Illamasqua Generation Q Complement Palette.

I don't think its much of a secret that my favourite brand of make up is Illamasqua. When I discovered it a couple of years ago, I fell in love with the philosophy, the colours, the textures and all of the products I've bought since.

So far, this year, I've attended three Illamasqua classes and have failed to write up two of them. The first was about the Human Fundamentalism collection and met Spob O'Brien (head of Professional development) and Mika Johnson (key artist, Illamasqua art team). The second was on making up black skin where I learned so much about the different tones of skin and how to get a perfect finish. This class was headed by David Horne (Director of new product development and School of make up art). The third was about the new Generation Q collection and was headed by Adam John (Illamasqua Trainer for all new members of staff) at Precious About Make-up in Hammersmith. The video below shows Adam working his Illamsaqua magic.

Adam introduced us to the Generation Q collection and explained that it had been formulated especially for the older person with satin finishes rather than full on glittery shimmer for eyes and a creamier formulation for the lipsticks enriched with Vitamin E.

Too much shimmer on the lids can make them look more crinkled than they really are and so most make up counters give older women plain matte flat beige eyeshadow rather than what they really want to buy. However, too much matte can also make the wrinkles look worse than they are as well.  As Adam said, these women grew up with glamour, colour and shine in the 60s, 70s and 80s with brands like Biba so showing them that they can still wear the colours they want without emphasising the bits that they want to tone down, hence satin finishes.

He then demonstrated the new palettes on a model so we could see exactly what can be done with them and explained how to adapt it for all ages. Whilst doing this, he answered a few questions and gave a few tips to get a fantastic finish;

When powdering over cream blush to set it, mix the tiniest amount of a powder highlighter into the setting powder to keep the dewyness of the blush. It stops it all looking matte and flat.

When applying make up to the eyes and face, think of it all as a set of 'positive triangles' (all pointing upwards towards the temples, hairline and ears. This stops all the highlighting, contouring and shadow from dragging everything down. Also, when figuring out where to end the eyeshadow, use the end of a long handled brush to determine where your eyebrows end and use that line as a guide to end the shadow (making sure it blends upwards like a positive triangle).

Don't merely think of products having a specific use - use cream blush as lipstick, lipstick as cream blush, a very pale foundation as highlighter, a dark foundation as a contour etc. I remember David Horne talking about this as well - he used lip gloss on the eyes to add shine and change the entire look all over. It does stay on if you powder, add the gloss and add powder again.

Clockwise from top left - Powder eyeshadow in Slink, Liquid Metal in Focus, Powder eyeshadows in Queen of the Night and  finally, Forgiveness.

So on to the make up. I went for the Complement Palette because I'm naturally attracted to dark colours for my eyes. I will be getting the Empower Palette and the Gleam highlighter next week so keep an eye out.

It consists of 4 shadows, one cream, one shimmery, one matte and one satin formula. The cream is a slightly shimmery (without being too glittery) dark brown shade called Focus that works amazingly on its own or as a base for a smokey eye using the other colours. The high shimmer is a pale champagne highlighter colour called Slink for the browbone and inner corner. It can also be used on the cheekbone and cupid bow as a highlighter.

Forgiveness, Slink, Focus, Queen of the Night. Lipstick is Eurydice. 

All the colours look brownish on my hand - top 3 l-r Forgiveness, Slink, Queen of the Night. Bottom - Focus.

The matte shadow is a beautiful dark almost chocolatey pink shade called Forgiveness and is perfect to contour the socket or blend over the cream to create a deeper chocolate pink. The satin finish shadow is a rich dark purple with a hint of shimmer but not overpowering called Queen of the Night. Again, it can be used alone, in the socket and to create a smokey eye with the others.

Overall, this is a wonderful dark palette that makes for some serious smoking eyes on a person of any age. The colours blend well together and can be all used alone or all together day or night.

See the Generation Q collection here.

 See the Generation Q interactive lookbook here and more of Adam John demoing the products.

See Eyeliner and Spraypaint's post on the masterclass here.  She remembered loads more than me and also has pics of inside Precious About Makeup.

Visit Precious About Make Up here.

The Tangle Teezer.

This brush is the best hair brush in the world. I could just leave it at that but the statement needs qualifying. So, this is the best brush in the world because it took out every single tangle, knot and tat out of my hip length hair. I hadn't been able to brush or comb my hair for the past week because I've been rather ill and Scot was scared to do it for me in case he really hurt me.

I was considering getting it cut off but read about the Tangle Teezer on a Facebook group and bought one today when I saw it in Boots. I tried it out and lordy does it deliver on the promise it makes. It really does slip through the tats like a hot knife through butter. Of course, you do have to section your hair off (especially if it is as long and as thick as mine) and work through it that way. Highly recommended for anyone with tangly hair, especially small children. I wish it was available when I was a kid and had to endure my mother ripping through my hair every day.

The Tangle Teezer was designed by one Shaun Pulfrey, a colour technician (A hairdresser who specialises in colour), who upon seeing that some hairdressers had trouble combing out freshly coloured/highlighted hair, decided something needed to be done about it. He spent years perfecting the design so that the brush would glide over and gently untangle the hair, wet or dry, without making more knots or getting stuck.

He went to Dragon's Den to try to raise funding to get the brush manufactured on a larger scale, offering 15% of the profits but they rejected his idea with one saying it was a 'hare-brained idea' (Baboom-tish). Undeterred, Shaun managed to raise alternatives funds (re-mortgaging his flat, according to the Daily Mail) and Boots agreed to stock them. It now sells in over 27 countries.

