Illamasqua Nail Varnish Competition - Win bottles of Illamasqua's contest shades!

Don't forget- tomorrow is the last day to enter! I want everyone who wants a chance to win to be able to enter before it ends!




(I'm going to bump this to the top of the page so it doesn't get buried- still a long time to enter)

Illamasqua wants to give you a chance to win all three of their Contest winning shades! You know the ones- Eclipse, Shrapnel, Raindrops- the final three user-submitted creations chosen from over 6,000 entries? You can see swatches of them here and here if you're not familiar with them.

Illamasqua is holding a competition (more of a give-away, really!) in October where you can enter to win all three Contest Winner polishes. All you need to do to 'compete' is answer an Illamasqua trivia question!

Visit http://www.illamasqua.com/scrangie/ from now until October 16th 2010 (11:59pm GMT) and enter your name and email address and answer the trivia question to be entered into the giveaway. Illamasqua will choose a winner at random on October 20th 2010.

The winner receives a bottle each of Eclipse, Raindrops and Shrapnel PLUS bottles of Illamasqua's basecoat and topcoat for the full Illamasqua experience (worth $66.00 USD!)

Edit: This contest is open worldwide! International readers may enter!
Edit number two!: Only one entry per person, please!

Whoever wins the competition, I want to see your swatches! If you're the winner and a blogger, send me a link if you post them!


(Disclosure: I don't work for Illamasqua and am not getting anything in return for this- it's just for fun! )

Illamasqua Art of Darkness nail polish for Winter 2010

Two more dark shades from Illamasqua. Thankfully, I like these much better this time, no disappointment here!


Scarab. My favorite of the two. A rich, velvety red shimmer. This is not just plain red- it's a little brown toned and has some gold in it. It's one of those dark on the edges/light in the middle glowing 'lit from within' shades that I love so much, like OPI Royal Rajah Ruby. It has some really awesome looking gold duochrome in the bottle but it's not really visible on the nail. Oh, and it's a one-coater. I did two here just because. I like everything better with more coats anyway.


Viridian. A deep blue-green shimmer. People were telling me this was frosty... I don't see frosty here... I see shimmer. I am relieved. Not brushstroke-y, not dusty looking, just a nice green shimmer. Gorgeous gem-like shade, but I feel like I've seen it before... It strikes me as being similar to Nubar Earth or something in that blue-green shimmer category. Makes me think of Christmas ornaments, both these colors together. Cute!

The formula on these was excellent in true Illamasqua tradition. Super opaque, I did two coats in these pictures but I really only needed one. Smooth, even, not runny or too thick, just all around good. Drying time is average, nothing worth noting. Dries to a dull finish, but that's sort of irrelevant cause topcoat instantly removes that... just thought I'd mention it, though.

I like these. Scarab came in a cool box with an over-sleeve with a picture of a Scarab beetle on it and some spooky butterflies on the side. It was a nice touch, unfortunately I forgot to photograph it once I saw the polish inside! I usually love polishes with names that remind me of things, but these polish names make me totally geek out.

* is dork *

(These were sent to me for review.)

Closer look at the Illamasqua Contest Winners

So, I've now seen them in sunlight and worn them each for a little while and here's what I think.

Eclipse. Let's just get the one out of the way first. This color is nothing like I expected it to be based on the early images. In reality, Eclipse is a dark blue with silver frost. It is slightly purple- it is more obvious in real life, but there are definite purple tones in this. The color is nice but I'm just not really on board with this new Frost Revival thing going on. It's really not a bad polish at all, but my expectations were just super high for this... This was what I hoped it would look like:

Dark purple, blue, green- duochrome looking with glitter or even flakes. Isn't that what it looks like there? It looks incredible. I was so excited about this shade. But now all I can say is this:



Raindrops. Actually... my blurry low-light picture of this was better at showing the cool qualities of this shade. It's a blue-toned light grey jelly-creme (very sheer- this is three thick coats) with lots of random and irregular shaped silver flakes. This one turned out really well, pretty much exactly like the promo shot:



Shrapnel. This isn't as bad as everyone's making it out to be. I rather like it. It's a coppery rose gold metallic- or is it chrome? Yes, it's frosty but it is super shiny and reflective, so it has more of a chrome finish than a true frost. Reminds me of the China Glaze Romantique collection chromes. Very, very shiny. I had expected this to be more of an orangey copper flame type shade with glitter, but it's really quite different! This has a definite 80's dance party look to it. Retro-futuristic. And yes, brushstrokes :( But, I think this might be great for Konad- it is VERY dense and pigmented- this is one coat. But really, nothing like I expected based on this:

Yeah... that's really not the same polish, is it?

But, the formula was great as usual. It's Illamasqua. Their formula is one of the best I've ever used. Thick, opaque, smooth- with the exception of Raindrops which is sheer. Drying time was good. Brushes were nice and even and thick. No problems with the formula or brushes.

You know, this is really sticky territory for me. On one hand, these polishes definitely weren't what I was expecting, but on the other hand I don't want to insult or upset the winners of the contest because I was disappointed. Also, I am a giant Illamasqua fan and this is the first time I have been let down by the colors, that kinda stings... I think Raindrops turned out the best and truest to the original pictures, but I really loved the inspiration behind Eclipse and Shrapnel too. If any of the winners are reading this- how do you feel about the end result? Is it what you imagined it would look like?

And also because I'm really super curious about what the other entries were like- how many of you entered? What was your color going to be like? I'm positively dying to know this. Please comment and tell me all about it if you entered.

I have seen a disturbing amount of frosts this year... I hope this is just a phase.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Preview of the Illamasqua contest winning shades

Please refer to my previous post about these for details, cause I can't remember what they were! XD

These just arrived and I couldn't wait to get them on my nails, so I snapped a few dimly-lit and not so fantastic pictures and figured I'd share :) I will attempt to get 'real' pictures when the sun comes back, but for now I'm really enjoying this rain, even if it means crappy swatches!

(And I apologize in advance for all the smudges and fingerprints on the bottles... this acetone + glycerin swatching remover makes my hands kinda sticky... ew.)


Eclipse. A frosty dark blue with hints of purple. I had really high hopes for this one based on the promo images- it looked like a dark blue/purple duochrome with silver microglitter, but alas, it is not.


Raindrops. This is prettier than I expected! It is sheer- this is three coats- but the sheerness really helps the little silver flakes shine through. And it reminds me of this:



Shrapnel. This one doesn't quite look like I imagined it to look based on early images, but it's really interesting! It's a bright copper or perhaps rose gold metallic, a little frosty but more shiny/chrome/metallic than true frost and it has really tiny silver microglitter. Super opaque, this is one coat. Great coverage. Very flashy.

I want to evaluate these in sunlight to get a better understanding of the colors.... Will come back to these.

(These were sent to me for review.)