Zoya Jana

It's been a while since I've done a wear to work post about business appropriate nail polish.  Since my last post, I've moved to the west coast where the definition of business casual trends more towards casual.  Case in point: nice jeans are considered appropriate pants.

Today on my nails I'm wearing Zoya Jana.  Jana is a beautiful creme polish with gray, mauve, and purple tones.  She's not a traditional nude polish, but still a gorgeous shade of gray.


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Zoya Tomoko

Brace yourselves, it's time for some Zoya Pixie Dust polish spam.  :)  Last month I bought the entire fall collection and have been wearing them over the last couple of weeks.  I'm starting with my favorite from the collection - Zoya Tomoko.  Zoya describes Tomoko as "a romantic champagne silver with a matte, textured, sparkling metal finish."

Pictured here is three coats of Zoya Tomoko.  I found the formula to be very sheer for a Pixie Dust polish.  I'm used to them being rather thick but this was on the watery side.  This slight formula issue aside, I think Tomoko is a "must have" from this collection.  It's also a great color to wear to work!  It's a little sparkly, but it really does fly under the radar enough to pass off as a business appropriate polish.

OPI My Vampire is Buff

I picked up another polish from the Spring 2013 OPI Euro Central Collection on the recommendation from a friend.  She knew of my love for nude polishes and thought I should give My Vampire is Buff a try.

Pictured here is three coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff.  Similar to OPI Suzi's Hungary Again! the formula was a little patchy but had really good wear.  I don't usually give nudes with more of a yellow-tone a try, but I like how this color looks.  I really wanted to incorporate it into some nail art (and did so here) because it seems like a really nice accent or base color for most spring polishes.  

Do you have My Vampire is Buff?  What do you think of it?  

OPI Don't Burst my Bubble

Good morning.  Today I have a polish from OPI's 2013 soft shades collection, Oz the Great and Powerful, to share with you.  It's a refreshing color, one that is sheer and light.  It's perfect for wearing to work, and it's a color I've been wearing a lot this past month.

Here I'm wearing three coats of OPI Don't Burst my Bubble and there is still a lot of visible nail line.  It's a cool toned polish that is normally pink in color with it also has hints of blue and lavender. The formula was a bit streaky, but I'm not sure if it was truly the formula or if it is an inherent part of such a sheer polish.  The wear time on this polish was also very nice.  Don't Burst my Bubble lasted through my usual three day wear test without any chips or tip wear.

I've included a bonus photo for you, a bottle shot.

If you're looking for a clean, refreshing polish, I'd suggest picking up a bottle of Don't Burst my Bubble.

Butter London All Hail the Queen

Today I have another favorite nude polish to show you.  This is a lovely nude polish from Butter London called All Hail the Queen.  This taupe has holographic particles dispersed throughout the polish that make it sparkle in the light.  Sadly, my camera doesn't do a good job of picking up the holo.

Pictured here is three coats of Butter London All Hail the Queen.  All Hail the Queen gets compared a lot to Orly Nite Owl, but I feel as though Nite Owl simply has silver microglitter instead of the holographic particles that make up All the Hail the Queen.  You could probably get away with owning one of the two but I still like holding on to both.

Zoya Godiva

This polish has become my go-to nude polish for March.  If you don't have any of the new Zoya PixieDust polishes, well, what are you waiting for?  Get one or several!  I purchased Zoya Godiva and Zoya Nyx during one of their recent promotions and I absolutely love them.

Shown here is two coats of Zoya Godiva.

Warning: picture overload ahead.

Do you have any PixieDust polishes?  Which ones are your favorite?  Were you as excited as I was when Zoya announced the PixieDust - Summer Edition polishes?

Essie Lady Like

This week I had to stop by my company's headquarters to pick up the latest healthy initiative: an activity tracker called FitBit.  I love the FitBit so far, it gives me great data about my activity level throughout the day in the form of many graphs.  Pure heaven.  Anytime I have an event where I need to go to my company's headquarters I try to dress extra conservatively.  To accomplish this I have a slew of beautiful wear to work polishes that I carefully select what to wear from. Ah, just kidding.  I'll use anything as an excuse to wear a beautiful nude polish.

