Illamasqua Raindrops Nail Polish Review SwatchesBe Beautilicious

Illamasqua Raindrops Nail Polish (£ 14.50 for 15ml) from illamasqua.com I have been hearing about Illamasqua nail polishes ever since I have been following nail polish blogs. Illamasqua Raindrops seems to be a cult favorite shade as a lot of women have given rave reviews about it. I had a single point agenda as I walked up to the Illamasqua counter during my last vacation – “must buy nail polish – must buy Raindrops”Shade – Illamasqua Raindrops is a Sheer light grey with a jelly finish and irregular silver flakes suspended. It has been likened to raindrops falling on a window pane, an extremely poetic interpretation for something that graces your fingertips. As I tried on the tester on my fingers my first reaction was very ho hum, it didn’t really live up to the lofty expectations, or maybe I had just created a very high image in my mind. I put that down and started to try other colours, but this one kept nagging me from the corner of my eye. I finally figured I was going to hate myself if I didn’t pick this up – so this came home with me.

The colour is sheer grey indeed. The silver flakes are far more visible in the bottle and less so on the nails. On application it looks more grey and less rain on window panes to me. Don’t get me wrong, it is truly a nice colour, but nice enough for the price? I am not sure. It is very easy to wear as well as very neutral and work friendly. It can be a go to colour if you are looking for something muted.

Formula and Texture – The formula is amazing as one would expect from any high end brand. The colour flows on smoothly and it is self leveling. I tried Illamasqua Raindrops without top or base coat just to get a true picture of the dry time and wear time.

It dried down in 10 minutes but I did manage a little chip after about an hour, which means it was not completely dry. Though that chip was not the start of a larger break, which is nice.Staying Power – This is supposed to be long last and chip resistant. Well, without top and base coat this lasted all of one day before showing tip wear. Now I have to add that I am very very rough on my hands, my nails are brittle and bend easily. But I still expected a little longer wear from Illamasqua Raindrops. Sadly, I will have to use an industrial strength top coat the next time I wear this.

Packaging – This comes in a simple square bottle with a square black lid. After the first time I used this polish the bottle lid screwed on but did not align with the rest of the bottle – so in this case the square lid was at an awkward angle to the bottle. Something I am willing to overlook in the case of a cheap bottle of polish, but after paying so much this lack of attention to detail drives me crazy.

Overall thoughts

Don’t get taken in by the hype surrounding a particular shade, make you own choice wisely. I definitely like this colour but I am not sure I would have picked Illamasqua Raindrops up had I not heard the hype surrounding it. I also wish the packaging would reflect the price paid.

Rating – 3.5/5