Illamasqua Brigitte

Not long ago my nail pal The Asian Girl helped me get my hands on some Illamasqua polishes I've been wanting. Some of these have been on my wish list for a while now...I don't think I've bought an Illamasqua polish in more than a year. Longer even! Which is just crazy because they are truly lovely.

This is Illamasqua Brigitte. We are going to get married.

Brigitte is a jelly. Such a jellyish jelly that I was terrified when I opened the box because wow does it look sheer. It put me in my mind of my Ruby Kisses American Clear Pink, which made my nails look like a nuclear accident. I've also purchased other iterations of that color with equally disappointing results. Oh how I craved the perfect pink jelly!

This is four coats.

I used my Palladio ridge filler, which I haven't in a while, because it has a slight creamy tint to it. Just enough to take the edge off any stains on my nails.

With the first coat of Brigitte you definitely think "I have chosen...poorly." But with the second coat you can tell it's definitely going to build properly. I might have even stopped at three, but most of the swatches I found online that I liked showed four coats, so that's what I did.

Brigitte is a UK-exclusive Illamasqua shade, although when I tried to find it on Illamasqua's site this morning, I couldn't. So it's possible it's been discontinued. I couldn't find it on eBay, either! There are other UK-exclusive shades, though, and they retail for about $22US, depending on the conversion rate.

Post-Holiday Wrap Up

Hello there.

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday break, whatever you celebrate. Mine was lovely. Time off is a wonderful thing, though of course the holiday rush makes it not so relaxing as you might like. To remedy that I had a three-day weekend that ended today, and we didn't do much besides cook and watch football.

Last time we spoke (more than a month ago!), I was eagerly anticipating my first ever BB Couture order. It arrived in due time but I regret to say that I neglected to photograph the three colors (Eve, Sex on the Beach, Horned Devil) that I wore. The holidays were kind of a whirlwind in terms of slapping nail polish on and running out the door only to (unsurprisingly) discover dents and smears when I arrived at my destination.

So, here are a few one-offs for you.


Barielle Elle's Spell! I believe this is from a holiday collection. I heard about this while in the grips of my frenzy to acquire the Ulta/OPI holiday exclusives after I had been told they weren't happening. I haunted two different Ulta's on what felt like two of the coldest days of the decade and didn't find the OPIs (at that point) but was able to grab Elle's Spell.


Pretty and lit from within.


Elle's Spell over black. My nails at this point can only be described as profoundly janky but I did like the look of this polish. If you missed it, don't fret: If you have Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure or Nubar 2010 you probably don't need this. Yes, the base is a jelly red but unless you want to wear it alone, that won't really matter.


OPI Cuckoo for this Color. I bought this when I finally acquired the Ulta/OPI holiday exclusives. Beautiful green with a teal/blue shimmer (that you can't see too well in this picture.


Barry M Block Orange, received in a swap from a nice lady in the UK. Jelly goodness.

As for my holiday nail colors, I didn't get too blingy or crazy because I have grown to truly detest removing glitter. I know this makes me a nail polish heretic in some quarters but I can't help it. So labor intensive! I wore Chanel Black Pearl on Christmas Eve and OPI Plum Full of Cheer (one of the Ulta holiday colors, and so pretty) after Christmas, and Illamasqua Fern on New Year's Eve.

What would you like to see next? I'm off buying for a while (of course...every time I say that, I fall off the wagon), but am happy to delve into my collection to show you some fun colors.

Illamasqua-rama

A while ago I used a discount code to purchase several Illamasqua nail varnishes. I already owned Rampage and Muse and couldn't wait to try more shades. It's been a while since that order, and after trying Jan (a dusty, muted pinky taupe) and Grab (a grapey pink) I set the last two shades (Milf and Fern) aside for a while. Last week I pulled Milf out of my stash and I'm delighted to share it with you now.

Pastels, as we know, can be terribly problematic, but Milf was extremely easy to apply. The color payoff is great, too. I do have other minty greens, but Milf seems to be one of those polishes that attracts comments - it just has some quality about it that's unusual enough to remark on it.

Here are some other mint greens, for comparison (and for fun!).

Orly Mint Mojito, Essie Greenport, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Illamasqua Milf.

And on the nail:

Movie Star Nails

I have been obsessed with doing this for a while and I finally bit the bullet:

For this look, I used Illamasqua Jan as the base coat. I had this on as a regular manicure for a day or so before I attempted the chevrons, which I think is the best tactic. You will want the base coat to be very, very dry.

Incidentally, I love Jan on its own:

For the black part, I used Chanel Black Satin. Normally I would have reached for my go-to black, Milani Black Magic, but when I tried this out on one nail my boyfriend was still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him by rummaging through boxes of nail polish. But I knew Black Satin was within reach, and actually I really like this result because the polish has an ever-so-slight platinum shimmer.

A lovely MUAer suggested I used tape to create the chevrons, which worked like a dream. I used the wide, satin-finish Scotch brand tape. I just used the right angle of the tape to reduce the chance of variations. I put the tape on my fingernail to gauge placement, then trimmed around the bottom of my nail. (Creating a pie-shaped piece of tape.)

Once the tape was in place on all my fingers, I painted on the black polish. When that dried, I removed the small pieces of tape with tweezers.

Then I put a coat of OPI clear over the whole manicure, followed by a coat of SV.

One thing I would recommend is getting enough of the clear coats on the brush so you don't have to go back over the pink part...I had a few little streaks of black polish come through.

I'm not usually one for nail art, like, AT ALL. But I love the retro-glam appeal of this look, which is reminiscent of Dita von Teese's moon manicure.