illamasqua's skin base review

hello!

let me start off by saying that illamasqua is my favourite cosmetic company out there, and has been since it begun - i was in london two years ago around when it started and had the pleasure of attending a masterclass with alex box and the counter staff at selfridges. i use brink almost every time i do my face, and loiter around the robina booth every time i go to myer, even though i've swatched, stared at and salivated over every product on display at least thrice.

i've been using foundation samples for months. i've been fiending, if you will, for a good one. one with medium coverage, buildable, neither matte nor overly shiny, and water- or silicon-based. skin base ticks all the boxes. i got it on the day it came out, after finding my shade with the lovely man at the robina booth, and i've been wearing it since.

 

i adjusted these in iphoto to try to show exactly what kind of coverage it provides. here are my impressions so far.

when i got to get my shade match, the artist applied it with a foundation brush and buffed that over with the stippling brush. in the past, whenever i've had my face done with a brush, it ends up looking cakey after five minutes. i don't know if the difference was from the foundation or illamasqua's stippling brush, but it was fantastic. it didn't settle in to any lines or blemishes, and didn't look like a mask. this is the first time that has happened when i've had my face done. it lasted until right before bed, only needed powder after about 8-10 hours of wear, and didn't give me that choked feeling that some foundations do. this was also without a primer.

the days following on have been a lot of the same - i use a face of australia primer and apply with my fingers. quite light coverage. you only need an amount the size of a pea for some terrific colour correction. one thing to mention also is that this foundation sets quite quickly, and it's not the best to cover texture. if you're okay with that, it's a dream. it has no spf (the reason being that spf can throw back light from a camera's flash, causing your face to appear lighter in a photo) which i would prefer to have, living in australia and all, but i can completely see why they chose to leave it out.

here you can see the dark patch on my cheek - this is probably the lightest coverage skin base can provide.

skin base also works as a concealer and is said to need no primer. illamasqua does, however, make two very good primers for either a satin or matte finish if you prefer to use one. skin base retails in australia for $65 and can either be bought from certain myer stores or at their website.

(face: clinique stick concealer, illamasqua skin base in no. 9, m.a.c. mineralise skinfinish natural in medium plus. eyes: lancome eyeshadows from a palette, red gel eyeliner from ebay, milani stick eyeliner, clinique high impact mascara, fyrinnae half-elf hottie eyeshadow as highlight. cheeks: estee lauder blush, lancome brown eyeshadow on a blemish to make it into a beauty mark. lips: lip balm & illamasqua's brink)

late faces

lipstick on my holy grail

i suppose this is a review.

these are the three greatest lip products i own at the moment. they are a pink lipstick, a red lipstick/liner, and a neutralising green. the first i have to talk about is illamasqua's brink.

i use brink almost every time i wear makeup. when i first got it, amazingly, i regretted buying it. this is not a lipstick that was supposed to be used the way most people use lipstick, if that makes any sense. it's incredibly matte. almost chalk-like, if you apply it straight to your lips. but it's downright amazing, and here's why:

• it falls somewhere in between pink and coral. the kind of colour that can be worn in the day and at night. the best way to describe its brightness would be 'neutralised neon'.
• because it's so matte, when you apply it, it will last all day. for this same reason it looks fantastic as a blush. it's also fine for mixing with glosses, eyeshadows and other lipsticks, and works well as an anchor for colour or placement. i've even used it on my eyelids in lieu of a creme shadow.

the second is a smashbox doubletake lip pencil in the colour 'cranberry'. why:

• both ends work on their own as a lipstick, one as a matte and one as something resembling a creme but leaning matte - these are the sort of lip products i prefer as you can always add glitter or shine if needed. the pencil side anchors very well, and is more berry-toned where the lipstick side is blue-toned. the only downside is the size of the pencil, i had to go out and buy a sharpener just to accomodate for it. you don't need a brush for these because their texture is fine, and they're pointed enough even at their most dull to get a nice line.

the very last and one of the most amazing: occ lip tar in lo-fi.

