Illamasqua DWS

The weather here has grim. GRIM. It took me a week to photograph this mani because it's been raining non-stop. Indeed, it is still raining, which is why there are droplets of water on my nails. That's also why there's killer tip wear. I wore this during reading week and since it's been about 2 degrees C since then I've barely been outside. I seriously need a lightbox so that I can photograph manis from the lazy comfort of indoors. Fortunately I've had a massive pile of marking to keep me entertained...sigh...

DWS is what Piff would call a 'palette cleanser' polish. It's a neutral dark ish grey that's perfect in one coat (it's a touch less blue than it appears in the pictures). I love this with a holo silver glitter top coat over, but this time, I went plain and neutral. Who needs glitter when you've got rain?

One final thing I want to mention, since this is an Illamasqua polish: Illamasqua have been enthusiastic supporters of the S.O.P.H.I.E. foundation, an organisation set up by Sylvia Lancaster after her daughter Sophie was kicked to death in Bacup, a town in the north of England. She was picked on for defending her boyfriend, who had been attacked by a gang of thugs for dressing in black (Sophie herself had black and red dreadlocks). Today would have been her 25th birthday. If you feel, as I do, that prejudice has no place in a civilized society, and that something good should come out of tragedy, please do consider donating. Thank you.

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China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle

I wore this to a conference. The conference itself wasn't great - interesting, but basically irrelevant to my research, and absolutely not worth flogging through four countries with the flu for - but I did like my mani. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a picture of it until it had been on 8 days (and my outgrowth is not pretty) but I did dig up some old pictures from the last time I wore it.

It's a very pretty pale-ish violet-leaning blue. Cream finish, but very slightly sheer, so although two coats gives full coverage, there is VNL in bright light. It's a bit less bight than these pictures suggest. Here's one from the most recent wear that's probably more colour accurate (sorry that it's looking a bit battered, and hi cat!).

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Models Own Nude Beige

What is it with me and nudes lately? Not sure. But I've had this in my drawer for ages and put off wearing it, because I thought the colour would look horrible on me. It's so much darker than my skintone. I even almost gave it away untried.

But after digging it out and gritting my teeth, I actually love this on me. It reminds me of the colour of Irish Cream (not that it takes much for me to think of booze) and it has a slight chocolatey undertone. Application was pretty easy, coverage is great although it does slightly fall prey to being thick but runny. The brush is good though, which helps control. I'm definitely going to use this again - maybe as a pedi?

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Mannequin hands: OPI Sand in my Suit

I felt like a break from all the vamps. Also, truth be told, I was going into a school for a training/shadowing day, and I didn't want to stand out too much. Even despite wearing my best smart clothes, I still got mistaken for one of the students. Still, I know I'll appreciate looking like a teenager when I'm 40...Hopefully...

Anyway, this is OPI Sand in my Suit. I'm usually an NW15 in MAC (although I wear NC15 to cancel redness) and this fits my skintone pretty well. It's fully opaque in two or three coats depending on how careful you are. I'm not sold on the shimmer, though. It's a bit 'frosty granny' - you know, like the pearls that were rife in the early '90s. This last one is probably the most colour accurate - Autumn sunshine tends to make my skintone look a bit less cadaverous.

Please excuse the not-great application, by the way. My lumos topcoat turned to concrete (seriously, I've never seen anything like it) so I had to resort to a very old, almost empty bottle of seche vite. I made a bit (cough) of a mess on some nails.

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Gold, part II: Boots 17 Black Glitter Crackle

Okay, I know everyone is sick of crackles. But this might be worth a second look. It's a black shatter topcoat, with little gold glitter particles. I found that you have to give the bottle a good shake, but otherwise it's very easy to apply, the glitter doesn't pool, and it shatters well (albeit in small 'chunks').

I love the finish over Midnight Kiss from yesterday. It makes me think of tapestry. Very textural and pretty. I had a lot of compliments on it today, and it meant I got to crack out my gold glitter pumps, so everyone's a winner.

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Gold, part I: CG Midnight Kiss

I wore this once on my toes last winter with Party Hearty over the top and wasn't that wowed. Looking at it on my nails, I can only ask: HOW?! This polish is a total knock out! It's a slightly silvery, cool gold foil. SO sparkly. SO reflective. Just gorgeous!





It kind of changes colour with the light. Indoors, the creamy, silvery tones come out and it looks like a subtle, pale gold with high shine. I find the pastel tones of very reflective polishes often come out in low light, the same is true for the chromes I've reviewed. In the sun though, it turns into a total bling fest. Kapow!

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Vamps for October: Illamasqua Viridian

Okay, so probably not technically vampy, but a) it's dark, b) I was really sick of burgundy and navy and c) I love it! Viridian is one of my favourite polishes. It's amazing in two coats but can be applied in one, it's hardwearing, shiny, and a stunning colour. I feel badass when I wear this polish.

I think Temptalia described this as a dark teal, and that's probably not far off the mark. Except that overall hue is comprised of a subtle blue/green/black duochrome (trichrome?) shift that brings different facets of the polish out in different light. This looks amazing under flash (although I forgot to bring my flashgun when I took the shots. Oops). I really love this polish, it's in my desert island top ten and is one of the first shades I bought that got me really raving about Illamasqua.

