Illamasqua - I'mPerfection Collection Nail Varnishes

The swatches today are all from Illamasqua's recent I'mPerfection Collection.  I bought my first lot of Illamasqua polishes about a year ago and after using one or two of them only once, I managed to forget about them entirely (with the exception of Raindrops of course) until the I'mPerfection Collection nail varnishes were released.

When I first stumbled upon the Illamasqua brand, I was intrigued by their different take on make-up, their philosophy and branding (look at the "I'mPerfection" collection - I love the play on the words).  It's interesting to see a make-up brand pushing the embracing your alter-ego idea - it's raw and honest.  Most brands pride themselves on beautifying and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, I feel that Illamasqua stands out by reminding us that make-up can also allow you to be someone else.  Whether that someone else is a prettier (and hence a much more confident) you or a wilder, bolder you, the Illamasqua campaign does make me realise that with make-up, people are in fact embracing their alter-egos (albeit to varying degrees).  And that is what Illamasqua is about.  It's make-up for your alter-ego.

Okay enough with the ranting.  Here are the swatches of my shades of choice from the I'mPerfection nail varnish selection which I had picked up along with my bottle of Pink Raindrops (reviewed here).

First up is Mottle.  This one is opaque in three coats.  I've shown the colour on my nails in order of increasing number of coats of polish, starting with one coat on my pinky.  Both my middle and pointer have three coats each, but the pointer does not have topcoat (the rest do). 

The application was slightly tricky for this one.  It went on a little streaky for the first coat and although second and third coats were fine, the polish was rather thick and ended up pretty gloopy by the third coat.  I would recommend that for best results, it should be applied in three thin coats and ensuring that each coat is dry before starting on the next.  The picture above was taken with flash.  The following two were taken without.

Mottle does remind me somewhat of Milf (one of Illamasqua's earlier releases) (yes the name did make me cringe but I closed two eyes and bought it anyway), so I dug it out from my mess of a polish box (yes they're all still in boxes for now) and did a comparison on swatch sticks.

I'm not sure if the speckles are playing tricks on my eyes, but the base shades look vastly similar to me.  Milf may be a tad darker, but honestly, I can't really tell.

Next one up is Fragile, and is opaque in two coats (as shown above).  It's a light pastel blue with a slight hint of purple combined with the black glitter for speckles.  I dare say this is my favourite colour of the lot.  I think I may wear it this month for one of my April autism awareness manis :)

In terms of application, Fragile is very slightly streaky for the first coat, but less streaky than Mottle, and did not get gloopy by the second coat.  This colour also reminded me of another shade from Illamasqua's earlier releases - Caress.

As opposed to the negligible difference between Mottle and Milf, I do think that the difference between Fragile and Caress is quite obvious.  I did initially think that the base shades of these two were dupes, but on a second (and a third) look, Caress is a smidge more purple-toned than Fragile.  Both are gorgeous colours.  I do apologise for the slightly dark comparison shot.  My camera was not cooperating with me that day.

Scarce is my second favourite shade (a close second) from this haul.  The pink/peach tone is just super flattering on the skin.  Not to mention, this can pull off as a one-coater if you like sheer finishes.  Shown above is two coats and shown immediately below is one coat.

One coat

Two coats

Application for this shade was butter smooth - quite a pleasant surprise after the two thick and potentially gloopy ones before.  This one had the best application out of the three.

There are two more shades in this collection. They are Speckle (described by Illamasqua as a "speckled lilac") and Freckle (described by Illamasqua as a "speckled neutral").  Absolutely random, but I didn't realise that the names of the two shades that I had decided to pass on actually rhyme with each other...

Freckle just did not appeal to me.  There's something about that brown/taupe and speckles in the bottle that made me think of drain water :x  That said, I have come across some positive reviews on the shade!  I had toyed with the idea of getting the lilac one as well, but decided against it since I do have similar shades in my (rapidly growing) collection.  Well, let's just say that the "I already have something similar" reasoning sure did not work since Mottle and Fragile ended up being pretty much dupes (save for the black spots) of two shades I already had in my polish army at that time.

The shades in the collection are all limited edition speckle pastel polishes paired with black round glitter in two sizes.  They were created to convey the idea that imperfect speckles on robin eggs somehow make them perfect in their own way.  Sometimes I think Illamasqua is too deep for me.

Image from Google

Don't the polishes resemble the speckled easter eggs above?  I was actually hoping that they would arrive in time for Easter!  But I guess I had placed my order too late.  Well, there's always next year! :)

love

mich

The speckled I'mPerfection Collection nail varnishes may be purchased directly from Illamasqua here at £14.50 a pop.