ILNP ‘Poolside’ Collection: Swatch & Review
Hello lovely readers! Today I am thrilled to be sharing my swatches and full thoughts on the brand new ‘Poolside’ collection from ILNP! This is the first Summer release of the year from ILNP and also their very first crème nail polish formula. ‘Poolside’ brings us six fun and festive neon crème nail polishes in an ultra bright finish. I was very excited to receive this collection and try ILNP’s very first crème polishes, cremes make great palette cleansers for the nails in between dazzling special finish polishes and also make for the perfect summer manicure too. Crèmes can often be a hit or miss formula; sometimes they are too thick and hard to work with and other times too sheer and hard to build to opacity. Everyone has their own preferences for what they look for in a crème nail polish and my thoughts on this collection are based on my personal preferences for crème nail polish, so let’s jump straight in!
Please Note: This collection was sent to me as PR in return for swatches and review but this has not influenced my opinions. I would also like to note that I am wearing a false nail on my middle and little finger in these swatches due to nail breaks, so please refer to my pointer and ring finger for more realistic swatches on my natural nails. All swatches are shown topped with glossy topcoat.
‘Playlist’
The first shade in the collection is the shade ‘Playlist’ which is a shockingly bright neon yellow colour. This colour reminds me of a tennis ball, you can’t quite tell if it is green or yellow but either way I absolutely love this shade! I don’t own a lot of yellow nail polish but this is really swayed me towards wanting many more. It reminds me of using a highlighter to paint over your nails at school, but somehow in the best way possible. This was the first of the six shades I tried and my first time trying this formula and it is on the thicker side but not gloopy or difficult to work with. Definitely not a jelly-formula crème, this means it has very good opacity in the first coat and I was able to build to full opacity in two coats. I will mention that this shade did not self-level as well as the other shades in this collection but since neon yellows are notoriously harder to formulate than other colours, I was not it bothered by this and it was only noticeable when looking very closely. Overall I just love how obnoxious this colour is and it would look absolutely vibrant on any skin tone!
‘Two Piece’
‘Two Piece’ is a bold, neon hot pink shade. I really love the name of this polish, it suits the polish so well and definitely reminds me of a vibrant summer bikini which I could match this polish perfectly to. Hot neon pinks are a staple for any summer collection, crème or special finish and I was so happy to see one in this release. This has the same smooth and creamy formula as ‘Playlist’ but self-levels very well too. This is a shade that could also be very flattering on many skin tones. This also reached full opacity in two coats.
‘High Dive’
This next shade is called ‘High Dive’ and is described as an cool-toned blue-violet neon polish. This is a really interesting shade to me, it’s sitting in between being a periwinkle blue and a lilac purple. Personally, I don’t think this particular shade screamed ‘neon’ on myself, personally this suits my personal colour palette more from late summer into early autumn as opposed to mid-summer holiday season, personally I would have preferred this be a more aqua-blue as though reminiscent of sun-light hitting the pool on a holiday. That being said, I still enjoy wearing this polish and on darker skin tones than mine this could look really pretty. This shade has the same formula as the rest of the collection; on the thicker side side but full coverage in two coats.
‘Sunny Days’
The next shade is called ‘Sunny Days’ and is described as peach-toned, neon coral polish and is basically that classic light-orange ‘creamsicle’ shade. I would like to point out that this is such a neon shade that it did upset my camera slightly, it looks very orange in the pictures but in real life its much more peachy-tan and lighter than the straight orange it looks in the photographs. Honestly this is probably my least favourite in the collection. I just never wear orange nail polish and because of how warm-toned this shade is, it actually reads more nude than neon against my skin tone. Despite this, the formula remained uniform to the rest and I was able to achieve full opacity in two coats.
‘Bottoms Up’
‘Bottoms Up’ is a neon seafood green crème polish. This is the polish that I was most excited to get on my nails when I first opened my PR package! Despite not ever being a green fan, I have seen so many gorgeous green polishes this summer and started to really get the taste for a summer green and this is definitely satisfying that need. I love the tone of this shade and the name matches perfectly too, it reminds me of a perfect summery minty mojito! The formula for this shade was great, almost a one-coater but I was most happy with two coats.
‘Summer’
The last shade in the collection is simply called ‘Summer’ and is a hot coral pink shade with a slightly red undertone. Again, this shade did upset my camera and I want to let you know that even though the photographs look red, the polish does actually lean more pink in real life. Now, obviously coral shades are staples for summer collections, I am not feeling this colour at all. It’s not particularly outstanding or special and I just think it could have been replaced by a more unique or interesting colour. However, the formula remained the same and I was able to reach full opacity in just two coats.
And that’s the collection! As far as crème polishes, this is a solid collection. I do think the colours could have been more unique but they fit the theme very well, which I can’t fault. I really would have wanted a gorgeous neon cobalt or aqua blue though! ILNP make gorgeous blues and with this and the latest wedding-themed collection, they’ve had some great opportunities to bring us a stunning blue sea=hade and have not. That’s just me, personally though. Otherwise I was happy with the formula too. I like that the formula remained the same through every shade, it is a huge pet peeve of mine in a crème collection when some are traditional creams and some apply more like jellies; I very much appreciate the uniformity of the collection. I know other swatches who received this collection as PR had some difficulties with the polishes but mine were completely fine. I would like to reiterate that these have quite a thick formula, it will take some getting used to at first try, but the opacity is worth it and they are great polishes to create to gradient or reverse stamping nail art with too!
If I had to choose my favourite shade or two, it would have to be ‘Playlist’ and possibly ‘Bottom’s Up’ too. I would never have imagined that one day I would say my favourite colours in a collection were the yellow and green! But ‘Playlist’ is such an obnoxiously loud colour, it has so much personality and I was just drawn to it straight away and was not disappointed, and because green’s have been everywhere this summer so I think it would suit everyone’s collection!
Be sure to let me know if you enjoyed this read and which of these shades you like the most by leaving a comment down below! The ILNP ‘Poolside’ collection is available to purchase now from the ILNP website and worldwide stockists now.
Thank you so much for reading! J