Last week I attended the Illamasqua event for their new Glamore Collection, where I met and chatted with the amazingly talented and inspiring founder Alex Box (who is always so grounded, absolutely love her!)

Glamore collection with an extra "Marquise" nail varnish

We talked about the new collection and how it was all very girly and glam but also perfect for Spring with the floral type visuals. Alex wanted to show how these glamorous colours can suit any skin tone (see the visual below) and I have to say I was sceptical at first when I saw the cool toned pink for my own skin tone but once trying it out at the event I was pleasantly surprised!

a couple of us bloggers (Sheenie, Leanne, Priya & Sharmin) wearing the new lipsticks at the event photobooth

The collection features:
3 satin finish lipsticks (£16.50 each):

• Luster
• Glissade
• Soaked

3 glitzy "Shattered Star" nail colours (£15 each):

• Trilliant
• Fire Rose
• Marquise

It also includes a repromote of the Eye Brow Cake (£15.50) and Angled Brush (£19) to frame the face with these gorgeous lipsticks.

I decided to get a manicure done similar to one Alex was sporting with an ombre glitter effect and chose the colours Trilliant (a light pink shimmery shade with chunkier silver glitter) and Fire Rose (bright pink shimmer with silver glitter too):

holding shade "Trilliant" with ombre mani in Trilliant and Fire Rose

I was more drawn to the pinks in this collection, however on trying the Marquise nail polish, I absolutely loved that it had a pinky-gold hint with one coat and turned into a beautiful golden burnt orange-red when using two coats:

As for the lipsticks, I absolutely adore them, not only for the colours and longevity, but also because of the new satin texture which is massively different to their usual much drier textures as you can see in the swatches below:

I have to say I was quite surprised not to find an outlandish product in this collection as Illamasqua are known for their dare-to-be-different shades; personally this collection is my favourite to date as I am a huge girly girl and love anything sparkly or pink/purple and this collection hits all of these points on the head perfectly. 

I really can't fault this collection on any points as I feel there's something for everyone here and it will certainly draw more mainstream makeup lovers back to Illamasqua once again.
 
The collection is available globally from today (27th February) at Illamasqua.com and in stores.

What do you think of this collection? Have any particular products caught your eye?

 

New Store Openings Winter 2013

In the last two weeks I've been lucky enough to be invited to two lovely store cosmetic brands' store openings in London; the first being the new Bare Minerals Boutique in Canary Wharf and the second being the Kiko Cosmetics Store on Regent Street.

Kiko Regent Street
Last week Tuesday, after the excitement of the Naked 3 launch I headed to the opening of Kiko Regent Street where the brand allowed bloggers, makeup artists and press to have an exclusive browse around the shop whilst it was closed to the public!
I have to admit I felt super special amongst the other bloggers who attended knowing that we would have undivided attention of the staff if needed and all the products were untouched and pretty much new.

The store itself is a massive improvement to the much smaller stores I've been to in both Westfields (Shepherds Bush and Stratford). 
The Stratford Kiko store is my local store that I tend to pop into frequently (much to my husbands dismay if he's shopping with me!), but I love that they have offers on regularly, my favourite being the all mascaras at £3.90 (my daily waterproof mascara is by Kiko so I stock up when this offer is on!)

The only problem with my Stratford store is that it's a small store so gets fairly crowded, particularly on weekends!
This store however has no issue with overcrowding as it boasts two floors of makeup, all laid out in an array of colours for the eyes to wander over.

sneaky picture taken with my phone through the glass doors before we were let loose inside!

I did feel overwhelmed at first when stepping into the shop; "where do I start, so many colours!" were my first thoughts. Luckily I met a lovely old colleague and friend of mine who worked there (Amira, fantastic girl!) and we got chatting about where I should start and what I should look at.  

bloggers congregated upstairs at the street level floor

I decided to head downstairs as most of the bloggers were congregated at the top street level floor and the downstairs held duplicates of lips, face and nail things anyway so it was a bit easier to browse through!

much emptier downstairs and all the pretty new makeup laid out

very handy pull out mirrors next to the products!

The products are laid out in a handy colour coordinated way with the corresponding products directly above them so you can self serve in the baskets given. I liked the fact that the mirrors pull out from the stands where the products are held so that you can get a better view of yourself if you've tried the product on yourself.
Otherwise, the area for makeovers is lovely and spacious with great bright lights lined around the mirrors, giving that hollywood feel.

