The highest number of polish shades are found on the Illamasqua website and I have found that this website contains far better shade descriptions than the Sephora website. "A spectrum of bold shades with a range of finishes including matt, rubber, and high-gloss. Award-winning, extremely hardwearing, and chip-resistant, there's an Illamasqua Nail Varnish for every shade of humanity. Apply two coats for intensity and use with Illamasqua Nail Base Coat and Illamasqua Nail Top Coat for the perfect finish."
Overall this formula applies well and dries quickly without the use of any special drying products. Most of the shades that I have used need two coats for full pigmentation and only one shade so far has needed three shades to reach its full shade (Stance). The polishes are very long-lasting and I can four to five compelte days from this formual with only very minimal signs of wear. All of the shades that I have used from the Glossy Finish have dried down to semi-glossy finish, if you want a very glossy finish then you will want to follow this up with a glossy finish top coat (I use China Glaze's formula) and I tend to reapply top coat every other day to keep up the finish and continue to extend the life of the polish.
Here are the shades with the Glossy Finish...
- Unnatural - rich burgundy wine
- Untold - red glitter
- Ruthless - bright scarlet red
- Alarm - bright flame red
- Whack - vivid tangerine orange
- Lament - bright coral pink
- Spartan - gold glitter
- Blow - lemon sorbet
- Wayward - bright taxicab yellow
- Nomad - bright jade
- Smash - bright grass green
- Elope - bright emerald green
- Rampage - dark green jelly
- Muse - deep teal blue
- Nudge - mint ice cream
- Caress - cornflower blue
- Propaganda - deep navy blue
- Jo'mina - electric lilac
- Wink - soft lilac
- Velocity - dusky gray purple
- Jan - light dusky pink
- Grab - grape magenta
- Obsess - bright fuschia pink
- Stance - fuschia violet
- Loella - bright candy pink
- Scorch - pure white
- Glory - molten silver
- Harsh - silver glitter
- Boosh - pure black
As you can see, this finish makes up the majority of the Nail Varnish line and if you like this finish then you will have many shades to choose from! I own Rampage, Caress, Jo'mina, and Stance (I bought Jo'mina and Stance at the store, the other two shades were ordered from the website).
Rampage is a dark green jelly and I actually ordered this shade last winter by mistake. I ordered it from the Sephora website when I was in a hurry and I wanted to buy the Viridian shade (metallic finish deep green) but somehow ordered this one instead and kept it since it is a good deep Eagles green shade, I mostly use it in the fall and winter during football season. Two coats are needed to get full pigmentation from this shade. The jelly finish if this polish is the glossiest of the group however the wear on it is the worse. I only get two or three days out of this shade, after about two days it begins to peal back from the tips (this is common with certain jelly polishes).
Caress is a pale cornflower blue and one of my current favorite polish shades, it looks pretty against pale skin but POPS against my current self tan. This shade is somewhat glossy, this needs a top coat to make it really glossy. Two coats of this shade lasted the longest out of all the polishes, I got five full days from this before my first chip came. This shade is very cool toned so I don't know how flattering this shade would be on someone with warmer skin but it looks amazing on cool skin tones. I think that this one will be on a heavy rotation until the beginning of the fall.
Jo'mina is a bright lilac with a pink undertone, this polish fits in perfectly with the lilac hues that have been the rage all of the spring and summer. It is another shade that looks good against pale skin but comes alive when paired with a tan, this is one of the few universally flattering lilac shades, anyone could use this shade and follow the trend. I think that this is one of the best selling shades since this is the shade that is pictured on the Sephora website when you first click on the product. This is another shade that will be in heavy rotation this summer but i can't see how much I will wear it in the fall months.
Lastly, Stance is my newest polish from this company. I have just purchased this polish the other weekend and have only used it on my toes so far. This shade is one that could be worn all year round, it is bright enough for the summer months but isn't so neon that I can't wear it all through the year. Stance needed three coats for full pigmentation and is the thinnest in texture of all the polishes. This one streaks a bit more than any other in this line during the first coat and takes the longest of all shade to apply. This shade will be making its debut for my manicure very soon!
Illamasqua polishes are my favorite formula and I always want to add more to my collection, I own almost all the small line that is carried at the Sephora Nail Bar so I will have to go back to ordering them from the website. For the summer months, I would like to purchase Wink and Loella (though I doubt that I will buy these until next spring since I already own more than enough shades for this summer). I am more interested in adding fall shades to my collection: Untold, Ruthless, Muse, Propaganda, Velocity, Glory, and Harsh. I want more glitters and deep jewel tones for this fall and winter and this line of polishes is a great place to start. Next from this polish line will be the Satin Finish polishes...
photo courtesy of Illamasqua
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