Illamasqua Week has ended!

So my Illamasqua Week (yes yes it was more like a month, but i'm still calling it a week because i'm stubborn) is now finally drawing to an end. I really liked having the focus on one brand because it forced me to write lots of reviews, where often i can be quite lazy and keep to quick, easy posts, but reviewing all my products and doing looks and things in one week was a rediculous idea, and there were times I wanted to post about other products but didn't want to because i was doing this Illamasqua project. So i think i will do more themed posts similar to this, but will do it in months to give myself enough time to review everything thoroughly and also continue with other posts unrelated to the theme.

So since the start of this project my feelings for Illamasqua have not changed, i still love them dearly and they are my absolute favourite high-end brand, but that does not mean i love everything they make, the cream eyeshadows were very disappointing and i really didn't like the one lipstick i've tried (though i don't believe what i thought would be true of all their lipsticks, i need to try another colour) and while i like their powder eyeshadows i don't think they are particularly special. However their lipglosses and pencils are the best i've ever tried, the blush i have is amazing in it's staying power and pigmentation and i really like all of the other products I have tried. I love the ideas and aesthetics behind the brand, i've found their customer service to be very friendly and helpful and, well i just love them. I want to try all their products.

Their new collection, Body Electrics, is coming out next month. Their blog described the collection as '"Due for a mid April launch across all counters in the UK - and May in the US - Body Electrics celebrates the body in motion, enhances your individual contours and is an explosion of electrifying energy. Again, we have new product textures and some otherwordly shades and unique finishes." I cannot wait! I'm so excited.
I have been invited to go to the blogger event to preview the products and words can't described how happy and honoured i am. This will be my first ever blogger event and i'm just so overwhelmed that i would be invited. It will be a big step for me to go because of my bravery (i imagine i will need a lot of Dutch Courage) but i am absolutely going to go, i'm not going to let my anxiety stop me doing something i really want to do. I need to feel the fear and do it anyway :)

In other news my sister had a baby boy yesterday, both of them are fine and he looks like a creepy old man/alien/pig thing like all babies do to me :P

Illamasqua Week - Brush Review

 

From left to right: Blending Brush 1, Highlighter Blush, Blusher Brush 2, Blending Brush 2.

This is the only post on Illamasqua where i did not buy anything myself (or nick it off my girlfriend :P), 3 of them were a prize from the Illamasqua competition i came 2nd in and the other (Blending Brush 1) was a present. At first when i recieved the 3 that were my prize i was a bit disappointed as, if i had had the choice, i would not have picked any of the 3 but i decided to keep them and now i'm really happy i did. Illamasqua brushes are all synthetic and so cruelty free, which is wonderful. So far, having used them for several months but, very shamefully, only washed them once i have not noticed any shedding whatsoever. The brushes are very, very soft and dense, firm but not stiff. The brushes range in price from £18 to £35 which, i think (though may be wrong) is normal for a high end brand.

Packaging wise these come simply in the little 'jacket' you see in the photo. It's 'frosted' looking with black writing. Inside some of the brushes were protected by little plastic tube things  over the bristles. One thing i didn't like is that once you took this protective covers off you cannot put them back on again as it's impossible to get them back on over the bristles (they just splay and refuse to go in) and you can't pull them up over the bottom as part of the handle is too wide. But this isn't really too much of a bother because, personally, i probably wouldn't remember to put them back on every time. The brushes themselves aren't particularly exciting looking but are attractive and classic looking, with black bristles and shiny black handles which are light but somehow feel 'right' in my hand.

The Blending Brush 1 is probably the most used of the brushes, but i am terrible at blending so i can't really use it to it's full potential. However i really like it, it's very soft but i can control it easily and it's the perfect size to blend out my socket line. The Blending Brush 2 is the least used because, frankly, i'm not sure what to do with it. It's basically the same as number 1 but just slightly bigger, so it's not really big enough for blending out concealer or blush but then i wouldn't use it for my eye shadows because i have number 1 for that. Any thoughts anyone? The Highlighter Brush is like a larger, slightly more domed version of the blending brushes. It works excellently for applying both cream and powder highlighters lightly and evenly and is also great for blending the edges of blusher or getting face products into the nooks and crannies of my face, like around the nose (thanks for the tip Jenn!). Finally Blusher Brush number 2 is one of my favourites, it's a quite thick brush with a softly angled top and i fnd it perfect for getting under my cheekbones to contour my cheeks. It's also wonderful at applying blush in one sweep from cheek to hairline and highlighter too.

I don't own any other high-end brushes (apart from one Lancome lip brush that i nicked off Claire) so i can't compare them to Mac or anything, but i'll briefly compare them to my ELF brushes (the majority of my brushes are ELF studio, i'm going to post a review of these bad boys soon).  I adore my ELF brushes, which are absolutely fantastic value (all £3.50 apart from the Kabuki brush which is a fiver) they are also all synthetic and cruelty free. The ELF brushes are actually very similar in quality to the Illamasqua, they are soft and shed rarely. However they are not as soft as the Illamasqua and are a bit less firm causing them to 'splay' more and making them slightly less easy to control. I don't have any ELF brushes that are for the same purpose as the Illamasqua ones so it's hard to really compare them.

