day two hundred and forty two, illamasqua fern

ahhh THIS is the illamasqua i know and love!!! gorgeous colour, strong opacity and a good formula. it restores my faith in humanity to know that it was just a 2 polish stumble...not a brand wide problem. illamasqua you still hold a place in my heart!

fern is a really pretty bright medium blue with gorgeous glass flecked shimmer throughout. the shimmer definitely had a lot of light blue in it, it almost reminded me of bb couture sea of cortez but they are incredibly different. they're only the same in that they are blue polishes with shimmer/glitter in them.

it catches the light something beautiful, it feels so tropical and beautiful. it totally matched the amazing weather we had for three whole days in London, sunshine and temps in the 70s (F)! of course that all ended yesterday and we're back to dreary, windy and rainy weather. so i've asked everyone i know to remind me that i need to pick up a lamp while i'm out window shopping tomorrow (i might be banned from buying anything [including nail polish] as i picked up 3 pairs of christian louboutin shoes [shoes are my other love! well..handbags too, but i own more shoes than bags]) because while i remember to update this blog everyday....i have a horrendous memory and now with the sunshine gone swatching is IMPOSSIBLE without a lamp. i just don't get enough light anywhere in my flat to capture the colour correctly. so that's my story!

anyway, back to fern. this was definitely a 3 coater, it isn't a jelly base but it's not 100% creme either..it sort of bridges the gap, and you all know i HATE visible nail line so i put on my required 3rd coat. it's definitely a fun colour, i feel like i should wear it and go hula dancing or something. it's been 5.5 years since i left los angeles for London and i don't regret it a bit but i must admit my sense of temperature and sunshine is now very skewed...so things are either London dreary or hawaii tropical.

okay, enough rambling!

(i think my bottom of the bottle pictures are a little silly but i always want to know what the WHOLE bottle looks like...so you all have to indulge in my whims because...well...i'm the author! haha!)

day two hundred and sixteen, illamasqua snap

so i think me and illamasqua need a time out from each other. between this one and the disaster of elope...we just aren't getting along brand to nails. i had really high hopes for this colour but instead found the formula to be incredibly thick and difficult to manage. it ended up being quite gloopy on my nails and it just didn't work! it had the same rainbow-esque shimmer inside that made me go absolutely insane for Poke (the purple!) but the differences between the two are just...night and day.

i might give this one another try down the line...but right now it's going to the 'never to be worn again' pile.

day one hundred and ninety one, illamasqua caress

okay i've been holding it in for a week...but here is the first of the illamasqua pastels!!!!!!!!! isn't it soo pretty?? this is caress, described as a 'cornflower' blue...although cornflower to me is a darker, more sapphire based tone. but it's a really nice light light blue...it reminded me more of a robin's egg baby sister kind of colour. it's very soft, very feminine. and surprisingly the application was great. first coat was a tiny bit streaky but actually not that bad, completely opaque in two coats. a lot of pastels (to me) can sometimes feel a bit chalky but this was a really nice consistency, very smooth on the nail. i used 3 coats (as always) but i could've stopped with two.

i do need to provide a disclaimer by way of apologizing for my TERRIBLE cuticles...it's been a loooong couple weeks! i love being back at work but man it's tough and stressful and my cuticles are bearing the brunt.

so focus on the colour and not my ugly fingers! (i also feel kinda special because while these colours have been splashed all over the nail blog-o-sphere i'm not sure that anyone has actually reviewed them yet!!! i did not pick up the yellow colour because i didn't think it suited my skin but the rest will be showcased shortly!)

day one hundred and ninety, illamasqua muse

this is where i drool and fawn and roll and twirl all around the fabulous-ness of illamasqua and their colour genius. muse is (to me) the best actualisation of teal in nail polish form. when i think of teal...i think of this colour. which is awesome because it's nice to see what i think in a polish! not to detract from the genius of RBL and their version of teal (also lovely) but it's sometimes nice to see exactly what you expected from a colour [in the nicest way possible].

it's just BRILLIANT. i love this colour. i keep staring at my fingers because the colour is just that awesome. and the lady at the illamasqua counter in selfridges recognised it right away! illamasqua are amazing nail polish creators. formula, application...perfection.

i love you muse!

day one hundred and fifty eight, illasmasqua elope

don't forget to enter my giveaway where you can win TEN bottles of nail polish!!!



okay. just in case anyone doubted my devotion to nail polish (and deobrah lippmann!) here is my most recent haul, just arrived in the post a few moments ago (or rather...was tossed into my lap since my boyfriend just retrieved the day's post)...so expect lots more lippmann for the future! i am SUPER excited to show them to you, and i might have bought 7 shades of reds :D






alright. i try to always be honest about my opinions because it's just who i am and i want you to believe you can trust me as a person, as a blogger. i was really NOT happy with this illamasqua polish. which really upset me because i am a HUGE illamasqua fan. but this polish....it was just bad. bad news all around.

