Illamasqua Fatal

Spot of post Christmas Shopping in Leeds with a lovely friend, Hi Anna! and high on my list of must visit was the new Illamasqua shop in Leeds Victorian Quarter, beautiful location for a beautiful shop tbh.  Everyone knows about Illamsaqua SA's already don't they?  The girls from the MAC counters without the MAC attitude, they are friendly, helpful and don't look at someone over the age of 40 with pity and insist that the blusher the purchaser knows they want and need is the wrong colour (MAC Selfridges Trafford Centre, I'm looking at you).

So after Anna and I had had a peruse of all that was on offer downstairs the lovely SA asked if we wanted to see the sales section upstairs? Illamasqua make up at discount prices, nah we'll leave it thanks love. Not.


Ooh the pretty.  Instantly purchased Em some amazing blue false eye lashes (must take pic) for £5.  Then decided I needed a £7.50 eye shadow.  I was really taken with an amazing bright blue (googles Illamasqua site - it was Victim and its still on sale on their site and I waaaaaant it now) but chickened out and opted for a safer bright purple, Fatal.  I had reservations about wearing colour and asked the SA what she thought, God she was brilliant! Her advice is to do my usual neutral eye and then add a pop of the colour just on the corner of the mobile eye, so that initially you don't look as if you are really wearing colour, until you blink and then "pow" there it is!  

Usual purple photo nightmare - it is brighter than this really

Of course I couldn't wait to give this a whirl and I was really pleased with how well it turned out.  

I used Virgin from my beloved UD Naked all over my lid just to give an even base and to help with blending.  Then put Naked into the crease and finally Fatal onto the mobile lid, up to but not into crease.  I used Fatal with my flat eye liner brush to push it into the top lash line and then on a small round brush to smudge into lower lashes.

Having tried this with Fatal I decided to dig out my MAC Fig. to see if I would now be able to use this as well, after craving it before my holiday and then being really disappointed in it when I got it.  This is the same look but using Fig. instead.

If anything Fig. works better as it is a bit more pigmented.  Close ups for comparison:

Illamasqua Fatal

MAC Fig.

 Here's how they compare in the pan and swatched

Fatal and Fig.

Fig has more redness to it that Fatal in the pan and swatched but on the eye I don't think there's much in it.  I like both but am not blown away by either, neither are as opaque as I would like, they take some building up although I guess thats a benefit if you are trying to be subtle! If I had one wish for 2012 it would be that Urban Decay would bring out a matte palette of colour and nudes!  Do you need both Fatal and Fig.?  Personally I'd say not.

I had a play last night and this technique worked really well with some of the other colour shadows I have but am scared to use and I discovered that if I layer the bright blue from the UD Peacock palette, Pain Killer, over my Revlon matte navy I am getting close to the bright blue of Victim, although that worked better with the darker Buck on the crease than Naked.  Then I put Creep in the crease and that was fantastic with the bright turquoise!  So lots more to try out and lots more photos to be taken.

Illamasqua - Lip Gloss in Move

If you have been reading ihavemostlybeen recently you will know that I am having a crazy love affair with a nude lip. Not any old nude lip, my own nude lip. What the hell am I on about.  I have always worn colour on my lips - as a glasses wearer I felt colour on my eyes was a waste of time so stuck to a bit of mascara and some brown eye liner and added the colour I needed on my lips.  I have worn red lipstick and sometimes I think I look lovely in it but it does scare me.  I tend to stick to mlbb shades and I like a creamy glossy texture and it has to be sparkle/shimmer/glitter free, really not a hint of a shimmer or I am going to look 90.

At the Trafford Centre I got into conversation with the SA on the Illmasaqua counter, we had a play with the new Toxic nature collection - Delirium is the only thing I think I might need from that tbh! - we talked foundation, am tempted to ask for a sample of the light base at some point and then I apologised and said I had to go and check out the MAC viva glam gaga 2 lipstick.  She asked why and I explained about  my new found love of nude.

"Nude, really? Hmm right.  Really?" was her reply, which led me to thinking that perhaps she didn't see me as a nude lip kinda gal.  Anyway I slipped across the way and had a play with the MAC vgg2 (it is luscious, creamy, proper beige nude and I wanted it sooooo much) but Emily said "Mum, I love you. That looks fricking horrible on you.  I love you, I really do, you do know that don't you" and hauled me back to Illamasqua land.  Whereupon the SA did me a matt peach lip, on the basis that brown isn't good for me but nude peach or nude pink would be. OMFG I swear I have never looked so awful, if anything the nude pink lip was worse, to her credit Em was stood behind the SA doing the fingers down throat pukey thing throughout!  Finally I caved and agreed with the SA and Em that a nude lip wasnt working on me.  We had a little group hug at this point.  They might have high fived as well, I think. Ok ladies, I am getting the message.