So would i buy more? Well if i had the money to be buying high-end brushes i would definately buy more of these. The ones i got as a prize i never would have chosen myself and yet i now wouldn't want to be without them, so i'd love to try some of the ones i actually would have picked. They are amazing quality in my opinion and knowing they are all cruelty free pleases me immensely. I wouldn't call them overpriced but they certainly aren't cheap and i couldn't afford more at the moment. I really like the way they look, though i'd also like some more gaudy over-the-top brushes too.

Illamasqua Week - FOTD 6

Very very squinty photos because it was too bright for me (i have a problem with my eyes, they let in too much light, i have to wear sunglasses all year round).

 

Face: Illamasqua Powder blush in Nymph, Avon tinted moisturiser.

Eyes: Illamasqua powder eyeshadows in Dizzy, Grope and Geisha, Jelly Pong Pong wakeup makeup (on brows), colorstay 24hr eyeliner, Lancome Oscialltion mascars

Lips: Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Fume.

Illamasqua Week - Sheer Lipgloss Review

 In a lot of ways these sheer lipglosses are very like the Intense Lipglosses, they come in the exact sme packaging, have the same scent and seem to have the same, or at least a very similar, formula. The difference, as maybe you can guess from the name, is that these lipglosses are sheer instead of opaque. Also there are fewer 'odd' colours as i guess a colour like green or blue wouldn't show well when it's sheer and just turn your lips a funny colour. But you can get some lovely shades of red, pinks, purples, peaches and nudes.  Again these are £12.50 for 7ml .

I only own one of these, Explode, but Claire has one too, Divine. I've only tried it on to take a photo, so i asked her to write a little bit about what it's like to wear properly and here's what she had to say:

'This was a gift to me from Lillian :) We were shopping around at the Illamasqua counter and she overheard me admiring it's Calpol-pink colour. When my back was turned she bought it on the sly to give to me later! Aww.

Divine goes on very smoothly, it's not thick or gloopy, nor does it feel tacky or unpleasant on my lips. I don't  wear a lot of lip products, so I'm usually very concious of the texture, and if something is too sticky or too drying, I can't tolerate it very well and want to scrub it off, and this is especially true of a lot of lipglosses I've tried. But i can put on Divine and forget i'm wearing it because the texture is so nice. Divine also doesn't seem as sticky as most of the ones I have, and I was especially impressed when on a windy day my hair smacked me in the face, and when I went to brush it away, it didn't stick to my lips in the same horrible way as other lipglosses do (for instance Pink Poodle by Mac is a similar colour but i find it a lot more sticky).


Because it's not thick, it's hard to build up the colour, but for a sheer lipgloss, you do get quite a lot of pigment onto your lips without much work. It's also quite long lasting for a gloss, it will vanish within about an hour without touching it up, but in my experience with glosses, this is pretty good, and I find it quite easy to apply considering it doesn't have a wand. I find the tip is a nice shape for pushing the gloss around on my lips, though maybe because it's sheer, I can get away with being a bit sloppy applying it, so it's easy for me to just pop it in my bag and carry it around if I want to wear it all day.'

Thanks Claire! Kiss kiss.

My findings when wearing Explode and briefly Divine are pretty much the same as hers. For something specifically called a 'sheer' gloss these are really quite pigmented, around the same as the average gloss you can buy. I guess calling it 'sheer' is to show to differentiate them from the opaque Intense lipglosses, not because they are super sheer themselves. They still impart a good amount of colour on your lips, but it is translucent instead of opaque.

To me they feel the same as the Intense glosses, even though the Intense ones must pack a lot more pigment. And, while they do wear off quicker than the opaque colours they still stick around for about an hour or 2 before you really need to reapply, which personally i find quite good for a gloss (don't know if it's just me but most glosses tend to last just a few minutes on my lips before they just disappear or feather away). As they are sheer hey are easier to apply and less high-maintenance than the opaque ones.

So finally here are the lip swatches of the two i have access to.

 

Explode - a lovely milky colour which shows mainly pink reflects but also some gold and a little blue. As you can see it covers the natural colour of my lips quite well.

 

Divine - Pretty clear bright pink.

So would i purchase again? Well i'm not as in love with these as i am the opaque ones simply because i love opaque lip products a lot more than sheer. However there are a few colours i really like and am interested in buying (the purples are lovels and some of the pinks are very pretty) . Another great thing about these is that you can layer them over lipsticks or liners to change the colour. Explode is really lovely over other colours as it makes the colour have a milky-pinky sheen but the original colour still shines through. I think for other people who are used to wearing sheer glosses or lipsticks these would be great though, their staying power, formula and colour range make them still really worth the money. I really like them a lot, just not as much as the Intense Glosses, which as you may know are one of my favourite ever lip products.

Illamasqua Week - Powder Eyeshadow Review

This is one of the hardest reviews i've hard to write because... well i just don't know what to say about these eyeshadows. They're not bad at all, but then they're not amazing either. I personally find it hard to compare eyeshadows to other brands because unless you have the same basic colour the colour, finish etc is going to be variable on purpose. By this i mean you could buy 2 peach shadows and one could seem much more pigmented and bright, but maybe that's just because the lighter one is designed to a paler colour.

