Illamasqua Speckled Nail Varnish

 I am awful on my nails. I'm impatient when I paint them and I constantly chip them and peel polish off and generally make a mess of my nails. It does not help that I work in a file room and deal with dusty files and other nail unfriendly things. I also do not like to spend alot of money on nail polish for all of those reasons.

 

I had seen the Illamasqua Speckled Nail Varnish on multiple blogs and just couldn't get it off my mind. At $16 a bottle, it seemed a bit rich for my blood, but in a spark of naughty impulsiveness, I purchased one in Mottled.

 

 

 This nail varnish is AMAZING. I read many reviews about the quality and was honestly not expecting much, nail varnish is nail varnish is nail varnish, you know? But the formula for this varnish is wonderful and goes on smooth, which is a big issue for me when painting my nails. Most polishes tend to be slightly goopy and my impatience just makes it worse. I was amazed at how the varnish would actually fill in spaces on my nails and basically even itself out.

 

 

 

The color is incredibly pigmented and although it is quite pastel, it doesn't look like it should be in a nursery. I've had my nails painted for 3 days (did a bit of touch up work last night) and they look great with only the slightest little chip here and there. This, for me, is unheard of. I usually start picking off polish a day in because it gets chipped so bad.

 

 

I do have one problem with this varnish though. The bottle and cap. As you can tell from the picture below, when the cap is screwed on tightly, it does not line up with the bottle. This drives me insane. I would love to have this out on a cabinet or something to show off how gorgeous it is, but that damn cap will forever haunt me. So it looks like it will just have to find a home with all my other nail polishes in a drawer.

 

I have already scouted out several more Illamasqua varnishes and when I'm feeling impulsive I plan to get a few. I almost wish I wasn't so in love with the formula due to the price, but I guess I can always just wait and pick one or two up whenever I need to splurge on myself.