Illamasqua Nomad

Illamasqua Nomad is a lovely pastel green, and I thought I would try it on and post it for you guys because there is a sale on right now at the website (unknown end date).  See Nouveau Cheap's post for more info, or go to the Illamasqua website to buy. 

(Above) natural sunlight

More pictures after the jump!

(Above, and rest of pictures) indoor lighting

So this Illamasqua brand, weird name, right?  For the longest time I didn't realize there was an I in the front and I pronounced it "la-mas-ka" but it is in fact "ill-a-mas-ka".  It is hard to see the I because in most fonts the capital I's look similar to the lowercase l's, but my blog font is clearly awesome as it differentiates the I and l well.

Anyway, so this is a pastel green in two coats, and I love the color!  I have been looking for a pastel green to replace my OPI Gargantuan Green Grape because the formula was so awful.  The formula for Nomad was really nice, for a pastel, meaning it was still slightly streaky, but way less streaky than most other pastels I have tried.  To compensate for the streakiness, I made sure my brush was loaded with a drop at the end to coat the nail fully.  The thickness of the polish was actually really nice and smooth, not chalky like some pastels.  I did have a bit of a problem, because I did thicker coats, with bubbling, but it wasn't bad and you can always do three thin coats to avoid this problem.  I personally will not wear a polish that requires more than two coats as that is just not worth my time.

For comparison, below is a picture of some nail art I did on OPI Gargantuan Green Grape.  Man I hate that polish.  I picked it out on the brink before I started to get obsessed, so I didn't know there were nail polish blogs or Pinterest yet.  I merely saw a pretty pastel green and naively bought it.  This polish made me hate painting my nails the application was so bad.  Since then I have avoided OPI like the plague, but I recently got a few OPI's from the Skyfall collection and those were great to apply, so I am not as hateful as I once was.

The OPI GGG color is a bit paler and less pigmented than Nomad, and personally I prefer the shade of Nomad, it is way more unique.

(Above) You can remove the square lid, don't be afraid to pull a bit harder to get it off, to paint as it is much more manageable this way.

Nomad!  A most unique green, one that stands completely alone in my collection, with no other green coming near this shade.  I have some really light greens and some bright greens of a darker color, but none close to this pastel shade at all.

So, in conclusion, this was my first try with Illamasqua, and for $15 I got a really nice pastel with a little of the typical issues with pastels.  I do wish it was a bit cheaper, but I recommend it if you love pastel greens and are looking for "the one" pastel green as I was.

Instead of a puppy picture, I have a picture of my sister's nails I would like to share.  She was actually the one who got me into nail polish in the first place, starting with her showing me what Pinterest was and what nail art for dummies was.  She opened my mind to a world of Scotch tape manis and dotticures that even the most amateur nail painter can attempt.

So here are her little piggie toes, aren't they adorable!  She has a Pinterest page too, and most of the nail art she pins she attempts, which is quite impressive.

Are these not the cutest toes ever!  She is sooo good!  Hopefully I will have more to share from her as I go to add more nail art to the swatches on this blog!

On another note, I know the craze right now is for the China Glaze Tranzitions collection.  I do not understand the appeal at all because I would want to put top coat on the whole nail.  If I wanted to do art, I would do it with just a darker or different color polish and then top coat all of it.  I like the color changing polishes that do not require top coat much better - they change color with temperature, so it creates a French manicure look if you have longer nails or it changes in the sun or cold water.  These temperature-dependent ones are much more practical to me since you can topcoat it and not worry about messing it up while the CG ones you would have to sit there while the parts without top coat dried.  I don't see how the regular customer that isn't a polish junkie would be able to put up with waiting for the Tranzitions ones to dry either.  What do you think?  Do you like the color changing polishes at all?  Which ones are your favorite and why?

NPR (not polish related): Who else has seen Les Mis!!!  I can't stop listening to the soundtrack "I am lost, I am found"  Love Amanda's voice!  Gorgeous!  If you like Sascha Baron Cohen or Anne Hathaway, totally great to see!  Have you seen it?  What did you think?