The name of Illamasqua’s newest collection, ‘I’mperfection‘, must not be taken in a negative context. In fact, even though it may be a reference to the things we may not like about ourselves, or that society deems “unattractive”, the name was chosen to celebrate all the things that make us unique and beautiful. Now this may sound a bit fluffy, but the sentiment is apt. In the cosmetically driven culture that we live in, where we can easily buy a product to cover up and mask so-called flaws, the Imperfection range is encouraging us to show them to the world. Illamasqua Myer makeup artist Rebecca Romanin puts it cutely when she says “you cant spell Imperfection without ‘I’m perfect’”, which sums up the message of the range.
Rebecca used various products from the new collection, which is full of exciting new toys and new concepts, to demonstrate easy looks that can take you from an after work drink to a glam night out with friends.
Rebecca started the look using the a matte primer followed by the Skin Base Foundation ($41). The Skin Base has a fantastic light and dewy finish that gives skin the appearance of even-better skin, than of obvious and heavy makeup. Rebecca suggests to make the foundation even more sheer, mix it with primer. The emphasis on going sheer is to embrace current mantra of showing off imperfections. Instead of hiding freckles or a birthmark, let them come through makeup to show your “true face”. The only things that should be covered are aspects that take away from your natural beauty, such as transitory imperfections, like a blemish or tired eyes. Next step is to conceal these aspects if any. Then to amp up the look, Skin Base Au ($41) was added to cheeks using the amazing highlighter brush ($44) to add a touch of bronze and a subtle gold shimmer. To add even more glow, Rebecca used Gleam ($28) the amazing cream highlighter, on cheeks, brow and cupids bow. The base was then set using a translucent powder all over the face.
The Imperfection collection features two new blush duos, Ambition and Katie ($41), and one exciting new toy: The Blush Up brush ($38). This brush is specifically designed to aid women in applying blush easily and flawlessly. Using the brush and the new blush duos, take the darker shade and use the brush to deposit colour just under the cheekbone. Then using a regular blush brush, you can deposit the lighter colour just above the darker colour on the cheekbones and blend. This creates and multi-dimensional contoured blush rather than your typical “rosy” look and is basically fool-proof.
Next, Rebecca filled in brows with another fantastic product. The Eyebrow Cake in Motto ($23) which is a fantastic grey brown shade that blends perfectly for almost every eyebrow colour.
For eyes Rebecca chose a bronze shade on the lid, then lined the eye with the Sophie pencil liner ($20) which is a dark black waxy liner. The liner was set with black eyeshadow in Obsidian ($24) which was blended along the lash line. To create a more glamourous look Rebecca then used the same shadow to blend up towards the crease but only in the outer corners of the eye. She then used the Precision Ink felt tip eye liner pen in Abyss, a gloss black ($26), to apply winged eyeliner. The look was finished off with a coat of mascara and an application of Illamasqua’s newest lipshade, Immodest ($25), which is a bright pink matte lip colour, perfect for a night on the town.
If Immodest is a bit to loud for your tastes, let me introduce you to “Mixology”, Illamasqua’s newest term, and the future direction of cosmetics. Have you been staring at the new bright green lipgloss in store and wondering if it’s really your colour? It has another purpose. A small drop of this gloss mixed to your bright pinks and reds, mutes the colours to a more subdued and wearable shade for those who may not be so daring. The photo below shows the effect of applying the green gloss (top colour) to the Immodest lip colour (bottom colour) to produce a darker and more subtle lip colour with berry tones.
To step up your party looks and take this makeup to the next level try adding the metallic loose pigment eyeshadow to your look. We love bright gold Ore and more champagne coloured, Furore ($26 each). A bit of this on eyelids or in the inner corners of the eye will make your look the centre of attention. Another standout, for the party girl in you, is the Precision Ink ($26) in Alchemy, a bright gold or Wisdom, which is a fabulous and intense black gold. In lip colour; finish off any look with the highly pigmented Intense Lip Gloss in Move or Frenzy ($22)
Keeping in theme with the new collection, Rebecca chose to accent and highlight a small scar in our model Mel’s eyebrow, which went against everyone’s better judgement and horrified Mel. However, in the end, we all were quite fond of the scar and I think even Mel may have begun to embrace her “I’mperfection”.
The new I’mperfection range is available now at Illamasqua counters in MYER (selected stores only).
Special thanks to Illamasqua and Tailormaid.
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