What it does

It untangles dry and wet hair with little to no effort and pain. Start from the ends and work your way up to the roots.

 Also useful for combing (well brushing really) conditioner through the lengths when washing hair.

What it doesn't do

It does not hold up to heat well so cannot be used for drying hair. It will melt into your hair and require scissors to remove. Don't put it on a radiator to dry either.

Tangle Teezer website

(I am not affiliated with the company in any way, shape or form.)


Mine cost £10.99 from Boots. I'm going to get the leopard print one next time.

Stila Wonderful in Wakiki and Striking in South Beach Palettes.

When I first became very interested in higher end make up, Stila seemed to be the brand to go for way back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Every women's mag and early bloggers raved about them for being so fresh and daring compared to the older, more established brands such as Estee Lauder and Clinique. The Lip Glazes and Lip and Cheek Tints were particularly different to what had come before, especially since you could use the Convertible Colour on both lips and cheeks. Yes, we were easily pleased back then. A product that could be used as both lipstick and blusher? Amazing. Well, it was to us. Nowadays, most brands offer multi-purpose products, none more so than Illamasqua who say most of their products can be used anywhere on the face and body.

Anyway, Stila was created by Jeanine Lobell in 1994 after a friend was selling private label make up in her shop. Jeanine decided that it could be done from scratch rather than just putting her name to private label. As for the name, Stila, "We kind of just made up the name, Stila. It sounds kind of like 'Stil' in Swedish which means 'style'."

She then researched factory after factory which could make the make up she wanted in a small quantity that she and her friend Allison could afford. After a lot of knock-backs, she was directed to a small factory who could make what she needed. However, they could not afford the moulds for lipsticks and did not like the basic stock packaging so came up with the idea of making them from paper. (Unfortunately, Stila doesn't make a normal lipstick any more and my Google-fu seems to be borked so can't show you a pic of what they used to be like back then.)

Instead of photographs, illustrations were used because Jeanine couldn't afford modelling fees.

With the packaging sorted, the factory went into production and the brand was sold in one shop. When Jeanine realised that the quantity that they had ordered wasn't going to sell fast, she

tramped around every big department store and boutique hustling her Stila brand. Barney's loved the brand "When Barney's likes it, you're 'Okay, we're going to be fine.'" From there, the brand went to Sephora, Nordstrom and to Japan.

After five years of success, Estee Lauder came calling and offered to buy up Stila. Other companies had tried to buy them out but Jeanine kept backing out. However, Leonard Lauder called her personally and after realising that she couldn't deal with the huge responsibility of leading such a large team of warehouse workers, counter staff and artists, she sold to Lauder.

Lauder then sold Stila to Sun Capital Partners in 2006 and the brand was pulled out of the UK because it was sold on Lauder owned counters. In 2009, Stila was sold on to Patriarch Partners/Lyn Tilton in 2009 and has now found its way back to the UK.

Today, Jeanine is a freelance make up artist. She was partner and creative director at Kevyn Aucoin. She has worked with a range of celeb clients such as Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams. She has worked with countless magazines and photographers - Bruce Weber and Annie Leibowitz to name but two. She's married to the actor Anthony Edwards and has 2 children. She lives in New York at the moment and has lived in Sweden, the UK and France. Before becoming a make up artist, she was a mime actor in France.

~*~

I bought two Stila palettes last week - Wonderful in Wakiki and Striking in South Beach.

Top - Striking in South Beach. Bottom - Wonderful in Wakiki.

I'm in the process of building my kit up with beautiful products that work and I remembered from the early 2000's that I oved the Stila brand and that their products just worked. I don't have a lot of money so these two palettes have exactly what I need for the princely sum of £10 each. £10!

Both palettes contain 4 shadows (all shimmer, some more than others), a blusher and a bronzer. They're very finely milled and go on easily. One shadow in both palettes is rather sheer so needs to be built up (Ocean Drive in South Beach and Wahine in Wakiki). The darker colours are very pigmented so there's an instant colour pay-off. My favourite shade out of both palettes is the fantastic blue colour, Surf. Because of the high pigmentation, the shadow colours are fab for all skin tones. I'll be using both palettes for Asian Bridal make up.

The blusher and bronzer in the South Beach palette are pink toned and in the Wakiki palette, they're peachy toned.

Top Left shadow - Wave. Top Right shadow - Cabana.

Bottom Left shadow - Ocean Drive. Bottom Right shadow - Nightlife.

Blusher (on left) Art Deco. Bronzer, Sobe.

Top Left shadow - Sarong. Top right shadow - Surf.

Bottom left shadow - Wahine. Bottom right Shadow - Coconut.

Blusher (on left) North Shore. Bronzer (on right) Hanauma Bay.

I feel that the bronzers are a little too pale to be used as all over bronzer on darker skin

tones so best for contouring the cheeks and temples. You may disagree, though.

Not very good at doing swatches but I hope you get the idea.

Ocean Drive

Wave

Nightlife, Cabana

Art Deco, Sobe.

Hanauma Bay, North Shore.

Coconut, Sarong.

Wahine.

Surf.

Do you have any Stila products? Are they a favourite or do you dislike them? Do you remember them from when they were created in the 90's?

(I paid for these with my own money and can scan the receipts if need be.)