• yes, it's basically lime, and no, you don't need to use it on its own, although i have and it looks quite nice. i think everyone who's vaguely serious about make-up should use something like this. it  will neutralise red tones - the tiniest bit, mixed with clear gloss, makes the most natural-looking nude lip imaginable. on me, at least - i have quite pink lips naturally. it also helps tone down any lipstick and you need less than, let's lay, three grains of sand to do so. it's matte unless you slather it on. occ's lip tars are made of castor seed oil, hemp oil and peppermint oil, with some vitamin e and a dye/oxide/mica, depending on which colour it is. it's liquid, but unless you get the clear one, this is not something that should be applied like a typical gloss. a little goes a long, long, long way.
• here's a really charming picture of me wearing it

so! the prices of these (australian dollars) are $39 for illamasqua's brink (although i bought it in england at a redeemable class),  something around $30 for the smashbox lip pencil/lipstick - although you can buy their nude pencil/apricot lip version on ebay for $5 - and between $12 to $18 for the lip tar. i got mine from makeup & glow, a sort of makeup artists' emporium in brisbane, but you can also order from occ's website if you don't mind waiting, plus there is a list of all their australian stockists on there.

what i'm getting up to this winter

reinforcing values, collectivising, searching to become comfortable with myself, singing an ode to solitude to a group of friends, comix as therapy, reading, audio video.

makeup, a chronicle

when i was like, seventeen, i thought i was really great at makeup. looking back i don't so much hate myself, i'm just really disappointed, in a parent's way where it hurts so much more. this is what my makeup was like for formal, a year and a half ago:

the lips are a really unflattering shape and my eyebrows aren't even brushed but i guess it's okay.

i used to have a cream illamasqua foundation that was shades too light for me and overly thick. i think this is the only picture i have wearing it? perhaps not. the finish was fine, but i don't ever wear creams because they feel so heavy and i don't need that much coverage texture-wise.

this is from yeeears ago at a friend's birthday, i went as a glam rocktopus. i was wearing it here. it's since been stolen. all the colours are da vinci micas - the lips are a calvin klein red lippy (also stolen) with a blue da vinci pigment over.

 this was the day i got illamasqua's gender lipgloss, i'd mixed it with something purple to make that lip. on my eyes it's the same double-lined wing that i did almost every day for ages (chameleon fine pigment by tkb trading with a black wing over it)

this is when libby did my makeup. i never wear anything silver, anywhere, but this was nice.

when i figured out how to do blush (it scared me for the longest time) and thought i was top shit. also, brows to the max.

wayyyy brighter in reality, but it didn't seem to pick up.

and that one time i was a chola

and that other time i read too much hellboy and decided to do an 'abe sapien look'

and that one time i got into 'hyper neutrals'

and then when i decided that going clubbing the night before a flight when i hadn't packed was a super idea

and that one time i thought death = glama

and that one time i got the occ lip tar in 'lo-fi' and thought it was the best ever (and still do)

when i did a really nice face and then my rat died.

when i contoured the fuck out of myself and then panicked and couldn't go the the party it was for.

when i hadn't done red lips in months.

when i realised my eyebrows are too thick to be covered by anything i own.

when i was really in to cake-face.

cool! i don't usually take pictures with anything other than photobooth just because it's easy, but yeah.

the brands i usually use are fyrinnae, illamasqua, bys, clinique, mac, and estee lauder.

cool shit (winter)

sometimes i have a good, but grandiose idea, and i sit on it. i don't do anything else creative because i think, 'hey, i should be working on that big idea,' and kind of procrastinate around that. fucken cunt ballerina hopefully helps to break this spell. also: it's getting nice and cool and i don't mind really, considering that 'cold' where i live is around fifteen degrees celsius, i.e. not actually that cold at all since it's meant to nearly be the middle of winter.

a poem

digress
regress
regret.

awooo

vanity

i did a lot of things today that are not important and found something out that is very much so.

