Illamasqua Eye Colouring Pencils Swatches

Illamasqua's Eye Colouring Pencils aren't one of their more famous products (the ones that seem to get the most attention are their blushes, lipglosses, lipsticks, and eyeshadows), but when I was at the Illamasqua store opening at Takayashimaya, I thought it would be good of me to do some quick and easy swatches of the Eye Colouring Pencils, because swatches are always good, right?

Illamasqua Eye Colouring Pencils: For use as eyeliners and eyeshadows

Illamasqua calls these "creamy", and I agree. These are creamy and pigmented, and really useful for eyeliner, or even eyeshadow if you are able to handle colouring your eyelid with a pencil. Illamasua describes these as "long-lasting", and I'd have to disagree with that - I'm not sure if it was my arm chemistry not hitting it off with these eye pencils, but I found that they didn't seem to "set", and thus seemed prone to smudging/rubbing. These are also mostly matte in finish - no glitter or shimmer to be found.


Illamasqua Eye Colouring Pencils: Up close
Anyway, swatches!

Illamasqua Glamore Lipstick Swatches

Illamasqua's Glamore Lipsticks are a fairly new finish of lipsticks introduced by Illamasqua in 2014, and the shade range has been steadily expanding since then. The lipsticks have a satin finish (as opposed to the more matte finish of the brand's previous lipstick offerings), and these have been pretty popular.

Since Illamasqua has just come to Singapore (there is a store at B1 at Takayashimaya), I took the opportunity at the store opening to do what I do best - swatch makeup! I just love swatching stuff, it makes me look all weird and anti-social at these events since I'm basically hunched over the testers swatching up my arm intensely (I swear I'm totally normal and sociable! I like people! Really!), but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Anyway, let's move on to the swatches.

Pantone Colour of the Year 2015 Marsala: Shopping My Makeup Stash

Marsala is Pantone's Colour of the Year 2015, and unlike some previous years' Colour of the Years, I'm actually pretty excited for this, because as a makeup junkie, I feel like Marsala is pretty versatile on lips and cheeks. (I wouldn't be keen to wear it on my eyes, though.) Naturally, you can expect lots of commercialization with the Colour of the Year - like the Sephora X Pantone collections, and to be honest, the whole "Colour of the Year" thing always feels a bit enforced/commercialized to me - for one, the colour of the year is a decision that is made a year in advance by a small number of people in the industry, as Wiki helpfully points out: "Twice a year the company hosts...a secret meeting of representatives from various nations' color standards groups. After two days of presentations and debate, they choose a color for the following year...the color for summer 2013 was chosen in London in the spring of 2012." So yes, for some reason, people we don't know choose a colour for us a year in advance, and deem it the "Colour of the Year". It sounds arbitrary and a tad bizarre to me, but there it is.

My Marsala-ish coloured makeup stash!

At least, this year's Colour of the Year looks pretty good to me. Unliek 2013's Emerald, which I found a tad unwearable makeup-wise (emerald eyes just aren't my thing, let alone lips or cheeks, although I did rock an Emerald eye look in 2013!), and 2014's Radiant Orchid, which I liked personally but can imagine how some people with warmer skintones might find unwearable, Marsala looks pretty universally flattering, and actually wearable when it comes to makeup.

The closest things I have to Pantone's 2015 Colour of the Year

I'm definitely eyeing some of the items in the Sephora X Pantone collection this year, but I thought, as an excercise in frugality (don't look at me like you're not convinced - I said frugality, not futility!), I should attempt to dig through my makeup stash to see what Marsala-coloured products I already have in my stash, to see whether I am already all up to my eyes in Marsala products, or whether I still have room for a few more!

Illamasqua Velocity: Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid-ish Nails!

In a previous post, I've been going through my Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid makeup items in my stash. And this time round, I'm looking at another nail polish shade - this time it's Illamasqua Velocity!

Illamasqua Velocity: A Pantone Colour of the Year-ish colour!

I already have quite a few Illamasqua nail polishes, but I'm always game for more because the quality is pretty darn good. I've never come across a dud yet, and every Illamasqua nail polish I've tried has been fantastic.

Halloween Manicure: Neon Orange, Glitter, and Stripes (aka I recycled an older nail look)

Remember my previous Halloween nails? Well, I decided that they could use a little more something - glitter! So I decided to glitterify them to my heart's delight!