This is two coats of Essie Lady Like.  I've had this polish since it debuted in Essie's Fall 2011 collection.  It's a nice simple pink with a tinge of grey.  Since I've had it for so long I was surprised that I'd hadn't photographed it before now.  It's beautiful and very subdued, a great polish for wearing on a conservative work day.  

My Very First Knockwurst

Today I have another lovely polish that is great for wearing to work.  This one is OPI's My Very First Knockwurst from their Fall 2012 Germany Collection.

It's on the sheer side, but it only took three coats to arrive at this opacity.  The coverage was very good and evened out nicely.

OPI My Very First Knockwurst has quickly become one of my "go to" polishes for when I need a more conservative or understated look at work.

Nite Owl

A lot of time the holidays are so "go go go" that it's hard to get a moment alone to think, much less do my nails.  It makes sense then that while I'd love to be doing my nails in snowflakes, presents, and Santa Clauses, I usually just have time to throw on a nice nude polish!

This is three coats of Orly Nite Owl from the Fall 2011 Birds of a Feather Collection.  It's a gorgeous shade of taupe with tiny flecks of silver thrown in.  It's one of the most perfect shades of polish to wear to work if you're in a conservative office as well.

The Hunt: Nude Polish

There has been a lot of inner turmoil in my life lately and I've found myself drawn to just wearing nude nail polish.  This prompted me to assemble all my nude polishes together in order to determine which was the perfect one for me.  I think these are all good wear to work polishes, great for the days when you don't want your nail polish to distract from the message you're trying to deliver.

While I have my own favorites I'm curious as to what you think.  Which nude polish do you think is right for me?

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Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Choco-Latte

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Choco-Latte is a pale beige with peach/pink tones.  I have an "older" bottle of Choco-Latte and a significant portion of the polish is gone from it.  At the level where the polish currently resides a lot of bright pink pigment is separating out and needs a lot of shaking to get it to mix properly.  It's my least favorite of the bunch but I thought I'd include it in this collection because I have worn it a lot.  

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OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh? is from the OPI Spring 2011 Holland Collection and is a pale tan nude with yellow/grey undertones.  I'm not really a fan of how this color looks on me.  I used it as a base for a manicure on my mom and I think it looks much better with her slightly darker skin tone.  

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Zoya Kennedy

Zoya Kennedy is from the Zoya 2011 Winter Feel Collection.  It's a pale, beige cream that leans pink.  I think this color looks very soft on me and I'm a fan of it.  

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Zoya Pasha

Zoya Pasha is described as a soft, pale taupe beige nude with silver frost and a hint of microglitter. This color is from the Zoya Suede collection from way back when (circa 2004 maybe?).  I loved the frost, I thought it lent the perfect spark this polish needed from being just a boring brown.

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Zoya Shay

Zoya Shay is from the Zoya 2011 Touch collection and is described as a light peach nude with red/orange undertones.  Similar to Zoya Pasha, Shay has  a bit of a frosty-look to it.  I used two coats of polish to achieve this look, but I'm guessing three coats would eliminate that patchiness I see on a couple of my nails.

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Now I need your help.  Which nude pictured above do you think looks best on me?  What nudes am I missing that you think I should have?  

Penelope Spiced Up

There a times when one needs to be dressed very professionally for work.  On these instances I have a stash of appropriate wear to work polishes, such as Zoya Penelope.  Penelope is a dusty, mauve pink that doesn't really stand out on her own.

Pretty, but not that flashy.

There are also times that one is scheduled to head out with friends right after work and wishes that their nails had a bit more sparkle.  Enter Essie Shine of the Times - flakes of glitter that seem to range in colors from red, orange, gold, and green.

Much better!

Have you used a special effects type polish to spruce up a plain manicure for a night out?

Innocence

The theme for the Monday Nail Art Challenge through Facebook's Polish-aholics Anonymous group this week was  PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness.  Since I've had to tone down my polish for work I just went with a simple soft pink creme.  


For this manicure I used China Glaze's Innocence.  This polish is quite sheer and it took three coats to get it to the color you see on my nails.  If I was going to wear this color for longer I'd like to take it to four or five coats because I still have a bit of visible nail line going on.

I like that this color is pale enough not to draw attention to the nails but still bright enough to notice.  A great wear to work polish.