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Photo: Courtesy of Laura Seaman
There are many things about Kristen Taekman that have our attention right now. The former model and current Real Housewives of New York star is both a mother and a fashionable downtown resident. She is also a keen businesswoman who just recently launched her new nail polish line called “Pop of Color.” The line is exclusive to Ricky’s and features 12 shades.
“I think nail polish is great because it’s a very affordable way to accessorize your look. You know when you get a manicure you feel like a million bucks,” explains Taekman.
Her new line offers both sophisticatedly subdued colors and bold hues that will give your look a “pop of color.”
“Its really fun. ‘Pop of Color’ is something I used for a long time. It was sort of like, my makeup artist would say to me, especially when we were shooting the show, ‘Is today a POC day?’ meaning ‘Do you want a pop of color?’ It could mean anything, ‘Do you want to have a dark lip? A bold lip? A pop of color on your lip or are you going to wear a funky colored shoe?’ So we would always say a ‘pop of color’ or POC and I would hashtag POC whenever I have a bold lip on or a polish. It kind of just evolved from there.”
Taekman’s personality shines through in the name of each nail polish shade, connecting to different facets of her life. Some of the colors include EBOOST Orange, inspired by her husband’s energy supplement EBOOST, a green shade named Cash Money after her son Cash and a bright bold blue called Blue Moon, which comes from her love of the late, great Elvis. There is even a light pink color named I’m Pretty based off of her tagline on RHONY.
Taekman is thrilled about the line, particularly because she had a very hands-on experience when designing the product. Since she and her makeup artist Jacquelyn Grubbs collaborated to create the line, Taekman has had a hand in everything from the names of the colors to the design of the bottle.
Photo: Courtesy of Kate Edwards
“Its kind of funny and frustrating when people think you just sort of put your name on something. I really did it all, you know, I wanted a gray cap but I wanted the cap to be matte. I wanted the logo to be on the bottle this way and we went back and forth on logos for awhile. It’s kind of fun when you have no experience with something like this because you really learn a lot. It’s interesting and it’s a lot of work. I wanted my logo to look a certain way but then it wouldn’t fit on the bottle so it had to be tweaked. Then its like, do you make the logo white or do you make the logo black? It’s really interesting how it all comes together.”
In addition to Pop of Color, Taekman’s has another venture, her fashion blog called Last Night’s Look, in which she chronicles her many fashionable outfits from RHONY, beauty advice and life on the town with her family.
“My hope is that people will come and visit the city and be like ‘Oh, Kristen took her kids there and said it’s kid friendly’ or ‘Wow I never thought about going to Coney Island.’ It’s just kind of fun.”
Real Housewives fans can get a peek into the process of creating the nail polish line in various episodes of the show. They and can pick up tubes of their own at Ricky’s.
-by Johanna Silver and Audrey DuVall