Nude Party Nails

I actually have plans tonight, so I chose an easy nail look to celebrate the birthday of a friend whose personality matches this design: sparkling yet subtle.

This design uses one of my favorite polishes as the base, Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Bare Naked. This is my go-to nude polish. It's warm and shiny with a very slight touch of sparkle that gives it depth. Here it looks browner than it does on, in person it's more beige/pink. I have a couple of Lasting Finish polishes, and I highly recommend this line. It's also the only one of the flat, wide "professional" style brushes I like. The bristles are a little firmer than the others I've tried, so they give clean lines rather than splaying everywhere the second they touch my nail. I really like the square bottles, too...no real nail art related reason, I just like them.

Bare Naked and Lips are Dripping Honey

The polish I used for the the gradient was Nicole by OPI Lips are Dripping Honey, a chunky glitter which you may remember from my Straight Edge Challenge post. This is one of my newer polishes, and I'm still learning how to work with it. The clear base is a bit thick, so I had some trouble controlling my coverage this time. Initially I used the bottle brush to place a dot of polish at the base of my nail, then spread it out by gently dabbing it outward with a cotton swab. That worked pretty well, but I was getting some fuzz, so I switched out for a fan brush.

I like these simple nails. They've got the perfect amount of high impact sparkle for my weekend plans and will look great with whatever I decide to wear. What's your go-to nude? Do you amp it up with glitter, or prefer to keep your buff nails buff?