I picked a couple things but felt like I needed to come at another day to take the full store in and went again last Friday where I picked up a good few more things, again with the help of the lovely Amira who's worked for many brands including MAC, Benefit and Dior. She admitted she actually enjoys using Kiko and finds the products surprisingly great quality. I personally agree and find the price point for Kiko amazing considering they offer just as good quality products as higher end brands.

I love that at Kiko stores I never feel pushed into buying products as I tend to find with other brands; their relaxed approach and self service displays makes it much a much easier and better environment to shop and I hope it stays that way!

Do feel free to check out previous Kiko posts here for reviews, makeup looks and swatches.

Bare Minerals Canary Wharf
I also attended the Bare Minerals Boutique opening two weeks ago and was totally impressed by the store layout; the ones I've been to have usually been in department stores that have had small counters with the pretty but impractical rotating wheels holding eyeshadows and foundations. Though they look gorgeous all laid out in a wheel, I do tend to find them a bit messy and hard to navigate around the counters without help from an advisor for what I'm looking for.

This boutique however is much more appealing to those who like to browse for products in their own time; the outskirts of the shop hold well displayed designated areas for the eyes, lips, face and skincare where shoppers can self serve and play with products on display with ample room. 

face area on the right of the store with cute hand written notes above

lips area with self serve shelves underneath for quick purchases

The middle holds a beauty bar where the Bare Minerals advisors give foundation fittings and beauty "make-unders" as the brand like to call it!

well displayed designated self serve areas on outskirts, beauty bar in the middle

The boutique is the first of many to come in the future I hope, I have to say I'm personally a fan of this new easy-to-navigate layout and as Canary Wharf isn't far from where I live, this boutique will probably be my preferred choice of counter to go to from now on!

What are your favourite brands stores and why? What makes your makeup shopping experience better?

 

Illamasqua Paranormal collection launch!

Earlier this week I was lucky to be invited to the new Illamasqua collection launch and as always I was enthralled to meet the faces behind the brand and of course Alex Box and David Horne.

The new collection, entitled "Paranormal" is inspired by a sense/feeling of something different and the collection boasts a range of textures and colours to explore this "paranormal" area. Illamasqua again challenges normality in the beauty world and asks "Why be normal when you can be paranormal?"

If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen some of the preview pictures like the visual above which I absolutely love!

The launch was filled with darkness, smoke and blacklights hanging from the ceiling everywhere, the polishes were a-glow under the lighting and the rest of the products were scattered around the manicure area for us to view. The other side had a glowing bar area with glowing drinks and flowing smoke bowls.. all mystical and paranormal!

I chose to get the pink polish (Ouija) done with a feature/accented purple (Séance) nail:

The polishes looked amazing under the black light - Seance glowed a pink colour and Ouija glowed a sort of coral colour; I took a picture with Nilmini from Illamasqua who had her nails painted with Omen (green) and Seance:

The polishes are limited edition and available for £15 each. The Top Coat "Geist" glows a blue colour and is £13; it can be used on top of normal or UV polishes or alone.

I caught up with David in the manicure area and he explained that the Hydra Veil (£27.50) is not just a moisturiser or a primer; it's basically a cosmetic care layer of water for your skin to enhance makeup application and even out the surface of the skin. He showed me how the gel when mixed with the spoon, it evens itself out and doesn't stay hard; in the same way it helps smooth out the skin:

I then caught up with the amazing Alex Box about the whole collection; I asked if Illamasqua would be branching out into skincare after Hydra Veil but it doesn't seem to be the case and to be honest I prefer it when brands stick to cosmetics as it can become quite diluted and unfocussed; and Illamasqua sure is a creative cosmetics brand.

