Grungy dots.....

Jessica Casablanca with Illamasqua Kink

I was feeling in the mood for something a bit darker and more sombre than I've been wearing recently, I don't know if it's just the cold weather or I'm in need of a bit of a palette cleanser! This mani is Jessica Casablanca with big dots of Illamasqua Kink.

Jessica Casablanca is a black jelly with teal/purple duochrome shimmer. This must be quite an old polish, I've found swatches on line going back to around 2010 but I just bought it in John Lewis a couple of weeks ago when it caught my eye, so I think it must be a core colour. It's quite hard to catch the colour shift on camera - the polish looks great in artificial light but unfortunately the reflections seem to burn out all the interesting bits. Here it is in my 'diffuser' (a translucent bin from Ikea) and daylight lamp:

Jessica Casablanca

This is two coats, plus Seche Vite quick dry topcoat. It's a pretty polish, but not especially hard wearing; I could see wear around the tips of some of my nails after a couple of days. I think swimming in a chlorinated pool might have hastened it's demise.

Then I added some big dots with Illamasqua Kink. Kink is a rubbery finish, so I didn't use topcoat over the dots but let the finish contrast with the shiny base.

Jessica Casablanca with Illamasqua Kink

I purchased Jessica Casablanca from John Lewis and Illamasqua Kink from the Illamasqua website.