Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Illamasqua Throb Collection for Valentine's Day 2011

Oh, Illamasqua, you've done it again. Another collection that's making bloggers buzz... I have the nail portion of the collection to show you, but first, feast your eyes on this:

Gaaaah that is so awesome. I love everything about this picture. Illamasqua = artistry.


Let's get this one out of the way first. It's a creamy off-white polish that has more than one thing in common with this album cover:


*ahem* So, here it is...


Load. Yep, it's exactly what you think it is. The color is really unique, though- an off white with a strong yellow undertone. It's not a clean white by any stretch of the imagination, but it is definitely easier to wear than your standard stark white 'white-out' style white polish. I'd like to think that it looks like buttercream frosting made with real butter and regular vanilla extract (not the clear wedding cake kind). Yeah... buttercream frosting... That's it. Keep telling yourself that.

Throb. A perfect Valentine's Day red creme. Cherry red. I love these types of pin-up girl red cremes. Great formula on this, too. Complete coverage in one coat, but I think it looks nicer and bolder with two.

Scorn. Scorn is part of this collection, too, but you may already have it from when the Nail Quills came out. To recap: Matte black creme, leather-rubber semi-matte finish. Great formula.

And just for fun, I wanted to try out that heart mani from the promo pictures:


This is using Load as the base color and Wet n Wild Black as the heart portion. It's a little sloppy and not quite perfect. But hey, it's my first try, almost no one can be expected to get it perfect on their first try. I applied the black making swooping motions with the plain' old polish brush. Next time I'll use a striping polish with a long brush, but I didn't have one handy this time.


The formula is varied. Throb and Scorn are completely flawless in every way. Load is pretty streaky and needs three coats to be completely even. Drying time is good and the polishes dry to a nice glossy finish even without topcoat. Well, except Scorn, obviously.

Red creme and black matte aren't exactly groundbreaking new colors, but Load is definitely an uncommon shade. I do kinda like it for the novelty aspect... but even excluding that, it's still a really interesting color. Reminds me of antique lace. I want to do some lacy looking Konad prints over it.

(These were sent to me for review.)

45 comments:

  1. Awesome! I tried out the heart mani too, even though I have none of the Illamasqua polishes. I file my nails in a point shape anyway, so it seemed perfect to do it! .x

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  2. *snicker* load *snicker* love these on you :)

    do you wrap your tips? i always end up with a weird junky edge :P

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  3. I love the look of Load. I'm not sure if it'd work on me, though. Anything with any hint of yellow tends to give me lobster hands.

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  4. man i need a bottle of load haha. no but seriously it looks really pretty i dont own a white like that

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  5. Load and Scorn are awesome! I love that Load is not really white.

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  6. I love Load. It's so pretty! Gotta try that heart mani, looks so pretty!

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  7. I love how you recreated the nails in the promo pic! Looks gorgeous. I'd like to try that out too xx

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  8. Wow. Load just might be the first Illamasqua polish I'm actually gonna get. Never thought it'd be a white polish. :P Gorgeous. But that name? XDXD

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  9. Wait, is it supposed to look like semen? I'm confused.

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  10. I'm dying for Scorn ever since I saw it on your Quill post. And OMG That promo picture is amazing.

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  11. Thanks for the lovely swatches and information! =) Do you know if this collection will be released in the states, and if so, when? For some odd reason, I feel as though I need the color Load in my life O_O

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  12. Hi Scrangie, would you say Throb is close to any red you own? Thanks!

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  13. I want all of these! Will these be available in the US?

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  14. So glad you went there... LOL! That is all I could think when I saw it! I love the heart mani!

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  15. Don't know if you were aware of this, but there is a real "load" on the Metallica cover. The photo is Semen and Blood III by Andres Serano. Well, at least this one is a little more subtle than that polish named Jizz.

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  16. I will try my best to get past the name, because I like the look of Load...ugh...did I just say that? Anyway I really like the promo image too. That heart shaped face and the thick, theatrical eyebrows...awesome!

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  17. LOL @ the Metallica reference.

    You made the color look and sound sooo yummmy! LOL

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  18. Hahaha, Load is such a *unique* color. Very interesting indeed!

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  19. "Load"..... wait, what?

    ....
    ....
    ....

    OMG!!!

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  20. LOL @ the load comment.
    hahaha. Yea... I was looking at the color earlier this morning on AllYouDesire and I was thinking "something seems off about this color... doesn't seem right."

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  21. I do like Load. It reminds me of antique white or tea-stained clothes. And the heart manicure is so cute! I think I have an idea for my valentines manicure no

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  22. I loved Scorn and the heart you tried to do, it looks really awesome, I loved it <3

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  23. Deb, yep, that's exactly why I chose it :D Hoping someone would pick up on that fact, hahaha!

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  24. Kelliegonzo, not always, only if I'm trying to get my mani to last a long time

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  25. Theurbansweetheart, I'll check! They didn't specify, I assumed it would but I'm not positive!

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  26. V for Vendetta is one of my favorite movies ever, so that promo picture spoke to my soul.
    I also love Load. LOL.

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  27. The makeup is so beautiful! The manicure, so wicked. The polishes are all amazing. I'm not too crazy about white polish. Like this one much better.

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  28. Ooh. I like the look of Scorn. I don't have any black polishes, and I think that'd be the one to get, if any.

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  29. the collection is beautiful.. do u know any websites which ship zoya, opi, china glaze to india?

    jayashri

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  30. Ugh, I love all three. I'm wondering if there's a suitable dupe for Throb, though.

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  31. Awesome! I wish Sephora would deliver Illamasqua to Canada. Ordering from England is way too expensive!!

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  32. I am absolutely in LOVE with the heart manicure! It's really wonderful as is the heart face makeup - Alex Box is a genius. I'd love to get Load as there are no colors in my collection quite like it and I adore how it looks in the heart manicure. I wouldn't like that look with a stark white at all - something about the creamy shade of Load makes it look richer. It reminds me of well kept antique lace. I also love Throb, agreed that it is a total pin-up girl color. I hope so much that Sephora gets these colors in! Illamasqua polishes are $14 at Sephora but if I buy them directly from Illamasqua's site they are £13.50 (which is $21.47 not including international shipping) which is a lot. *fingers crossed that Sephora gets both these new Illamasqua nail polishes AND more of the color range in general - like Hectic, Smash, Spartan, Caress, etc.*

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  33. i wont lie, my husband and i had a great laugh over the names of these polishes. That being said, i definitely am loving the look of that soft off white with the black. very classy....

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  34. Great collection and manicure, and FYI I love that Metallica album :P

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  35. I really love this collection, the artistry of the ad campaign is brilliant. Like you, I knew I was really tempted to try this... unlike you, I am inept at freehand anything, so I did it with cut-in-half page reinforcers. LOL Thank you so much for the inspiration since I wasn't sure how it'd look without pointed/almond-shaped nail tips, so I almost talked myself out of doing it, but you convinced me otherwise. :)

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  36. you totally rock my world! the promo pic is gorg, but of course i was wondering how i could get my nails like that for valentines day! lol so glad you were brave enough to try it out!

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  37. I like your interpretation of the promo pic mani :)

    I've tried to do one too, but it didn't turn out nearly as good :/ And of course I've credited your post in my post..

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  38. Lovely swatches. And nice Metallica reference!
    Illamasqua = Love <3

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  40. your metallica reference cracked me up ;)

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  41. you can always try using a small paint brush and black (or white) acrylic paint to touch up the hearts and make them perfect. You can't usually tell the difference once the top coat goes on

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  42. Load. Beautiful polish with a horrible name.

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