Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone! 2010 is finally here and we have some amazing plans for product, distribution and events bubbling at Illamasqua. I will of course keep you all in the loop. We have a very busy few months ahead of us, including an office move - more on that at a later stage!

New Years Eve, to me, is one of those nights where make-up creativity is an absolute staple part of my night. My friends and I normally spend hours choosing a fabulous outfit, killer heels and an extra sparkly make-up look. What is it about Christmas and sparkle!? It just fits!


This was my look for the Big Night. Products I used:

* Rich Liquid Foundation in 140 [dropped 3 foundation shades in 3 months...!]
* Pressed Powder in 005 [for brightening the complexion - this stayed in my bag for the requisite 4am touch up!]
* Powdered Metal in 'Bebhionn' on cheeks, cupids bow and down my arms.

* Illuminator in 'Halcyon' - a lovely pale champagne/ cream for highlighting cheekbones

* Urban Decay Primer Potion
* Cream Eye Shadow in 'Debauch' with Pure Pigment in 'Involve' layered on top for maximum impact.

* Cream Eye Shadow in 'Hunger' to highlight the brow bone - this is one of my favourite products right now
* Medium Pencil in 'Sophie' - lots of this for full on smokey glamour
* Sheer Lipgloss in 'Torture'

Not sure what I was thinking about with the nails... a bit more suited to Halloween than New Years!

The next morning, all I needed was Simple facial wipes to take off my night of excess and upon surfacing I spent about three hours in the bath with Eve Lom's Rescue Mask on - this is my Holy Grail of face products if I am feeling run down - and REN's Moroccan Rose Bath Oil. Divine...

House Of Blue Eyes - Get The Look

The androgynous/ futuristic/ Cleopatra/ Babylon/ Blade Runner-esque make-up was a work of art in itself. Alex Box tells me how she created the look...


Face

Smooth, glowing, glistening skin was the way forward. "As there was so much gold on the eyes, I needed to complement this with sparkling skin." Says Alex, "I mixed a small amount of Powdered Metal in 'Bebhionn' with Cream Foundation for the paler girls and Powdered Metal in 'Thalia' with Cream Foundation for the olive/ darker skins."

The face was heavily contoured with the Powdered Metals - 'Thalia' was used for a golden highlight whilst 'Erzule' was buffed in to cheekbones for an 80s, sculpted look. "These are the most versatile products" explains Alex, "They can be used on the body, face, cheeks... mixed with lipgloss creating a wonderful sparkling lip colour."

Eyes

The eyes were liberally painted with Liquid Metal in 'Solstice'. "We used a template by cutting some tape to mask the areas we didn't want to cover and then painted over this template. We then piled on the Liquid Metal in 'Solstice' with a foundation brush to create a smooth, even base of colour with which to contour on top."

Contouring was done with the Powdered Metals and a mix of Powder Eye Shadow in 'Lestat', 'Wolf' and 'Fallen' to create depth. Illuminator in 'Halcyon' was used to highlight under the brows and down the bridge of the nose and on the cupid's bow to catch the light.

Alex's trademark brow completed the look. "Mix a drop of Sealing Gel into Eyebrow Cake in 'Vehement' and stroke over the natural line of the brows using the Eyebrow Brush. Then go back over it and take the colour above and beyond the natual brow for a real Cleopatra look." Explains Alex, "balance this with the strong eye. We used False Lashes in number 15 on top for the spidery effect, and number 13s below to create a very open, framed eye."

Lips

To soften the effect of the strong eye, the lips were painted with a mixture of clear gloss [try Sheer Lipgloss in 'Brilliant'] and Cream Foundation. Some of the models had extravagant head gear on, and these guys had Liquid Metal in Solstice painted on for a pure molten mouth.

