Illamasqua Raindrops and Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

It’s a rainy day here in Singapore today. Just the day to share my swatch featuring Illamasqua Raindrops along with Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid.
Let me start by explaining my choice of greys for this swatch. In my previous post on Paul and Joe swatches, I mentioned that I did the swatch because there were some who came to my site looking for the swatches. Similarly, there were some visitors who came here after a search for office appropriate colours, so I thought I should slowly include some such colours.

Honestly, I don’t think I am in the best position to recommend office appropriate nail colours. For a start, nobody at work has told me I cannot wear my purples, greens, blues, and glitters to work, so the range of colours and finishes I were to work is, well, pretty unlimited :p. And the fact that I do wear such colours shows that there is a little rebel in me who rejects following the norm or guidelines just for the sake of it. If you are like me, you may understand and appreciate my choice of greys as colours you might be able to wear to the office.

And now to the colours I’ve chosen for this swatch: Illamasqua Raindrops and Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid.

Illmasqua is a UK cosmetics company that specialises in products and colours that are bolder and more alternative than the typical cosmetics line. Their tagline is “Unlease your alter ego”, and you can clearly see that in their highly pigmented colours and sometimes cheeky names for products. They do international shipping, so you can order directly from their website.

Raindrops is one of the three finalists in a competition for fans to design a nail polish. The polish comes in a square bottle. When the square outer cap is taken off, you get a small round cap which is also the handle for the brush.

Illamasqua Raindrops – Notice the glass-like flecks in the bottle.

Cult Nails, as mentioned in my earlier post featuring Always Winning, is by blogger Maria Morrison. My Kind of Cool Aid is the first colour in her line of nail polish. Similarly, they ship internationally, so you can order directly from them. Each bottle of polish us US$10. Shipping charges apply, but the actual charge is dependent on the amount you order. They accept payment through PayPal. A lot of care is put into packaging, with each bottle carefully wrapped in soft recycled paper, and cushioned with cotton balls that can be used to remove nail polish.

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

This is what they look like on the nails (Sorry for not cleaning up what got onto the skin first. It was my third swatch that night. I also still had remnants of the glitter from the Paul and Joe swatches that I didn’t realise were still present on my fingers.):

Index and ring finger: Illamasqua Raindrops. Middle finger: Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

Illamasqua Raindrops is the blue-grey polish with fine glass-fleck shimmer on my index and ring fingers. Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid is the greyed out lavender with fine silver shimmer on my middle finger (I actually had it on my little finger as well, but I busted the polish before I could take the photos).

Raindrops is a sheer pastel grey-blue jelly-creme polish. The fine shimmer isn’t exactly silver but more like glass bits or tiny drops of water. As a whole, it really looks like what its name says – raindrops on a glass window on a gloomy, rainy day. I used about three coats and it still looks rather sheer. I find that there is a need to wait longer between coats so that subsequent coats can go on more smoothly. If you do not like a sheer effect that shows VNL, you’ll either have to put on more coats or use a base colour. The latter might be a better alternative since Illamasqua isn’t exactly a cheap polish (GBP13.50, excluding GBP8.50 per overseas shipment).

Index and ring finger: Illamasqua Raindrops. Middle finger: Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid is a darker grey with a dose of lavender. It also has micro shimmer. I see mostly silver shimmer in the bottle and on the nails, but at some angles, it does show flashes of pink (or fushcia). I think there is also supposed to be turquoise shimmer in there, but my eyes aren’t sharp enough to catch them. Ultimately, I think it depends on the light conditions. I did the swatch at night, so I only had artificial indoor lighting and the camera flash to work with.

I used about three coats of polish too, mainly because I was not patient enough and had some streaks. Thus, I needed another coat to try to smooth things out a bit. It is pigmented enough for two coats (or even just one) to be sufficient).

Index and ring finger: Illamasqua Raindrops. Middle finger: Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

So, is this going to be a colour suitable for your office? If there are any types of colours you will like to read about, do feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email. I will be happy to hear from you and to try and provide swatches of requested colours.

Tweet