As I was picking out my first Illamasqua nail polish, I was pretty torn between their wide selection of colors. Their palette has a very edgy vibe: plenty of purples, blues, greens, vampies, screaming pinks. And yet, I went for the typical fivezero color: Alarm, a vibrant red cream with an underlying tone of traffic pylon red-orange. For some time now, I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement for my all-time favorite screamy red, Maybelline Wet Shine in Juicy Tomato. Alarm just about fits the bill, though Juicy Tomato is more of a jelly and Alarm is super pigmented. I suspect that if Alarm was diluted with a clear polish, it’d be very close to Juicy Tomato. The other polish I have that appear similar in the bottle is Zoya Maura (which is less orange-toned). I’ll have to do a comparison for all three!
Anyway, as I was trying Illamasqua for the first time, I was delighted to find that the formula is really superb. It applies so evenly! And, as I mentioned before, the pigmentation is very strong. You can nearly get away with one coat, but I preferred two just to get perfect coverage. Wear time, however, was not exceptional, and I had chipping within two to three days. I will add that I did not use a base coat nor my favorite top coat (I have a bottle of Color Club’s top coat to use up), and I am pretty hard on my hands these days. I won’t hold the wear time against Illamasqua, for now. Overall, this polish is a big yay and I hope to try more soon.
Illamasqua Nail Varnish, 0.5 fl. oz. / 15 mL. MSRP £14.50 UK, $17 CA. It does not contain toluene, phthalates (dibutyl phthalate), formaldehyde gas, and added formalin (liquid formaldehyde).
Looks like a beautiful red! I’m a huge fan of Illamasqua polishes.
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It certainly is! What other Illamasqua polishes do you like?
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I really like Blow, which is a creamy pastel yellow; Load, which is a buttercream sort of shade; and Aorta, which is a bright red that dries to a rubber matte finish!
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Those sound awesome! Thanks!
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Where can you order Illamasqua? Sephora no longer carries this brand. I did a search but did not come up with a complete line–Bloomies and Nordstrom only have some of them.
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Hi! I’m in Canada and I got mine at Hudson’s Bay. Illamasqua.com also has a store locator (including online). HTH!
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