Illamasqua – Nightfall

I have a polish that was only released in my city – how exciting.  Nightfall was only available for 4 days in our nearby shopping centre.  Its basically a more gold version of Creator.

Lets head straight to the pictures.

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OK, first things first.  The formula is quite thick, but spreads and levels well.  I did two coats over a base of Glisten & Glow Stuck on Blu!.  It is packed with gold particles.  The gold is quite dark, its not a yellow gold at all.  Drying time was quick too and two coats provided perfect coverage.  To bring on the extra bling, I added a good coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat, that really helps to bring on the shine.

As with all Illamasqua polishes, you can pop off the black cap revealing a smaller ridged lid.  The brush is thin but adequate for painting nails.  I was able to do three strokes on most nails and two on my smaller ones.  A comment on  wear, by the end of 24 hours I had significant chips on at least three nails.  I’ve not used my G & G HK Girl on Illamasqua before so I am not sure if that might be why.  In the past I have used Seche Vite to great effect.  Next time I will try a different top coat to see if that makes a difference.

What do we think about limited editions such as these?  A gimmick too far?

Illamasqua is readily available across the UK, both in certain stores and online.  Nail Polishes retail around the £14.50 mark.

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here. I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

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Illamasqua – Mottle

I really don’t think I am going to get fed up with seeing this image above.  If you were visiting these parts last week, you might have been my blog post on Speckle, the purple from the Spring 2013 range.  What a lovely range of polishes, I am fighting the urge to go back and buy the rest of the collection (in particular the brown one….)

Lets get straight onto the images shall we?

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This is the green speckle variant.  As with the entire range the speckles in the polish seem to be very dark blue or almost black.  There is a mix of sizes within the polish.  However, unlike the purple one, this is two coats.  Formula was very similar to Speckle.  Getting the glitter onto the brush is not an issue, it comes out very easily on the brush.  The brush is attached to the square lid and once you get used to it, it is very easy to use.  It is a bit on the thin side so a few strokes are needed to coat the nail.  Overworking the polish does make all the glitter gather at the end of the nail so try to do it in as few strokes as possible.

I wore this over Seche Clear base coat with a Seche Vite top coat.  Wore like iron.  Removal is nowhere near as bad as you think it might be.

So, its the same story as last time, the I’mperfection polishes are all limited edition so if you fancy them, get a wiggle on.  The RRP for these is £14.50, £1 more than the regular line.  You can pick them up online directly from Illamasqua,  at any of their stand alone stores or at any one of their counters within the UK.  Store finder is here.

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here.  I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

Illamasqua – Speckle

Goodness, look at this image.  Isn’t it just the most wonderful piece of advertising you have seen for Nail Polish in a while?  So simple yet exceptionally effective.  I was hooked on this range as soon as I saw this add, hook, line and sinker.

To date, I have been very very good, I have only bought two of the five, but believe me, I wanted them all.  Seriously want them all.  They launched instore and online at the end of January.  When I stopped by my local counter, it was rammed with lots of people wanting to try all the new products.  In fact, the whole range is pretty fine and I love the Illamasqua approach.

But anyway, which ones did I get?  Well I am going to show you one today called Speckled.  This is the purple/lavender one.  The entire range appears to have the same colour speckle rippled throughout them.  They may look black, but I think they are actually a navy.  As with all Illamasqua polishes, the brush is attached to the square lid and its a thin enough brush to work with.  Three swipes is easy to achieve.

So, onto my pictures which are by no way as artistic as that one above….

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I used Essie Millionails as my base.  I’ve been using a mix of base coats over the past few weeks and it seems to be working.  Since being away in October, my nails were splitting like crazy.  But now, they are much better.  I’m thrilled as this time last year my nails were a soft, peeling mess.  Lets hope they stay that way.

Speckled has a lovely formula, very easy to work with.  The little speckle bits come out of the bottle without a need for fishing or swirling the brush.  As with most glitter polishes, if you over work application, you find all the glitter bits ending up near the end of your nail.  So short and sweet is the key here.  This is three thin coats.  I love how the effect builds up with each layer.  It does go on quite sheer so I was surprised and delighted with how opaque it was after only two.  Three coats left me with a good even finish.  Drying time was excellent.  A Seche Vite top coat and I was good to go.  I wore this for nearly two days and the wear was fabulous. Removal wasn’t too hideous either, just use the cotton ball method where you place remover soaked bits of cotton balls onto the nail for a couple of minutes.  Then press as you swipe the cotton ball off the nail.  It comes right off.

