I can finally confirm that myself and Alex (the lovely PR peep I have been working on launching the contests with…) have managed to secure a very special person to make the final judgements on the winners of the contests… So while me and Krystle will still be responsible for picking the finalists, I am so pleased and very very proud to say that the fabulous Alex Box – makeup artist and creative director of Illamasqua) has agreed to judge and choose winners for us from the finalists…

I’m sure Alex needs no introduction, however here is the lady herself -

I’m extremely pleased to be able to share this news – I suggested this idea thinking it would never happen, so I’m thrilled that Alex has agreed to do this, and I hope you will all really enjoy doing your entries for the first contest, which I am bursting to announce!

The idea behing asking Alex to judge was to ensure that people actually get a chance to have their work seen by a leading makeup artist, to make sure the judging is fair and impartial, and to take the pressure off me and Krystal LOL – I hope you agree that Alex agreeing to help has achieved all three goals!

Grrr!

I am hoping that the lovely Panda/Rebecca’s (http://pandadoesmakeup.blogspot.com/) animal instincts contest is still open… I had real fun doing this anyway! As you may know, Rebeccas contest is all about creating a makeup look inspired by an animal of your choice…. My inspiration here was tigers! I have always loved the grace and power of these big cats and the colours of their coat provided easy inspiration for me to create a dramatic makeup look…

As you can see, you might not want to wear this one to do the weekly shop, but I love getting any oportunity to play and create a dramatic look!

On the lips, I used “Hue” by MAC and topped it with “Redhead” lipgloss from the BBR collection!

I must say, I wish I had a better camera etc – the pics look slightly washed out, and it was very vibrant in real life… oh well!

Hope you all like it!

This is a fab competition, and thanks so much to Rebecca for hosting it and coming up with such a great idea! I don’t envy you the task of judging though – I know how hard it is so good luck to Rebecca with that and good luck to all the other competitors!

MizzWorthy xxx

OK, so after lots and lots of debate and worry about how the heck we were going to judge the contest, myself and Krystle decided that the best way to select our finalists would be to judge the entries on three categories – those being;

1. Originality
2. Technique of application
3. Research and explaination of the inspiration behind the look

Before showing these though, I would just like to say that it is testament to the high quality of all of the entries how hard this has been, and myself and Krystle would like to thank you all for your entries – we hope that people who didn’t make the finalists will still enter future contests and carry on enjoying the challenges we can come up with!

So without further ado… our six finalists in no particular order…

The LipPrint – Stephanie’s sister has recently completed travelling around the far east. Her look is based on pictures of geisha’s that her sister took on her travels. We love the effect of glowing pale skin she has created and the unusual use of false lashes and colour to create a modern twist on a very traditional look.

Next up is MissChievous’ Rocker inspired look; The pencil techniques used to achieve this look are technically very high, and created an amazing overall effect. She completed the look with a fauxhawk hairdo, which we loved

Our next finalist look was from Rocaille, who made two stunning entries to the contest. We loved her “venetian mask” inspired look as an all round makeup look, and we also adore the 1940′s starlet style lip she has done. Again she has put tonnes of effort in styling her hair in accordance with the look.

Next up we have a look from Magi, who used the Illamasqua brand itself as her inspiration, and created a very dramatic eye using the logo as a basis… a very unexpected look, but technically of a very high standard and definately different and original!

An absolutely stunning entry next from LibertyVonHodes which we recieved via youtube. This look was inspired by peacock feathers and indian henna designs. We loved the use of the feathers as eyelashes, the overall drama of the look. Very imaginative and so pretty.

And last but by no means we had a gypsy-vampire look from DressJunkie We were highly impressed by the research and explaination behind this look, and also the beautiful custom mixed lipstick shade she came up with. We both wish that this shade was available commercially!

We hope you will all agree that our finalists deserve their places and will join us in saying well done. The winners will be announced on Friday!

Well done everyone!

That is all I can say….

As I blogged a couple of weeks ago Illamasqua showed some interest in the contest… As promised they have published some pics of the entries we have had… Check out the news page of the Illamasqua website here – http://www.illamasqua.com/news/article/109/

Please note – the looks on the website were chosen before the contest ended, so please don’t think that they are the finalists!

Myself and Krystle now face the unenviable and difficult task of judging the looks. I would ask you all to please understand how incredibly hard this will be and bear with us – we will be publishing the finalists picturse in a few days – ie the top 5 or 6 entries and will be making a final decision in a week! I just wish I could give more prizes as the quality of the entries has been so high – everyone who has entered has clearly had a lot of fun and really got into the spirit of the competition.

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding about this… And given the success of this contest I am hoping to run another with a different theme as soon as I can, so we will all still have plenty of scope to explore our alter ego’s and create more dramatic looks!

MizzWorthy xxx

Hi everyone.

To cut a long story short, the company have been following the contest and checking out all the entries! A couple of days before the contest ends, they have asked me and my co-judge, Krystal to email them a couple of pics of some of the entries for publication on the company website… This will then be followed up by publication on the Illamsqua website of the winning look!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all well!

