NOTD // Mottled Lilac

A nail trend that has been floating around over the past year has been the speckled egg effect. It's essentially just another milky glitter, but with black glitters to give a speckled effect. I have done a previous NOTD with a Sportsgirl polish with much the same effect. I believe Illamasqua was the first brand to bring these types of polishes out (to the mainstream market at least) sometime last year. Due to their limited nature, I managed to snag one of them on clearance for only $5! Bargain I say! I bought the shade Speckle.

Speckle is comprised of a pastel purply-lilac shade with a slight grey, dusty tinge and the matte black glitters in three different sizes. The different sizes help give the speckled look with their overall non-uniformity and random placement. The light dusty nature of the lilac definitely reminds me of the pretty pastel speckled eggs, and I think with a matte top coat you could even increase their similarity.

I used two coats to get the finish shown here. The polish is very smooth and applied evenly, and a good amount of glitters came onto the brush with little extra effort. The opacity of the base polish is pretty perfect for the polish's milky finish as it's pigmented and non-streaky, but also sheer enough that you can see the black glitters in the coat below. I finished off with top coat to get a glassy, smooth finish. The staying power was pretty good, but nothing outstanding. For a high-end nail polish, the quality definitely comes through its formula. It did chip a little within the first few days but I was doing rather rigorous outdoor work and the Essence Peel Off base coat that I used can sometimes have the tendency to make the polish chip a little easier.

Overall I think the finish is adorable and this particular shade is quite unique in my collection. Where this collection was limited, you might still be able to find it on clearance at your Illamasqua counter. Otherwise, Ulta3 did release their own speckled collection last month which you might be able to get your hands on!