Anyway these eyeshadows come in tonnes of colours (there must be over 100) ranging from pale neutrals to near neon so i'm sure there's something for everyone. The majority of colours are matte but there are a few shimmers too, I'm actually pleased about this as i love matte shades and the majority of brands seem to favour shimmery or pearly shadows. They are £15 each and you get 2g. They come in the same exact packaging as the cream eyeshadows, so i'm not going to bother describing it again :)

 

Firstly i have 8 of the shadows but bought them second hand from Rhamnousia so got them for £6 or £7 each, instead of 15. The colours are (from left to right)

top:  Grope, Succumb, Dizzy, Lick

below:  Courtesan, Can Can, Creep, Geisha

 

 And swatches: Succumb, Grope, Dizzy, Lick, Geisha, Creep, Courtesan, Can Can

As you can see some of the colours are not very bright, but this is because i chose some pale colours boardering on neutrals as i honestly don't have any in my collection. When used in looks they certainly don't look dull, they are actually quite pigmented, they just don't look it here (if that makes sense)

I also bought (this time actually from Illamasqua at full price) the Dystopia collection palette in Pink Smoke which contains Quantum, Matter, Synth and Rasp shadows. This cost £29 and you get 4 shadows at 1.5g each. As a single shadow is 2g for £15 i think this is pretty great value. Illamasqua used to make custom palettes where you could choose any 4 of their cream or powder eyeshadows for the same price as this. I loved this idea and, after going a-swatching a few months ago, i had a list of colours i wanted to make into several palettes but sadly before i could order mine they discontinued the custom palettes. If anyone from Illamasqua happens to read this PLEASE consider bringing them back.

 

 

 

The packaging is basically the same as with the single eyeshadows only giant and without a window in the lid. Instead it has a really nice big, good quality mirror. Again i really like the packaging, it's very sophistiated and yet has a bit of an ususual, slightly gothic 'edge' with it's shiny black plastic and curved sides. One problem i have with it is that it doesn't say the colours of the actual shadows, it just says 'Pink Smoke' which is the name of the palette. This has caused a problem in actually knowing which colour is which.2 of the colours in the palette (Rasp and Quantum) aren't available seperately, Synth is and it's easy to tell which colour it is as it's a pearlescent white colour, Matter is on available seperately too but it is one of the 2 greys in the palette so i can't figure out which is which. I just have guessed that 'Rasp' is the pink shade because it hints at 'raspberry' but i might be completely wrong. And then out of the two greys i've just decided 'Quantum' is the lighter one and 'Matter' is darker as on the website it describes it as 'gunmetal'.

 

Swatches (sorry they're blurry).

Matter, Quantum, Rasp, Synth (or so i assume)
These colours are shimmery, except for Rasp. 

Now for the quality of these. Personally i think they are great. They blend wonderfully, the mattes are just as blendable as the shimmers and i have no problems with them at all. The wear of them is great, on me even without primer, these last all day without any creasing and with very little, if any, fading. The shimmery ones do have a little bit of fall out but nothing terrible. I really like the colours i have and, while they aren't the brightest eyeshadows around, they are well pigmented and very very pretty.

So would i repurchase? I'm not really sure to be honest. The eyeshadows are fine, wear well, blend brilliantly, and are very pretty colours. However they're not really particularly unusual and honestly i don't think they're worth £15. I might purchase again if i find a colour that's really new and different, or if they have a sale. I do, however, really like the shadows i've got, i certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from buying them as they are good quality in my opinion.

Illamasqua Week - 1920s Dystopia tutorial

Yesterday I wanted to do a really fun, avant-garde inspired FOTD with my Illamasqua products. I decided to take my inspiration from their Dystopia collection and the images they promoted it with and combine it with a 1920s flapper look. As it's unusual and fun i thought i'd try to do my first proper tutorial with pictures.

 

Face: Gosh foundation in Porcelain, Screen face white translucent powder, Illamasqua Illuminator in Fondle, Dainty Doll concealer in Fair.

Eyes: Illamasqua Illuminator in Odyssey, Illamasqua powder eyeshadows in  , kajal liner (unsure of brand, thanks Rhamnousia!), Lancome Oscillation mascara.

Lips: Barry M lipstick in 37 (black), Nyx lip liner in blackberry, Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Galactic

So if you'd like to learn how to do this tutorial please read below the cut :)

Illamasqua Week - Liquid Metal Review

 

Illamasqua's Liquid Metals are one of those products that 'does what it say on the tin'. The product is basically a metallic cream-liquid  that looks as close to real metal as i think a cosmetic is ever likely to get. Wearing them is like wearing a piece of metallic foil on your face! They come in 3 colours, Enrapture - copper/bronze, Solstice - pure gold and Phenomena - silver, i only have the first 2 (well Enrapture is claire's but she lets me use it). They are meant to be used wherever you want, eyes, lips, face and body.

I really love these. They apply beautifully, creamy and smooth and are very richly pigmented, they appear on the face just as they look in the pot. But you can also apply them very faintly to give a metallic glow to your skin, like a bronzer or highlighter. I also really like the fact these products are multi-use,  had been considering buying Illamasqua's amazing gold lipstick, but figured if i got this is works as a lippie, eyeshadow and face product. 

