Illamasqua Transformation

Can't believe how late this post is! If you watched my Products of the Month video for October, you will have seen me talking about my Illamasqua 'transformation' that I had done at the new Liverpool store. I thought I'd share some photos as you can't really see the makeup very well in the video. It probably would have made sense for me to post this straight after I posted the video, but I never do things sensibly... ah well, better late than never, right?

In the same way you do at MAC, you can book in for a makeover at Illamasqua that costs £30 but is redeemable on products (ie you pay £30, they do your makeup and then you get £30 worth of products), however, in the week or so after the new Liverpool store had opened, they were doing makeovers, or 'transformations' for free. Since I never, ever get my makeup done professionally, I decided to book in for a half hour session one Saturday afternoon. I had my makeup done by the very lovely Patrick (who also did my eyelashes at the launch event) who had a quick chat with me first about what I wanted. I told him I was going out that evening, so the makeup could be quite dramatic, but I hadn't actually decided what I was wearing so it needed to be in colours that would go with most things. We decided brown would be the best option and Patrick got to work...

To be honest, I wear browns and golds quite a lot anyway, so was a little bit worried that Patrick might end up doing something similar to what I'd do myself, which would have been a bit pointless; I wanted a completely new look. Fortunately, I got just that. I never ever wing out my eyeshadow as much as this, and I never wear that much shadow under the eye either. I also tend to stick to very light/neutral colours on my eyelid and usually only use darker colours on the outer corners, however Patrick went quite dark all over, then used some lovely shimmery pigments over the top of the shadow, which I loved.

He also used the new Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation, which is amazing and left my skin looking flawless. I don't normally feel the need to wear foundation - I currently don't own a single bottle of the stuff - however, now that the weather's so horrible, I feel like my skin needs a bit of extra help and I'm very tempted to buy some Skin Base when I've got some spare pennies.

As my appointment had been quite early in the afternoon, I was a bit worried that it wouldn't last right through to the evening, but I was pleasantly surprised. Patrick had used a primer on both my eyes and skin which helped everything to last for ages. The lipstick and lipgloss that Patrick put on me lasted a couple of hours then I had to apply some of my own before I went out in the evening, but I think that's to be expected really; lip products never last very long on me anyway.

Even though I was under no obligation to purchase anything as it was a free makeover, I couldn't help but leave with a little something.

Illamasqua Pure Pigment in Ore

This is one of the products that Lucy and I went bananas over at the launch event - it's a very gorgeous browny/goldy/khaki-ish colour (don't I describe things brilliantly?!) that would be very flattering on any eye colour and is exactly the sort of shade I love. Also, I don't think I can emphasise how sparkly this product is; I own shimmery and glittery shadows and pigments but honestly, this is just something else altogether! As soon as the light hits it, it just glistens! So beautiful, I LOVE IT!

The top one was blended, the bottom was patted on with an eyeshadow brush

I've probably said it before, but I HATE doing swatch pictures, so apologies that this isn't great, but I did take loads and this was the best of a bad bunch. I honestly don't know how some beauty bloggers have the patience to swatch every item they review - it takes such a long time to actually get a good photo! Anyway, the sparkliness isn't actually showing up enough in this picture - imagine that level of sparkle multiplied by about a thousand. It's amazing. The Pure Pigments cost £15.50 each, which may seem a bit much (especially when my beloved Sleek palettes cost about £6 and you get twelve colours in them), but it is such a lovely product so I think you can justify that kind of price for an occasional treat. Plus you do get a lot of product and a little bit goes a long way, so I've got a feeling this will be in my makeup bag for ages.

All in all, I'm so glad I went and had a transformation - it was so fun having someone else do my makeup and give me a look I'd never do myself and I received some lovely compliments that evening! I think there's a good chance that any money I get at Christmas may just go on another trip to Illamasqua!

Have you ever had a makeover? Would you do it again? Are you keen to experiment with makeup or do you tend to stick to the same looks?