Halloween Manicure: Neon, glitter and stripes!

I happened to buy a bottle of China Glaze Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces from Beauty Asia 2013 earlier this year, so I thought that would do it perfectly for glittering up my existing manicure.


Halloween nails: Neon orange, glitter and stripe designs.
The thing is, I'm not sure if I love the result more than the original. I have mixed feelings about it.

BCA Manicure: Pink and Girly with Illamasqua Loella and Etude House WH901 Cotton Candy Kiss

One of the things I love about nail bloggers is the fact that every year, they do a BCA (breast cancer awareness) initiative in October. This year, it is #polishuspink on Instagram (if you search for the hashtag, you'll see lots of pretty pink manicures from bloggers doing their bit to raise awareness). Since here in Singapore, breast cancer is actually the top cause of deaths in women, I thought another BCA mani wouldn't hurt!

My pink and girly BCA nails this year!

This time around, my mani is a simple one - no nail art, just glitter on top of pink. I had bought the Illamasqua polish in Loella during one of Illamasqua's online sales (the haul post for that is still sitting around in my Drafts folder, oops), and I had also bought the Etude House nail polish, WH901 Cotton Candy Kiss from their Dear My Nails range when my colleague went to Korea (they were cheaper there, and I couldn't resist asking her to get me a few bottles).


BCA manicure: Illamasqua Loella and Etude House WH901

Halloween Nail Art: Neon Orange, Purple and White Stripes

Halloween is coming, and part of the festivity means that a Halloween manicure is a must! This year, I happened to buy a neon orange nail polish, Illamasqua Gamma (which was also featured in a chalkboard manicure tutorial), and as you might expect, I couldn't wait to use it!

Halloween nail art - a very Halloween-y colour scheme!

I combined this with a purple, Illamasqua Baptist, and a white (a random LA Colors white striper, which was last seen in my Easter manicure), and I got this! I've been seeing this stripey design around lately, so I thought, why not try this out with some Halloween colours?


Halloween nail art: orange, purple, and white colours.

Illamasqua Collide: Neon Hot Pink Nails for Summer!

If you're a beauty junkie like me, you'll know that one of the benefits of summer is wearing neon nail polish! I kid you not. I always feel so much more like wearing neon polish when the weather is warmer. And you know what the classic neon to wear on your nails is? That's right, neon pink! It just so happened that I recently bought a bottle of Illamasqua Collide nail polish during the Illamasqua sale, so what better time to bust out this baby and put it on my nails?

Illamsqua Collide Nail Polish: Perfect hot neon pink creme!

As it turns out, Illamasqua Collide was pretty darn neon. Since it's a creme finish, there's no shimmer to detract from its happy brightness. I'm not sure if you can see it in photos, my camera went a little wonky trying to capture the brightness. But in case you don't get the picture from my photos, just feel free to imagine a highlighter kinda pink and you're all set.


Collide is so named because with this on my nails, I'm too busy staring at my nails to notice other people in the street. Just kidding, LOL.

Illamasqua Haul: Nail Polish and Eyeshadow!

Illamasqua recently had an Easter sale (which took the form of an easter egg hunt), and of course, I HAD to order something. So, look at my loot! Ta-da!

Illamasqua haul! Yay!
Now, I know that I do have more than enough makeup and nail polish, but you guys shouldn't judge me for my beauty product acquisition illness. I mean, it was a sale! 45% discount with an extra 10% discount on top of that, guys! One does not simply pass up an Illamasqua sale!

Come on, who can pass up an Illamasqua sale?!
Yes, one does not, indeed. But if you did, Illamasqua's two big sale seasons are Christmas, and Easter. I'm guessing there are a couple more, but I'm hanging on til the end of the year to see what's up then. Anyway, you want to see what I bought?

Girly Nail Art: Spring/Summer Stripes and Pearls

I wanted to do a nail art inspired by some of the Spring/Summer colours I've been seeing around. I'm not very much into fashion in terms of clothes (the way I've got it figured - you either look good in a piece of clothing or you don't, and if you don't, no point wearing it just because it's trendy because you'll just look silly), but I do like appropriating colours I see on the runway and incorporating them into my nail art. After all, isn't there that quote along the lines of "Good artists borrow, great artists steal"? Here is my nail art then, inspired by the fashion runways.

