Work appropriate glitter: Essie and Illamasqua

As you read this I will be off to an interview (for a teaching job - it seems career opportunities are like busses, where I am concerned), so it seemed appropriate to show you something very pretty, but very understated. And - we have actual sunshine, so the pictures are decent! Yay!

I sort of nicked the idea for this off kittytokaren - Essie Brooch the Subject was one of my post-Christmas 'to hell with it' polish gifts to self, and I was intending to pair it with gold polka dots. Then I decided that if I completely stole her manicure I couldn't really post it without feeling faintly plagiaristic (not the done thing on a blog run by university types, obviously), so I decided to mix it up with one of my favourite glitters (Illamasqua Spartan) instead.

I L-O-V-E this manicure. Illamasqua have a reputation as being a company with quite outlandish colours, but I really love how the nude base makes this look so subtle. The glitter itself is awesome because it is  a mix of gold and silver, and the glitter itself is irregularly shaped rather than square which makes it look almost like flakies when you move your fingers. The overall effect is quite neutral, so if yellow-golds scare you, this might be worth checking out.