House Of Blue Eyes - The Fallout

What a cracking night at Jalouse on Friday 18th September! It was all hands on deck for the House of Blue Eyes "I Feel Love" Spring Summer 2010 show - I turned up at around 6:45pm [the show was due to start at 8] in my evening outfit [was going out after the show with some friends] and was immediately roped in by Alex to start painting the boys gold!
It got pretty mucky and by the end of it I was just coating the boys in moisturiser and showering them in gold glitter!

Alex Box, Aga, Helen and Halimah were all on hand to create the look of the night - so what was it?

A futuristic blend of Ancient Egypt and Babylon with a slice of Blade Runner thrown in!

Last Monday, you may recall that Alex and I went to visit Johnny Blue Eyes, the creator of The House of Blue Eyes, at his flat to work out looks for the show. I was holding back from showing you the pics as I didn't want to ruin the surprise of the look, but here is what Alex came up with that day. I can tell you now, I had a real sense of 'John Malkovich' seeing all the models looking identical to how I looked on Monday!

The host was Mahogany Hair Academy [owned by the lovely Richard] who created some fabulous gold locks and the atmosphere was one of bustling excitement. The models - who ranged from the winner of Britains Next Top Model Mecia and the runner-up Jade to tattooed 6ft 3 hunks - were all given individual spins on the key look of gold, gold and more gold!


Johnny told me on Monday that he wanted to create an atmosphere of optimism and disco with fierce make-up and directional, futuristic clothes in a palette of slick black and bold gold and variety of textures from soft knitwear to skintight spandex.

The models were eventually rounded up at around 8:40 and ushered to the street where they stamped down the road to the flash of the photographers cameras and the whoops of the city boys in the pub next door! After this, to the tune of 'Sing it back' by Moloko and, of course, 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer.



The show was great because everyone was actually having fun, unlike how it seems at some fashion shows. Johnny did a couple of celebratory victory laps around the club at the end, Voguing like there was no tomorrow! Don't you just love the fabulous outfit [especially loving the gold codpiece...] and gold veil that Johnny rocked.

Everyone got up and had a boogie [including yours truly!] and then headed off for the after party in Shoreditch.

This was my first show and I absolutely loved it because it really celebrated why I became interested in make-up in the first place - it was about creating a look; an ideal and then building upon that to create your own individual, unique look that compliments who YOU are as a person. As Johnny told me " We are all beautiful and we are all beautifully different".

Couldn't put it better myself.

Leena's Shoot With Pure Essence

Our artists are such a talented bunch; Leena from Selfridges Trafford created these gorgeous looks for Pure Essence Hair Salon in Manchester - she used Powdered Metals on the cheeks, Powder Eye Shadow on the lids and False Eye Lashes 17 on both the top and bottom lashes.

Leena - will you please be my personal make-up artist?!

To book a lesson with Leena at Selfridges Trafford, call 0161 629 1187.

Sirens Event at Manchester - Fallout!

The ever-fabulous Adam from Selfridges Oxford Street travelled up to Manchester last week to launch the new Powdered Metals exclusively at Selfridges Trafford. I spoke to Sharon, the Counter Manager, for her take on the event:

"We hired out the prestigious Dome site in the middle of the Trafford Centre to launch this lovely new product and invited a couple of models along to demonstrate it.

We figured that since these three products have been developed with a variety of skin tones in mind, we would get a quintessential English Rose-type girl to and a gorgeous olive skinned guy to be our Sirens for the day!"

Powdered Metals have now launched online [click here to buy] and we will be rolling out this demonstration through each of our counters in the near future.

Powdered Metals Launch Today At Selfridges Trafford

Lots of activity going on at the Illamasqua counter at Selfridges Trafford today. Charlotte, our model booker, has organised that two lovely models will be there for Adam Sidwell [one of the Selfridges Oxford St artists] to recreate the iconic Sirens looks and to demonstrate the new Powdered Metals.

I will post the pictures from the event at a later stage!