Anyway, let me show you a few of the photos I was looking at that inspired my current nail art. Basically, girliness and sweetness with a little pop of colour.

(Source: Style)

So I tried to use a similar theme - girly, but with a bit of brightness thrown in - as a base for today's nail art. And I liked the pink-and-green combi, too, so I used that colour scheme as well. And because it wouldn't be nail art without any bling, I threw in some pearls for good measure. And that was it, really.




Okay, so not exactly like Prada on the runway. But I quite like it. For the pink base, I used Nails Inc Bruton Street, one of my favourites in terms of the perfect soft neutral pink. The green (or more accurately, aqua) is China Glaze's For Audrey, which I've already done an NOTD with before. The purple is Illamasqua Jo'mina, also a previously featured polish.



This was all done freehand, hence the messy lines. I just painted the pink first, then the green, then the purple. I originally wanted to cover them up with some striping tape, as I like to do when my nail art is messy, but I figured, well, maybe not this time. So yes, you get to see my messsy lines in full glory. The pearls were added last, followed by topcoat.



So there you have it! My runway-inpired girly nail art for Spring/Summer this year. It's pretty easy to do, if you have a steady hand (obviously I don't so it's not that easy for me), and I really liked the addition of the pearls - it really makes it just that little bit girlier.

Easter Nail Art: Pastel and White Stripes!

Look at my Easter nail art for this year! It's all pastel-ly and stripe-y and totally inspired by the shades and designs of easter eggs! Although it's pretty simple, I really like how it looks. I know it isn't the most original nail art out there (if I'm not wrong, there are TONS of people doing Easter stripes nail art too), but I feel like for once, I actually did freehand nail art without screwing it up (too much), so this look is special to me!

For the base I used RBL Lulu for the pink, Illamasqua Jo'mina for the purple, Nails Inc Spring Mews for the green, and Maybelline Banana Puddin' for the yellow. I don't have that many pastels, so this was about it I think. Still, I was glad that they worked together without clashing or anything. For the stripes, I just used this LA Colors white striper that I got from another nail blogger sometime ago (I believe it was Scandalously Polished, but her blog is no longer up. *sobs*). I was worried that the striper would be too sheer, but it turned out alright.



Being pastels, some of these shades had difficult application - that's the thing about pastels, for some reason, they're always trickier to apply than un-pastel colours. Nails Inc Spring Mews and Illamasqua Jo'mina were good, and fully opaque in two coats. (I've actually featured Nails Inc Spring Mews before, not just once, but twice, for my Valentine's Day nails, and I've also blogged about Illamasqua Jo'mina too.) RBL was sort of a two-and-a-half-coater, meaning that it was opaque in two coats, but still streaky, so I had to use three to even everything out. Maybelline Banana Puddin' was just a pain in the behind to polish - it needed a full four coats before it was opaque and not streaky. (I've actually complained about Maybelline Banana Puddin' before, but in the end I just put up with the application for the colour...it's hard to find a yellow that looks great on my skintone.)



Anyway, despite the painful application on some of the colours, I really love my Easter manicure. It's not particularly original, or perfect, but I'm really loving it. I know Easter isn't really all about eggs and bunnies and things like that (it really has a much deeper meaning to it that's so powerful), but I figure that anyway I can celebrate Easter on my fingers can't be bad.

Illamasqua Sophie-I Eye Look on my Asian Eye

I've been hearing all the recent buzz about Illamasqua's Sophie-I, an eye look specially created by Illamasqua for their S.O.P.H.I.E charity initiative. This time, they're partnering with one of the most awesomest nail bloggers on the planet, Scrangie, to raise awareness of S.O.P.H.I.E. ("Stamp Out Prejudice Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere"), named for Sophie Lancaster, a British girl who was beaten to death together with her boyfriend for looking different.

I'm always very supportive of S.O.P.H.I.E.'s cause. The effects of prejudice, intolerance and hatred are more commonplace than ever these days, especially now the internet has opened new aveneues of cyber-bullying, which wouldn't have been available just over two decades ago. Who would have thought that with the advent of the internet, kids would bully other kids til they were driven to the point of suicide? As a blogger (and on occasion also subject to fortunately much milder forms of online bullying as a result - you know, mean tweets, comments, etc), this deeply resonates with me.

