dryer…waiting…
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Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
for…the…nail color …to…dry. In an attempt to keep my mind
busy and my hands still, I turned my attention to my bright
new bottle of nail polish. I just loved the color. It was a luscious
combination of hot pink and red that made me smile just looking
at my fingertips. “What’s the name of this color?” I wondered.
I carefully picked up the bottle, so as to not mess up my drying
nails, and turned it over. e label simply stated Wild Berry, but
in my mind’s eye I saw Mae West meets Cats with a raspy, full-
throttle “Wiiiilllld Berry!”
What immediately followed was a phrase that crossed my
mind and has never left: I want to live like my nail color! I wanted
to feel truly wild, energized and passionate about who I am and
what I am doing with my life. I wanted to feel confident. And I
wanted to have more fun!
I know I’m not alone. Eighty-four percent of women I
surveyed paint their nails with such creatively named colors as
Lacquered Up, Ballet Slippers, My Chihuahua Bites, and I’m
Not Really a Waitress. With nail color names like these, the
problem isn’t being inspired; the challenge is staying inspired day
after day, week after week, through good times and bad. Truth
is, there are times when we want to feel like Wild Berry, but
constant demands, changing circumstances, and gnawing doubt
often make us feel more like the color Wet Leaves. (Which to my
knowledge isn’t a real nail color. I mean seriously, who would buy
it, except perhaps a chronic complainer? And I doubt seriously
if Cathy Complainer even paints her nails, because she knows
that she will eventually have to redo them, and that’s just another
dang thing on her to-do list!)
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Live Like Your Nail Color, Even if You Have Naked Nails
Colorful Nails Haven’t Always Been Easy or Inspiring
Women have been coloring their nails for a long time, but it
hasn’t always been as easy or fun as it is today. e Chinese
started experimenting with a nail polish around 3000 B.C. using
a concoction of beeswax, gelatin, and gum. Orchid and rose
petals were used to create colors ranging from pink to red, but it
had to be on your nails for a few hours or overnight to work. Talk
about waiting…for…the…nail color…to…dry!
en around 600 B.C., the Chou Dynasty preferred gold
and silver nails – but only for the upper class. If anyone from the
lower class attempted to wear nail polish, they could be punished
by death. I’m sure if they named their nail colors back then, the
silver polish would be called Color to Die For and the gold polish
would have been called You Bet Your Life!
e Egyptian upper class used nail polish to signify
money and prosperity. Cleopatra, the original beauty queen,
apparently favored a deep rust-red color. Women of lower
stature were permitted to wear only pale hues, but, hey, at
least they could live.
e big break for nail polish, and thus all women, came in
1925 when a totally new composition of nail polish, based on
automobile paint, was invented. Nail polish immediately became
easier to produce, easier to apply, and could be created in a whole
bunch of colors. Fast forward to today and we have nail color
options galore! Now the challenge is picking a color – with a great
name – among the myriad of fab options. ankfully, no woman
is threatened with her life because of the color she wears, with
one exception – when the mother of a teenage daughter decries,
“You aren’t going out of this house with that on, are you?”
-3-
Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
Mild or Wild?
What about you? Take a quick look at your nails right now. What
nail color are you wearing and what does it say about you? Many
women I meet have a French manicure. ey are usually classy,
sophisticated, and incredibly practical. With just a touch of white
on the nail tip, a French manicure makes your nails look finished
and goes with any outfit. As one gal told me, “A French manicure
is like diamonds. It goes with everything!” But being practical
doesn’t mean being boring.
One afternoon I was getting my nails done along with my
friend Alice, who decided to get a French manicure. When it
came time for the white polish, I naively thought that the nail
tech would simply pull out a bottle labeled “white.” Ooooooh
noooooooo. Instead, Alice walked over to a wall – yes wall – of
white polishes: Bright white, off white, creamy white, pinkish
white, bluish white, purplish white, brownish white, kinda white,
sorta white, not quite white, you-name-it-white. Whatever shade
of white you wanted, I’m sure it was there.
To my delight, Alice picked a white color called White
Limousine. Immediately I thought of her dressed in a smart
business suit with her French manicure, riding in a white limo
that pulls up in front of a swanky restaurant. e chauffer opens
her limo door, and she confidently walks into the restaurant to
make the deal! All that because the polish wasn’t just white. It was
White Limousine.
For those who want a little more color, but still want to
remain on the milder side, a shade of brown is a good nail color.
As the UPS tag line asks, “What can brown do for you?” Well,
for starters, brown can get me some Like You a Latte polish first
thing in the morning to go with my Cinnamon Buns color.
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Live Like Your Nail Color, Even if You Have Naked Nails
Later today brown can fetch me some bubbly so we can celebrate
with Champagne ursdays polish. In the meantime you might
want to send out those packages. (I just made up these nail color
names; I love doing that!)
According to my friend and color expert Kate Smith who
created SensationalColor.com, “brown says stability, reliability,
and approachability. It is the color of our earth and is associated
with all things natural or organic.” e woman who wears cream,
tan, or any shade of brown nail polish tends to be that way, too.
