Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish Review, Photos, Swatches
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish ($16.00 for 0.50 fl. oz.) is described as a “speckled lilac.” It has a soft, pale lilac cream base with flecks of small black glitter and larger hexagon-shaped black glitter. I don’t know of any dupes in particular for this shade (Deborah Lippmann also has speckled polish but nothing in lilac). If you have a top coat with black glitter already, you might try using Essie Bangle Jangle, MAC Little Girl Type, Nubar Purple Aster, or Zoya Marley has a base color, as they are similar.
It was fully opaque in color after two coats, and I was surprised at just how close it was to opaque after a single coat. For a pastel, too, it had minimal streaking on the initial coat and a second coat completely smoothed out the color so everything looked lush and even. There was something about the consistency and look of this polish, because though it seems like a creamy color, it almost had a jelly-like finish. The formula wasn’t too thick or too thin, so it flowed well over the nail, and I didn’t have any trouble applying it. Illamasqua’s formula is one of the longest-wearing in my experience–I can get anywhere from ten to fourteen days of wear with minimal tip wear.
Speckle
LELimited Edition. $17.00.
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
Illamasqua Speckle Nail Varnish
I’m not sure how I feel about this! Cool/weird, combination of both!
Wow that is gorgeous!!! I wrote a comment yesterday about how much I despised glitter, and now I’m eating my words.
I love it! It’s quite expensive for me but I’m gonna splurge on this and the blue shade.
I love love love this polish!! I received mine in Speckle, as well. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not, but omg, it’s adorable! It goes on smoothly, no streaks, and the speckle pieces evenly distribute! I had great wear time with it and it dries quick as well. The only thing I didn’t like about it, and it’s a personal preference thing, the tan colored one is gross hahaha. I have olive skin and freckles and it looks like I rubbed my face on my nails!! 😛
Your comment is spot on, the brown and pink just don’t agree with my olive skin! I bought this in the green and blue and am wearing the green now, it’s gorgeous and I was so surprised at how the consistency wasn’t creamy, rather almost jelly like as Christine describes.
The only reason I haven’t bought these is because I would end up eating mini eggs every time I wore them. And then I would be faaaaat.
Thanks for making me giggle ;D
Cool! Now, I want one too. 😀
I’m so eager to try one of these polishes- they really do look like perfect little Easter eggs. I ordered the blue one along with some other goodies… unfortunately the order is taking forever to make its way to Canada… This review makes me all the more eager to see it!
My order is taking forever to get to Canada, too! It was apparently shipped out mid February, but there’s no sign of it yet.
Exactly. Order was placed 31st January, shipped 9th of February but hasn’t shown up yet. Illamasqua’s customer service says that they can help if it takes longer than 21 business days, which technically isn’t until the end of this week. Not the best first ordering experience… Hope that the products are worth it!!
I love this idea! They make nails look like those Robin’s Eggs candies! Now will this be available in Sephora stores or exclusively online?
I’m not sure 🙁 It doesn’t say it’s online exclusive on Sephora’s site, just that it is exclusive (which is true).
I’ve seen them in stores!
They are in Sephora stores 🙂
I’m glad this polish has a positive review. It’s so nice and just screams easter egg!
I love this color. I have 3 out of the 5 in the collection and they’re all so pretty. Perfect for spring.
I just love this color!
Ooo soo pricey but very nice!!!
I don’t really paint my nails, but these are too cute! I’d love to get the blue one so I could have little robin’s egg nails for easter, but I just can’t see myself spending that much on a nail polish, seeing that I don’t use them very often.
Hard Candy makes a polishes with a similar look for a lot less money.
Soooo pretty!
I’d be into these if not for the fact that they seem to be ripping off the idea and aesthetic from indie nail polish makers and are thus very late to the game. I expect innovation and creativity from Illamasqua, very disappointing.
This caught my eye too, so I reluctantly placed an order for it a couple of days ago. And now I see it received an A+??? Oh man, now I can’t wait for my order to arrive!!!
I’ve heard great things about Illamasqua nail polishes, but I’ve yet to try one myself.
This really reminds me of caviar, it really does. I think it looks nice and interesting, but I´m not in love with it enough to buy it.
Hmm I thought it was limited, but maybe I read that wrong.
Sephora just lists them as exclusive but not LE!
i just called sephora’s website customer service as well as a local store, and both of them said that all of these are limited edition….of course, half the time, i’m not sure they know exactly what they’re talking about, but that’s what i was told!
Thank you, Carina!!
FROM ILLAMASQUA.COM:
Hi Carina
Thank you for your email. We can confirm that the Speckled Nail Varnishes are limited edition.
