Illamasqua Speckled Pastel Nails

Now if these Nail Paints by Illamasqua's I'mperfection collection had only been pastel or speckled, I wouldn't have thought much of them but because Illamasqua has taken the leap and mixed two trends together, pastel and textured nails, I feel the balance is a work of art.

My pictures don't do much justice as believe it or not, the sun has been shining bright in London these days and the sunlight is washing out the pictures. I have two shades, 'Freckle' - a nude, skin coloured, modern beige and 'Speckle' - a bright and fun lilac.

All the nail paints have a pastel, milky almost diluted base to them with a generous dose of matte black speckled particles thrown in. These particles are three dimensional in texture however they seem to blend in tremendously and once on the nails and dry, it's impossible to tell they exist. It rather looks like they have been painted on top with another nail polish.

The end result varies depending on the frequency of the matte black particles in the nail paint. As you see below, the nude, skin coloured polish has significantly more black dots than lilac polish.

Overall, the consistency of the nail paints is quite good to be honest compared to other high end ones I have tried previously. The base paint is sheer so a good two coats and you'll get a nice opaque finish. Don't set this one with a glossy coat as it looks more interesting when matte.

I personally like the super cute, laid back, on trend, boho-chic, nail-art-in-a-bottle concept that these come with. If you like perfectly polished, glossy red carpet nails, this might not be your cup of tea! If you're like me on the other hand and suck at DIY nail art, these are actually pretty darn cool as your personal manicurist.