I know, I know I'm super behind on a Halloween post but I've been so busy lately and I'm not just saying that, I really have been. I'm writing this having handed in a coursework essay, read 5 books and 2 articles for another essay (which I am yet to write- oops!), partied twice, auditioned for dance competitions, done the usual lecture thing students are meant to do and suffered from extreme fever and stomach cramps all in the space of a week. See, I wasn't kidding!
One other thing I did this week which was pretty cool was go to the Illamasqua flagship store in Beak Street (which handily/dangerously, is very close to wear I live now) with my university's MUA society. Basically, we were given an hour tutorial on doing awesome Halloween make up by one of the teachers of Illamasqua's school. She was so nice and went into so much depth that you really learnt a lot of handy tips! For example, always do your eye make up before your face, that way if you mess up you don't have to wipe off your entire face of make up. It also means you can clean up fall out from eye shadows easily. Another really great tip was to use concealer above and below your brow before filling them in to give them even more definition- the brows really stand out when this technique is used. As you can imagine the make up look was amazing, here's a quick snap I was able to take (sorry it's a bit dark!)
The model has a really interesting 'cracked skin' effect going on here. A pale foundation was used as a base and a green smokey eye was done on her eyelids. The purple lipstick really contrasts this look nicely.
After the tutorial, we were given the opportunity to explore through the products and buy some things. We were even given a really generous 40% off all products so I just HAD to buy something. In my defence I have never tried any Illasmaqua before and had always wanted to so I think I could justify it. I was very restrained (considering just how obsessed with make up I am) and only bought two items- both of which the make up artist had used in her look. The first is their 'Precision Gel Liner' in 'Infinity' which is just a black gel eyeliner. Yeah, not the most adventurous product but I needed a new black gel liner and was interested to see how this one would do.
This gel liner has actually impressed me. It feels really creamy, like it will easily glide on the eye to create desired shapes. It's a strong, true black colour (not a weird grey-black colour that you can get with some 'black' products) and when this stuff dries, my word does it have staying power! Even when rubbing my hand really vigorously, this stuff just didn't move at all. This is great for longevity, but if you want to blend this out (say as a base for a smokey eye) you'll have to work very quickly. It is possible though, because I saw the make up artist do it pretty easily. So far, I like this liner a lot!
Next up we have an eye shadow palette called the 'Paranormal' palette. This palette is super exciting to me! Not only does it have four beautiful bright shades, it also has a duochrome finish thing going on which means it looks sick over a black base (see the reason for the liner now?). The eyeshadows feel so creamy and amazing. They feel like cream shadows but are powder, it's so bizarre! Just look at this beauty...
Okay so the packaging for my particular palette sucks but I'm sure I'm just unlucky. As you can see something freaky happened to my green shadow :( I must say I was a bit disappointed when, having played around with the one in the store and loving it, I opened up my own to see it slightly weird-looking and missing product. That green pan was actually falling out of the palette when I opened the lid but I fixed it. In all honesty though, even that disappointment couldn't keep me down for long- this palette is just too cool. The colours are gorgeous!
No base (left to right): Paranormal (vivid cerise), Aura (warm copper/orange), Possession (cool green) and Trance (soft violet)
Each shade is honestly so beautiful and highly pigmented but look how they transform with a black base...
The black really brings out the glitter in each shadow. It also brings out a goldish tone in 'Aura' and a more blue tone in 'Trance' which you don't see as much without the black base.
I do like both the items I've bought from illamasqua so far and think I am going to venture into buying more, when I can make my mind up on what to try next! Any suggestions?
p.s. for any of you wondering, this was me on Halloween (I only had an hour after a dance audition to get showered, dressed and ready so I couldn't do anything fancy unfortunately but how crazy is my friend's sugar skull?! The only cool thing about my costume was that my batman top had an in-built cape)
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