i decided to swatch a few teals today. i pulled what i felt were the most similar and asked about.
illamasqua muse is so gorgeous and compared to the 3 coats i needed for moody...it was a dream to apply.
rescue beauty lounge teal and nails inc rodeo dr. are similar with RD being a the bluer of the 2.

could i live with only 1 of them?
...yes. the nails inc was flawless in 1 coat and i get excellent wear so that would be my choice.
here they are with 2 coats. muse is 2 coats. moody is 3...old formula SW can be a pain and i don't have the best luck with wear either...however, look at that tiny teal sparkle. it's so dusty and gorgeous.
here are the teal/blue nfu-ohs i own.
my camera does not play nice with the sea green family so 240 looks blue..ignore it. i would have cropped it out but at least the tone is right so you can see it's a much lighter/brighter color then the others.

273 is much greener then 559...there was talk they were twins...but it appears they are just close cousins. this picture is a bit washed out but it helps see how different the tones are.


272 vs teal

all different...all kind of the same... depending on who you ask ;)

hope that helps a little.

lippmann ruby red slippers. the clear winner out of the celebrate set. it's gorgeous on it's own but it needs 3 coats to build up to opaque and with that it becomes harder to get smooth.
i layered it over illamasqua boosh this time and it's wearing like iron.
it was available by itself at lippmann.com but it's showing OOS...hopefully it will show up again.

illamasqua bOOsh

illamasqua unnatural

models own purple rain

models own purple grey

nars zulu

gray franken 60%white 40% black

loreal emperor

EA garden city cabernet

nails inc brook st mews

nails inc black taxi

nails inc echo falls merlot

nails inc saville row

nails inc fitzhardinge st.

nails inc victoria

lippmann just walk away renee

chanel rouge noir

lippmann dark side of the moon

nailtini navy grog
nailtini port

opi pueblo plum

SOPI dark room

SOPI caffeine fix

opi we'll always have paris

opi MOLBBQ

rescue beauty lounge moulin rouge

opi lincoln park after dark

zoya casey

zoya angelina

I've seen a lot of requests for good vampy cremes lately...so I thought I'd share some pics!

Illamasqua Verbal
So I finally swatched my entire UK Illamasqua haul. Verbal was the last one that needed to see the light of day...and I'll be honest, I put it off as long as possible. I bought it sight unseen from the Illamasqua website before Sephora started carrying the line. I was gambling it would be a dusty grey but I was wrong. It was not pretty in the bottle.
Turns out it isn't pretty IRL either.
I'm sure someone, somewhere can wear it beautifully. On me it looks like a bad concealer job. It reminds me of when I was in my late teens and I decided I would look better if i covered up my freckles. I bought the shade that matched them and applied an even coat of makeup. Took one look in the mirror and tossed the bottle and scrubbed my face. eeewww...never a good look going 4 shades darker then your skin.

Illamasqua Unnatural. Blood red. Dried blood to be exact. A bit more brown than Chanel rouge noir, essie wicked, or nails inc victoria.
This needed 2 thick coats. I think 3 thin would have been ideal but I have a policy against 3 coats. I'm still undecided on this color...it seems a bit more brown/warm then I prefer. I'll leave it in limbo for now.

boosh
baptiste
alarm
whack
lament
I'm scrolling through my photobucket trying to decide on a mani tonight. I just keep wanting to wear Illamasqua Boosh again. I've worn it 2x's already. I think it'll only get worse with the cooler weather.
I thought I'd take a second and post up my Illamasqua stash to date.

Gorgeous tomato orange. I did have a few application issues with this one. The first time in my illamasqua tenure. I am sure this has a duplicate somewhere. I haven't found it yet though.