in the bottle elope is a fantastic bright grass green colour. on the nail it's very jelly (which i hate) and i had a lot of balding in various places which was weird because it dried almost instantly (and to a bit of a matte finish..which is usual for neon polishes but this isn't a neon colour...so also strange). it was also very thin and very delicate. i scratched my cuticle and took off a chunk of polish with it hours after i had put on a topcoat...just a really disappointing one overall...esp at the cost ££


also i could've sworn my nail was going to break and the fear actually woke me up in the middle of the night so i grabbed blindly for the polish bottle and painted my middle finger...but i ended up painting it with a different illamasqua colour (same bottle shape!) and didn't realise it until i woke up today. so a bit of humour to end on!!

day one hundred and forty one, illamasqua triumph

let's continue my love affair with illamasqua!!! this is one of the new ones i picked up (i actually have already shown you the ones i owned before i bought this lot...so i don't know i felt the need to clarify...but...yeah). triumph is an amazing dark red that isn't a vamp. so it is awesome in my book. i love reds that are almost vamps but never go that far so it's obviously still a red and never an 'almost' black, just true red. it's a gorgeous colour, more of a blue red...no orange tones. just dark, brick-like and stunning!

day one hundred and twenty five, illamasqua phallic

i can't figure out why i waited so long to show off the awesomeness of this polish...but i do think it benefits from shorter nails! phallic is...i think my first illamasqua polish and i adore it. it's dark blue with blue glitter and the centre of your nails just glow when they get hit with light. i think this might be my favourite blue with blue glitter polish! it's important to note that this baby never looks black...just a beautiful deep blue.

also since i'm finally getting how to konad i put plate m61 with china glaze awaken (as stamping polish) on my ring finger. i think it looks pretty cool! the nice thing about short nails and konad is that you never have to worry about the whole nail not getting covered...but at the same time...you end up putting the design all over your finger because your nails are so short! thankfully it's an easy cleanup process.

i've yet to ever be disappointed with illamasqua...every polish is always perfect in application and opacity. easy removal too!

day one hundred and twenty one, illamasqua poke

now. i said i found a purple that re-ignited my purple love...and here it IS! illamasqua, poke. THE MOST AMAZING PURPLE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!! seriously. it's SO awesome i had to take a video to showcase the rainbow shimmer effect beacuse i couldn't even begin to capture it with just images. but just ignore the whirring noise in the video as it is of course, shot in my bathroom with the amazing light...but non-turn-off-able steam/vent/fan/thing.

this polish actually reminds me of RBL Scrangie. but only in a nice way, not in a copycat way at ALL. they are VERY DIFFERENT! it's mostly just the shimmer used in poke and scrangie are very similar and i've never seen this rainbow silver shimmer effect anywhere else...ever. it's a stunning purple...very bright and not dark and just...AMAZING. i can't get over how fantastic it is!!

illamasqua polishes retail for £12.50 and i know they are now available on sephora for US people but i don't know if they have all the colours. my recent 5 acquistions from illamasqua bring my collection up to about 10...which isn't that many but at £12.50 each that's £125.00! so...yeah. but SO WORTH IT. truy amazing. everyone needs to go buy this colour. go now! faster!

day seventy, illamasqua hectic

ahhh short nails! it's nice and odd at the same time! it is much easier to type and take my contacts out though!

i have discovered that the best lighting is in my bathroom. so to cope with the grey winter of London i present...the light in my bathroom! it's surprisingly amazing. much brighter than anywhere else in my flat and gives the most accurate colour representation.

i know some bloggers buy actual lamps to reflect natural sunlight...but that is a little weird and totally out of my budget (still jobless sadly!!). so you get my bathroom. which is actually pretty awesome since the grey grey light outside totally negates the beauty of some colours


today is another stunner from illamasqua. they're pricey (£11/bottle) but 10000000% worth it. perfect application every time. great pigmentation. the polish isn't thick or thin...it just applies like a dream. you all know by now that i like weird colours. and this camoflauge green is no exception. i would never think of putting weird olive camo green on my fingers...but it works!

so hi to anyone who is new! i still can't believe people actually read this, it's so exciting!! i have some miniature polish bottles to show soon and they are the CUTEST thing i've ever seen! i have 1 bottle that's smaller than a q-tip. adorable. but onto illamasqua! (i will say that i am annoyed i can't get my cap to go on straight. it totally ruins the awesome rectangular shape)

day fifty one, illamasqua rampage

here's another great polish from illamasqua (i'm not sure they do any non great ones!), rampage. it's a dark green creme and it is super lush and shiney. i don't know what colour it reminds me of...besides dark green, maybe evergreen?? anyway, it's amazing and i love it! i can't get enough illamasqua (but at £12/bottle) i can only acquire them slowly!