These cost £17 each and you get 8g of product, which i imagine will last forever as you only need a very light amount to get full pigmentation. They come in little jars the same size and shape as their eyeshadows, but hingeless and made of clear plastic. The jars are entirely full of product and have a black lid which just clicks on top. These came in the same little black cardboard boxes as the eyeshadows, but without a window in the lid. I really like this packaging, it's functional and pretty and elegant.

 

Here are a bunch of swatches so you can see the colours on my skin:

left to right: Solistic applied sheerly, solstice applied heavily, Enrapture applied sheerly, Enrapure applied heavilly.

 

 

 

The last one particularly shows how metallic the are. The gold in particular looks almost like gold leaf! You can also see the amazing pigmentation. I can imagine that both of these would look amazing on dark skin tones.

Oddly Solstice seems slightly more pigmented then Enrapture, in the above photos the heavy swatch of Solstice took only one sweep of my finger on the product and then just one sweep across my skin whereas Enrapture took about 3 sweeps to get it that pigmented. You can also see that it is easy to just get a nice sheer wash of the metallic colour, all i did was take a small swatched with my finger and blend it out.

So how are they in use? Well on my lips the colour went on smoothly and was completely opaque. It also lasted a really long time which surprised me, and would have lasted longer but unfortunately i found it felt rather uncomfortable, very dry and sort of powdery on my lips, so eventually i rubbed it off. Great for photos though and maybe if i'd used a gloss over the top, or a balm underneath, it would have felt better. On my face these work brilliantly, they go on like a cream but then dry until they're basically smudge resistant, i can imagine these making an absolutely gorgeous bronzer on people with darker skin tones than me, us pale girls can use them sheerly for a golden glow :) On the eyes these look absolutely beautiful, they go on again smoothly with no patchiness but unfortunately, like the cream eyeshadows they crease in my socket line (having said this i realise i've never worn these over primer or tried setting hem with powder, i will have to see if that makes a difference). Now i find this more forgiveable with this product as it is not specifically designed for use in the eye. Also the creasing genuinely doesn't seem as bad as in the cream eyeshadows and as the colours are so beautiful and unusual i can forgive a bit of creasing more. I bet these would make amazing bases for other metallic shadows or pigments too. 

So would i recommend them? Well i think they really come down to personal taste. With most of the other product's i've reviewed, if you didn't like the really avant-garde colours they also have more 'ordinary' colours with the same formulas. With these however there are only 3 colours and they are all definately extra-ordinary. If you only wanted these to use as eyeshadow i am not sure i would recommend them as they do crease. However i think these are amazing products, i think if you like to play with unusual looks, or ever do makeup artistry then i think these would be wonderful in your collection. I love how differently you can use these, sheer as a bronzer, thich as a body paint, lip stick, eyeshadow, even in your hair! I think they are quite pricey but you get a LOT for your money and i'm pretty sure these will last you forever (well unless you use it every day heavilly)

Illamasqua Week - FOTD 5

 

 

Face:

Cargo foundation, Collection 2000 illuminate and perfect concealer, Illamasqua Illuminator in Fondle, Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Enrapture.

Eyes:

Illamasqua powder eyeshadow in Dizzy, Illamasqua Illuminators in Fondle and Odyssey, Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Enrapture and Solstice, Too Faced Lash Injection Mascara.

Lips: Illamasqua Liquid Metals in Solstice and Enrapture.

Today i went for a warm goldy-bronzey look. I tried to contour my cheeks a little using the liquid metal in Enrapture, is it noticeable at all?
First i did my skin as usual but didn't use any powder (all of my brushes and puffs are filthy so i did this look using just my fingers, i don't think i did too badly considering!) then used Illamasqua Illuminator in Fondle as a blush, getting a small drop on my finger and putting it on the apple of my cheek, then sweeping it up my cheekbone to my hairline, fading it out as i went. Then i took a tiny amount of Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Enrapture and applied it sheerly under the line of blush i'd put on, blending it down to my jawline. For my eyes i popped a bit of Illamasqua powder eyeshadow in Dizzy over my crease, heavier at the inner corner and put a bit of Fondle on top of that. I then used the Illuminator in Odyssey on my browbone and at the inner corner of my eyes. Then i put Enrapture all over my eyelid, blending it into Dizzy and a small amount of Liquid Metal in Solstice in the inner 3rd of the eye. I finished it off with just a very light coat of mascara on my upper lids and patted a bit of Enrapture over my eyebrows. Finally for my lips i simply covered my lips with Solstice and then tapped a small amount of Enrapture into the middle of the lower lip.

Helloooo

Illamasqua week (which yes has almost spanned 3 weeks now, it would have been a week if i posted my looks and reviews consectuively but, i'm me so that was not going to happen :P) is drawing to a close now, i only have 3 reviews left to post and will hopefully have at least 2 done today. I've really enjoyed doing it, but i want to know how you guys felt about it. If you liked seeing a whole lot of reviews and looks using only one companies products then i could do it again with other companies. The idea of it was meant to be a sort of guide to the brand for anyone who didn't know much about them before, or did but had been put off by the price or anything. But if you found it irritating in any way please tell me :)

In case anyone thought otherwise i'd just like to say that i am not in anyway affiliated with Illamasqua, i didn't recieve any of the products to review or anything like that, i just really adore the brand.


