… is my favourite nail shade of all time. Over the years I have painted my nails all the colours you can think of, but my favourite remains Essie Clothing Optional. It is a dark neutral shade that suits my skin tone perfectly. Every single other ‘nude’ shade I have tried has been too dark, or too light. Clothing Optional hits a perfect bullseye in between those two extremes. It is perfect for all seasons, and suits everything from faded denim to work suits to pretty floral dresses. It wears pretty well – 8 or so days on me, and I wash my hands often. It is lighter with one coat (above) and darker with three (below). The turquoise is a little messy below as the excess bits had not come off yet. I am not very dextrous!
I found Clothing Optional by total accident, packaged in a nude set with two other shades. I am now on my seventh bottle and have stockpiled another three, just in case. I can recommend this so warmly!
It’s a perfect fit for the tone of both my winter pallor and summer glow. I am going to be in despair when they (as they do) discontinue it. It also suits other skin tones as the the photos here show.
Very pretty and really quite universal-looking. I love Essie polishes too (wearing Go Ginza right now) and their formulas are among the very best in my experience. Then again, I’ve become quite a polish collector / hoarder in the past couple of years….
I have just looked at Go Ginza and it is lovely. Maybe that will be my late spring go-to!
It’s more or less the colour of lilacs, which are now blooming in Prague (and associated with the Prague Uprising anniversary, so right on time this year). Is the vibrant turquoise on your ring finger an Essie polish too?
I think Go Ginza is lovely. I am going to see if I can find some when next I go to town. The turquoise on my nails is this one from So Sorbet
.I absolutely love it and wish I had bought some more of their shades when we were in South Africa. I found a gorgeous lemony yellow one.
Beautiful! (Including the Body Shop British Rose stuff, which I’ve been eyeing ever since you first wrote about them). I’m sure the yellow one rocks too. Yellow has always been my favorite color, but only recently I bought a couple of yellow nail polishes and now I’m looking forward to experimenting with them. Green and blue polishes are also quite new to me.