Source: Scrangie

So, with that said, I thought to join in on the S.O.P.H.I.E. awareness-raising and commemoration, I thought I'd do a post featuring the Sophie-I look (seen in the above promo photo), as worn by me. The eye look was kind of difficult for me to do, becuase I don't really have that kind of lid space or eye contours to play with (blame that on my tiny puny Asian eyes), but I tried to sort of adapt it, with mixed results. Here's how the Illamasqua Sophie-I looked on me:

To make this look, I didn't use any Illamasqua products - I mean, you really only need black eyeliner and black eyeshadow. I used Stila Ebony for the eyeshadow, and for the eyeliner pencil, I just a random Wet n' Wild i-Shimmer one I had lying around. Turned out, (as you may have guessed from the name), the Wet n' Wild eyeliner had glitter, which made the entire look shimmery black, instead of matte black as I intended. Oops. For the skintone eyeshadow, I used Stila Chinois, a matte eggshell shade.

Anyway, if you want to follow the instructions Illamasqua has to re-create the Sophie-I look, they're up on Scrangie'ssite. There's a link to a video tutorial, as well as a step-by-step picture tutorial too, although this tutorial was taken from Source: Nihrida, who also has her version of the look up (and it's hawt on her).

Source: Nihrida

I kind of wish I had defined the cut crease a little bit more, but in my eagerness to remove any harsh lines, I think I may have overblended. Also, in the instructions, they recommended that the eyeliner be flicked up, which looked a little over-crowded on my already tiny eyes, so I rubbed it off.



Another thing I noticed was that although the instructions given by Illamasqua didn't mention eyeliner on the lower lashline, the model is actually having black eyeliner that's flicked out at the inner corner of the eye. I didn't do this, because it would have been a tad too unwearable for me, but I like how it really looks like in the promo pic. For me, I just smudged some black eyeshadow along my lower lashline, and called it a day.



My own apprehensiveness aside, I actually quite liked this look. Sure, it's daring, and I don't think I'd actually dare to wear it out, but it has this certain high fashion, runway-like feel about it. It's the kind of eye look I could imagine models wearing down a runway. It looks very striking, if nothing else, due to the stark definition created by the black eyeshadow against a pale base. I do quite like the look, it's bold and unique, a very dare-to-be-different look.

So anyway, that's my version of the Illamasqua Sophie-I look. RIP Sophie. A life may end, but a strong soul will never be forgotten.

Illamasqua Powder Blush Swatches Part 2 of 2

After the last post's tame blush colours, today's swatch post on the Illamasqua Powder Blushes (or Blushers if you aren't in the USA) are a much wilder bunch. Unlike last posts's mainly pink-based selection of pastels and some muted brights, today's range of colours goes all out to please the wildest imagination, while still remaining wearable. My favourite colours from the Illamasquaa Powder Blush/Blusher range all come from today's set of swatches too!



L - R: Excite, Kiss, Sin, Beg, Create

Excite is a bright neon orange, very in-your-face. It looks kinda like an orange crayon.

Kiss is a plummy-pinky-brown. Now I know it looks really blah in the pan, but this happens to be a a colour I actually own, and it's my favourite Illamsqua Blusher colour. It look very brown because when I swatch it I layer it on, but with a light hand it's a pinky-brown colour with a hint of plum.

Sin is a bright plummy pink, heavy on the plum. Unlike Kiss, this one looks pretty much the same on your cheeks as it does on your arm. It's like NARS Mata Hari, but on steroids. For those who felt NARS Matat Hari didn't cut it, this one is brighter and more intense in colour.

Beg is perhaps my second favourite colour in the entire line (another shade I actually have). It's a pinky-brown colour like Kiss, but less plummy and thus more warm-toned. It's also a bit brighter in shade, and very well pigmented.

Create is the weirdest blush colour I've ever come across. It looks like the stuff you'd find in the squat toilets I mentioned in this post. Anyway, Create is a yellowy-brown, very heavy on the yellow. I'm guessing this would be a contouring colour of some sort for very warm-toned girls.