She’s often the gal who you think of as grounded, someone you
can say anything to and she doesn’t get upset. Maybe that’s you,
at least when your hormones aren’t out of whack and the planets
are aligned just so.
A very popular nail polish color is pink, the quintessential
girly color. “Pink is the color of happiness and is sometimes
seen as lighthearted. For women who are often overworked and
overburdened, an attraction to pink may speak of a desire for the
more carefree days of childhood,” says Smith. No wonder pink is
so popular! Know of any overworked women?
For the milder child there’s light to medium pink. ese have
got to be the pinks that Smith says encourage friendliness while
discouraging aggression and ill will. Apparently, it’s working,
because she writes that pink paint has been used in prison holding
cells to reduce erratic behavior. I have a hunch this isn’t the only
tension-filled environment that could use some pink paint.
For the wilder child there’s bright pink, also known as hot
pink, as in the nail color Pistol Packing Pink. “Brighter pinks are
youthful, fun, and exciting” according to Smith, which pretty
much sums up the women I know who love wearing bright pink.
Okay, so they may not be chronologically young, but they certainly
feel young, which is often expressed by their chattiness punctuated
-5-
Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
by witty remarks and laughter. is description fits my friend and
radio show co-host Susie Galvez to a tee. In fact, it’s no surprise to
me that she came up with the name of our radio show: “Girlfriend
We Gotta Talk!” Susie is known as the “pink one” on the show
because, yes, hot pink is one of her favorite colors.
Guess what color I’m known for? Red! Which is also the
nail color that most women feel is the wildest of all. “When in
doubt wear red,” said the famous fashion designer Bill Blass. is
might lead you to think that women who wear red nail polish
doubt themselves all the time! Au contraire, my fine friend. Red
encourages action and confidence, increases enthusiasm, and
stimulates energy, Smith says. It’s the color most associated with
passion and intensity, and is one of the top nail color choices
for toenails. So, don’t let a French manicure or mild colored
fingernails fool ya. ere are plenty of women with a mild “Oh-
la-la” on their fingers while they sport a wild “Va-va-voom” on
their toes!
One of my favorite stories about red polish is from my friend
Tiane who I met when we worked together in the AOL human
resources department. At the time I was the head of corporate
training and she was an HR Director on her way up. She was
incredibly smart about managing executives’ expectations and
motivating those who worked for them. I loved how she skillfully
and soulfully would say it like it is – a quality that endeared her
to many and dumbfounded the rest.
Over time her focus on diversity earned her a seat at the CEO
table as the Vice-President of Diversity and Inclusion for the
company. en one day she sent me an e-mail telling me that she
was totally caught off-guard at the latest executive management
meeting. e new Chairman and CEO announced her promotion
to Senior Vice-President of Diversity and Inclusion. at made
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Live Like Your Nail Color, Even if You Have Naked Nails
her one of the top females in the company! “And the nail polish I
was wearing when the announcement came was a red color called
at’s Berry Daring!” she told me. I was even more proud!
French manicure, brown, pink, and red. In my opinion, these
are the four basic nail color categories. Which one is most like
you? Are you mild or wild? Do you mix it up? Whichever nail
color you choose to wear says something about you. e good
news is that you can try a new color at any time – to enhance
your mood, to go with an outfit, or to be a bit daring! For
example, black has gained popularity, to many women’s chagrin.
And shades of blue have become popular. However, I hope to
never see them together. “Hey look, my nails are black and blue!”
Given that option, I’ll take naked nails.
Be Proud of Your Naked Nails
It happens almost every time. As I’m chatting with people before
I speak to a group, at least one woman will come up to introduce
herself and before I can say a word she starts apologizing. Suddenly
we’re in an invisible confessional and she can barely look me in
the eye as she blurts out that she’s not wearing any polish. She
shows me her hands and it’s true. She has naked nails! She goes
on to tell me that her finger nails are too short, too stubby, or too
ugly for polish. I deliberately clear my throat and respond:
Hear ye! Hear ye! May it be proclaimed today in the
presence of Almighty God and all the women here
that no women anywhere need be ashamed of her
naked nails. Indeed, may she be proud! Such a bare
state of affairs means she is willing to be her true,
authentic self and show it to the world.
-7-
Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
Okay, so I really don’t strike a pose, unravel a fake scroll, and
make a proclamation. But I do take her hand, look at her nails
and say, “Be proud of your naked nails!” ese are the nails God
gave you. ey protect the tips of your fingers, which help you
perform a zillion things a day – from washing your face to typing
on your keyboard to putting food in your mouth. ey increase
your tactile sensitivity by providing your fingertips something to
push against. And, perhaps one of the most underrated things
of all, they help you pick up the back of your earring that keeps
falling off, dagnabit, and put it back on!
