Last month I attended the launch of Illamasqua's Human Fundamentalism collection (read the post here), which is all about self expression and reversing "traditional beauty".

I was sent two products from their new lines added to the collection by the lovely Hayley, so without further ado on to the swatches and review!

Lipstick in Liable

I was excited to see which lippy I'd get because the other new shade Eurydice (bright pink) looked so amazing so I was hoping for that; plus I've never really liked orange based reds on me.
Colour & Pigmentation: Despite Liable being a bright scarlet-orange, the shade somewhat looked decent on my skintone and on my lips. It took a couple swipes to get the swatch to the colour it is, but there's no denying the lipstick is pigmented.
Texture: Texture-wise the lippy is very dry as with a lot of their Matt finish lipsticks, but a bit of lip balm or Vaseline underneath should do the trick and it doesn't highlight dry skin as much as other brands/colours do.
Longevity: It does however last a very long time! I swatched it on my hand and lips and the stain remained on the hand after wiping; the colour on the lips survived eating and drinking too, with a definite stain on the lips that a top up application would help even out.
Scent: It doesn't really have a scent, but if you were to practically inhale the product (yes I did this for reviewing purposes!) there's the faintest hint of vanilla. 
Price: At £15.50 it's slightly more expensive than your regular lipstick, however with Illamasqua you know you're getting great pigmentation and longevity, so it's a matter of what you find more important!

FrootiFactor: All in all, I'd give this lipstick a FrootiFactor of 4 out of 5:

Powder Eyeshadow in Inception

The four newest shades include: Fledgling (bright green), Hype (bold yellow), Inception (rich violet) and Vapour (tangerine orange).
I already had Inception in the Fundamental palette I received at the launch so I decided to swatch the palette and save this single eyeshadow for my 1000 follower giveaway!
Again, you can see the swatches of the Fundamental palette with inception here, but I've swatched it again in this post for convenience, alongside Liable lipstick:

with flash

without flash

Colour & pigmentation: As with all Illamasqua products with great pigmentation, this shadow is no exception and you can see the lilac/violet colour clearly in the swatch.
Texture: The shadow is definitely smooth and soft in texture, not grainy in any way and applies beautifully with the right brush!
Longevity: I've yet to test the longevity of Illamasqua shadows, but from the last look I did (here) the only problem I had was with the liquid metal as it creased. However powder eyeshadows tend to stay on a lot longer especially with the right primer.
Scent: No scent whatsoever.
Price: Each single eyeshadow is priced at £15.50 too, which would be well worth it for an eyeshadow you'd use regularly in my opinion, especially for their pigmentation. Otherwise I'd buy the palettes as they work out better value for money if you like the colours but don't see yourself wearing them frequently!

FrootiFactor: I'd give the powder eyeshadows a 4.5 out of 5:

I'll be sure to wear this colour in a makeup look soon, so watch out for that! I really am veering towards buying Eurydice as its such a pretty looking pink and I know I can trust to get a long lasting staying power with it.. We'll see though cos I have a few too many pink lippies!

Have you bought anything from the Human Fundamentalism collection yet? Which products have caught your eye the most?

FFF: Illamasqua HF Arabesque makeup look

Hello my lovelies!

So this weeks FFF is just a rushed one unfortunately, as I tried to get it done yesterday for today.. Inspired by the Human Fundamentalism visuals by Illamasqua in the last blog post (here).
The one I chose to recreate was the Arabesque look:

So without further ado, here are the products used:

Eyes:

> UDPP
> Illamasqua Fundamental palette - Surge, Bedaub & Inception
> Sleek Au Naturel palette - Noir & Bark
> UD 24/7 eye pencil in Zero
> MAC fluidline in Blacktrack
> Daniel Sandler Jumbo Jet mascara
> Khuraira ACC in Light
> MAC Studio Finish concealer - NC35
Face:
> Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation in 55
> UD Baked Bronzer - Toasted
Lips:
> MAC lipstick in Spitfire & Inception eyeshadow 
> Vaseline