Kind regards,
Customer Services
Illamasqua
6-8 Amwell Street, London, EC1R 1UQ
T: +44(0) 844 984 1700
Customer Services 9-5 GMT Monday – Friday
Thank you, Carina!!
Oh it’s so special! Really different, I like it.
3 words for this one Love Love Love it! (became 4 but whatever) 😉
I first ordered two of those (lilac and pink) then after trying out lilac, immediately ordered two more (green and blue). I think just the brown shade is a bit weird but other four are about to become my all time favorites, my favorite being Speckle (lilac one). I also found those to be very wearable. Maybe I should consider getting one more Speckle before it is all sold out.
This looks sort of like a disease! I don’t know why but in the first pics, I though it just looked like some sort of nail-mold or something.
My thought exactly reminds me of bacteria under a microscope, lol
So pretty! This looks similar to the raindrops nail polish.
Yay!!! I ordered this online last week and have been dying for it to show up. I’m soooo very glad it got a good review! I can’t wait to play with it.
I am wearing the pink version right now. Love love love it. Great coverage in two oats, lasts and I get so many compliments. It screams Easter!!.
This is such a unique, awesome-looking polish!! Illamasqua is SO the master of nail polish!
Hey Christine, do you take the bulky outer cap off when you paint your nails? I got my bottle of Raindrops yesterday in the mail and have it on now. LOOOOVE ~ I also really want these sweet speckled polishes. I like that the square cap can be taken off, though its a bit hard initially.
I usually keep the cap on for these ones! 🙂
Personally, I find the cap a little awkward to use but everyone is different! And as always, you have great swatches.
I love this brand, but just a heads up- if you order from the UK location you may have a problem with nail polish delivery-I have been waiting for about a month because of a rule that doesn’t allow nail polish to be shipped out of the country with certain carriers ( luckily Illamasqua switched carriers-although I am still WAITING ). I would use Sephora exclusively but sometimes the flagship store runs awesome sales 🙂
Looks like what you get on your windshield, bird poo.
So pretty! I´d be willing to spend $16 on this :)!
OH WOW! You did a review on these! I’m so excited. It’s been sort of sitting in my Sephora cart, ‘waiting’, lol. Ever since the launch photos I’ve been quite taken with this polish. Another new item, MU Company to expand my horizons, thanks to you Christine! It’s so pretty. SO Spring! I imagine now that you’ve reviewed this I best click on my cart or it’ll sell out! Haha. The blue already has online. That it’s gotten stellar ‘grades’ across your board says a lot to on this polish. I have to say I absolutely loved that you added in a photo of how the polish looks on the hand from a little bit away from the camera. As much as I LOVE your polish reviews, and I’ve gotten new colors from them, this extra pic was a great addition to them! Thank you so much!
I like my glitter to be “uniform” & denser; I also think black with pastels is a bit odd. I will definitely be passing on these.
lovely, reminds me of Easter speckle malt balls. I think I will be getting this one 🙂
UGH LOVE THIS. Looks so creamy/jelly and pretty!~
I love the soft lilac color too. It’s a nice touch instead of seeing a black and white combo, for example.
I absolutely adore this. I just can’t get locked in at that price point. It is so unbelievably expensive in my eyes, especially since there’s probably a hefty shipping price for it being a European brand. Oh, well! Maybe one day!
I can’t figure out how I feel about this… I like it but it makes me think of black caviar (as in the food) and I don’t know whether that is something I would want to associate with my nails 🙂 I think I would love this polish in a different color combination
I think these polishes are SO weird… but in a good way 🙂 would I wear them? probably not… but I give lots of credit to illamasqua for coming out with something so unique
so pretty! <3
Hard Candy came out with a collection just like this with about 6 colors. They are just as good and only $4!
I am in love with this polish. I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted to buy it or not, because I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. Then I got a gift card, so I went ahead and got it. I like it so much better in person than in any of the pics I’ve seen of it.
Hi! These are gorgeous! Are really some of the speckled are limited edition (scarce and freckle) but others aren’t? (fragile and speckle)
I’m confused! ^^
Supposedly they are LE!
I bought this, and oh my god it is so thick! It’s so gloopy and thick and just wouldn’t flow well! It’s so hard to work with it.
I thought I was being silly but when I compared it with my bottle of Scarce and Mottle, those two were easier to use and flowed so much better!
I have written to Illamasqua a few times asking them about the inconsistency in formula but till now, after close to 1 month, their QC still haven’t come back to me. And I have read from other bloggers that they don’t have formula issues with Speckle.
Sigh. I don’t know what should I do with this bottle of horrible Speckle right now.