Illyrian Polish swatches & review

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I'm going to show you 5 gems from my nail polish stash today. I feel the same way about Illyrian Polish as Femme Fatale Cosmetics, I feel that these polishes were created FOR ME :D I know how silly it sounds, but everything Vanessa makes is screaming my name.

 Sadly I can only buy them through Harlow & Co., but the monthly limited edition polishes doesn't make it there, so I'm crying inside (this is the February LE, and ohmygod). I waited out until the Game of Thrones inspired collection launches on Harlow, but then I missed out 'As Above, So Below' and 'We Are The Weirdos, Mister' which I wanted sooo badly. But oh well, I shouldn't be sad, because I could buy 5 amazing shades. So now let's see what I got, and brace yourselves, there will be a LOT of pictures (both indoor and outdoor). 

The Kraken is a really hard "color" to describe. It has a sheer brownish gray jelly base, and it has smaller and bigger gold holo glitter, orange irredescent glitter and silver holo microglitter. It's such an interesting blend of colors! The base is quite sheer, so I needed 3 thin coats. It dried matte and a bit gritty, but after I gently tapped the surface with my fingers (which I always do with a glitter heavy polish) I only needed 1 thick coat of topcoat to smooth out the surface.

 I really like the orange irredescent glitters in it (you can see them better on the daylight macro below). The overall color is sometimes more grey or more brown, depending the lighting.

 Taken in natural daylight.

'Helter Skelter' was inspired by the song (with the same title) from The Beatles, but I bought it because of the color combination. It has a darkened purple jelly base with tons of copper and gold holo glitters, irredescent glitters and blue/purple/pink shifting irredescent flakies. I simply love this color combo, orange and purple are the best, and that blue flash makes it even more amazing.

I used 3 thin coats (to deepen up the purple), but I think 2 thick coats would do the job too. I added 1 coat of topcoat too.

  Taken in natural daylight.

And now here come the polishes from the Winter Is Coming collection. I enjoyed reading the books (then seeing the show), so I wanted a few shades from this collection. I also like 'A Dragon Is Not A Slave', but lately I bought too many green nail polishes, so I didn't purchased that one. I bought 'You Know Nothing, Jon Snow' instead. I don't really buy polishes purely because of their names, but in this case, it was 60% name and 40% color :D

Gladly it looks really nice on. It has a grey crelly base, wich have purple or brown undertones depending the lighting. I guess I could call it taupe. It has a nice and fairly strong pink/red shimmer in it. This polish looks so much better irl though. I felt sophisticiated and elegant when I wore it.

 Sadly, the formula didn't really amazed me. It needed 3 normal coats, but it was a little bit hard to make it even (the shimmer doesn't streaky though, so that's a good thing). It needed a good coat of topcoat to even out the surface. Anyways, the overall look is really pretty, and it's not worse than a creme China Glaze, so no worries.

Btw. I was thinking about whether this polish was inspired about Jon or Ygritte. I think it's 100% Ygritte, so I thought I will do something that I've never done before, a portrait. I will show the finished nail art this week, but you can see a sneak peak HERE on my Instagram.

  Taken in natural daylight.

  Taken in natural daylight.

  Taken in natural daylight. It's quite blurry, the sun was coming down, but at least you can see the shimmer nicely.

This one is probably my favorite of the 5, 'My Sun and Stars' have a komplex mix of ingredients. It's a clear base, and it has violet holo glitters (bigger and smaller size), copper holo microglitter, holo flakes, silver ultra holo microglitter and small bronze/red UCC falkies (same color that ILNP Glory has). You can use it as a topcoat, or on it's own (2/3 coats) or you can even sponge it on. I'm going to show both versions. 

I painted 1 coat of 'My Sun and Stars' over 'You Know Nothing, Jon Snow'. It has a really nice amount of particles, so 1 coat is all you need. It would look pretty over black or white, but I'm going to try over a darker (or even a lighter) purple in the future.

In real life 2 thick coats can be enough, but because of the macro photography I used 3 thin coats. After I pushed down the glitters a little bit with my fingers, I only needed 1 thick coat of topcoat to smooth out the surface. It has a strong holographic effect, you can see that in the picture below.

  Taken in natural daylight.

  Taken in natural daylight.

'Winter Is Coming' was the first one that I've writen into my wishlist. I thought it's going to be a little bit lighter though, but in fact I really like this deep color. It's a strongly grey toned dark blue jelly with silver holo glitters, holo flakes and blue irredescent microflakes. Those blue flakes though! They are so vibrant in real life!

I used 2 thicker coats, with 1 coat of topcoat.

  Taken in natural daylight.

  Taken in natural daylight.

I'm so happy with these polishes, and Illyrian Polish now is surely one of my favorite nail polish brand! If you want interesting, mystical polishes with a touch of madness (:D) than go and buy some Illyrian Polish shades!

Currently all of these (except My Sun and Stars) are on stock at Harlow & Co., but if you're lucky enough to live in the States, then go check out the official website HERE!

Follow the brand on Instagram too.