Nailed it! Putting at-home polish to the manicure test

If your fingers and thumbs were high school students, your pinkie would be that petite twerp you couldn't stand. With minimal effort, she made the grade by sitting around quietly looking lovely, never raising a fuss, or a finger, for that matter. Heaven forbid she thumb a ride or be bothered to make a point, and don't even get her started on that rude middle finger.

So when this intrepid reporter set out to test different nail polishes on each of her fingers, it really wasn't a fair fight. My pinkie stayed out of most of the ugliness the rest of the gang faced. I'm rough on my hands; in fact, I'm downright cruel to them. With teens, cats and a dog around, there's always something to be scrubbed. I know bleach is bad stuff, but I love it, and it's a rare day a bottle of ammonia isn't in my hand. Even for pot scrubbing or gardening, fool that I am, I shun gloves.

No polish will last a week on my hands without chipping. It's hardly fair to point out that the polish on my left pinkie finger - the little darling - lasted the longest, but I'll note it anyway if only because I love the colors the brand comes out with. Check out HOOPLA nail polishes (hooplastudio.com), made without formaldehyde, toluene and other impossible-to-pronounce chemicals found in many polishes. I get enough toxins from the cleaners I use. (And yes, before you lecture, I realize I'm guilty of polluting more than just myself, and will promise to do better in the future. Vinegar, here I come.)

The environmentally kind owners of HOOPLA addressed their decision to market their salon's product.

"People are far more savvy in terms of their own safety and the environment in relation to their nail care, hence the creation of HOOPLA's mini-polishes, which don't contain the five harshest chemicals found in many leading brands, is cruelty-free, and made in the U.S.," says Molly Maxwell, who started the Kansas company with Megan Thornberry.

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