These I’mperfection polishes are all limited edition so if you fancy them, you need to move quickly.  The lovely counter staff were telling me they had nearly sold through their allocation on the first day and I imagine that stock online will also move quickly.  The RRP for these is £14.50, £1 more than the regular line.  You can pick them up online directly from Illamasqua,  at any of their stand alone storesor at any one of their counters within the UK.  Store finder is here.

So, what do you think?  Look out for the second of my purchases very shortly……

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here.  I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

Illamasqua – Glitterati

This week is Illamasqua Week!  So here is the second post this week, a pretty called Glitterati.  This one only appears to be available in a nail polish duo along with the gorgeous Viridian.  Its currently on sale on the online Illmasqua store so click here if you fancy one.

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Its pretty, really pretty.  Its a wine purple base packed with silver  and purple glitters – the website calls it Raspberry but its actually more wine coloured.  Surprisingly, considering the amount of glitter within it, it applies pretty well.  What you see above are three thin coats.  Now I should have known better and gone for two thicker coats, if you apply it too thinly you can pull all the glitter to the top of the nail.  I did have to go a jiggle about with some of the glitter so that I had more even placement, but if that may not bother you in the way it bothers me.  The brush is attached to the square lid, like all the range, so once you get used to is application is a breeze.  The brush itself if quite thin but three swipes and you should be good to go.  I used Essie Millionails as my base with a good thick Seche Vite top coat.

You can purchase Illamasqua from their website (shipping is worldwide) or in certain stores that have a concession, in the UK this would be Selfridges, some Debenhams or at one of the stand alone stores.  You can find the UK ones here. Retail is £13.50 and its worth signing up to the enewsletter as sometimes you get free shipping or percentage discounts.

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here.  I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

Illamasqua – Raindrops (reissue)

If you follow a lot of nail polish blogs, or if you are a blogger yourself, you may well have heard about Illamasqua Raindrops.  Its been going on auction sites for a ridiculous amount of money.  Anyway, the lovely people at Illamasqa have decided to re-release it and I was lucky enough to pick one up at my local counter.  According to staff it had already been out a number of weeks so it seems like a bit of soft launch.  Anyway, here come the pictures…..

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Boy, its pretty gray polish with hints of blue and sparkle.  A word of warning here, it is super sheer, incredibly sheer.  What you see above is four coats.  Formula is a tad on the runny side so flooding cuticles are a distinct possibility.  However a bit of time and patience gives a lovely colour pay off.  Drying time is on the fast side so four coats doesn’t take much longer. The brush is pretty good, its quite thin but you can probably paint most of your nails in three strokes.  The brush comes directly out from the square cap and its quite quick to get use to working with.

I base coated with Essie Trillionails (still having issues with weak nails and I think this is now discontinued but can be picked up from some etailers) and top coated with Seche Vite.  The Seche did cause a minot tip of shrinkage however the wear was good and I had two days before I was itching to change my polish.

You can purchase Illamasqua from their website (shipping is worldwide) or in certain stores that have a concession, in the UK this would be Selfridges, some Debenhams or at one of the stand alone stores.  You can find the UK ones here. Retail is £13.50 and its worth signing up to the enewsletter as sometimes you get free shipping or percentage discounts.

Is Raindrops on your wish list?

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here.  I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

Illamasqua – Creator

I have the only polish I was given for Christmas to show you today, one by Illamasqua called Creator from the Generation Q release.  Its a lovely black rammed full of silver glitter.  I know, how may black sparkly polishes does one person need?  More than one!  Including this one!!

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So, as you can see in the pictures, its simply lovely.  The formula on this is nothing short of perfect, smooth, thick and goes on like butter.  It is only a smidge away from being a one coater if you apply it thickly, but I used two average thickness coats.  It is the deepest black polish, the silver is wonderfully and evenly suspended throughout the whole polish.  And delightfully it remains so on application.  Drying time is on the fast side and two coats, with a base and top coat, took no more than 15 minutes.  Base was Seche Clear and top coat was Seche Vite.

I love this polish, I wore it twice whilst I was away over Christmas and I’ve just applied it for the third time!  I have a couple of other Illamasqua polishes but this has swiftly become my favourite (as a side note, I also have the Magnetism lipstick from the Gen Q collection which I am also fond of)  I may even have to splash out when the re-release of Raindrops comes along.

You can purchase Illamasqua from their website (shipping is worldwide) or in certain stores that have a concession, in the UK this would be Selfridges, some Debenhams or at one of the stand alone stores.  You can find the UK ones here. Retail is £13.50 and its worth signing up to the enewsletter as sometimes you get free shipping or percentage discounts.

What other polishes from Illamasqua would you recommend?

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here.  I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails