Hiya! I'd fancied picking up Illamasqua's Jo'Mina for a good while, having seen/read so many complimentary things about it on various blogs. Finally I caved and nabbed it from eBay (for slightly cheaper than normal) last week, thanks in part to the absolutely lovely Kayla Shevonne who was kind enough to send me a bottle-shot comparison to help me decide whether I 'needed' it (haha).
I was really keen to use it but didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do, so in the end I just picked out a couple of colours I thought would complement it and got to painting! Here is the result:
I'm generally a wee bit apprehensive about beginning a design without knowing what I'm going to do (it doesn't always end amicably!) but I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. I think the skinniest stripes, which I included on each nail, pulled the different designs together quite neatly, along with the framing. I still find lines a bit tricky at times and I know a few of them are a bit wonky, but not too badly (I don't think?!). I totally dig bold, geometric-esque mix & match designs, although it's not something I do often.
Illamasqua Jo'Mina is a fantastic purple. It's more intense (and possibly a touch pinker, I'm not sure) in person. Here I've matched it up with Barry M Shocking Pink and 17 (by Boots) Smokey Marble. (It's spelt 'Smokey' with an 'e' on the bottle, though I don't know why!) I really wanted to use something other than my go-to black or gold as the offset/outline colour and I think Smokey Marble was a good choice here. It's a bit darker than it looks in the bottle - I think I'd call it 'gunmetal' - and the shimmer is pretty subtle, but I think it makes a nice change!
For my index and pinkie fingers, I found it easiest to paint the pink and purple first, then add the darker, thinner lines at the end. After having to redo my ring finger, I decided it was best to outline the patterns on the remaining nails, fill them in, then tidy up the lines where necessary. I mostly used striping brushes (in a variety of lengths, so I didn't have to clean them constantly!) for this design, including my super cut-down brush for the skinny lines.
What do you think? Are you a fan of mixing-and-matching? Do you have a favourite finger? (I realise that last question sounds kind of creepy.)
I'm generally a wee bit apprehensive about beginning a design without knowing what I'm going to do (it doesn't always end amicably!) but I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. I think the skinniest stripes, which I included on each nail, pulled the different designs together quite neatly, along with the framing. I still find lines a bit tricky at times and I know a few of them are a bit wonky, but not too badly (I don't think?!). I totally dig bold, geometric-esque mix & match designs, although it's not something I do often.
Illamasqua Jo'Mina is a fantastic purple. It's more intense (and possibly a touch pinker, I'm not sure) in person. Here I've matched it up with Barry M Shocking Pink and 17 (by Boots) Smokey Marble. (It's spelt 'Smokey' with an 'e' on the bottle, though I don't know why!) I really wanted to use something other than my go-to black or gold as the offset/outline colour and I think Smokey Marble was a good choice here. It's a bit darker than it looks in the bottle - I think I'd call it 'gunmetal' - and the shimmer is pretty subtle, but I think it makes a nice change!
For my index and pinkie fingers, I found it easiest to paint the pink and purple first, then add the darker, thinner lines at the end. After having to redo my ring finger, I decided it was best to outline the patterns on the remaining nails, fill them in, then tidy up the lines where necessary. I mostly used striping brushes (in a variety of lengths, so I didn't have to clean them constantly!) for this design, including my super cut-down brush for the skinny lines.
What do you think? Are you a fan of mixing-and-matching? Do you have a favourite finger? (I realise that last question sounds kind of creepy.)
