Illamasqua Viridian

Hi everyone

This morning I decided to crack open one of my Christmas presents and give it a first time outing. Illamasqua Viridian is a limited edition nail polish and came as a set with a gorgeous purple glitter polish called Glitterati and if you likey then hurry over to Illamasqua now as this gorgeous set is now on sale for £15.50. Its safe to say that I have definitely come out of my comfort zone over the last year when it comes to nail polish, I was a big fan of  neutral colours and still am but sometimes there is nothing more stunning than a simple pop of colour - it can add an extra dimension to an otherwise simple outfit. To be blatantly honest Illamasqua isn't a brand I buy all that often that being said their nail polish is amazing and definitely worth checking out. I decided on trying Viridian first because it was my least favourite of the two and if I didn't like it on then it was going to straight into the give to family members pile - it looked alright in the bottle like a blackened dark green laced with ever so tiny flecks of turquoise glitter, yes in theory it was nice but it just didn't grab my eye, all that went absolutely flying out the window when I applied it. If I had to describe it in one word I would call it dazzling ! Viridian is a joy to apply - the consistency is just right, the brush is a little on the small side for my liking but because of the consistency of the polish you don't experience any streaking, in fact the smaller brush is amazing for precision application helping you to achieve that perfect finish, anyway enough rambling on Viridian can also be bought on its on for £13.50 if you don't want to invest in the set.

What do you guys think ?

Lots of Love

Lipstick Fridays

xx

Illamasqua Neutral Palette

When you say the word neutral, what jumps to mind ?

For me when I think of neutral I think of nude natural colours, go with anything shades, nothing too in your face ! The Neutral Palette by Illamasqua has been on my wish list for a while - a palette of four neutral, wearable colours which can take you from night to day in an instant. The four shades comprise of  Vintage an antique gold which is exclusive to this palette  and three matt shades Stealth (creamy buttermilk), Wolf (rich chocolate brown) and Obsidian (rich black). Today I wanted to create something a little more dramatic with the Neutral Palette so I went for a dramatic smokey, gold eye. The eyeshadows are highly pigmented, easy to blend and the one thing which I was really impressed with is that there was hardly any fall out when using Obsidian the darkest eyeshadow in the quad.

The Neutral Palette can be purchased from Illamasqua for £34.

What do you think ?

Have you tried any Illamasqua products?

Lots of Love

Lipstick Fridays

xx

Illamasqua

Hi Lovelies

Today I wanted to tell you about some purchases I made online.

I love doing a spot of online shopping, I love it even more when the postman delivers your online shopping - I do get very excited when opening my goodies. Todays goodies are from Illamasqua, so here we go.

Pure Pigment Furore

Illamaqua's Pure Pigment in Furore can be purchased for £15.50 from their online store. It is described as a metallic, high-shine, pure-colour powder that can be used to highlight the eyes, cheeks or brows. You can use this on its own or you can mix this with shadow or blusher. This is a really versatile champagne peach shimmer, its really pretty when just used on its own over the eye area and when applied this lasted all day. I was really pleased with this pigment - normally you do experience a bit of quite a bit of fall out with them but surprisingly I didnt really find that as much with Furore - there was some but not a huge amount. You hardly need to use any to achieve excellent coverage so thats probably why. The texture was lovely and I found that when I used it wet it just seemed gorgeously creamy. Furore is a multi tasker and also looks really nice over the decollete area.

Powdered Metal Erzule

This was a sale bargain for £10 but it can still be purchased on the website for £22.50, which to be honest is quite pricey for what you get, I dont think that I would have purchased this at full price. I must admit when I first opened it I got a bit of a shock as the powder looks quite dark and Im quite fair, but this will look great on my hols though when Ive got a bit of a sun tan - it blends nicely and you can achieve a subtle shimmer or build the powder up to achieve a more metallic finish. Powdered Metal has an amazing creamy soft texture and is really nice to use, again I would probably be thinking about using this over my decollete, shoulders and the tops of my arms and maybe my legs to give my skin a lovely dewy sheen, it looks fantastic as a blusher and if your feeling adventurous you can mix this with Illamasqua's sealing gel to create metallic designs on the body and face.

Illamasqua Masquara - Raven

Before Masquara

After Masquara

Masquara can be purchased from the online website for £15.00 - I was really excited about this as I had heard some great things about it, but Im sorry Illamasqua but this one just doesnt hit the spot for me - I was expecting amazing things from this mascara but after two coats I dont think my lashes look all that different. They look a bit more defined but thats about it. It is nice to apply and has a nice thick brush but I dont feel like it delivers on the "wonderbra-like effect" as promised on the website. Now Im not saying that I totally hate this mascara - I actually quite like it but I just dont think that it "dramatises lashes to extremes". 

Has any one else tried this ? I would love to hear what you guys think of it.

 We all have our favourites dont we?

 To be honest I think its all Benefits fault as I recently got hooked on their Are They Real mascara - when Im wearing that mascara every single person I have spoken to has commented on my lashes and I think thats what I was expecting from this.

Overall I was over the moon with the Furore pigment its definately a re-purchase when it runs out, I think that you could definately achieve the same effect with a cheaper bronzer/shimmer powder as you can achieve with the powdered metal and if your looking for nice defined lashes then by all means give Masquara a go but dont expect to get that false lash look.

I purchased all of my items from Illamasqua online.

 http://www.illamasqua.com/

With Love

Lipstick Fridays

xx