We talked about the Paranormal palette (£34) and how the textures are putty-like; Rose from Illamasqua's PR team wore Possession (cool-bright green) as a highlighter and it looked absolutely amazing; the rest of the colours are just as impressive!

without flash

with flash

The two lipsticks from the collection (ESP and Posture, both swatched above) to my delight are both shades of purple and can be used together to create amazing ombre lips. The true shade can be seen above of both colours with flash- ESP is a vivid violet colour and Posture is a cool mauve/lilac. Both are £16.50 each:

The newest Gleam (or highlighter) Illamasqua created for this Paranormal collection is in the appropriately named "Supernatural" and is available for £18. It's an unusual warm bronze shade and would be perfect for warmer skin tones:

swatched with flash

There's also a new black eyeliner - Precision Gel eyeliner (£18) which is waterproof too. Like all gel eyeliners, this one applies smoothly and is a pure black colour. I didn't get a picture of it unfortunately but it is pictured in the image below of the full collection:

All in all, I'd say my favourites from this collection are the Hydra Veil, the nail polishes and the palette; I love how bright it is and the texture is an amazing gel/putty like feel but dries to a powder/matte finish which is also waterproof - win! The polishes are also amazing as I've been wanting to shoot a UV/glow in the dark themed shoot for a while so it will definitely come in handy. As for the Hydra Veil, it would be perfect to wear underneath my Skinbase foundation, or around the eye area as I tend to get dry there and sometimes makeup doesn't sit right!

The collection will be available from Illamasqua.com and counters from 30th April 2013 (this coming Tuesday).

Which are your favourites from the collection? Will you be buying any products?
 

Illamasqua Generation Q launch

This Wednesday night just gone, I was invited by the lovely people at Illamasqua to attend the launch of their AW12 collection - Generation Q.

The last collection if you remember (here) was about an explosion of your alter ego and reversing traditional beauty.

This season's collection stems from the Beauty Before Age campaign earlier on this year where they scouted for real people of all ages to use in this campaign (as opposed to models). The collection is about beauty having no age limits, or prejudice of gender or colour.. and about lots of shimmer!

I have to say it got me thinking about how I view makeup now and how much I love colour and probably always will.. I definitely don't agree with the industry norm of sticking to "safe/matte" colours once you reach a certain age and have never told clients/customers to steer clear of brighter colours/glitter. In fact I've loved applying a bit of glitter or colour on an older lady, there's something about the sparkle that makes you feel happy and why should more maturer ladies not feel that?

At the launch of the collection we were able to have a play around with the products and get a feel for them whilst everyone filtered in. My first impressions were: omg lots of purple, LOVE!

In true Illamasqua style there were cocktails in mismatched teacups and iced tea in cocktail glasses.. which was a fantastic idea!

We sat down next to a few of the products from the range (and glittery popcorn fitting with the cinema theme) whilst David Horne and Alex Box (my most favourite makeup artist!) explained further about the new collection and what it means to them, explaining that more maturer ladies are made to feel like they should hide under a sea of beige when in fact it's these women who hold the wisdom and confidence to pull off whatever they like. I couldn't agree more, I'm not afraid of getting older but that's because I believe you're only as old as you feel and it showed in the lovely Evelyn (72) who was one of the chosen models for the campaign and who attended the event too.

The collection is actually amazing, not only because of the purpley-ness but also because it's very wearable by pretty much anyone. 

I managed to get swatches of a few of my favourites, such as the gorgeous powder blushers (Sophie & Allure) and the unique Opulent lipgloss described as a "rainbow beige". I found Allure to be more pigmented than Sophie although both have great colour payoff. Sophie is aimed more at lighter skintones so anything too pigmented would have to be used very lightly anyway. The Opulent lipgloss had me mesmerised with its purple tones standing out more to my eye!

My personal favourites; the Opulent lipgloss reminds me of pretty fish scales/shells!

Other favourites of mine include the Wisdom Precision Ink liner (olive/antiqued gold), Magnetism lipstick (above) and the matching wine-coloured nail polish Charisma (below). Creator nail polish was being sported by the lovely Evelyn too who rocked it beautifully!

The other Intense lipgloss Boost (a metallic blueberry violet colour) and Underworld lipstick (blueberry violet shimmer) were lovely colours but not something that I think would suit my full lips.. it'd be more suited to going out or used in a photoshoot.

The rest of the range includes two new palettes (Complement and Empower) and their Gleam highlighter in Aurora (a light champagne pearly finish).

 

I managed to get a pic with Alex Box too who I also managed to meet at the IMATS last year (here):

All in all I have to say I'll be looking forward to the release of this collection in September (yes it's that far away!) but hopefully will be able to review in full closer to the time!

What are your favourites from this collection? Do you worry about getting into a rut with makeup once you're past a certain age? Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

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?