So, never, ever be ashamed of naked nails. Or nekkid nails
for that matter. Yes, there is a difference. Naked means you don’t
have anything on. Nekkid means you don’t have anything on –
and you’re up to something (hopefully something good, really
good!). Only you can decide if you have naked nails or nekkid
nails. And personal experience has shown me that you can go
from naked to nekkid in a nanosecond!
oenails
Yes, T Count
Funny thing is that when I ask gals who confess their naked or
nekkid finger nails if they polish their toe nails, many of them
enthusiastically exclaim “Yes!” “Fantastic!” I respond. “ en you
are living life like your toenail color!”
ey are relieved and far from alone. From a survey I conducted
with 160 women on the very important topic of fingers versus
toes and polished versus naked nails, I found that a whopping
39% of women paint only their toenails. For some women it
made them feel pretty – “I get to feel feminine on my worst days
by just looking at my feet.” Others wanted to look good wearing
sandals – “It would be like not wearing underwear!” And for
-8-
Live Like Your Nail Color, Even if You Have Naked Nails
other women, painted toenails made them feel sexy – “It’s my
little secret. I know it’s there under my business shoes making me
feel colorful, sexy, and special in this world of grey suits.”
Moral of the story: Last time I checked, we each have nails
on both our fingers and toes. So when it comes to living like your
nail color, we’ve got options, and you know how we women love
options. God was looking out for us!
Hello Wonder Woman!
One thing I’ve found among all women who want to live like
their nail color is that they are bizzzzz-y! ey’ve got bosses and
employees to take care of, customers to respond to, vendors to
manage, children or grandchildren to watch after, and husbands
to set straight. en there are bills to pay, dinners to make,
laundry to wash, and more! With everything going on, they are
like Wonder Woman – able to make the impossible boss happy,
satisfy the difficult customer, and still have a good hair day!
Do you ever feel like Wonder Woman? I’m not talking the
Linda Carter or cartoon character kind (though that red cape
and those go-go boots are to die for)! I’m talking about today’s
Wonder Woman – the woman who has so much going on she
wonders what the heck happened to her life! Between all the roles
we play as women – wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, taxi
driver, counselor, teacher, nurse, social director, event planner,
buyer, accountant, volunteer, pet care provider, gardener, maid,
cook, lover, cereal-embedded-in-the-car seat detector, and more
– it’s no wonder most of us feel stressed and about to lose it.
And yet we can’t lose it because we’re often the glue that holds
marriages, families, work groups, and communities together.
It’s so easy to feel that if we stop or slow down, everyone and
-9-
Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
everything in our lives will fall apart. So we try to strap on our
Energizer Bunny batteries and keep going and going and going,
only to find that the biggest person in our lives we’ve disappointed
is ourselves.
Phew, what a load! I know, because that’s how I started my
adult life. Right out of college with an engineering degree that
I didn’t want to use, I started my adrenaline-filled, change-a-
rama career with a small, unknown start-up called AOL. A few
years later I was married to someone I thought was the man of
my dreams, but instead turned out to be the leading role of my
nightmare. I had no clue I had walked into a relationship that
would be a confusing mix of two-faced love, criticism, and abuse,
even the physical kind. I was too young and naive to see it coming
or understand what to make it of it. But once I was in it, I felt
trapped and hopeless.
Still a Wonder Woman in Training, I knew in my gut that my
husband’s behavior was wrong, but I was too scared to stand up
to him and rock the boat. I was even more scared to fail in my
roles as the perfect wife, daughter, sister, employee, and friend. I
was wondering what the heck happened to my life alright.
Apparently engineering school did not prepare me to solve
this kind of problem. Gimme a thermodynamics issue or a just-in-
time manufacturing challenge and I was your gal. But how to deal
with a personal relationship riddled with conflict and confusion?
Must have missed that class. ree years of hurt and frustration
mounted until I had enough. I like to think of it as my naked nails
tipping point. My true, authentic, inner voice screamed, “ is
ain’t right! Get some dang help!” So I did. With the assistance of
an amazing counselor, I gained the strength to stand up to my
husband and eventually got divorced. Time, a caring family, and
supportive friends enabled me to heal and recreate my personal
- 10 -
Live Like Your Nail Color, Even if You Have Naked Nails
- 11 -
Inspiration at the Tips of Your Fingers or Toes
life, all while my AOL career was skyrocketing. Which just goes
to show that the only way Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman could
fight evil and be the hero is because she had a team of people!
at, and I bet she wore a gutsy red polish, too.
Most people I meet today never suspect what I’ve gone
through. I share it with you because I haven’t had a perfect life,
and I don’t have perfect nails. Safely getting out of a harmful
marriage is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But the pain, hurt,
and difficulty have undeniably given me a huge gift – the strength,
courage, and zest to be the true Wonder Woman of my life and to
live like my nail color. If I can do it, you can, too!
ip oes!
Right at the T s of My Fingers or T
It would be five years after getting divorced that I would get
my nails done and experience that fateful “Wild Berry day.” By
that time the heavy lifting of healing had been done. I knew
that staying healthy and energized about life required consistent
effort. But I didn’t want it to be a burden; I wanted it to be fun.
at’s why I loved the idea of living like your nail color. What was
an easy, simple way to tap into that feeling all the time? When I
thought back over my post-AOL years as an author and speaker,
I realized that women had – in so many words – asked me that
very question time and again.
My book Bodacious! Career: Outrageous Success for Working
Women had been out a few years. When I shared the lessons I
had learned about career success from my 10-year AOL