Illamasqua Fall Collection - Theatre of the Nameless Swatches and Review!

Good afternoon my fellow Lacquered Lovers! Today we will be continuing down into the land of matte nail polishes, but this one has a twist! Instead of a "regular" matte finish, Illamasqua's Theatre of the Nameless collection for Fall/Winter 2011 is a rubber finish! Now, what exactly is a rubber finish you may ask? Well, it's not quite 100% matte but it's not glossy either! It actually kind of looks like your nails are dipped in latex! It has that sheen that smooth rubber can get without actually being shiny. Rather than try to explain it to you, I'm going to show you pictures!

Also note that the bottom most picture in each set shows the truest color of the polish. Now, to really show the rubber effect, some pictures have an intense flash and the color is washed out but it shows the rubber effect really well! I also apologize in advance if there isn't much clean up on these photos, they were taken during my great allergy attack of 2011! On to the polishes!




Above: Kink - 2 coats over 1 coat OPI Nail Envy

Kink is the first polish that I tried from this collection. I wasn't feeling great when I got home Friday night and these polishes were waiting for me so I decided to give it a shot! I fell in love. Kink is a gorgeous hunter green with the rubber finish. I kept touching my nails once they dried because it truly looked like someoene stretched a piece of green latex over my nails and I was expecting it to feel rubbery! (for the record, it does not.) I kept this on for 2 days and had minimal tip wear and no chips. It's probably my second favorite from this collection! The green is a bit blue leaning and this color just screams "Fall" to me!




Above: Vice - 2 coats over 1 coat OPI Nail Envy

Vice is a really pretty dark pink rubber finish polish. Dark pink isn't even a great explanation of it, I think it's more of a raspberry. Either way, it's gorgeous! It's definitely the most "normal" color of the collection and the color that I could see the highest number of people wearing. It's fully opaque in three coats and would be great for when you want a polish that's a little different but not a crazy color.




Above: Faux Pas - 2 coats over 1 coat OPI Nail Envy

Faux Pas, how I love you so. It was a close race with Kink, but Faux Pas is victorious in my favorite polish in this collection. Faux Pas is a cool toned purple that's definitely a bit blue leaning and just stunning. In fact, just looking at pictures of it now is making me want to put it on my fingers when I get home tonight. This shade of purple is super flattering for pale girls like me (and I'm sure would be on almost anyone) and I just love it! Did I mention that I love it? Faux Pas looks slightly dusty with the rubber finish which I love because it really makes it unique looking.




Above: Taint - 2 coats over 1 coat OPI Nail Envy

Taint. I know, the name is kind of gross, but Illamasqua, like ManGlaze, likes to err on the side of dirty for their names. Taint is a very dusty light brown/taupe shade. I'm getting more into browns the more I've been blogging. I sort of bought this color because I am a bit of a hoarder and felt like I couldn't have 3 out of 4 of the collection but I actually really liked it! It's a great color for Fall but isn't such a dark brown that it almost looks black.

All in all, I think this was a great collection! My one issue with it is that I hated the top of the bottle. Usually the square part of the Illamasqua bottle comes off and it has a small polish brush bottle top on the inside which makes painting your nails easy, but for this collection, the brush was attached to the square part and I found it a bit clumsy. Then again, I have tiny hands so that could be part of the problem. I love the formula on these (fully opaque in two coats) and the rubber finish is really something unique in my collection. I will have to try these soon with a matte top coat and a glossy top coat to see how it changes the color! Illamasqua is available at Sephora for $14 a bottle.

What do you all think of this collection? Do you like the rubber finish or do you prefer matte or glossy?