Battle of the Nude Polishes!

I am a self confessed nail polish obsessive. I'm sure if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'd know that!

I recently arranged my polishes by colour and aside from realising that I have oodles of green nail polishes, I noticed that I have several nude shades which have been neglected in favour of my Chanel Particuliere. So, I've decided to do a little overview of my nude polish collection for you.

First up is my favourite, Chanel Particuliere. I wear this all the time. It's been my go to nude shade since I picked it up in June. I think it's one of those nude shades which will suit most skin tones. I know it's expensive and there are definitely dupes but this is one of those Chanel polishes which is worth the price tag, for me. It's not the longest wearing - I get around three days of wear with no chips. I'm not really an expert when it comes to the longevity of polish since I change mine so much.

Speaking of Particuliere dupes, I picked up Barry M Mushroom a couple of weeks ago and wore it over the weekend. The formula of this is thicker in comparison to the Chanel and the shade is a teeny bit warmer in some lights (not in the photos, though!). It's a pretty good polish and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a nice, purse-friendly nude shade.

On the paler end of the nude spectrum, I have Essie Topless & Barefoot. I don't find myself reaching for this one as much at this time of year but it is a nice spring/summer nude shade. I don't think this shade will suit everyone and the formula is a bit tricky to work with as you need three or four coats to achieve an opaque finish. If I had to give it a mark out of ten, I'd probably give it a five. As you can see in the photo, it doesn't wear too well. It tends to peel off a bit because so many coats are required.

Another lighter nude shade which I think will suit a lot more skintones is American Apparel's Mouse. I really enjoy using all my American Apparel polishes and have found the quality to be pretty consistent across the range. This is a cooler toned nude when compared with Particuliere or Mushroom. It looks pretty grey in the photo but it isn't that grey in reality.

OPI's Tickle My France-y was a polish I'd wanted for some time but when I got it, the forumla was so thin I've hardly used it. I picked this up again last week for the first time in months. I needed five coats. FIVE! I don't think any polish with a cream finish should need that many coats. There seems to be a bit of a quality control issue with this particular shade as some girls I know have had the same issues as me and others find theirs to be very thick and opaque. Anyway, it is a pretty colour. It's a pinker shade and is very subtle. I think this is one I'd wear a lot more if I had an office job.

Finally I have the famous You Don't Know Jacques by OPI. This is the darkest 'nude' shade I have. I'd describe it as a dark brown with a grey undertone. I think darker skin tones will prefer this as it might be a bit stark looking on very pale skins. The photo was taken after four days of wear so there is some obvious tip wear.

So there you go! I hope this was helpful to anyone looking for a nude polish.

Do you guys have any recommendations? Not that I need any more...

Stace xx