Food For Your Fingernails

"At OPI, it's all about the food... and the travel," Suzi Weiss-Fischmann said to a group of beauty and fashion bloggers at their first OPI Bloggers Breakfast Wednesday at the Four Seasons in New York City. The group, including The Daily Meal, spent the morning talking shop — as in glitter, polish, and what's really in a name.

OPI, a nail lacquer empire that Weiss-Fischmann and her brother-in-law George Schaeffer co-founded 30 years ago, is still very much booming, especially after being bought by beauty powerhouse Coty in late 2010. At the Bloggers Breakfast, the nail company debuted the new Bond Girls collection, a 50th anniversary collection highlighting James Bond's favorite ladies.

But what we were really interested in, however, was the upcoming collaboration between Nicole by OPI and Kellogg's, a three-piece limited edition nail set coming out in April. The colors are a Barbie-pink shade called Be Ama-zing , a lipstick red called Challenge Red-Y, and a teal hue named Pros and Confidence.

The trio will be released with purchases of Kellogg's Special K products and the collaboration is meant to encourage women to show off their confidence with bold colors.

"You know, it's funny, Kellogg's reached out to us, just as Dell did and as other non-beauty brands have had before," said Weiss-Fischmann. "They understand what nail polish means for women — it empowers them. Women hold the power, and having a bold nail makes a statement. Men notice it, women notice it, and it makes you feel good about yourself."

In order to get your hands on all three full-size bottles, eight purchase codes from eligible Kellogg's Special K products will need to be submitted. At the breakfast, the inevitable question arose: "How do you come up with the [nail polish] names?"

With a laugh, Weiss-Fischmann said, "Well, the same six people — me, George, two people from marketing, someone from purchasing, and the same woman from customer service — sit around a table with tons of food and we throw ideas out. We decide when we do a new collection if we want to go to the moon and be exciting or if we want to be farmers and lay the land."

From these brainstorming sessions have come some of the cleverest nail polish names. Names like Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Hands Off My Kielbasa, and Gouda, Gouda Two Shoes speak volumes when they're stamped on the bottom of an awesome shade — they certainly do make memorable conversation starters  and make for great chatter over a glass of wine. 

We can go for days naming our favorite nail polish names. What's that? You like them, too? Sorry, I can't hear you — I Have a Herring Problem.