Coffee Break – Mademoiselle
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I've always heard amazing things about Essie Mademoiselle, the color featured here. Best-seller! “A grown-up pink!” “The perfect nude!” But on me, it tends to be a bit too pinky.
So a friend taught me this trick a while ago: you layer different pinks to get a nude-for-you look.
I think a lot of New Yorkers do this — layering Mademoiselle and Sugar Daddy is popular; I'm a fan of a Mademoiselle/Starter Wife combo. Essie polishes are $8. Essie Nail Color: Mademoiselle
Readers, what is your favorite pink/nude nailpolish?
Sales of note for 8/2:
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale ends August 9! Here's our big roundup of the best workwear, as well as everything we've selected thus far. Don't forget to check to see if their daily beauty deal is a good one for you – e.g., 8/5 beauty tools from Omnilux, Dr. Dennis Gross, Dermaflash and more
- Ann Mashburn – Seasonal sale, up to 50% off – we just included them in our updated Top 10 Brands for Comfortable Heels!
- Ann Taylor – 50% off summer styles + 60% off clearance — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Banana Republic – 30% off your purchase (ends 7/31)
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns + extra 10% off
- J.Crew – Up to 30% off
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off sitewide
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added, exclusively online)
- M.M.LaFleur – End of season sale! (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clearance, new markdowns up to 75% off! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – 25% off your entire purchase
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
Some of our latest threadjacks include:

I don’t know why this never occurred to me to do. My go-to “safe” pink (because I have a weakness for ridiculous hot pinks) is Essie’s “Eternal Optimist,” which is almost perfect (especially in its opacity; I just can’t with sheer polish), except it’s slightly too cool for my skin tone. Now I just need to figure out the right pink to it up with.