Nails of New York: Carly Cardellino

We caught up with Paintbox client Carly Cardellino in this week's Nails of New York. While she began her career on the print side of magazines, Carly is now senior beauty editor at Cosmopolitan.com, where she's able to hone in on her uncanny ability to stay on top of all the best beauty trends. Her natural progression into the beauty industry stemmed from a lifelong passion for all things girly, like playing dress-up and doing friends' makeup and now translates daily into her role of influencing women's beauty routines.

Carly is quick to experiment with new beauty regimens, and we adore her most recent icy blonde hair that has become her signature look. Read more to learn about what’s inside a typical beauty editor’s bag, how her nail shape has evolved, and why Carly gravitates toward single-color manicures in neutral palettes. 

A handful of Carly's can't-live-without-products includes Glossier's Boy Brow and a gorgeously-packaged Tory Burch lipstick. 

Why do you paint your nails? 

Polishing nails is similar to putting together an outfit–it's just another way for me to express myself and have a little fun with what I'm wearing. There's also just something about a glossy nail that makes you look instantly put together, and I love that. Like your day or week could be going all wrong, but then you treat yourself to a manicure and for whatever reason, you just feel like you can take on whatever's coming at you next. 

Can you tell us a little bit about your job?

I'm the senior beauty editor at Cosmopolitan.com, and I've been there for four years now. I'm responsible for writing service-packed content on a daily basis, attending beauty events, directing shoots, overseeing and editing all of the beauty stories we produce, and interviewing celebrities, makeup artists, and hairstylists on new trends. It's my dream job, and it took a lot of work to get to this point. 

Prior to that, I worked at Shape magazine on the print side. I started as the assistant beauty editor there and worked my way up to beauty editor over the course of six years, which was also an amazing experience. 

What's your favorite beauty product of all time? 

That's a tough question for a girl whose bathroom could rival Sephora's inventory! Hmm, I have two favorite beauty products that I don't leave my apartment without putting on: Topshop's Concealer Palette and Rodial Glamolash Mascara XXL. I toss the concealer palette in my bag if I have to touch up any trouble spots during the day, but I don't leave the house without curling my eyelashes and swiping on that mascara. It's amazing. It makes your lashes look super-long and gives you that doe-eyed effect, which I love. 

How do your nails influence your style? 

I think your nail color can 100 percent serve as an accessory to your outfit and really pull your look together. That said, I don't have the time or energy to switch up my nail color every day, so I tend to stick to sophisticated colors that go with a lot of my outfits, like a classic red, blush pinks, white, or taupe-y browns. Also, I am a sucker for amazing nail art, and I love getting it on occasion. If you see me with designs on, it's probably because I had to model it for a Cosmopolitan.com how-to. But if you see me IRL or scroll through my Instagram feed, you're going to see more of these single shades I described, most likely in this subtle pinky-nude gel I love from Paintbox. It's my go-to because it goes with anything you wear. 

What is your favorite part about your job? 

I love learning new things, so interviewing doctors, makeup artists, manicurists, and hairstylists on all different topics has been really fun and interesting. But I also love coming up with ideas, watching the stories come to life on a photo shoot, and then seeing people share them. There really isn't an aspect that I don't love about my job, so I feel super-lucky. 

Carly combines gorgeous initial Chloe rings with Catbird stacks. 

Where do you find inspiration? 

From everything around me, honestly. When you're in a position like mine, you're really on 24/7. You're constantly looking for trends in everything you do and all of your surroundings, whether it's from industry experts, celebrities, Instagram, your friends, trends you see at Fashion Week, cool products you're introduced to at events, the coolest colors that are trending for the upcoming year, etc. So even though my work hours could be from 9-6, I might go to Paintbox to get a mani at 6:30 p.m., talk to the manicurist there who tells me a cool tip I haven't heard before, and there's my item I'm writing up for the next day. So, yeah, I look for inspiration everywhere, and while always being on can be exhausting sometimes, it's fun—it keeps you sharp!