I was feeling really down yesterday and ended up being very very naughty and breaking my spending ban quite badly. I feel very ashamed of myself now but i just couldn't help it. I'm going to try to keep myself really really busy from now on and then hopefully i won't give myself a chance to buy anything else!


I'm not feeling down anymore though. Partly because I just  woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, and it's been such a nice sunny day and my animals are all being beautiful and partly because, when ego-searching this morning, I discovered  this little write up on my blog

'What I love about Lillian’s blog is her ingenuity and her drive to create something unique in a world that is so replete with same, same, same. Lillian’s makeup tutorials are full of innovative products, methods and combinations. No two looks are ever the same.
The best thing about Lillian, however, is her honesty. She shares very openly her struggles with social anxiety, her fears, and her frustrations with life. The way she writes is compelling and almost like a conversation. It’s absolutely addictive.'

Now i'm certain such praise is really not deserved but i just wanted to say that if whoever wrote this is reading this i can never thank you enough. It truly touched me from the bottom of my heart and has made me feel so wonderful. Word's can't really express how good it made me feel about myself, just knowing there are people who so much appreciate the nonsense i write :)

You may have noticed i've been quite  sparse on the looks front recently, this is because i've been a bit low and staying indoors a lot so i don't tend to do a full face worth noting, but i want to do more, so hopefully i'll start showing at least 2 outfits and faces a week. Even if i'm just in all day i'll dress up for the fun :)
I'm also going to start working my way through the list of requests i have. I'm so useless, i ask you guys what you'd like to see and then when you tell me i ignore it for weeks! Shame on me.

Recently my puppy Sir Digby has started playing with my older dog Minnie. Minnie has never played before in her life and it has made us all so happy to see her rolling around being silly with Digby, she seems so much younger now.

Illamasqua Week - Medium Pencil Review

Today's review is on Illamasqua's Medium pencils, so named because they also have a larger 'fat' pencil and a very thin 'fine' pencil. These are about the same size as your average lip or eyeliner pencil, come in over 30 colours and retail for £12.50. I only have 2 colours so far but love them so much i am desperate for more.

You get 1.5g of pencil and they are rather simple looking, ordinary wooden pencils with a clear lid and shiny black handles and, like all other Illamasqua products, come in a shiny black cardboard box with cream writing. The packaging is practical but could be a little more interesting. Still it looks fine so i am not put off at all. The colours range is amazing with several shades of pinks, greens, blues, greys, yellows etc as well as basic reds, black, white and brown. These pencils can be used anywhere, they are equally good for lining your lips or eyes or even just drawing freehand on your face or body. To me it's wonderful to find a product that actually is designed to be used on both eyes and lips. Usually you can use an eyeliner as a lipliner or vice-versa but i do find problems (eyeliners usually are harder and 'pull' more on my lips and lipliners are often unsuitable for use around the eyes because of non eye-safe ingredients) but these are specially made to be safe, and work well anywhere you choose to use them.

The two colours i own are Deonair, a bright, cyan blue and Whiplash, a yellow lime green:

The colour payoff of these pencils is amazing. They're incredibly pigmented and rich, but also so so creamy and soft. This makes them a dream to apply, especially on the lips. But once they are on and have dried a little they are, while not entirely smudge-proof, pretty good at resisting smearing and pretty much entirely transfer resistant. As a lip or eyeliner i find there is little to say about these that differs from most high quality eyeliners. They last very very well and resist smearing, the colour is true-to-life in one stroke and they are easy to use. For me the true test of a liner is on my waterline. I've used many different liners in the past from drugstore to high end (Barry M, Mac, Urban Decay, Estee Lauder etc) and never found one that lasted well on my waterline.  I don't know if i have watery eyes or something, but colours usually fade or smudge off my waterline after less than half an hour. Urban Decay 24/7 pencil lasts for maybe 2 hours on me (one of the best), but these pencils have become my Holy Grail eyeliner because my god do they ever last on my waterline!

 

Above is Whiplash freshly applied. Oddly this looks like i've barely applied it, but it was much brighter in real life. I think you can see it better in my FOTD pictures in my last post.

This is after about 4 hours. It actually looks brighter than in the first photo, but in reality it was basically exactly the same. It has hardly faded and wasn't patchy.

 

And this is at the end of the day, after about 10 - 12 hours. As you can see it has faded a bit now, but is still hanging in there!

I am incredibly impressed. By the end of the day the colour had faded only a tiny bit, it was still noticeably lime-green and the colour had not smudge or travelled to my lower lashline at all!

Here is a blurry photo of my eyes doing a very unflattering about-to-blink look, but it shows the colour off really well:

 

Can you believe that's after at least 10 hours of wear?

 

So, i can honestly say that these are the best eyeliners i have ever used for the water line. Debonair Works just as well, i was going to take photos of it too but ended up having a huge cry-fest that even these beauties couldn't stand up to. Though to give it it's dues there was still a very pale blue colour on my waterline after a solid half hour of hysterics :P And they work equally well, if not better than, other lip and eyeliners when used on the lids/lips.

I highly recommend you try these. £12.50 might seem a bit expensive but i honestly think they are well worth the price. I need want so many more colours of these. If you are into black liner then i highly recommend their SOPHIE pencil as every pencil sold in this colour donates £3 to the S.O.P.H.I.E. charity. That's the next one on my list :)

Illamasqua Week - FOTD 4

A more exciting look today :)

I actually think it's quite flattering!