The Illamasqua Powder Blushers are quite impressive in terms of texture and pigmentation, which is why they have such a huge following. I've previously done an FOTD with Illamasqua Sin and an FOTD with Illamasqua Beg, and I didn't come out looking like a clown (or at least I don't think so anyway), so these colours are perfectly wearable with proper application.

Illamasqua Powder Blush Swatches Part 1 of 2

Ooh, Illamasqua - the UK's answer to MAC, has garnered a huge following for their image of being as out-there and as daring as MAC - in fact, perhaps more so, due to the visionary leadership of Alex Box. They've definitely had the support of the blogging community in their early days, although there has been a lot of talk about the brand "selling out" to mainstream media now that they've ridden to success on the support of the blogosphere, and aren't engaging the bloggers who supported them anymore.

With that kind of image and background, it's almost kind of disappointing to find out that a lot of their Powder Blush colours are so tame. In fact, for today's first half of the swatches, almost all of these are really wearable and - dare I say? - some even ho-hum. That said, you can't fault the quality of the blushes - I have three of their blushes (none of the ones pictured here, unfortunately), and I love them all. They're well-pigmented, nicely-textured, and stay on for a decent length of time. What's not to like?



L-R: Katie, Nymph, Tremble, Chased, Hussy

Katie is one of the best selling colours in the Illamasqua line, and one of the more popular ones, but honestly, this is a little boring to me. Yeah, yeah, pale pastel pink. Looks good on most girls. Doesn't every brand have one of these?

Nymph is similar to Katie, but less pastel and a bit brighter, and maybe a hair darker. It's a good alternative to Katie for darker girls who might find that Katie could look ashy on them.

Tremble is a light coral-peach. This colour is pretty unique. Most coral blushes I've seen tend to be quite bright, so this is probably one of the few pale coral blushes out there.

Chased is similar to Nymph and Katie, but is the darkest and brightest of the lot. It also leans more purple than either Nymph or Katie. I like this the best in the lot.

Hussy is also another pretty, intriguing colour that would probably still be wearable with a light hand. This is a coral with a hint of hot pink - very pretty indeed. Me likey.

For some reason, almost all the Illamasqua blushes are matte. I think the formulation of this is deliberate - the theory is probably that if you want to add shimmer to them, you will layer on a separate shimmer product to customize the level, size, and type of shimmer/glitter you want - just like the pros. These are all work-appropriate since they are matte, and come in wearable colours. Despite the brand's outrageous image, today's swatches are all colours you can wear to the strictest office.

Illamasqua Nail Polish Swatches: A Bunch of Them

Illamasqua is one of those brands that has been making huge headway in the past few years. From being an esoteric British brand, they've certainly come into their own as a creative driving force in cosmetics. And just like their makeup, their nail polishes have been garnering a large following too.

I made these Illamasqua nail polish swatches quite a long time ago, and I never got around to posting them in the blog, so here they are at last. I have to say, though, that my camera photographed some of these colours really inaccurately, and I apologise for that.



First row:
L-R: Jomina (a lot more purple and less blue in real life), Jan (also less purple and more muted dusty pink in real life), Velocity, Wink, Muse (this one has cool metallic shimmer), DWS (less blue and more grey in real life), Strike, Fern, Force, Prism (barely visible, but this is a pale almost-transparent white with a blue flash), Phallic (photo doesn't do this justice. It's just so pretty and metallic in real life).

Second row:
Rampage, Smash, MILF, Hectic (ooh, olive green), Nudge, Caress, Baptist (once again, less blue and more purple in real life. And there's really cool shimmer too), Grab, Collide (this is a pretty hot pink. It's not as wimpy as it looks in the photo), Obsess

Third row:
Wayward (primary yellow), Blow (banana yellow), Insanity, Whack, Alarm (this is a red here, not whatever colour that photo makes it look like), Brigette (this is a jelly finish polish), Ruthless, Lament

Fourth row:
Scorch, Glory, Snap, Harsh, Untold, Spartan

Whew, those were all of them. Once again, you may want to double check any of these swatches with a quick google. If you can't tell, these are woefully inaccurate, but I hope they helped someone for a quick comparision between a bunch of colours.

