Gigolo Blue!

This week's nail is brought to you by the electric BLUE company. I mean...it's blue. It's blue like you never knew blue could be.

We are speaking of an absolutely striking Illamasqua called Fern. I'm not sure where the name Fern could have come from...I would think something kind of green for that? Or do they mean Fern from Charlotte's Web? I don't know. Illamasqua is relatively new to me but it was love at first sight. I'm sorry, any outfit that will name an off-white, slightly yellow cream polish "Load" and put it in their Throb collection? Yes. That immediately says "love" to me, just for the humor, the brashness and well, pun intended, balls. And by the way, that polish is great and I had many compliments on it. It will reappear and I will review it at that time.

At any rate, this was:
1 coat Poshe base
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
2 coats Fern
1 coat Poshe quick dry top coat, the name of which is escaping me at the mo.

It went on beautifully, as Illamasqua typically does, covered well in 2 coats and was easy to work with. I was trying to put this on and watch A Game of Thrones at the same time (yes, I'm a geek. I read that book about 8 years ago, got hooked and was excited for the series) and so I could have done less drunken monkey cuticle flooding but...I tried not to show that in the pics. I find you should only ever paint your nails while watching a movie/show you've already seen. Saves polish.

The color has a slight shimmer to it, I don't think I could successfully get that to show up on a pic. Especially not on my phone. It's very subtle in real life. I don't find the Poshe top coat to be a shimmer eater so I think it's meant to be subtle. I like subtle shimmer...I prefer it to glitter. I'm not a glitz kinda gal. Sometimes...*shakes self* I digress.

This is one striking polish and it is NOT for the faint of heart. You have to own this polish when you wear it and I mean own it. The whole premise of Illamasqua is to release your alter ego so this polish....if you are brave enough to wear it, will definitely help you express yourself. I've loved wearing it. I have loved the slightly quizzical looks I've received from people and the somewhat intimidated looks I get on occasion. Yep. This is a great color. It makes a statement. This is the blue of M&Ms, old sports cars, athletic teams...This is not a blue you can wear planning to match it to your outfits for work, unless you own a lot of blue. But it IS fantastic.

Now...on to the wear, which has been impressive. This pic was taken mid-week:

Yes, that's my car...this is in natural lighting and shows the polish to be a bit lighter than it is in reality, but it's not a bad representation. You can't see the wear, but there isn't really any to see yet.

These I just took:

Left hand, a little visual tip wear, artificial light. Artificial leopard, in case anyone thinks me a hypocrite. Isn't that a great blankie? Got it on sale at Target in an emergency. Hey, maybe there was a blizzard but that does not mean I can't keep warm in style! It's supa-soft. Recommend!

I am ambi, but I am more practiced with my right, as I did grow up at the end of that anti-leftie time, if I'm not dating myself too much. Here's the rightie:

And this is why you need two hands to take a pic. However blurry this may be, you can see what I need you to see, which is the very minimal tip wear. (plz excuse the broken birdie finger. Tore that sucker off in a door at work. OUCH! BMITWWU will fix. That's Best Manicurist in the Whole Wide Universe, in case you were lost!)

Please note while I'm raving about the long wear on this polish that I have been a bad nail mommy and have not put on any other coats of top coat or Nailtiques...this is the original manicure, as it stands, tons of applications of hand sanitizer not withstanding. It's taken a beating.

SCORE! Illamasqua Fern. Absolutely amazing and matching M&M bowls near you!

And just in case you thought I was kidding about the M&M thing:

How sweet is that? The shimmer shows up!



I haven't chosen the next mani color yet. Clothes, makeup and nails are a purely emotional, mood driven choice, which is why my toes are currently BB Couture Nightmare...maybe I can review that next week, if you don't mind looking at my pointe shoe deformed toots...we'll see. It's spectacular. But...whatever the talons end up being, I will try to take mid-week pics of it as well so we can see how we're doing. I am so pleased with this Illamasqua that I could burst, seriously. Just that moderate tip wear after a week and no new coats of top coat? Phenomenal. One time the bucks seriously spoke and got you what you paid for. Highly, highly recommended!


Happy Talons!