In other news today, we are brainstorming ideas for the Autumn/ Winter collection photo shoot which is due to take place at the end of this month. Alex Box was in yesterday to discuss her ideas and we are now working out which ideas to roll with! A mix of commercial appeal with edgy photography, unique styling and innovative use of make-up is always our fundamental principle - I can't wait to see how this shoot looks and I will be leaking more insider info on the shoot and the collection as everything becomes clearer...

Powdered Metal Play Time!

The lovely Daniel has popped in to the Office today. He is one half of our training team [the other being the lovely Adam, both based in Selfridges Oxford Street] and is in to discuss the latest addition to the Sirens collection - the Powdered Metals -and how we can communicate it with the rest of our teams across the UK and Ireland!

This is always a really creative exercise; we want to be able to demonstrate the versatility of the product and a number of ways it can be used. As you all no doubt know by now, our ethos at Illamasqua is a strong belief that make-up application should be about free artistic license and creativity, so we are experimenting with ways to use the Powdered Metals. As I wrote below, they were born out of a necessity for a body product but it's great to be able to have a product that can be used in multiple ways.

'Erzule' looks gorgeous on olive and black tones, but also if you want an intense, temporary shot of bronzing - above is a pic of my arm to demonstrate - bottom arm doesn't have anything on and the top arm has 'Erzule' on - as you can see its quite a nice difference - and because the undertone is brown, and not red, there is no likelihood of looking orange! Always a worry with us pale skins! See below for a pic of 'Erzule' on Crispian - sorry again Cris!

I currently have 'Bebhionn' in my hair - it makes it a slightly pinky/ gold colour with a shot of subtle shimmer - the below photograph isn't picking it up as I had hoped - that would look amazing in the sunshine we have been enjoying here in London.

Daniel has remarked how 'Thalia' looks like a warmer version of the Pure Pigment 'Furore', which is my second favourite pigment [after 'Involve, of course!] and Kate has been experimenting by mixing it with Sheer Lipgloss in 'Brilliant' - it looks a bit like 'Utopia' Lipstick.

Above is 'Thalia' photographed with flash...

And above without flash...

These products can be used on both face and body and I'm sure our resident experimental Selfridges Oxford Street artist Amanda will be swiping it over her nails, too!

If you want to get on the waiting list for this product, just call your local counter or apply online - this feature will be added soon!

New Powdered Metals!

Revel in an intense radiance that no one can ignore. Step into the limelight and demand to be noticed...

The Sirens collection shoot was shot in January, 2009. After creating some stunning and unique looks on the models, Alex Box turned her attentions to the models bodies in order to create luminous, radiant, shimmering skin. After an age of hand crushing the Powder Eye Shadow in 'Moonflower', Liquid Metal in 'Solstice', Pure Pigments 'Furore' and 'Marvel' and blending them together, she started to mix them in a pot and took the result to Katie, our Product Development Manager.

Katie loved the idea behind them and after briefing our supplier, whittled down the samples to three gorgeous, dazzling metallic loose powders. They are a complete hybrid of textures; satiny, smooth and yet subtly shimmering [without that glittery look, that I personally despise!] and they last ages, too - I wore 'Thalia' on the Underground last night in 30 degree + heat and it didn't transfer all over the seat and was still there at the other end, unlike my hair which was stuck to my forehead and back of my neck. Ew.

We also wanted to keep the theme of the Sirens when it came to naming the products, definitely one of my favourite parts of the development process!

Erzule – Voodoo Goddess of beauty – Golden bronze with a brown under-tone [great for Olive and black skin tones]

Thalia – Greek Goddess of poetry – Warm bronze with a gold under-tone [looks beautiful on medium skin tones]

Bebhionn – Irish Goddess of pleasure – Light bronze with a pink under-tone [beautiful on pale skin]

The official launch for this product, in all stores and online, is 13th July. However, lucky Selfridges Trafford will have an exclusive and will launch a week earlier! Adam Sidwell will be up to demonstrate the product on two gorgeous models [one boy, one girl] who will be dressed as exotic Sirens...