Once again, a new season has blossomed and failed to produce the colors my clients are clamoring for.

This year? It’s coral.

Since about February (when the sun starts shining and the trees start blooming in these parts) client after client has pondered my polish selection (both gel and traditional) in search of coral.

I have dismally few options to offer up.

For starters, I think 1994 was the last time I saw the polish companies flood their color charts with a dazzling array of colors anyone would truly consider coral. And, as I recall, at that time, everyone was referring to those choices as “old lady colors.”

I love the cyclical nature of fashion.

Nevertheless, I am assured that all the fashion magazines are full of corals this spring. Coral is the color for 2013...unless you’re a major nail polish company. Apparently, they didn’t get the same memo.

Even the indie polish palettes are short on such a color. And it doesn’t help me, in searching for them, that coral is one of those terribly subjective colors that everyone has their own personal interpretation of. So my idea of coral isn’t always everyone else’s idea of coral. “Do you want a red coral or an orange coral?” And then they pick up a bottle that doesn’t look like coralto meat all. “Oh! That’s rose!” LOL.

As I see the indie polish market growing, I become ever more hopeful that my dream of one of those computer color matching paint systems like they have at Home Depot and Lowes for polish is in my near future. Wouldn’t that be awesome?