Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish Review, Photos, Swatches
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish ($16.00 for 0.50 fl. oz.) is described as a “speckled green.” It’s a pale, pastel green with very subtle yellow undertones with small black glitter and larger, hexagon-shaped black glitter pieces. I couldn’t even think of a dupe for the base color, let alone one with both components! I was totally stumped. A few readers have mentioned that Hard Candy has dupes for Illamasqua’s speckled polishes. I haven’t seen Hard Candy’s in person, but from promo photos, it looks like the glitter is smaller and more circular with a combination of white and black glitters (and it seems to vary depending on the base color), but both brands are using pastel base colors with glitter to give it a speckled/sprinkled effect. Deborah Lippmann’s Staccato Collection also features three pastel-hued colors with small black glitter (bottle photos suggest that Deborah Lippmann and Hard Candy’s are closer to each other). I haven’t seen Deborah Lippmann’s in person either. You may prefer the effect or composition over the other, so pick your poison! 🙂
Mottle is incredibly pigmented in one coat, though not opaque, I still thought it worth showing and left my pinky fingernail with a single coat, so you could see how much color is deposited in one coat. You can also see how there’s almost no streaking to speak of, which is always a relief after working with a pastel color! The consistency of the formula wasn’t too thick or too thin, and it applied evenly and fluidly. I didn’t have any issues with it pulling, pooling, or bubbling. It has an interesting finish that seems like a cream, but there’s a slight squishy look to it, too, that makes me think of jelly polishes. Illamasqua’s formula is one of the longest-wearing polishes on me (as long as fourteen days with minimal tip wear and no chipping).
Mottle
LELimited Edition. $17.00.
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Mottle Nail Varnish
That is fantastic! Weird and beautiful. Need!
Hmmm… for some reason this speckled look just doesn’t appeal to me at all…
Definitely not something for everyone 🙂
I was thinking the same, to me it looks like some weird eggshell or something love the base color but the speckled just dosent work for me
I love this shade! Looks great on you, by the way. 🙂
This nail polish reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream! LOL
love it! thanks for sharing!
Emma <3
Just looked at some swatches at the HC ones and while they are lovely they don’t look similar enough to me. Additionally I’m torn on giving any more of my money to Walmart AND the $3.97 price tag for .26 oz. sorry just typing outloud, convincing myself I need these…
I freaking love how all the look! I bought the entire collection, except for the mint blue since it was soldout. 🙁
The Hard Candy version does have smaller glitter than the Illamasqua, but they’re definitely hexagon glitter not circular glitter.
Love the base color. Reminds me of Essie Navigate Her a bit.
Thank you for letting me know! 🙂 Hard to tell in the bottle!
Love this! I’m wearing it right now, and I’m so glad I bought this and the blue one two weeks ago before all the hype! I’ve seen the hard candy polish and the effect is very different. The hard candy polish doesn’t give the unique speckled egg effect that these do because the glitter is multicolored and uniform in shape. Even my friend exclaimed “your nail polish looks just like an egg” when wearing Mottle! Haha! Also, I am really surprised at the wear time. I’m wearing this as accent nails and there is literally no tip wear after five days, I might be buying more polishes from Illamasqua.
I nearly always opt for an Illamasqua polish if I’m traveling, because it wears SO SO well!
This one is gorgeous… I think I’m going to order this and the pink one. Your affiliate link isn’t working btw… when I tried to use it, Sephora’s website said it was a broken link.
Fixed! Thank you! 🙂
I bought the shade in Speckle the other day, but I know I need this one too.
The glitter looks more dense in this one than the other two, but I still can’t do pastels with black.
I love these so much!
Christine, I really appreciate the [last] photo at a bit of a distance. I’m so glad you’re doing that now…very helpful. Thanks, as always, for your review!
This looks like a mint white chocolate milkshake… not loving it.
looks like mint chocolate chip ice cream!
It does! …so unique and cool
I wish the glitter wasn’t black. I think that is what is throwing me off with these. I hope they do some with different colored glitters. All of the base colors have been very pretty though.
I think this one might be my favorite, though they are all so pretty! I can’t wait to go to Sephora this weekend!! 😀
Creamy, speckled, *and* squishy? 😀
I have been LOVING your coverage of these, Christine — I think Speckle still has my heart, but the freshness that Mottle brings to the table is just so perfect for spring!
I really didn’t think I’d like the speckled polish, but as soon as I tried it, I fell in love with it. I don’t even like cream polishes unless there’s a good dose of sparkle top coat on them. It’s definitely interesting. I think purple is my fav, and this one is definitely a close second.
So far, this is the one I like the least, actually I dislike it. The other polishes looked nice in a weird, different way but this one I probably dislike because of the base color. I hate this color on everything and anything and nail polish is not an exception. This trend is not bad but I´m not sure what all this excitement is about, to me this polishes are nice (except for this one) but nothing spectacular.
I think it’s spectacular because it looks like awesome 50’s Formica and that’s right up my alley. I can’t imagine many things I wouldn’t want to see this color on. I also don’t see it as a novelty for myself like crackle polish or sand polish. I love this effect, it also has a very Shabby Chic aesthetic to me.
It really depends on everyones taste, some will like it, some will hate it. I have a friend who hates pink, and that is weird to me because I really love pink, but to each his own. Personally I like green but only emerald and dark green, I have always hated all the shades of light green. Particularly this one is what I call snot green lol 😀 somehow that is what I think of when I see it, and the black glitter is the bacteria of the snot 😛 . But I have seen people that can pull it off and if you love it, it will probably look amazing on you because you radiate confidence and you are happy to wear it. If it inspires a vintage and elegant feeling to you then thats how you are going to look like while wearing it.
I was waiting for swatches of these! I love them. Off to Sephora tomorrow!
Love your last shot at a distance. Thanks so much 🙂
Oh my gosh! I love this – it looks like mint chip ice cream!
just had a pedicure done with this shade, I like how it looks here in your photos, not on in real life 🙁
it seems dull and kinda muddy looking blahh