Here is Illamasqua- Dedicate, another polish which I believe is currently a Bloomindale's exclusive shade.  I had no idea this existed until I went searching for Boudicca, and stumbled on this one.  As a purple-lover and die-hard Illa fan, I just had to snatch this one too- even though I couldn't find a single swatch online.



Dedicate is a warm-toned, muted, purple creme.  Some people might call it a "dusty" purple.

The saturation level is what makes this one really interesting for me (although I'm a huge dork and get way too excited by nice creme finishes).

Artificial light, two coats:




Window-filtered daylight:


It does dry down slightly darker than the bottle color, but on the plus side, it's super glossy once dry!  I can see myself using Dedicate as a base or component for nail art...such a simple, yet faded, purple.

 Outside, shade:





Formula: Thick, pigmented, and nearly a one-coater! I did two coats to be safe, but if I weren't swatching this, I would've stopped after the first! Super nice, effortless.

This is a very basic color, but it's executed so well, and my photos don't actually do it justice.  Love!

An exciting box arrived last week!




Inside:




It's the Zoya Matte Velvet Polishes that were recently reissued after being discontinued for so long!

I also picked up two other polishes while I was at it:



Zoya- Chyna and Zoya- Mitzi, another matte shade!



The Matte Velvet reissue set I got comes packaged in a lovely black gift box:



Inside:


I have been itching to get my paws on these mattes for a long time, and this set was perfect for me, since I already own Zoya- Dovima; I just needed these three colors!



left to right: Zoya- Posh, Zoya- Savita, and Zoya- Veruschka




Savita has the most lovely shimmer, which I did not know about until I swatched in onto a swatch stick!

I'm going to try to swatch these for you soon, but I have a lot of other stuff in the swatch queue already!

So, this is not perfect- not even close- but it's babby's first ever dotticure if you can believe it!  I was definitely inspired by , which I traced back to .




I know we all have nail art that falls short of what we originally envisioned, and that definitely applies here. I was going for a reverse ombre fade: having the base color gradient go from light to dark, and then having the dotting embellishment "ombre" to go from dark to light the opposite way.  I think my color choices were not cohesive enough to convey that, but the gradient underneath came out really well, although I failed to get a picture of that first!

Here are the polishes I used:

left to right: Butter London- Tramp Stamp, Nyx- Gold, Illamasqua- Gamma, Butter London- Yummy Mummy, OPI- My Vampire Is Buff, Zoya- Purity

The base color is Butter London- Yummy Mummy with Nyx- Gold sponged on top.  I do like how the Yummy Mummy dots came out really sheer allowing some of Illamasqua- Gamma to show through!  That wasn't intentional, but I like it!





I think they kinda look like abstract Turkey tails!





Thumb:


I'm still really happy with it, though!  Dots are so fun to make.  I have a bunch of dotting tools, but not one big enough for the size of dots I wanted, so I stuck a sewing pin into the eraser of a pencil and used that.

In hindsight, my dots were a little too big.  Especially on the pinkie nail, which is just a much smaller surface area to work with!

I will definitely be re-attempting this design at some point- hopefully with some more cohesive colors!

Here's a new Illamasqua on my radar (and in my stash)! It's called Boudicca, and it is, for now, a Bloomingdale's exclusive shade.



Illamasqua- Boudicca is a warm-toned red shimmer with a metallic, foil-like finish. The shimmer particles are tiny, tiny flakes and sometimes look gold, and sometimes appear sort of pink.


'What is a Boudicca?,' you might ask. Well:

Boudicca was the wife of Prasutagus, the ruler of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. The Iceni were based in the region of Britain now called East Anglia. When the Romans settled in the south of England in 43 AD, they made an agreement with Prasutagus that he would be allowed to continue as ruler of the Iceni. However, when Prasutagus died, the Roman attitude to the Iceni people changed and Boudicca took up her role as the Warrior Queen. 

(taken straight from Bloomingdale's description.)

Artificial light, two coats:


Window-filtered daylight:



This is absolutely full to the brim with shimmer.

Outside, shade:



Sun:



So, I have to be honest, this type of warm red combined with the ultra-flashy finish doesn't read very young to me- or at least on me.  This is a gorgeous color, but for nail polish?  I'm not sure. There's something about it that's a little cheap? It might've helped to cut my nails down to nubs for this one.  As is, I thought my hands looked a little bitchy- not in a good way!

However, this is the kind of color I can see really liking on my toes...


Formula:  It's pigmented with a medium viscosity, leaning to the thick side, but glides onto the nail very nicely.  The second coat feels much thicker, but also goes on pretty effortlessly.  Very nice, and opaque in two coats!

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