I can’t seem to find the time to do my own nails. Ten years ago, I’d happily spend several hours pushing back cuticles, filing my nails with the precision of an artist, and contemplating what color to splash on my nails. Nowadays I can hardly trim my own nails. I can clearly see the length of my nails, but taking the time to actually file them down or trim them irritates me. I have better things to do, like clean the dogs’ ears, clean my own children’s ears, find my son’s Batman car that has mysteriously disappeared, and finally solve the case of the husband’s continually missing socks (perhaps the dogs ate them).

The truth of the matter is that I just don’t have the patience anymore and my body can’t handle the strain. Laugh all you want, but it’s true. When I even think about possibly trying to do my nails, I think of the other things I could be doing (should be doing) like helping my daughter with her reading skills, finally picking up that errant piece of paper that has been sitting under my desk for several months now, and trimming my own son’s nails. Hunched over so I can add a bit of color to my toe nails hurts my back. The first five minutes I can deal with. But then the pain starts, slowly at first, and then builds to a constant burn. So if I had to choose between having a lovely hue of nail polish sparkle on my toes or protecting my back from any type of pain, I choose my back.

Needless to say, I turned to professional manicurists to take care of my pathetic nails. Normally, I’d choose a French pedicure and have clear nail polish put on my fingernails. I don’t like to look at the hundreds of bottles the salon has to offer and choose some color that looks great in the bottle, but terrible on my feet.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I walked into the nail salon a few weeks ago and decided I wanted some color on my toes. My favorite color is red, but I can never find a great red that compliments my dark skin. Sometimes they’re too bright or not red enough. I milled around where the collection of nail polish bottles are and sifted through color after color. After the fourth bottle, I found it — Essie’s Clutch Me If You Can. It’s a dark, cherry red with a little chocolate.

As I sat there in the spa chair, my excitement turned to anxiety. What if the color was too dark and didn’t resemble the color in the bottle? I closed my eyes as the polish was applied to my toes. When I finally opened my eyes, I was stunned. The color was fantastic. I reminded my manicurist that this was a great color. As she smiled, she pointed out that the bottle was almost empty and they didn’t have any more in the salon. Fortunately, I tracked down a bottle at a local beauty supply store.

Two weeks later, I’m still admiring my toes. The color has not chipped at all and it looks like it was just applied. The polish is still shiny and has not dulled. Okay, so maybe I should attribute this to the top coat. Just to find out, I put some of the nail polish on my fingernails, and it went on very smoothly. I also didn’t add a top coat. I’m always nervous about applying dark polish myself because any mistake is visible, but I didn’t have to worry with this polish because it is just the right consistency and easy to apply. A week and a half later, the polish is still bright and shiny and still has not chipped, even though I’ve given the dogs a bath, dug for toys under the bed and sofa, pulled a few weeds without gloves, cleaned the bathrooms — twice — and scrubbed burnt olive oil off a pan.

Essie nail polish is here to stay.

Available at Essie.com.