Illamasqua have finally launched their full counter at the Trafford Centre, after weeks of there only being a “preview bar” in the Selfridges store.

I went to see the new counter the on Friday with fellow blogger Laura (whose blog can be found at http://romanticdreaming.blogspot.com/), and the new counter looks great – best of all, the full colour range is finally there to drool over! Needless to say we had our makeup done, and as I was a doofus and forgot to take my camera, I’m awaiting an email from Laura so I can show you how I looked! On Friday we also met up with two other lovely bloggers – Kelly (happy1234 from http://happy1234make-up-blog.blogspot.com/) and Emma (http://carbonprincess.blogspot.com/). All three ladies were absolutely lovely and it was a total pleasure to finally meet you all and spend some time having a well earned makeup shop and catch up! Once I get the pics, I’m planning to do another post about our meet-up!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that in order to celebrate the full counter launch, one of Illamasqua’s key make-up artists Aga (check out her profile here – http://www.illamasqua.com/about_us/the_artists_lon/artist/14/), a former artist for MAC and NARS, will be at the counter on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of May creating alter ego looks. Makeup lessons are also recorded on DVD so you can take this away and recreate the look at home, which is such a great idea – how many times have you had a lovely look done at a counter and not been able to do it again at home!?

Alongside Aga, Kystal, Sharon, Leena, Lucy, Rachael (a fab fellow scouser!!!), Suzanne and Jennifer will all be available as well to create looks as dramatic or as wearable as you want. You can call 0203 178 8048 (mon-fri business hrs) to be booked in with Aga or any of the talented girls who work at the counter – I’m told that there will be champagne and choccies available so it will be a lovely pampering session if you can make it. I’m hoping to book in for Friday as it will be a lovely way to celebrate having handed in a 2000 word essay that is looming over me (yet another joy of working for the NHS)!

So what did I pick up for myself whilst I was there I hear you ask?

A relatively restrained haul for once from me!

I picked up a powder shadow in the shade “Bronx” a relatively neutral shade for me – this is a mid-brown with golden undertones and is one of the few shimmer shadows that Illamasqua produce. This works great for softening up crease colours. (£14 for 2g)

I also picked up a cream blusher in the shade promise, a brightish cool pink with lilac undertones. I love these blushers as they can also be used on the lips to give a lovely stain alone or under a lipgloss. (£16 for 4g). For that matter. the shade Lies, an iridescent pale pink is another great multipurpose shade – works amazingly as a highlighter, base for powder blush (or can be mixed with more vibrant cream shades to tone them down a little) and as a lip gloss.

Next up, I got a pigment in the shade “Marvel”, a lovely yellow-gold shade, which is a dead ringer for the liquid metal in “Solstice”, but in powder form. I love how these look pressed over cream shadows and bases such as Illamasqua cream shadows or MAC paintpots etc. (£15 for 1.3g). On a nerdy note, I also think the packaging has been designed really well for these, with a built in stopper in the lid to prevent spilages…

Finally I picked up an intense lipgloss in the shade “Frenzy”, a really deep raspberry pink which is deeply pigmented – this looked great with Solstice or Marvel pigment dabbed over it using fingers for an extra dramatic night-time look. (£12.50 for 7mls).

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! xxx

Hi everyone,

So I picked this up for my local Tesco’s recently in a “two for £11″ type of offer… I have an “issue” with always wanting to try new foundations… they usually get a couple of tries before being discarded for my favourites (Illamasqua and NARS…)

My only other foundation experience with Mabelline was with the dream matte mousse, which I HATED! – Dry looking and caked on were the phrases that sprung to mind over that one…

Mabelline claim that this foundation gives a 100% poreless look, an air-brush finish, full yet lightweight coverage, ultra-blendable, comfortable texture and a satin like luminous finish and is available in 8 shades…