 When I said to the SA "ok what would YOU put on me" she did a little dance and hauled out a lip liner pencil and the lip gloss you have been seeing in the pics threaded through this post.  She was a lovely girl but clearly thought my lip line was pointless and created one of her own for me - I looked like a blow up doll.  But, I loved the colour.  Very opaque pinky mauve, no nasty shimmer, applies like a gloss but wears like a lipstick, no stickyness, no lip staining just lovely glossy lips.

 You would probably have liked a bit of warning about that pic wouldn't you?!!

Not sure why I look like a beady eyed freak in this. I just do!

One more pic, above, taken today (Mon) which also shows how layering and buffing my foundation has improved things on that front. I had a couple of goes and in the end found putting the foundation on with 187 MAC brush and then buffing with a soft fat brush seemed to do the trick.

What I really like about this gloss is that it is really opaque so even wearing only a little gives a really nice full colour effect.  That said I squeezed the tube a bit too hard this morning and ended up with a heap of stuff on my lips, the lipstick shaped applicator is great for moving the gloss where you want it, and my heavy handed application resulted in me looking like my lips were made of super glossy plastic. On me thats erring into TV territory, but on some lovely young thing with poochy, pillowy lips would look beyond sexay!  Just so you know the swatch on my hand and the tube pics are colour accurate, clearly my face sucks the colour out of stuff which is why it doesnt look too exciting on my lips in these pics, in real life its a fresh, luscious pink pop and I right proper love it!



Illamasqua Intense lip gloss in Move £13.  Am thinking I might need to try a red one of these at some point!

NOTD - Art of Darkness mani!

My asos delivery arrived this morning. £11.50 with free next day delivery for Scarab (Red) and Viridian (Green).  These are two luscious nail varnishes that are going to get some serious wear and for some reason they cry out to be used in a slightly off the wall kind of a way, hence the little green nail on the end - doing them all in Scarab seemed a bit of a waste!  Am now considering Viridian nail with Scarab tip.

Maybe asos had run out of really big boxes?!

Am going to take some pics with my proper camera this eve but wanted to get these up asap.

Both with top coat

 With regard to application, smooth and opaque in 2 thin coats.  Scarab brush is fantastic; narrow, straight, firm but flexible.  Viridian's is a bit crap tbh it is really really long - will try and get pic of how much longer and as a result errs on the side of moppy, would not have been impressed had I paid £13 for Viridian and got this brush, as I paid less than I would have for a Revlon polish and the colour is so stunning I am going to overlook it!  These dry to a lovely satin finish but its not til you add a top coat that they really come to life.  These feel like they are going to wear really well, I think thats down to being able to apply 2 thin coats, much less chippy than great wodges of polish.
Today is a happy nail day!

Illamasqua - still not playing safe!

Just toying with ordering Scarab and noticed two new polishes from the latest collection one is red and the other is a creamy colour.  Throb and Load respectively.  


They say:
Feel your pulse quicken, your heart throbbing in your chest. The Throb Collection is Illamasqua’s latest offering at the altar of beauty, guaranteed to make you gasp with pleasure.

Load is a rich, cream coating for the nails.

I say:
Make of that what you will!  In spite of the name Load could be rather fab for Spring, I was on a mish for an opaque vanilla cream nail varnish in 1990 and nothing really did the job so I might have finally found what I was looking for.

Illamasqua offer - heads up

Been working at the Yorkshire show for 2 days so have wind blown hair, chapped lips and the nails from hell, including a thumb nail that I did my usual self destruct thing on after a few glasses of wine so nothing exciting to post but thought I would mention something I spotted on the fab Nails Etc blog. Illamasqua are having a fantastic promo that allows you to exchange some vile old dried up product and replace it with a new gorge Illamasqua one at a 25% reduction!! How amazing is that and how brilliant that Rebecca spotted it and posted about it. I am so wanting Wink from their pastels collection and a trying to see if I can wangle a trip to the Trafford centre before the end of July, although am supposed to be on a beauty spending ban! Just in case I am good and don't spend I have mailed my cousin Rebecca, totally spend-thrift as she is!, and asked her to do me a guest post if she does take advantage of this offer.