My Top 3 Illamasqua Must Haves!

'WE ARE COLOUR, YOU ARE BEAUTY.'

Illamasqua is, hands down, one of my favourite makeup brands out there! It started off with a sparkly nail polish, then a gold eyeliner... and then I was hooked.
Whether you're a working makeup artist or if you're self taught and just starting out, you need to have a basic kit. These three products are a must have and here's why...

1) Sealing Gel.
This tiny little bottle may seem pricey at £7 for 6ml, however, one drop of this product goes a long way and if you use it sparingly it will last you. The Sealing gel allows you to take any product, whether it be eye shadow, pure pigment or even lip liner and mix it in. Once mixed the gel and the product combined form a paste. This means you can now use your favourite eye shadow as an eyeliner, or give your lip liner that added bit of protection by brushing a drop of the sealing gel over your lips once filled in.

2) Skin Base Foundation - Shade 01
Having a white foundation in your kit is a must! You can mix this product with any other shade of foundation to make it a bit lighter, or a bit sheerer on application so the skin can show through a bit more, giving your overall skin finish a more 'natural' look. This foundation has buildable coverage without it looking 'cakey' on the face and is suitable for all skin types, (dry, oily or combination skin.) You can also use it as a highlighter along the brow bone or in the corners of the eyes. It's an incredibly versatile product and a good investment for your makeup bag.

3) Hydra Veil

This has to be my favourite product out of the three!
Hydra Veil is the perfect base for your skin! The pot comes with a hygienic little spatula, which you only need one scoop of for the face... apply the gel like product to the skin using a foundation brush and let it settle for a minute or two... then away you go with the foundation! It's 'instantly, hydrating gel formula' means that you can get that even and perfect finish on the driest of skin, as it adds a bit of moisture and hydration to the face.

What I also love about this product is it's quirky appearance. In the pot, it's a bit like a jelly/ gel mixture, but if you get the spatula and mix it up, it turns into a blobby, jelly mixture! Don't panic though, it'll turn back into that smooth, jelly, gel like product that you were looking at when you first opened the pot in a matter of minutes.. magical!


All products mentioned above can be found on the Illamasqua site *here!*

United Makeup Artists Expo

The United Makeup Artists Expo (UMAe) took place last weekend up in Islington in London. I hadn't heard of this expo before, but when we were given information on it during my course with DFMA it looked and sounded great and I am so glad that I went!

Over the weekend various brands set up their stands at their exhibitor spaces in the business design centre, (where the expo was held) selling their products, many being sold at discounted prices. I was so pleased to get my hands on a Dermacolor Camouflage Creme Palette consisting of 12 colours from Charles Fox's stand at half price! Dermacolor products are renowned for being highly pigmented and they are extremely good at correcting and covering any blemishes or even severe acne on the skin, so it was a wonderful product to pick up! As well as the palette I picked up some Stargazer lashes at £2 each and some special effects products that I'd used on my makeup course from PAM's stand.

Another little gem I picked up from the expo was Illamasqua's Hydra Veil. Illamasqua is one of my favourite brands, all their products are so wonderfully put together and their promotional makeup images for their current and new ranges always look stunning. Going over to their exhibitors space in the business design centre was like walking into a really glam living room, there were even little glass dome display cases on side tables, which was a cute and quirky way of displaying some of their makeup products.

After convincing myself not to buy everything on show, I settled on the Hydra Veil and their Skin Base Foundation in 01. I chose to get the skin base foundation in white, because it's very useful to mix in with other coloured foundations if you want them a tiny bit lighter or not as strong coverage. It's a kit must have! As for the Hydra Veil, it is a little pot of heaven. It's a jelly like formula and all you need is one spatula of this smoothed onto you face as a base layer before applying foundation. It'll smoothen out any problem areas and hydrate your skin in one, acting as a primer and a perfect base to then apply your foundation onto. Ta daaa! It's a wonderful product!

I had an incredible time at the expo, the highlight had to be going to a talk from Mike Smithson. Mike is an American makeup artist and has done so many different project, but his best known for his work in Avatar, Austin Powers, Lone Ranger and Star Trek. When he was talking he was very humble about how he started out and where he is now. There were images of his work being displayed on a screen behind him and it was all perfectly done with incredible attention to detail, he really is an extremely talented man. UMAe was one amazing and inspiring event, I would 100% recommend it to anybody who is interested in makeup!

Makeup - Terminator Inspired

Products used:
Mascara - Bourjois Volume Clubbing Mascara
False Lashes - MUA Glam
Eye Shadow - Blush Professional 88 Colour Palette (Black)
Eye Liner - Barry M Bold Black (Pencil)
Eye Liner - Barry M Wink Black Marker
Face - Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation in No 51.
           MUA Bronzer 'Bronzed Perfection'
           Revlon Colorstay Concealer in No 02.
           Ben Nye Nose and Scar Wax
           Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Phenomena
           Snazaroo Special FX Spirit Gum

Makeup - Gothic Glam

                 

                   

Products used:
Mascara - Bourjois Volume Clubbing Mascara
False Lashes - MUA Vixen
Eye Shadow - Blush Professional 88 Colour Palette
Eye Liner - Barry M Bold Black (pencil)
Eye Liner - Barry M Wink Black Marker
Face - Bourjois Healty Mix Serum Gel Foundation in No 51.  MUA Bronzer 'Bronzed Perfection.'
Brows - MUA Luxe powerbrow in Mid Brown
Lips - Illamasqua Lipstick in Pristine

Illamasqua Nails! Rare!

Recently Illamasqua had a £5, £10 and £7.50 sale on their site. I managed to purchase a few things and one of these, was a beautiful, bright, yellow nail varnish in the colour 'Rare!' It looks bright in the bottle, but after putting on about 3 coats of the varnish on my nails, it did look a lot brighter than in the bottle, almost neon! Even the postman said, "Those are bright nails today! No one will miss you in those love!" Haha!

Just so you can get an idea of how bright this nail polish is, if you've ever drunk Mountain Dew, or seen the Mountain Dew bottle on a shelf in the supermarket, it is very bright and almost neon itself... you can't miss it, the varnish is comparable to that bottle!

The satin finish of the varnish gives it a smooth and slightly shiny look, which I love. I much prefer the satin finish to a matte finish. Overall it is a luxurious polish and the texture of it is very smooth, as is the application, but you wouldn't expect anything less from this wonderful brand! You can shop the Illamasqua Rare polish *here* on the site for £14.50 and if you fancy a wander round the rest of the site, I fully recommend it. They are an extremely high quality brand, with really pigmented eye shadows, a wonderful variety of pigmented lipsticks and beautifully coloured lip glosses. I am really pleased with my purchases and definitely keep an eye out for Illamasqua's sales because you'll get a wonderful product for a bargain price! You won't be disappointed!