Start by applying UDPP followed by Bedaub (minty green cream pigment) on the eyelid and browbone with a flat brush. Apply Surge (liquid platinum metallic) on the inner corner and buff a little onto the lid. Follow with Inception (purple powder shadow) in the crease extending it to the inner corner area (but remaining in the crease) and a little bit of Noir from the Sleek palette too, blending upwards towards the brow bone. Also extend from the outer corner of the eyes down to the lower lashline. Add more Bedaub or Inception to the crease/browbone as needed and make sure to blend!
Line the inner eye with UD 24/7 liner in Zero and for the top and bottom liner I used MAC fluidline in Blacktrack. Then conceal under the eye, fill in the brows with Bark and Noir (or just one!) and finish with mascara. Using a liner brush, apply Surge to the outside of the brows and make a triangular shape coming down onto the outer bottom lashline like this:

For the rest of the face, the cheeks are just very bronzed, so I used UD Baked Bronzer and used Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 55.
I didn't have the perfect shade of lilac for the lips so I decided to use my MAC Spitfire purple lipstick (which gears towards pink) but patted Inception eyeshadow with my fingers on top (a fair amount too!) I then added Vaseline on top to make lips shiny (and blend better) and this is what it looked like:

I tried to make it look more authentic with the closest colour scarf I have to gold, but unfortunately its leopard print so not quite the same haha!

So there you have it! It's not exactly the same, I put my own twist on it and blended a bit more rather than a straight cut crease.. but hope you like!

How would you use the Fundamental palette? Which colours did you like best? 

Illamasqua Human Fundamentalism launch

Last night I trotted down to Piccadilly Circus to attend the launch of the new Illamasqua collection: Human Fundamentalism.

Some of the visuals from the Human Fundamentalism collectio

The collection is all about self expression and an "explosion of your alter ego", where Alex Box explained about making a stand with makeup and reversing "traditional beauty" with colour and through makeup.
There's a mix of acids and neutrals, with pastels for the nails so a great mix altogether, with something for everyone.
I loved the idea of making teal wearable on the lips, rather than just on hands and jewellery, though I may not be confident to rock it just yet haha! The idea stemmed from "classical beauty" of red lips and black liner but the inverse is teal lips and white liner (as above).
But for those who aren't too keen on colour, this collection has a contrasting "neutral" palette and colours more wearable and popular with most people I bet!

We were welcomed by the lovely Hayley (who was sporting the teal lip with a complimentary dress!) as well as milkshakes, sweets and more sweets. 90s garage tunes were playing in the back to fit the theme as well. We then were shown into a room with the products out on tables for us to play around with and swatch; here are some of my favourite products and their swatches:

The Neutral palette

Box & Apocalips lipsticks

Skin Base Foundation Au

Out of the two palettes the Neutral one was actually my favourite.. It had a great buttermilk shade (Stealth) which would be an excellent highlighter for the brow bone as well as an essential black (Obisidian). The golden colour (Vintage) was also beautiful too and the brown would be great in the crease. Both palettes are priced at £30 each.

The lipsticks (£15.50 each) were great too.. I spoke to one of the guys there about how I would use Apocalips.. mixed with another colour for sure! I found it more dryer in texture than Box, although both are matte lipsticks.

The skin base foundation in Au (the chemical sign for gold) can be worn alone or under foundation for a glow as it contains shimmery flecks in it. It will be sold at £25 but is limited edition!

I also loved the single eyeshadows (£15 each) Vernau (a caramel/peanut brown and Sex (pure white) as they would be amazing for contouring! 

Both nail polishes reflected the current Spring trend for nails as mentioned in the Superdrug post here. The two colours Stance (Mauve) and Nomad (Jade) compliment eachother wonderfully as you can see in the visuals above. I particularly loved Nomad (it seems to be growing on me this season!) and was lucky enough to get it in my goodie bag.
I tried it out today (very roughly I may add, to my recently cut nails!) with and without flash and loved how thick and creamy the polish was:

I also got the Fundamental palette (which I hope to recreate the Arabesque look from their campaign) and sealing gel that I'm excited to use for my eyebrows as it makes any powder a water resistant paste.
Fundamental palette & swatches:

There's also a white liquid eyeliner (£17) which I'd use under a black liner (not so much as a topliner!)

The whole collection will be available from March 14th from Illamasqua.com or you can preorder from today here.

What do you think of this collection? Which products stood out to you and will you be buying any of these products?