Lillian Loves - Illamasqua

 

Why I love Illamasqua:

(Well apart from the products)

 I love the whole idea behind the brand, makeup dedicated to art and creativity rather than simply looking how society dictates we should look to be percieved as attractive. I love the themes behind the collections which always have a real story, not just 'we like spring'.  I love the sleek, classy packaging and innovative, stunning images. I love their connection to the SOPHIE charity.

But most of all I love them because, to me at least, they are quite possibly the nicest makeup brand I've encountered.

For about a week the brand had a great online sale so I bought some bits, mainly nail polishes (I'll show you what I got later :D ). Between the time I made my order and my products were packaged for shipping 2 things I had ordered became out of stock. most companies would have probably just sent an automatic refund and generic apology. Not so with Illamasqua. I recieved an email informing me and apologising but giving me several options. Either I could have a refund or an exchange of product.

And the exchange was fair! INSANELY fair!

Ok so I ordered a nail polish (I believe it was Fern) for £5 in the sale It was out of stock so I was offered a refund or an exchange for Force nail polish (as it was in the same colour family) I already own Force so I asked if there were any other alternatives. They said sure, I could have another nail polish of my choice.... Not just another nail polish for the same price from the sale, ANY polish that was instock. For the £5 price to apologise for any inconvinience.

I also ordered a special set they had called 'Boo!' which contained both Baptiste nail polish and a special glitter colour called Boo for just £10. As Boo is only available in the set and Baptiste costs £13.50 on it's own it was a really great deal and I was delighted to get it. Sadly the set became out of stock too. So I was offered a few choices. I could get Baptiste + the base coat, Baptiste + Harsh or Baptiste + Prism or just a refund. I chose to try the base coat. So I got a £10.50 base coat and a £13.50 polish for just £10. AWESOME!

As if that wasn't great enough I later discovered a message on my answer phone from them, so they really had gone to great lengths to inform me of the problem and did everything in their power to fix it.

You may have seen on other blogs that last week they had a blogger event to celebrate the launch of their new collection Theatre of the Nameless (which looks amazing, I really wish I had the money to get some of it, there's stuff I'm longing to try out!). I was invited but because my anxiety is so bad at the moment I had to decline. Looking at all the posts it seems like it was an amazing event and I'm sad I wasn't well enough to go :( Anyway when I explained I couldn't make it Hayley Smith (who is Illamasqua's marketing assistant) replied and was so so sweet. She said she was sorry I couldn't make it but completely understood and said she wouldn't want me to do anything that would make me uncomfortable. But then she said that if I felt up to it I could pop into the shop in September with a friend so she could show me the collection, or we could even go get a coffee together to discuss it, whatever would be best for me. As it is I probably am not well enough to do any of that just now but the offer is so so lovely and really heartwarming.

I haven't loved every single product of theirs I tried (though a lot are among my holy-of-holies) but it's things like this that make me love Illamasqua and make me want to buy from them again and again. They've gone above and beyond to make sure I am happy. It really really makes me feel appreciated, not just as a customer or blogger but as a person.