Face: Cargo foundation, ELF concealer, Illamasqua Loose powder in LP005, Illamasqua powder blush in Nymph, Illamasqua Illuminatior in Fondle.

Eyes: Lancome Oscillation mascara in black, Illamasqua powder blush in Nymph, Illamasqua powder eyeshadow in Sylph and Rasp, Illamasqua Medium Pencil in Whiplash.

Lips: Illamasqua medium pencil in Whiplash, Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Torrid.

Here's a brief how-to if anyone wants to copy this look :)
I prepared my face as usual (today i wanted fuller coverage so i used a new foundation, review coming soon) then lightly applied powder with a flat-top brush. Then i applied blush quite heavilly in a 'c' shape from my temples to cheekbones then i used the illuminator lightly over the blush. I applied the same blush colour lightly over my eyelids, then used a darker, bright pink eyeshadow on the outer v, crease and under my eye. I used Sylph, a light iridescent shadow on my browbone and the inner corners of my eyes then used the medium pencil in Whiplash on my waterline and finished off with mascara. Then i used the pencil again to line my lips (following their natural line) and fill them in completely before topping them off with torrid lip gloss using a lip brush.

In other news, my bolshy sister managed to get my bank charges halved, so i'm very pleased :)
And yes i know my eyebrows look very silly :P

Illamasqua Week - Shimmer Lipstick in 'Underground'

Firstly i want to start off by explaining that this review doesn't apply to all Illamasqua lipsticks, i've tried others and have had completely different results to what i experienced with this shade. This is the only one i have though (it's not mine, it's claire's but i've worn it enough to review it and she feels the same about it as i do) so i can't review the other colours properly. So this is only a review of 'Underground', not Illamasqua lipsticks as a whole.

Underground is described as a 'iridescent blueberry violet' and has a shimmer finish (the majority of Illamasqua's lipsticks are matte) it is a gorgeous colour, a true pinky violet with almost a blue duochrome. When swatching it at the Illamasqua counter it applied true to it's colour description as a creamy, near opaque duochrome pink-purple. It's truly a gorgeous colour and could easily have been one of my holy-grail products if it applied the way it did at the counter. Because you see, sadly, the actual product does not apply anywhere near as nicely as the tester did in store.

Firstly it is a lot more sheer than it previously looked, going on as a 'wash' or violet shimmer instead of the thick, opaque look that i crave. If I apply more than one layer to try and get it more opaque it starts getting very patchy on my lips. I've found it basically impossible to get it even as well, the formula seems sort of 'dry' which makes it hard to apply, it's not creamy or smooth. And then when it's on i really don't like it either, i find it really, really drying and it just feels nasty on my lips, i instantly want to scrub it off. When i manage to keep it on long enough i don't find the longevity any good, it sort of 'peels' away from my lips, especially where they meet.

Here's how it looks on me:

This photo actually looks better than it does in real life, you can't really see the patchiness in the photo, but you can see that it's not opaque. But bizarrely it swatched opaque!


Other people haven't had the same problems as we did, so we actually thought it might just be from a faulty batch or something. Claire took it back and got it replaced with a new tube (their customer service was really impressive, they just swapped it for a new one, no questions ask, they didn't even ask to see claire's receipt or anything) . She has bought the first one from Belfast about 4 months before she got the replacement, so it seems unlikely it was from the same batch. But sadly we found the replacement was exactly the same.

I have no idea why the tester swatches so much better, i have a theory it might be something to do with the hot lighting on the counters so i might try warming the lipstick a little before applying and see what that does.

I've actually made some videos about this lipstick before, where i'm wearing it so you can see the wear of it after an hour:












Now the packaging, which would apply to all Illamasqua lipsticks. Personally i really like the packaging of this, i think it's very unusual and classy and slightly decadent. It's the same form of shape as the rest of their packaging, a cuboid with edges which gently curl inwards made of shiny, shiny black plastic. It also came in the same box-packaging as the others, black and shiny thin card with cream writing.

  

All Illamasqua lipsticks cost £15 for 4g (which i think is a pretty standard amount. Mac is £12.50 for 3g) which personally, i would have been unhappy to pay for this specific lipstick. As I said before I have tried some others of their lipsticks, but not extensively enough to review them so i couldn't say whether this price is good or bad value for other shades. There are LOTS of colours I really want to try,  i haven't been put off their lipsticks altogether at all, i just wouldn't recommend this colour. They used to sell 4-colour lipstick palettes on their website and i thought that was an amazing idea, but sadly it's disappeared along with their eyeshadow palettes. I wrote an email to them and they told me that the eye palettes had been discontinued, but their lip palettes hadn't so hopefully they'll come back soon.

Illamasqua Week - FOTD 3

 

Face: avon tinted moisturiser, Illamasqua Loose Powder in LP005, Illamasqua powder eyeshadow in Lick (as blush)

Lips: Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Mistress

Eyes: Illamasqua cream eyeshadows in Stir, Midas and Outcast.

I've realised after your comments on my last post that you're right, i've never found a cream eyeshadow that doesn't crease! So really my complaints about the Illamasqua cream shadows, while justified, are no worse than any others. I'm going to try using these as a base for powder shadows (the thought hadn't occurred to me because i am thick) and continue using them on the browbone and as eyeliner, just not as a eyeshadow on their own.

