NOTD: Illamasqua - Viridian

Hi Everyone, 

It's been a while since my last nail polish post, mainly due to snapping a few of my nails which led to cutting them all of and painstakingly waiting for them to grow back- which they have now :)

A while ago I was invited to the Illamasqua Art Of Darkness event, but sadly couldn't make it which I was very disappointed about! Alex from Illamasqua offered to send me some information post event, but much to my surprise a few days after the event an unexpected package arrived on my doorstep! 

One of the products kindly sent to me by Illamasqua was one of the new nail polishes, Viridian. It's a beautiful multidimensional emerald green. It looks different depending on how the light hits it, a brighter emerald shimmer is illuminated within the deep forest green base. I'm not usually one for green toned polishes however I found the shade worked quite well with my skin tone - so I think Illamasqua may have converted me into a green lover. The photos of these run a bit darker and more blue based than it looks in daylight, it's definitely more of a true emerald colour.

The polish took 2 coats for me, I don't think I'd reccomend 1 coat for this polish as the layering of the colour really gives a more dazzling effect. It does dry a little matte compared to how it looked wet so I applied a glossy top coat to bring out the reflective effects of the polish.

I love the green beetle (I'm wanting to say it's a scarab beetle) featured on all of the packaging, the 2 items I recieved featured a decorative slip cover unique to the collection over the traditional black Illamasqua packaging - I'm really liking the attention to detail Illamasqua have put into the whole collection.

I did pull off the larger square cap when applying, as it reveals the smaller cap underneath which is much easier to hold. The brush for the polish is quite thin in comparison to most polishes in my collection, but I found it very easy to control. As I've only just applied it today I can't say how well it wears, I'll update through the week!

*Update* The nail polish lasted 4 days without chipping, I didn't use a base coat (naughty!) and the topcoat was my usual Barry M 3 in 1 nail paint. It definitely lasted a lot longer than I can normally get away with! I had a little tip wear today on the 5th day and 1 small chip on my index finger, very impressed!

-LadyDanger

xxx