Well I decided I’ve teased you all enough with my Illamasqua goodies and my tease the other day, so lets get down to business…

The Illamasqua brand is all about drama and “unleashing your alter ego”. So basically, that’s what I want you all to do… This is a contest about dramatic night-time makeup. The looks you’ve always wanted to try, but never had a reason or an excuse to… Until Now!

The Rules….

• You must create a dramatic look using makeup. This can be inspired by the promo photos in this post, or you can take inspiration from anywhere else you like. So if you’ve always had a thing about vampires, a secret love of the gothic look, or you want to use colours inspired by your favourite piece af artwork/album cover…You could even recreate a look inspired by a period in history or time, such as the 20′s or 50′s… Anything goes as long as it’s creative!
• The contest will run for approx 1 month and closes on midnight on the last day of April 2009 UK time.
• You must be a subscriber to my blog to enter the contest!
• Valid entries will have a photo/photo’s (or you can enter a video if you want to!), a brief explaination of the inspiration behind it, and a description of how the look was achieved, ie what makeup you used… This is mostly because I want to know how you are all going to go about creating your looks!
• You do not have to be a UK resident – I will ship to anywhere with the prizes.
• If you don’t want to be photographed yourself, that’s fine, you can use a willing volunteer, just so long as you have done the look yourself!
• You can enter more than one look if you like, and entries can be made in one post or as seperate posts – each look will count as a single entry.
• You can use products from any range – they do not have to be from Illamasqua! This would be very unfair as it’s not nationwide as yet!
• When you have done your look, publish it as a blog post on your blog, and leave a comment on my blog to let me know.
• If you do not have a blog, you can email your entry to me at jennifer.worthington1979@gmail.com
• There will be three prizes, first, second and third place. I have contacted Illamasqua regarding the contest and they are sending me some products for prizes – Once I have recieved the products I will make a final announcement of the prizes. In any case first prize will be a customised palette of any four shades of the winners choice. Second prize will be either one blush and eyeshadow/two eyeshadows of the runner up’s choice, and third place will be an eye shadow or lipstick/gloss from the range, which the third prize winner will chose. Obviously these prizes will be added to by Illamasqua, so a final announcement will be made as soon as possible!

While doing my own Illamasqua haul yesterday (see my post below!) I mentioned the contest to the makeup artists, and the lovely Krystle who works for Illamasqua and also has a blog (please check her blog out at http://www.krystleclayton.blogspot.com/ )which features some amazing looks, which may inspire you even further, has kindly agreed to act as co-judge with me! That means that you can all be assured that the judging will be totally fair – no favouritism here lol!

I hope you all enjoy playing with your makeup and coming up with some looks for us! I’m so excited and can’t wait til I recieve you entries!

Please let me know if there are any questions you have, and get creating!

Love

MizzWorthy xxx

Hi Everyone!

Isla’s skin looks very dewy and fresh so I only applied a little powder in the T-Zone (Mac mineralise skinfinish natural in medium)

Isla’s eyes are purple and smoky but not too dramatic, so I tried to keep most of the colours below the crease and only blend slightly upwards…

• I used UDPP as a base, then applied a wash of ‘shroom’ (from MAC), over the lid and up to the brow, but adding more to the area directly below the brow, as a highlighter.
• I then applied ‘trax’ from mac over the lid and blended slightly above the crease, blending trax and shroom to get rid of any lines.
• I then used MAC’s ‘shale’ to deepen the lid colour and added a little MAC ‘smut’ to the outer v (only a tiny amount, just enough to enhance the eye), and blended well.
• Isla’s eye liner looks like she has used a mixture of golden brown and purple, so I lined the upper lashline with MAC fluidline in ‘brassy’ and then smudged the lower lashline with urban decay’s 24/7 liner pencil in ‘lucky’. I also defined the outer part of the lower lashline with a little MAC ‘smut’ and a liner brush.
• I then added two coats of black volumising mascara (MAC Plush lash in this case) to boost the lashes, and lined the waterline with white kohl pencil from Lancome.
• Isla’s eyebrows also look quite dark, so I used my urban decay brow box (darkest shade) on a slanted brush and added the setting gel for further definition.

Isla’s cheeks are peachy, but it looks like she hasn’t applied much colour to the apples of the cheek. To replicate the look I defined the cheekbones a little using a blush from MAC called ‘honour’, and then used NARS ‘albatros’ to highlight the cheekbone and slightly highlight the apple of the cheek. I then used NARS powder blush in ‘Orgasm’ concentrating on the outer part of the cheek and blending in.

I also added a little albatros down the centre of the nose, the chin and the forehead to carry on the skin glowing look…

Isla’s lips are a pretty pink nude glossy shade, and to replicate this I used MAC cremesheen glass in ‘partial to pink’, with a little ‘creme anglais’ to make it closer to the shade Isla is wearing.

As a final little touch I tried to adda few toussly waves with my GHD’s so it looks a bit more like Isla’s style, even if the colour is not the same lol!

Hope you like!

Lotsa Love,

MizzWorthy xxx