Illamasqua Cream Blusher Swatches Part 3 of 3

Illamasqua is one of those makeup brands that rivals the big names like MAC and NARS in terms of cult following. And one of the factors common to all three brands is that they appeal to a wide demographic, including women who feel that your typical drugstore, or even department store, makeup brand doesn't cater to her needs. One of the subsets of that demographic would be tanned or darker girls who feel that most makeup colours fail to show up on them. To that end, all three brands have gone out of their way to produce colours that would show up.

Today's swatches are the two darkest shades in the Illamasqua Cream Blusher line, and appear to have been created with darker ladies in mind, as well as the makeup artistry segment. These are deep, dark colours, but I think with very judicious usage and a lot of blending, a little could go a long way for my fairer girls as well.



L - R: Ravish, Crush

Ravish is a deep and bright raspberry shade. It leans a little to the cool side, but I think warm girls could possibly wear thi as well. It's actually a very pretty shade, and I could imagine wearing a shade like that, if it was sheered out well.

Crush is a not-quite blackened plum shade. Also leaning cool, this shade would be gorgeous on slightly fairer girls as well, but it would have to be blended in very, very well, which could prove challenging.

These shades are very, very pigmented, and also glide on the skin quite easily. In general, I haven't found much to fault with the Illmasqua Cream Blushers, in terms of quality. So if you are interested in a deeper shade, this would be worth looking into.

Illamasqua Cream Blusher Swatches Part 2 of 3

Illamasqua is one of those brands with a huge cult following, because they have the right mix of audacity, quality, and appeal to women of more than one demographic group. The huge range of colours in their makeup is a testament to this. Although, as with yesterday's Cream Blusher swatches, there are some muted, everyone-could-wear-this type of colours, some of the brand's offerings are not for the faint of heart.

If yesterday's swatches of the Illamasqua Cream Blushers were for those who didn't want any drama in their colour, today's swatches contain some big, bad, and bold colours.



L-R: Rude, Dixie, Betray, Libido, Devour

Rude is one of the really, really popular colours in the range, because it's such a wearable shade of peach with a hint of pink. It's wearable, but it isn't exactly that exciting, seeing that it's a pale colour. Still, it's insanely popular. I've heard this is one of the few peaches that look good even on cool-toned people, so if you've been finding that peach blushes look dirty on you, this could be worth checking out.

Dixie is also another wearable pinky-peach, but more pink and less pale than Rude. This one would be quite nice on almost everyone, I think - its one of those universal blush colours that suit a variety of skintones.

Betray is my favourite of today's swatches, and it's a dusty, muted, mid-tone rose with a hint of plum. Very wearable for a multitude of skintones. This, along with Seduce from yesterday's swatches, are my favourites, as they go with almost anything.

Libido is a bright orange with a stronge yellow undertone The colour kind of reminds me of carrots, only more neon. You know, neon carrots. Something like that.

Devour is another screaming bright orange, but this one is less yellow and has a stronger hint of red. To me it looks like a orange-red. I imagine this one, if sheered out, could be lovely on warmer-toned girls, giving that naturally-flushed look.

As with the previous bunch of swatches, the Illamasqua Cream Blushers were blendable, very smooth in texture, and very pigmented. I'm starting to see the appeal of these, actually - they offer good quality and a wide range of colour.

Illamasqua Cream Blusher Swatches Part 1 of 3

If you haven't been living under a rock, I'm sure you'll have heard of Illamasqua, the British brand that has risen as the UK's answer to MAC, with its loud colours, fiercely original inspiration, and endorsement of out-there, crazy makeup. It's an appealing combination, to be sure, one that has captured the hearts of many makeup fanatics, and acheived a cult following.

Still, despite portraying an image of devil-may-care colour overdose, the brand has actually included a lot of very wearable colours. Not everything Illamasqua is necessarily unwearable, and the first set of Cream Blusher swatches just prove this point.

Here's the first set of swatches:



L - R: Lies, Promise, Sob, Seduce

Lies is a pale, shimmery, pastel baby pink. This one could possibly be used as a highlighter as well for darker ladies.

Promise is a cool-toned moderately bright lilac pink. This one has some purple to the colour, and does not contain shimmer. It sort of reminds me of something Nicki Minaj would wear!

Sob is similar to Promise, only less bright and more pastel, although not as pastel as Lies. Like Promise, it has no shimmer, and also has some purple. Also a cool-toned colour.

