Illamasqua I'mPerfection Launch

Illamasqua's latest campaign - I'mPerfection

Back on 31st of January, Illamasqua launched their latest collection, called I'mPerfection, which as I'm sure everyone knows by now, is a play on both "I'm Perfect" and "Imperfection".  I am usually not in London for their launches but by a lucky chance, happened to be over there this time around, and went along to the Soho store on the day to take a look.

This campaign aims to celebrate, rather than mask, what most people have traditionally consider their flaws; freckles, birthmarks, you name it.  Illamasqua have taken that premise and very particularly carried it through into the Speckled Nail Polishes (see below) and the Speckled Eye Liner (application method).

So what did I buy?

Fragile Nail Polish

Speckled Nail Polish campaign visual

Illamasqua Fragile nail polish is a gorgeous duck-egg blue nailpolish.  It is, as are all of the nail polishes in this campaign, limited edition (LE).  There are four other similar polishes, Mottle (pale more-than-pastel-verging-on-minty-grass green ;-)), Speckle (cloudy pink-based light purple), Freckle (a dirty cool taupe-beige) and Scarce, (a warm milk chocolate neutral).  All have "speckles" running through them, which comprise of charcoal grey and silver "glitter".  The overall effect, especially for the blue and the green, is of duck egg shells, and it is from this that the inspiration for the shades was derived.

Speckled Nail Polish in Fragile (two coats)

Having plenty of nudes and greens in roughly those shades and not being remotely interested in the purple one, that left the blue.  I am very pleased that I bothered with it - it manages to be beautiful and fragile and gentle looking all at once.  I have seen some images for this on the web and on blog sites which looks like the finish is quite glossy, but on my nails at least, it's quite a creamy finish - there's enough of a gloss to this so it's not matte, but it's not a shiny finish either.  The "glitter" particles, despite the fact that there are some silver ones in the mix, appear quite dull and understated, not at all shiny or sparkly.

This one lasted me about three days (standard for me, I use a keyboard a lot) and two coats were sufficient for opacity.

Look here and get 'em while you can.

Blush-Up Brush

Illamasqua Blush-Up Brush campaign visual

Illamasqua Blush-Up Brush

I have posted about this already this week, see this link for more information on this brush (in comparison with MAC's 163 brush).

Powder Blusher Duo

There are three of these available:

• Beg & Bronzerella
• Lover & Hussy
• Katie & Ambition

All of these are standard Illamasqua powder blushes, what is new is that these are duos, so you're getting two blushers in one palette.

T -> B: Katie, Ambition

I bought the Duo in Katie & Ambition.

T -> B: Katie, Ambition

Katie is supposedly a candy pink, which is a relatively apt description, and it's quite a chalky matte.  Ambition purports to be a "neutral", but it's far from that - it's a brown-based rose with quite noticeable gold glitter running through it.  Either-or of these colours is quite beautiful, or even layered over each other.  Ambition has a bit too much glitter to be taken particularly seriously for non-makeup-related day-job-wear, but in the evening, or the summer, it will come into its own.

L -> R: Katie, Ambition, Katie & Ambition layered

Both of these are very pigmented and wear reasonably well, but I don't find that Illamasqua blushes are last-the-whole-day offerings by a long shot.

Free Caricatures!

My caricature - drawn by the very talented Achraf Amiri

At the launch in the Beak Street store in Soho, renowned Belgian illustrator Achraf Amiri was sketching out free caricatures for anyone who purchased from the new collection.  This was fun and it was a real joy to watch him sketch me - it took him all of only five minutes or so and the finishing result is above :-)  It kinda looks like me, in the way that caricatures kinda do, I was delighted with it however (I must frame it and stick it on the wall somewhere :-))