Illamasqua Christmas 2011 Quad
I know, I know, we’re coming up on Christmas 2012, so yes, I am a year late. But, never you mind that: this is still a great little set! It’s also my introduction to Illamasqua’s polishes. Normally, these babies run at £13.50 a pop, but I snagged them up at Illamasqua’s summer sale a few months back. Who wants Christmas polishes in July? For £15 for the four of them, I sure as hell do! ;)
Prism: There was one polish in the set I was certain I would never use, because I hate sheer polishes, but hey, three for £15 is still a pretty good deal!, so I didn’t really care that one would be unusable. Of course, once I had it in my hands, I had to at least try it once, y’know? So I did, and I was sold! Prism is gorgeous! It’s a sheer, milky duochrome that is obviously never going to be opaque on its own, but I don’t care! I’m wearing two coats here just to show what it looks like by itself. I can’t really wear it this way since my nails are crazy discoloured, but it also works perfectly as a layering polish over something else.
Elope: Lovely grassy green colour, really annoying formula. It took four coats to begin looking this even and non-streaky. Thing is, this is a wonderful colour and I want to wear it a lot, but boy, do I not have the patience for four-coater nightmare polishes! Next time, I’m wearing underwear with this. Will certainly save a looooot of time.
Throb: A gorgeous vibrant red creme and a nice surprise after Elope. I dreaded another four-coater, but this ended up only taking one coat to cover completely. One. What is this? Not that I’m really complaining — yay for one-coater reds! Great for when you’re in a hurry and so on, but consistency, anyone? A bit of that would be quite nice now and then. Just sayin’.
Harsh: What’s a Christmas collection without a glitter polish? Nothing, that’s what, so of course one was included here. Harsh feels very aptly named. It’s got to be the harshest silver glitter I own (and OPI’s Pirhouette My Whistle is the softest). Here it is as one coat over Throb. Much like Prism, Harsh is best layered over something else, though obviously you can wear it on its own, if that’s what floats your boat.
All in all, the brush on these demanded a certain amount of concentration on my part, but I think that’s just because this is a new brand for me. I always need a little time to get acquainted with a new brush.
My favourite of the four is Throb, the biggest let-down is Elope and the biggest surprise Prism. All of them quite worth the £15 I spent.