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Vamps for October: Essie Lacy not Racy

I think Kitty2Karen's getting to me. I am becoming an Essie convert.

I've had this and Rock the Croc in my storage for a year or so, and have reached for the latter as a pedi a few times. (Love it!). But I think this might be taking over in the preference stakes, it's gorgeous. Super dark red, that doesn't lean burgundy. It's like a bloody good Shiraz.

Aside from the fact that it's seriously hot, the application was amazing. Three coats, and the Essie brush is so little and perfect that I was able to get away with hardly any clean up. It's so shiny, even before seche vite (but with the magic top coat, I went from bare nails to dry mani in less than half an hour). I still had it on to teach my classes a full week later with barely any tip wear. It's fantastic.

So, as a new Essie fangirl, what else must I have? I just cheated on my no-buy (which has been going really well, thanks to the fact that I'm broke anyway) by ordering Geranium.

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Vamps for October: China Glaze Meteor Shower glitter

I wanted this polish for the longest time. Glitter, navy blue jelly, and holo goodness was just far too much for me to resist.

But I kind of wish I had. It went on nicely with two coats, but it is SO bumpy. Ridiculously bumpy, even after two coats of seche vite. The holo doesn't come through enough to make it worth the effort, either.

Pretty, but I really wasn't sorry to remove it!

Edit - thanks to the readers who spotted my, er, deliberate error in getting the wrong name!

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Vamps for October: Ciate Burlesque

I freaking love this polish. It practically applied itself. The brush was perfection and after two coats of thick, flowing opacity I had hardly any clean up to do. With a coat of Seche Vite it is ridiculously shiny and flawless, and it wore like teflon without chipping at all.

Even better, the colour is totally glorious. It is dark, but never black. Like an Eggplant purple but with a touch more blue. I would wear this polish again and again, and I really enjoyed wearing this mani.

Until, that is, I had a go at water marbling, and covered it in what looked like slug trails. I'm too embarrassed to show you all, but trust me, it was BAD.

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I got a lovely parcel in the post...

...Thank you, Illamasqua! :)

Well, I've always said good things about their customer service. I once returned a lipstick because I accidentally ordered two of them in one of their 30% off sales. I sent them a cheeky email asking if I could return or preferably exchange it (even though 'being a doofus' isn't one of their grounds for return) thinking they'd maybe grudgingly refund me since it was by then out of sale period, and it's a bit naughty me asking for a product at 30% off when there's no sale on.

But to my surprise, they shipped a replacement colour out via courier at their expense. And sent me an email to ask me which colour I wanted most, and to let me know their stock levels, since I put a random bunch down on the return form. (I felt I was probably taking advantage enough already to start getting picky). They are a really, really nice company.

Which is why it made my day to find that they read Polish or Perish. Hayley, their marketing manager, got in touch to chat about nail polish and take some contact details. And a couple of weeks ago a lovely parcel turned up with two of their new polishes for review, plus a lipgloss in Belladonna. (I mentioned I was really interested in the glosses from the new collection, so I was really touched that they popped one in - it's lovely, by the way!). Yeah, I am a total fangirl.

So these are the two polishes, Kink and Vice:

I wanted to wait a little while before giving a review, because for me the most significant thing about the A/W polishes is their 'rubber' finish, rather than the shades. So I've had Vice on for the last week, and here it is. This colour is lovely, a kind of purplish wine/berry shade, but it's the finish that makes it stand out from other similar polishes. I'd describe it as kind of satin-y. It's not quite as matte as I was expecting, but not fully glossy, either.

I've tended to stay away from matte finish polishes because they chip on me something rotten, so I wore Vice for a full 8 days before writing this (the pictures are from day 3). I have tremendously limited patience so I managed to scracth the finish a little even before it was fully dry (I am spoilt by seche vite). However, that cock up aside, it wore really well. Looking at them a week later, there is one chip (my right middle), a couple of teeny nicks on my thumbs, and a little tip wear. And I've been intentionally bloody hard on my hards this week - I've been washing up, I did gardening, and I've relaid the tiles on my hall floor, all without gloves. My hands feel like catcher's mitts, but the polish still looks very respectable.

(The only odd thing is that black line on my ring finger - I think it's a shed bristle? I've never had one of their brushes shed on me before, so it took me a while to work out what it was!).

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Vamps for October: Illamasqua Phallic

10.30am. I walk into my living room with this on my fingers to twirl at my significant other (he gets nail varnish twirls rather than dress twirls. Bit of a raw deal for him, but that's just how I roll).

'That's nice. Beautiful colour.' he says. 'How's the paper going?'

'Well. Really well. Yeah, I've done loads. Obviously.'

'You've just spent an hour and a half painting your nails and messing about on facebook, haven't you?'

'Yes'.

'Have you done any at all? The deadline's today, right?'

'No. Yes. I'll be going now...'

Bloody worth it, though. This is three coats of very sexy blue polish. It's very deep, like a midnight jelly, but with tonnes of purply blue flaky sparkles that peek out in the sunlight. It's all twinkly! Sooo gorgeous. I love it. It's very very pigmented though and my fingers were smurf city when I did clean up! Slightly dreading trying to remove it, I might just leave it on until it falls off.

(I did get the paper finished in the end, by the way. Conference in Vienna, here I come.)

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