Vote for Polish - Your three must-haves?

Tuesday afternoon, I got an email from Zoya nail polish encouraging me to vote at ThePolishPoll.com and get a code for three free nail polishes with a $20 purchase (so, four nail polishes -- Zoya polish is $6 a bottle) -- basically, seven nail polishes for the price of four. Awesome! I am all for that.

So I was chatting with Karen about it, and I said, "Man, seven polishes for the price of four! Awesome!" And maybe I was already thinking a little about what seven polishes I might hypothetically get. (Might. Hypothetically. The code is still good until Halloween, so there is time to think about it.)

And she said, "Seven nail polishes? I don't think I'd use seven nail polishes ever."

Me being a nail polish addict, I considered this briefly. Then I said, "Well, you could order the basic Color-Lock System kit for $36, and then get your three free basic polishes. Because really, you only need three basics."

And when it ultimately comes down to it, one can get away with three polishes. (I wouldn't want to, but one certainly could.) So here are my recommendations, if you were to decide that these three free polishes were the only ones you'd have or use.

The first would be a good sheer pink for fingers. Office-friendly, sheer enough that it doesn't make a huge and dramatic statement, but adds a certain amount of, well, polish. I'd recommend Marilyn, Dharma (with purple pearl for a little more oomph!), or Sari. Honestly, a sheer pink is not going to be hard to find and pretty much can't be screwed up.

Second would be a great cherry red. I always love red pedicures, and red fingernails aren't going to be out of place during the holidays, either. (Yep, the holidays! They're coming again!) And if you're a retro chic chick, still nothing wrong with red nails. I picked out these three reds: Anthea (with gold shimmer!), Dominique (which makes me think of ANTM, because all I can hear in my head is Tyra saying, "Dominique" while flipping a photo), and Diana. Again, good reds aren't hard to find, and pretty much every new collection of polishes will feature a solid red, even though most of us have them already. (But maybe you don't, and that is why I am writing this list!)

Finally, and this is especially true now that we're coming into fall, you'll need a good vamp/dark polish. While this might surprise a couple of people at the office, the vamp nail has been around for a long time (Chanel Vamp was introduced in '95!). Traditionally it's a dark "dried blood" color, but I think you're allowed to play with it some, because if you're going to go dark and dramatic, you might as well go for it. You can go with a more traditional vamp like plummy Casey or "dark browny red" Sasha, but I am a blue-loving girl at heart and so I have to include Indigo. (Yeah, some people say navy nails are out, but I will always love my blues.)

So there you have it: for $36, you can have a full set of base coat, top coat, speed-dry drops (which I've never tried... but I know my clumsy finger-bumping bedsheet-imprinting ways would definitely find them useful), and remover as well as your three must-have can't-fail nail polishes: sheer pink, cherry red, and vamp/dark.

If you had to pick three nail polishes that everyone should have, what would you pick? (And, uh, if you have recommendations for, you know, seven Zoya nail polishes... I would like to know that as well. Just for curiosity's sake.)

image from artofbeauty.com