Illamasqua Toxic Nature Nail Polish in Gamma

Disclaimer: this was given to me as a gift for attending a blogging event, but all thoughts are my own.

I love this nail polish a lot. It is hideously, eye-wateringly bright neon orange. Seriously, it's the most bright orange polish I've ever seen, it's so much more eye-searing than in the photos, it looks like a high-vis jacket or something!

The formula is great, it's very smooth and creamy and opaque in 2 coats (I did 3 because i stuffed up a couple of nails). Usually neon polishes dry matte but these were sort of semi-matte and rubbery, like the Orly Plastix polishes I think. I liked it a lot! I didn't put on a top coat because I wanted to show the finish (don't know if I succeeded). I wore it for 3 days without top coat and oddly there was no tip wear at all but it did start to chip. I've never for a polish that doesn't chip without a top coat though. I'll try it with one and see how it lasts then.
Also I think there must be some sort of fluorescent in it, we have these blue fairy lights up and when I got near my fingernails just glowed amazingly!

What do you think? Bright enough for you?

FOTD (From last week)

Hooray Claire found the camera lead! Now i can bombard you with posts whether you like it or not mwa ha ha (much evil laughter).

This was a look i  did when i was waiting to hear if i was going out or not, so it started off sort of sensible but neon and 80s and then just went super over the top and silly.

 

 

Behold how i use blusher to pretend to have cheekbones!

 

Not a great photo, but it shows the amazing colour of the eyeshadow properly. This is how it looks in real life. So neon <3

I was wearing: 

Face: Can't actually remember the foundation or things, but my guess (because i've been wearing them a lot recently) would be that i'm wearing ELF concealer and highlighter, GOSH foundation in Porcelain and Avon powder. My blush is Sleek Flamingo.

Eyes:  Sleek Acid palette (just wearing the white on my browbone and the neon pink) and Mac brow pencil in Fling (cant remember what mascara i used)

Lips: Mac Violette and Neon Orange.

Ok i've bitched about MAC before and i stand buy what i said, but i do adore their lipsticks. Probably my favourite ever brand for lipsticks (at least the amplified creams and Mattes anyway, i dont think i've tried any other finishes) they're creamy and super pigmented and just lovely. So good on you Mac, but i still won't be buying as many from you anymore.

Barry M Lip Laquer Crayons

I probably should have waited for some sort of offer to be on to buy these as Superdrug and Barry M often have special deals on. But i couldn't wait, as soon as i saw these i had to try them, even going as far as to naughtily open some seals because there were no testers. And after testing them i had to buy all but one. The one i didn't get was no. 5 Ballet Pink which is a very very light milky pink, it's also incredibly frosty and much sheerer than the others.





from left to right the swatches are no. 3 Mandarin, no. 4 Party Pink, no. 1 Scarlet red and no. 2 Cherry red.

Lip swatches in the same order:



Mandarin is a sort of reddish orange, but is a bit brighter and orangey-er than it looks in this photo. It's got a lighter orange shimmer effect.



Party pink is gorgeous, a bright fuscia colour with lighter pinka and almost blue shimmer.


Scarlet is the most opaque and is a classic, metallic looking jewel toned garnet red.


Cherry Red is a more pinky/blue red than Scarlet, but is a bit darker and less pink than in this photo, it's definately red.

I absolutely adore these. The chunky pencil is really easy to use and makes a pretty neat line, though i applied these really quickly so they look a bit messy. I've heard a lot of people find these drying, i actually found them quite moisturising so i guess it just depends on your individual skin and lips. The colours are amazing, all the 4 i got are so bright and beautifully pigmented and have an amazing effect, It's not quite glitter or metallic, above i've referred to it as shimmer, but that's not quite right either. It's a sort of opal effect, it sort of reminds me of this effect in nail polishes:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-jjYCa4JzIC6xGx_q5cCGaNt1tNyzmMUBwa1RCZGjm-JBZvqO8VwLBMOgVMP6UnsnLGI5tSpkOWNXPylSkPrtw9wIwH6U_nx48J1aPFGdXBVwQ-JAsDucI-RkEF7vtAld4X4DDQITcM/s1600-h/beautyexpo+027+copy.jpg
(thanks to nail juice for the photo :) )
but the colours are generally in the same colour-range. In Party pink this is almost duochrome with a blue sheen. You don't need much, one coat is basically enough to be opaque. I've been wearing the party pink one the most, about 3 times with a full lip coverage and i haven't needed to sharpen yet. I certainly will repurchase when these eventually run out and i really hope they come out with some other colours!

NOTD and formspring

I like asking questions so i decided to get a formspring:
http://www.formspring.me/lillianlow
ask me anything you want :)

Also i did my nails yesterday, they're nothign special but i thought i would share:

i'm wearing Barry M nail paint in Tangerine, which is a bright shimmery orange, this is 3 coats with a top coat. Very pretty and so far hasn't chipped, even with digby gentle chomping on my fingers. You can probably see the reason i haven't shown my nails before. I have a nervous habit of biting off my cuticles and the skin around my fingers. It's better now than it has been in years, but occaisionally i still do it and so i've got lots of little wounds around the nail bed.

A few new videos