Good points
- I liked the fact that this cames in a lighter shade – light porcelain, which is a pale pinky undertoned shade. I usually really really struggle to find shades light enough for me in drugstore ranges, with the lightest shade often still too dark, or worse still orange… I’m not sure how great the range works in the darker end of the spectrum!
-It does minimise pores somewhat, especially when used over my primer (RMK Makeup base…), and I’ve noticed this effect seems to last quite well.
-As with all drugstore brands, the price is a bonus too, with £30 mls for £7.80 ish (although it’s on offer in a lot of places at the mo!)
-It’s easy to blend – I used my fingers to apply this and didn’t find it too bad, needed to be worked in a little more than some higher end products such as chanel pro-lumiere, but did blend ok in the end
-Felt fairly lightweight on the skin… Nice finish too, not too matte, not too shiny. Didn’t highlight any dry patches

Bad Points
- Poor staying power – I used this today over primer and set with mac setting powder and it was virtually completely gone when I got home…
-coverage does not live up to product claim – I found this gave light to medium coverage, but definately not full coverage… slightly buildable, but I found it just started to look cakey rather than higher coverage…

Will I Buy Again?

Hmm, doubtful – I have two bottles to get through, and I do like my high end foundies. That said – I was pleasantly surprised by this foundation. Given how much I hated the dream matte mousse I was fully expecting to hate this – I’ll probably use it up, but I’m sure given the rate that drugstore companies make new formulas there will be something else for me to try by the time these are gone lol! I’ll probably use this for work for more natural looks…

Hope this helps… anyone else tried this?

MizzWorthy xxx

Hi everyone,

So I had a missed call on my phone from Illamasqua in the Trafford centre telling me that they had some items from the new Sirens collection in… Well it was like the bat sign going up over Gotham city, so naturally I had to take a look!

The collection is based around beautiful rich colours as you’d expect from the brand, with a few new products available for a limited period. These include the liquid metals, two creamy metallic products which can be used for various purposes on the face and body such as as an eye makeup base, over lipsticks/glosses or on the collar bones etc. There are also two bronzing palettes available each with two colours in (one more copper based and one more gold-brown based), and a shimmer cream which has a silvery sheen to it when applied – this would appeal more to the pale peeps amongst us (myself included!)

The star product of the collection (in my opinion) is an “exclusive to Selfridges” palette, which contains most of the colours from the collection… I managed to bag one of these at a discount due to there being a very slight defect in the packaging, which doesn’t bother me one bit (it just doesn’t quite click shut properly!). These are normally sold at the “I deserve a big treat” price of £75, but I got 10% off due to the slightly damaged packaging… (I know – thats still a major treat, but I’m worth it lol!)

The eye colours in the palette are called Fate, Spellbound, Luminescence, Morn, Demonic and Gasp; the powder blushers are called Lover and Unrequited, there are three lipsticks – Fable, Resist and Brink, and a gloss called Melt, and also the two “liquid metals” in Enrapture and Solstice… All the products in the palette are available seperately…

While at the counter I always try to take the opportunity to get my makeup applied by an expert, and today I was transformed by Krystle (who also has a blog and happens to be my co-judge in the contest!!!) who created this look…

She blended the copper coloured liquid metal over my lid as a base and then applied the pale blue shade on the inner third of the lid, the shimmery copper colour across the centre and the gorgeous deep blue shade (called Morn) across the outer lid. The three were all blended well to create a smoky ethereal look, which is unique but wearable…

Krystle then finished the look off with some fierce liquid liner, a pop of gold liquid metal in the inner corner and defined the brows with an Illamasqua brow cake… Then the lip gloss was added with the copper liquid metal dabbed accross it to enrich the look…

What do you think? Hey, I know the palette was expensive by the way, but I heart this brand big time, and I really love the products in it… We all work to buy nice things and this is my reward lol!

Hope you all like!