Some more exciting and original looks will be coming shortly, i feel i've been playing it too safe lately and i want to give you guys a good idea of some more avant-garde looks you can make with Illamasqua.

Illamasqua Week - Cream Eyeshadow Review

Illamasqua sell both powder and cream eyeshadows, as well as loose pigments. I own a selection of the cream and powder variety (review of the powders is coming up). Their are fewer varieties of cream shadows than powder, currently there are only 14 cream shadows available. They retail at £15 for 2g. The cream eyeshadows i bought were from Illamasqua's end-of-line sale so they were half price at £7.50 and i got 7 colours.

Pretty, pretty ice cream and candy colours.

Top row: Crumble, Midas, Stir

Bottom Row: Stimulas, Suck, Love, Outcast

Swatches of all the colours are here

The colours are beautiful and what you see in the box is what you get on your skin. The formula is lovely and... creamy :P Soft and silky and highly pigmented. It's easy to sheer out or apply heavily for a brighter colour. They have a slight sheen (stir is shimmery, the others aren't) but it's not very noticeable.

They come in the same packaging as Illamasqua's powder blusher, only smaller.

I've said before what i think about the packaging, so i won't say it again. The reason my pots are so messy in the first photo is because i've been applying the majority of these with my fingers, and i'm a clumsy and messy person. I applied Outcast with a blush and you can see it's nice and tidy :)

Now onto the wear of the products.

Freshly applied over eyeshadow primer and set with powder. Stir on browbone, Midas on main part of eyelid, Outcast as eyeliner.

After about 5 hours.

As you can see, even with primer and powder to set, the colour on the main part of my eyelid has faded and creased like MAD. The eyeliner colour has faded a little, but it's ok and the highlight colour on my browbone looks about the same.

So would i repurchase? Hmm i'm not really sure to be honest. There is only one colour left (Amour which is a gorgeous duck-egg pale blue/green) that i really like and honestly i think £15 is too much for a product that creases so badly. If they were discounted i might think about buying more. They make a good eyeliner, and may well be good for other parts of the face, but it is sold as an eyeshadow and i personally don't think it's great for that use. The colours i have are gorgeous but i don't know how often i will wear them simply because they fade and crease so badly :(

Illamasqua Week - FOTD 2

I went for a sort of soft purple look here:

 

Face: Avon tinted moisturiser, Illamasqua loose powder in LP005, Illamasqua powder blush in Nymph, Illamasqua Illuminator in Fondle

Eyes: Illamasqua Illuminator in Fondle, Illamasqua powder eyeshadow in Cancan, Courtesan and Creep, Lancome Oscillation mascara

Lips: Illamasqua lipstick in Underworld, Illamasqua sheer lipgloss in Explode

This was quite a subdued look because i wasn't feeling up to my usual bold faces. I used the eyeshadows very lightly, they can look a lot more pigmented than they do here.

Illamasqua Week - Powder Blush Review

Illamasqua has both cream and powder blushers that come in a gorgeous myriad of colours from contouring shades to pinks, reds, oranges and purples. I only have one colour, Nymph which is a pale, soft candy pink colour and has fast become my go-to blush.

I adore this blush. It is so, so pigmented (WAY better than the mac colours i own) which could be too much for some people (particularly if they chose a more in-your-face colour like a red or purple) but i find it's actually quite easy to just leave a sheer burst of colour when using a large powder blush. Or it also makes for wonderful dollycheeks when applied less sparingly. It's such a beautiful colour - truely the colour of candyfloss and really makes my face look healthy and youthful. Personally i like to use this mainly on the apples of my cheeks for a proper porcelaine doll look,  but it also works if you use it from cheekbone to temple for a soft contour. It is a really soft, fine, matte powder, very easy to blend and build as you wish. Once applied i find this lasts all day without fading.

 

Ok i don't know why but i could not get a good swatch of this! I wear it in a lot of FOTDs though so that will probably give you a better idea of how it looks in use anyway.

The packaging it comes in is Illamasqua's signature design for all pressed or cream products, a square with concave sides making it very unique. The sides and back are made of a shiny black plastic and there is a frosted Illamasqua logo on the clear top window which allows you to see the colour of the blush. It then comes in another black cardboard box with cream writing. I really love the look of the packaging but there is one problem with it, the shiny, shiny black plastic collects fingerprints and so can look less than pristine in a very short while.

I really don't have any cons to speak of with this blusher's quality but i know the price (£16 for 4.5g) will be very off putting to some people. Personally i think it's sort of worth it, it performs better than my Barry M blushers (although they are still really lovely) which is the cheapest brand of rouge i have at the moment and is far, far superior to the Mac blushes i own which are only slightly cheaper (£16.50 for 6g). There are many colours that are very unusual for blushes and look really stunning, however as i've only tried Nymph i can't be certain the other colours are the same high quality.

So i would recommend this blush definately, i think it's wonderful. It's not really any more expensive than other high-end brand cosmetics (a lot cheaper than some) but i know a lot of people will still think it's overpriced, and if you think of it that way you won't get the same enjoyment out of it.

