I have wonderful memories of celebrating Easter when I was growing up.
Pretty dresses, bows in my hair, bunnies made out of chocolate, eggs made of candy and the best part: the egg hunt.
This year, Jill and I decided it was our turn to play the Easter Bunny. We decided to plan a fun day for our favorite group of kids.
We went out and bought plastic eggs and prizes, a lot of prizes.
We packed the eggs with chocolates, candies and little stubs of paper to determine their prizes. To mix things up, we also added little dares inside the eggs. Fun things like, “Kiss grandpa!” or “Shout “Happy Easter!”" or “Hug your yaya.”
We also asked the kids to paint eggs using dye, markers and watercolor. They had so much fun. And we had so much fun watching them have fun. The grownups all picked their favorite eggs and the winners received prizes too.
The egg hunt was the best part. I don’t have photos to capture the craziness but it was seriously worth all the energy and time. The kids had a blast and we did too.
To play the Easter Bunny, this is what I wore:
Isn’t that the most perfect Easter shirt you’ve ever seen? And of course my nails had to match the theme.
I used NARS Trouville, Zoya Neely, Zoya Blue, Illamasqua Wink and Illamasqua Blow for my Easter mani. To create the dots, I used the dotting tool my friend Michelle gave me. It was my first time to use the dotting tool and I had so much fun with it. Don’t be surprised if I end up dotting my next few manicures – that’s how much fun I had with it.
I have to admit though that doing all those colored dots took a bit of time. I can usually finish painting my nails in five minutes but not this time.
Now if I wanted a faster Easter-appropriate manicure, I have two other bottles in my arsenal.
They arrived in this black box.
These black boxes from Illamasqua have become one of my favorite things in the world. I know getting them can only mean good things.
And the boxes are always lovingly and creatively packed. I love the little feathers this box came with.
Inside the box were two new nail varnish colors from Illamasqua’s I’mperfection collection for Spring.
These are Scarce and Mottle.
They are part of the brand’s Speckled Nail Varnish line which includes three other colors – Fragile, a soft blue; Freckle, a soft neutral and Speckle, a soft lilac.
All five shades in this collection have a sprinkling of matte black glitter in three different sizes, giving the them a speckled effect. According to Illamasqua, this collection was inspired by “the fragility and beauty of irregular markings upon bird eggs.”
I ended up loving this collection – and not just because they can give me Easter-ready nails in a jiffy. I’ve always been a fan of Illamasqua. I love not only their products but what the brand stands for. I love how Illamasqua pushes boundaries and challenges our concepts of beauty. I love that it encourages self-expression, uniqueness, individuality and creativity. It’s a brand with heart – and that matters to me. With I’mperfection, Illamasqua continues their mission to see beyond a homogenized view of beauty. They want to inspire people to celebrate their imperfections, the very things that make them unique.
Let me quote Illamasqua:
“True beauty, we believe, lies in the individuality of the imperfections that we all have… I’mperfection is an open invitation to stand up and show the world what makes you perfectly, imperfect. We want you to highlight the features other brands encourage you to cover up and celebrate your imperfections like badges of honour. So show off your freckles. Make beauty spots more beautiful. Shine a light on your birthmarks. And be proud of your scars.”
I wasn’t just impressed by the concept behind the collection, I love the products too. I enjoyed swatching Scarce and Mottle.
Let’s start with Scarce.
Scarce is a speckled pink.
I love the contrast between the pretty shade of pink and the black specks.
I love the formula too.
I usually encounter two problems with glitter polish – it doesn’t matter if it’s one of those smaller indie brands or one of the bigger brands. One, a lot of times, especially with larger glitter, you end up having to fish them out to get the big pieces onto your nail polish brush and your nails. Two, when the glitter is set in a colored base, you usually require a lot of coats to achieve opacity. It’s a tightrope act for nail polish companies – the colored base needs to be able to become opaque but it also needs to let the glitter show through the layers. But I had none of those problems with this collection.
Somehow, Illamasqua managed to find the perfect balance – a nail polish base that becomes opaque in two coats and still lets the pretty black glitter show through.
Am I impressed?
Yes, yes I am.
This is Mottle.
Mottle is speckled green.
I love this shade of mint green.
It shouldn’t be a surprise though because I love green polish.
Mottle has the same glitter as Scarce.
Same great formula too.
I used two coats.
Visit the Illamasqua website and follow the brand on Twitter. And hurry, you still have a few hours to join Illamasqua’s Easter Egg Hunt!
