Where has Illamasqua been all my life?! It's like we were made for each other. I adore everything about this brand- the packaging, the colors, the website, the names of the products, the formula of the polishes, just... everything.
By taking a minute to browse their website, you'll see why I like them. They're not some frilly, foofy pink pom-pom girly-girl cosmetics company. They're sexy, dramatic, mysterious, edgy and a little dark. Needless to say, that really appeals to this girl.
They are mainly a cosmetics company, but they do a range of polish shades as well. Just wait until you see them!
In the polish ('Scratch') portion of their website, you can see that they have a small but strong collection of polishes. I love the names- Obtuse, Boosh, Unnatural, Ruthless, Milf... And for such a small collection, they have a high concentration of awesome polish colors. I see what looks to be about five greens, five blues, oranges, yellows, purples, metallics and glitters and just a splash of pink-and-red to please the less adventurous polish consumer.
Here are the shades I tried:
Hectic. A drab olive creme. YES!!! I don't know what else to say about this other than... WOOHOO!!!! It's great. Straight off my "Nail Polish Wishes" post!
Rampage. A rich forest green creme. You've already seen this but it's worth posting again because it is UTTER PERFECTION. I have already made a significant dent in my bottle and I've had it for less than a month.
Phallic. Rich, starry dark blue shimmer. What a name for a polish. Fantastic. The polish itself is pretty amazing, too- it's one of those dark blue vampy shades that look lit from within. Dark around the edges and light in the center. It's rich and sparkly, like a starry night sky. Tons of depth in this one.
Spartan. Antique gold glitter. This is a cool one. It seems to be multiple shades and sizes of glitter that create a soft antique gold look. They aren't really your traditional uniform circular glitter particles. They're more like flakes and shards. They are pretty fine but buildable and the end result is very smooth. With one coat of Seche Vite you can't even tell you're wearing glitter. I love the names of all of them, but this one especially. I think they may have been going for this type of Spartan:
But of course, it makes me think of this type of Spartan:
Anyway...Here's one coat of Spartan layered over Rampage:
Sparkles!!
Now that I've raved about the colors and the names, I'll touch on the formula briefly. It's perfect. The polishes are thick and opaque. I did two coats of all of them. The formula is extremely smooth and easy to apply. It's comparable to Rescue Beauty Lounge's formula, which is pretty much the gold standard for me. The polish dries quickly and wears well. I had no bubbling and after two days of wear had almost no sign of tipwear (that second shot of Rampage- the indoor lighting one- that was taken after two days of wear).
Now, these polishes aren't cheap- they're £12.50, which comes to about $19 in US dollars. Cheaper than Chanel but with much better formula and color selection. They are one dollar more than Rescue Beauty Lounge. At least they have great formula. If a polish is going to cost this much, it better apply itself!
The brushes are good, I did not encounter any wayward bristles or application problems with them. The bottles are really pretty- they're a solid bottle that's not going to get knocked over easily and they're a little bit Gothic in design. Beautiful to look at. I especially love the logo and the shape of the cap:
So, overall, the only think I don't like about this brand is the price. Everything else is freakin' awesome. The style is finally something I want rather than something I have to settle for. I hope they release more colors because I have faith in them to create things that appeal to me. Even if they don't release more colors, their line is pretty strong as it is. That also impresses me. The number of good colors outnumbers the safe colors by a lot. Love it.
Illamasqua can be ordered directly from their website. They are a UK company, but they will ship to the US.
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