Seduce is my favourite out of today's bunch, and is a gorgeously wearable medium pinky-plum-rose colour, although it looks a little dull in comparison to the other pinks. I think this one is probably the most universally flattering out of the bunch, although it also leans cool.

The quality of these blushes was good - they glided on easily, were very blendable, and are all quite pigmented, even the paler shades. They have also been getting raves all over the blogosphere, so if you're into cream blushes, this one could be good to check out.

Illamasqua Jo'mina and China Glaze Sci Fi KOTD: Purple and Silver

Illamasqua released Jo'mina (is it Jomina or Jo'mina?) some months ago, with the Body Electrics collection, and out of all the three nail polishes in the collection, Jo'mina was the hot favourite. I snagged it for 50% off because it wasn't "in season" anymore (sigh, I guess you know autumn is coming when the Spring/Summer collections start going on sale). But you know me, and you know I don't give a hoot about what's trendy or not - I wear what I like, regardless of season. And a 50% discount is timeless :P

Here it is in sunlight. I think this was the most colour-accurate I could it to be, but it's still not quite there. The base for the konad was Jo'mina, while China Glaze Sci Fi was used as the design. The konad plate was M65. Man, my fingers look fat.



Jo'mina is a gorgeous beautiful bright lilac purple. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, and unfortunately, my photographs aren't that colour-accurate because it's also really hard to photograph! It keeps turning out a lot more blue than in photos. I took a gazillion photos, and they all turned out blue-purple. And I tried colour-editing it, but with my limited photo-editing skills, there was only so much I could do. I'm sorry I couldn't get a more accurate portrayal of this, so just try to imagine this as being a lot more red-based purple instead of a blue-based violet, okay?



I've read a lot about how Jo'mina was a total PITA to apply, so I was totally prepared to struggle with this one when applying it. To be fair, it isn't the best, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either. I used two coats for all my photos. To be fair they were thick-ish coats, so if you used thinner coats you might need more. Still, I didn't get as much pulling, tugging, or unevenness as I expected. Weird right?

China Glaze Sci Fi is awesome to apply and opaque in just one coat, which makes it perfect for konading. Of course, that's evident from these pictures!



I really love this KOTD. I mean, I love purple, and I love chromes, so combining them makes me a very happy girl!

FOTD: Illamasqua Beg and YSL Gloss Pur Pure Fuschia

I realized that I don't have any posts on Illamasqua, despite owning a few of their products. Given that the amnesty is almost over, I figure I'd better squeeze in a couple of Illamasqua posts while I can! So today's Illamasqua post is a Face of the Day (FOTD) with my favourite blush of the moment, Beg.



It looks quite warm in the pan, but it really isn't that bad once on. It's a warm dusty rose, but not so warm that it's unwearable for me. To me, this is on the warm side of neutral. Texture of the blush is good, as is pigmentation - with this one, you really want to use a light hand, especially if you're fair!

While I know that Illamasqua probably didn't create Beg with the fairer ladies in mind, I really like how it looks on, and when properly applied, it looks very pretty and natural. It just goes to show that any bright blush is wearable by even the palest of girls. The key is to apply just a little bit, and blend, blend, blend!

Here's the FOTD. See, it doesn't look so scary on, does it?




And here's what I used:

Eyes:
Stila eyeshadow trio Shimmer Shadows Cool (I don't even know the name of this one, it's really pretty and it's really old. I think it was from 1995! I absolutely LOVE the older Stila eyeshadows.)
Covergirl Lashblast mascara
Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Rockstar (outer lower lashline)

Face:
MAC Studio Finish Concealer NC20 (undereye area only)
MAC Select Cover Up Concealer NC20 (spot application on face)
Agnes B Radiant Loose Face Powder Lumiere D'aurore mixed with some CS Silica Powder
Illamasqua Beg

Lips:
YSL Gloss Pur in Pure Fuschia

I absolutely LOVE Beg on me. It doesn't look like it would work in the pan, but I love how it gives that very pretty slight flush on my skin. I also really love my YSL Gloss Pur - it looks bright and hot pink in the tube, but when applied it sheers out and becomes a pink lip that's not too bright. I think these are wearable brights - they're bright and add a pop of colour, but they aren't overpowering.