Love MizzWorthy xxx

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! Hope you are all well

I finally got paid today, so I unleashed myself on the Trafford Centre to visit my new favourite brand, and went to see the lovely makeup and see the lovely makeup artists at Illamasqua – this is a new British brand. It’s currently available in Selfridges in London and the trafford centre in Manchester at the moment, but over the next few months, the brand is rolling out over the UK, and I was told it’s launching in Newcastle today as well. I am in love with this brand for several reasons – Illamasqua’s roots lie in theatrical Berlin and I love the way the brand completely captures the artistic and dramatic feel of the theatre. This makeup makes me feel special, and at the end of the day, this is what Make up is all about to me – the perfect fusion of art and beauty.

Naturally, with makeup and images this beautiful, I have been doing some serious hauling – this is stuff I’ve bought over the last couple of weeks by the way – my credit card has not had a totally serious bashing!

Illamasqua Pure pigments in “Charm”, which the makeup artists acurately described as “mermaid blue”, and “fervent”, which is a bronze-brown based shade with reflects of blue, green and copper. These can be mixed with any mixing medium, they are highly pigmented and there are some beautiful colours available – They retail for £15 for 1.3g of product.

Pigments with “Underworld” Lipstick. The photograph is good, but really doesn’t do this beautiful lipstick justice. Underworld is a rich true purple frosted shade with blue reflects. This sounds strange, but the reflects give this a beautiful understated glow – I can wear this shade subtley in the day time, or I can really vamp it up for a night time look. I absolutely love this shade! I also find the formulation lasts really well and is not drying on the lips. Lipsticks retail at £14.

Here it is on the lips – this is how I would wear it in the day, and again, I have to say the pic does not do this justice!

I also got a cake eyeliner in “Zeal”, a deep dark green shade, this is a solid cake to which to add a drop of mixing medium (which comes with it)and mix to the depth and consistency you desire – I have been using this as you can see! Liner cake is also available in black, grey, deep blue, purple and a muted brown shade, and the cake and mixing medium cost £16. I also bought an undereye concealer, which I’m so far very impressed with. It stays put really really well and doesn’t crease/shift or gather into those fine lines I’m trying to pretent I dont have… It covers my dark circles well too! Under eye concealer retails for £11.74 for 2.5mls.

Illamasqua have an amazing range of matte and creme shadows (they do make a few shimmer shades as well) – I purchased a grey cream shade in “Amorous”. This is a pale shade with a muted purple undertone, and gives a beautiful subtle colour. These are great base shadows, and come in a range of bright and basic shades. I also bought powder eye shadows in “Bruised”, a deep plum/burgundy shade, and “Predator” a beautiful passionate pink. The powder shadows are very well pigmented and give really great colour payoff, which can be applied for a subtle pop of colour or built up for full on drama. These all retail for £14, for 2g of product. They can also be mixed with the mixing medium to create intense eyeliners for dramatic looks.

Naturally, to set off my beautiful shadows, I simply HAD to get some dramatic lashes – Illamasqua do some amazing lashes ranging from individual to complete and utter drama, all of which retail for £11 and are reusable.

Finally a couple of beautiful cream blushers – I have to say that I have had issues with MAC blushers in the past in terms of the fact that they dissappear on me after about two hours. This is not true of Illamasquas blushers at all. They are available in powder and cream formulations, and some fabulously dramatic shades are available. I purchased “Dixie”, which is one of those magical shades which seems to suit everyone, and also “Lies”, a paler pink which can be used to give a beautiful sheen of colour to the cheekbone.

The ethos behind this brand is all about exploring and unleashing your alter ego! This has been the inspiration behind the competition which I am going to be launching tomorrow!

Hope you enjoyed!

Love MizzWorthy xxx

xxx

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well….

Just wondered if anyone out there might be interested in a competition?

A great brand has recently launched near me and I am in love with the products, the packaging and the whole ethos behind the company… I have not been sponsored by them to run this, but I really want to spread the word about them and encourage creative use of our favourite things and want to give people an excuse to really get creative with makeup. They are Illamasqua.

So if you are ready to explore your alter ego, then stay tuned for the announcement of my comp over the next few days!

MizzWorthy xxx