Illamasqua - Raindrops and Essie - Bikini So Teeny

Right now you were suppose to see my entry for day 22 of the 30 Days of Untried Challenge, a mani inspired by a song. Don't worry, you will get to see it right after this post! I just didn't want to have so many pictures in one post but I thought both the polishes I tried for this entry worth a post of their own.  so I will start with a review post and then I will show you my song inspired mani.

First polish I would like to show you is Essie - Bikini So Teeny.

Essie - Bikini So Teeny, indoors under artificial light.

Bikini So Teeny is from Essie's Summer 2012 collection. It's a very light blue cream with silvery shimmer that is very camera shy. This polish is gorgeous. It applies nicely and smoothly with Essie's soft and wide brush. You really need minimal brush strokes to cover the nails. It evens itself nicely from the first coat, although for full opacity a second coat is needed. This polish is very pigmented and is very blue despite being so light. I would most definitely put this polish in my must-have list. No top coat in any of these pictures.

Essie - Bikini So Teeny, indoors under artificial light.

Essie - Bikini So Teeny, indoors under artificial light.

Essie - Bikini So Teeny, outdoors in natural light.

The second polish I would like to show you is Illamasqua - RainDrops.

Illamasqua - Raindrops. Indoors with artificial lighting.

Back in 2010 Illamasqua had a contest for new shades suggestions. Raindrops was a shade suggested by Annie Dollface that won the contest and was made as a UK exclusive LE polish. Unfortunately today it is discontinued and very hard to find but this doesn't take from it's gorgeousness.
Raindrops is a light grey gelly base, very sheer by itself, with a lot of silver and translucent flakies. I am not a huge fan of flakes but this polish really is gorgeous. By itself, it would probably need 4 coats or more to get opaque enough for my liking. But I used Zoya - Megan, a light grey creme as an undie. Megan by itself  would need two coats. But under Raindrops one coat is enough. Then two thin coats of Raindrops and you're good to go! Smooth and perfect. No top coat in any of these pictures.

Illamasqua - Raindrops. Indoors with artificial lighting.

Illamasqua - Raindrops. Indoors with artificial lighting.

Illamasqua - Raindrops. Outdoors in natural light.

Illamasqua - Raindrops. Outdoors in natural light. 

Illamasqua - Raindrops. Outdoors in natural light.

So now that I showed you the polish, I can move on to my nail art.