Illamasqua Week - Illuminator Review

Illamasqua's Illuminator was the first highlighter i ever really used. I did own one powder highlighter before purchasing this but used it very, very rarely and didn't really like the results when i did. This was actually one of the first Illamasqua products i tried, buying it in Belfast on holiday along with a couple of the Intense Lipglosses. I bought it in the colour Odyssey which has become a real staple of my makeup collection. Recently i bought a second colour, Fondle and there are a few others i love.

The Illuminators are basically a liquid highlighting product (similar to Benefit's High beam) that come in 6 shades that are reflective and twinkle beautifully on any part of the face. The colours go from basic highlighting whites, silvers and bronzers to liquid golds and pinks. They are easy to apply either with a brush or just fingers and can be applied very very sheerly for just a hint of shimmer or they are all pigmented enough to use as a blush or eye colour if you applied quite heavilly. It's also easy to control where you put the product as, while ther are a runny liquid, they stey put wherever you put them on your face, waiting for you to smudge and sheer it to your choosing. They dry completely quite quickly (though personally i've never had a problem with it drying before i am finished doing what i intended with it) and then will not budge from your face until you remove it (i have some swatches that are still on my hand from 2 days ago, despite my frequent hand washing). Once they're on and dry you can't feel them at all.

 

Fondle a beautiful pink with gold shimmer and Odyssey a pearlescent white.

I love using Odyssey heavilly on my brow bone and above my cupids bow and very very sheerly across my cheekbones and down the centre of my nose. Currently i've started using Fondle as a really gorgeous blush on it's own, or on the cheekbones slightly above another pink blush.

They come in the exact same packaging as the lipglosses and you get the same amount (7ml) but are £13 each instead of £12.50. While the packaging still looks lovely it is a bit less practical than with the lipglosses. The product is a lot more runny and less 'gloopy' than the lipglosses and as you have to squeeze the tube to get any product it's very easy to overdo it and end up with a huge puddle of illuminator that then goes to waste. I think these would have been better off with some sort of applicator brush or wand to help you get the right amount of product and make application a bit easier.

Having said that i would most definately repurchase these when they run out and really want some of the other colours available. They're probably the nicest highlighting product i've tried and i love the exciting colour ranges you can get. I bet the pink and gold colours would look amazing on people with tanned or dark skin.

Illamasqua Week - FOTD 1

These FOTDs can't be entirely Illamasqua as there are lots of essential products of theirs (mascara, foundation, eyeliner and things) that i don't own. But the majority of what i've used and all the products for painting colours on my face are by Illamasqua.

 

 

Wearing:

Cargo foundation, ELF concealer, Illamasqua loose powder in LP005, Illamasqua powder eyeshadow palette in Pink Smoke (Matter, Quantum, Synth, Rasp), Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Perform

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to people who have tagged me for memes or given me blog awards recently. I really, really apprectiate it and i promise they will be shown off and you will be thanked properly soon! I have a lot of them saved in tabs but i just never seem to get around to doing them, and i don't know why, i LOVE doing tags and things.

Illamasqua Week - Loose Powder review

Usually you can only buy about 3 shades of loose powder (pale, medium, dark) at the most, or in a lot of cases only one, a one-shade-suits-all 'translucent' which is usually pale and so perfect for me and my pale caucasion buddies but can make darker skins look ashy and odd. Illamasqua sell loose powder in a fantastic array of shades, they have the usual 'translucent' but then a shade of powder to match basically every one of their foundations. The colours range from snow white to pure black, with shades for tones from very pale to very dark and with different powders to match different undertones. 

However the one powder i own (LP 005) isn't a skin shade at all, it isa pale, candy-floss pink colour. The idea behind this strange coloured powder is that the pink shade lifts and brightens your skin tone and it really really works.

 

It was really hard to try and capture the difference this powder makes on camera. To get it to show up at all i had to use a much, much thicker layer than usual so my skin did take on a slight pink tinge, usually you wouldn't be piling it on like i did so the pink does not show up.

 

 

My face with just foundation and concealer, no powder.

  

With a thick layer of powder over the top.

So I don't know if you can actually see much of a difference at all, but in real life, when used properly this evens out my skin tone brilliantly. Shadows, redness and imperfections blend in with the rest of my face and it imparts this brilliant 'brightness' to the face. I really don't know how to describe it, but it just makes my skin glow and look a lot healthier. It is also matte, getting rid of any shine, and will set your foundation just like any other powder.

The pink powder is incredibly soft and finely milled. It has a slight scent, basically like baby powder mixed with... something i can't put my finger on. Usually i only use this very lightly and it does just make my face light up somehow. I prefer to use the powder puff that comes with it than a powder or kabuki brush as i find i have a lighter touch when using the puff and with this stuff you really only do need the tiniest bit.

The powder comes in some more practical, classy, but not particularly innovative packaging. A clear, round pot with a black lid and a nice quality white, velvety powder puff in the normal Illamasqua black box. The powder has a sifter which does seem to let a bit too much powder out in my opinion, but is basically your basic powder pot. 

 

My only problem with the product is the price. This stuff is pretty pricey for a powder at £19 for 15g, but it is a unique product and you get a lot for your money. I also don't imagine this would work as well on people with dark skin tones, however they do other colours that would be suitable. 

So it is expensive, but i am happy i own it.