Nudes & Neutrals Nail Wheel - Picture Heavy :)

They're easy to wear, effortlessly chic and forgive even a shaky hand, don't we all love a good nude nail polish?

Once upon a time 'natural' coloured nails were all about the French manicure and those sheer baby pinks which contrasted strongly against those vixen, wantonly reds and their even brasher, brightly coloured sisters.

Nowadays, nudes come in all different tones and there is definitely more than one way to go naked on the nails. Baby pink doesn't even get a look in....

I invested (well... all of £1.50 or something like that) in some nail wheels from ebay just before Christmas and I've been organising them into colour families, both for fun and also for my own reference. My collection has quadrupled since last year and sometimes I look into my nail boxes and just can't choose. These nail wheels will definitely help the painstaking decision making process :)

So, here is the 'jeans and t-shirt' nail wheel. My current and somewhat modest (hmmm must remedy that...) collection of neutral shades:

Here you can see the beautiful shimmer in the two Essie shades in the middle, Au Naturel and Sand of a beach

Another gratuitous pic of the Essie polishes! Check that fine shimmer!

Unfortunately I smudged the OPI, it took at least 4 coats to get that depth of colour, it's a very sheer polish.

 The OPI Altar Ego polish was my wedding day choice. It looks a lot better on the nail than on the dead white plastic of the nail wheel but it is quite sheer. It adds a pretty irridescent pink shimmer and is suitably bridal. It would make a nice layering polish, in fact I might try it over one of the others....

Here you can see the very fine shimmer in the Model's Own Pro polish (centre)

Swatching them all the wheel was a revelation, they are all quite different (to me at least!). I realised how much I really love some of them, and I have to say that it's an extremely close call between the two Essie polishes and my Ciate one, but I think that Ciate my still win the crown for being my favourite.  I also had a hankering to wear the Barry M Mushroom shade again, it's just so effortlessly chic and makes me feel 'expensive'!

Which shades do you like best?

Nude polishes, the line up!

NOTD - Ciaté 'My Fair Lady' gets crowned

I'm so in love with glitter at the moment but it sure is a royal pain in the **** (insert what word you see fit) to remove.

My solution is the now probably outdated 'ring finger manicure'. But I don't care because I love what I've done here.

I'm also in a nude nails phase and my all-time favourite, most perfect for me nude is Ciaté My Fair Lady, a freebie in one of the UK monthly mags a while back (can't remember which, sorry!). It turned out to be the best freebie ever as I am irrevocably, irredeemably & unconditionally in love with this polish. I crave to see it's creamy, doll-like prettiness caress my nails in what has to be the smoothest lacquer I've ever tried. It has in actual fact been my most used polish and is the only colour I will need a back-up of. If I can't find this again I will cry.

I decided to jazz her up a bit by adorning my ring finger with OPI Crown me Already! which gives me that oomph that I'm looking for as well as considerably alleviating the task of the dreaded glitter removal in a few days time.  Only one nail to battle with as opposed to ten. Yay.

This is only one coat of My Fair Lady and one coat of OPI on top on the ring finger Amazingly smooth and even coverage in one coat. For a nude polish that's almost unheard of. I have to say that I have a pinky ridge-filler base coat on so that probably helps. I normally do two coats but today I'm loving just the one.

And just to show you how it sets off the hand, here is a (almost) full hand shot complete with sparkler.

Ciaté My Fair Lady & OPI Crown me Already!

Apologies for the really short nails. They are peeling and flaking insanely and the only way I can deal with them at the moment is to cut them down and hope that they peeling eventually grows out. When they are a bit longer I'm going to attempt the graduated glitter French manicure, maybe with a bit of midnight blue thrown in. Can't wait.

Do you like the nude/glitter combo?