• went to pizzey skate park with cheechie and watched 8-year olds on scooters and dropkick (but attractive) people my age on skateboards. then to the normal dog park to play with dogs.
• visited rob since he just got back from sydney. it is always good to talk to my dude bestie.
• did nice makeup, which i enjoyed even though having 'a face' on made me feel sick since i haven't been wearing makeup in a while. i figured out a way to line my eyes that is actually subtle and flattering. the first time ever.
• listened to a bunch of HIM songs. so much i got a headache.
• picked up mum and pixie the fat dog from the airport. pixie used to be my puppy until i moved from t.i. and then she became mum's replacement child. she's ancient and wheezy but still excitable. her real name is vulpix, after the pokemon. that was such a good decision.
• i could move sooner and it's very exciting but also forcing some unpleasant decisions. oh well.

optimism

god, this is just the best, isn't it? i'm sitting here on the floor, heater in front of me, multitasking by watching films/television (the girl with the dragon tattoo and jackass, respectively) and taking notes from this book. this amazing book: finland, cultural lone wolf, by richard d. lewis, linguist and finnophile. no-one bothering me, little dog asleep next to me, and hope ahead. i think corey is coming to understand my master plan and being a lot cooler and more accepting of it. when mum comes home he's going to live somewhere else for a little while so i can actually have some time with her. i watched a video about dogs saving the world and stopping crime. i have a full tank of petrol. i am well fed, warm, and stimulated. this is a good life.

tattoos, two.

dylan moran, as bernard black, on my arse cheek, with 'BRING MY MY LOLLY' as a sort of circular frame around him, like a stamp. the portrait is mid-yelp.

i grew up watching black books and frequently yell about lollies, so it fits. i have a lot of other tattoo ideas, and most likely, i'll act on two or three, tops. but i can still dream about sitting on the toilet and staring at my heavily illustrated thighs.

other ideas are: a lioness, for the strong women in my family. a portrait of frankenfurter. '¡ay coño!' because it's something my dad said while i was growing up and something i tend to say now - just above my pubic mound. a pencil, as drawn by faris badwan. 'sisu', maybe. and a shit ton of stick & pokes.

if i could i would have heavily tattoed thighs and perhaps arse as well. this is so i can enjoy the funsies of being tattooed, but if i don't want to, i can wear a skirt and no-one will be the wiser.

tattoos, one.

i'm young and i grew up watching all the 'ink' programs - miami ink, la ink, london ink and so on, as well as liking music/musicians associated with art and tattoos. so naturally, like a lot of other people my age, i wouldn't mind certain parts of my body being covered with them.

the inner lip tattoo that skinheads (and lately, youths of any vaguely 'alternative' group) tend to get? i've seen some good options - cake, dick, truth, even small pictures. all appropriate to the persons they're stuck on. i would like the flourishes elizabeth the first put on her letters.

she did this to stop spies from adding on to her letters, official announcements and important notes. she would cover entire pages, with simple scratches at first, which eventually led to the descending curves you can see in her signature above.

i would have these on my lip to show that no-one can twist my words. that what i say is what i mean.

phassshion

my dick boyfriend capped the internet so i can't play around for two weeks. i will use this time for phashion and makeup refinement.

(i say phashion because it's fun, but not majorly important. in the same way that i say mokop - this is not something that i feel should be vital in my life, as interesting as it is, because there are better and more important things to do)

some other fun things are:

• watching the art of spain
• dissembling and painting those two skateboards behind me in the first photo
• finding the measurements for the giant indent in the wall behind me and painting something illusory to fit
• scamming the library for wisdom and knowledge (comics and phashion books)
• making that comic-painting based on a poppy HIM song that i got obsessed over
• suitcase rummage on the 9th of july
• having some time alone with the rats
• chilling with the few friends i have on the coast
• refining and re-examining the master plan of moving south and having way more fun
• collecting all of the silver. all of it. every 5c coin.
• sunbathing in winter
• smelling great.

lilac lip

i got bored.

skin: make up store foundation sample, clinique stick concealer.

eyes: mac liquid concealer & mineralise skinfinish as base, clinique gold highlight on inner corner, estee lauder white on lids, very lightly. clinique high impact mascara.

lips: a mix of four. illamasqua intense lipgloss in 'gender', sheered with a clear gloss, mixed with fyrinnae's cupcake sprinkles eyeshadow. but it was too blue-toned, so i mixed illamasqua's brink with fyrinnae's sennyo and put that on top.

cheeks: estee lauder contour, with fyrinnae's enchant. i would have used a more orange-based blush but i don't own one.

mokop

face: a make up store foundation sample i've had for months, clinique concealer stick, mac liquid concealer.

eyes: fyrinnae half-elf hottie all over lid, estee lauder brown eyeshadow from palette in crease, tkb trading chameleon fine mica over a gold gel liner as wing, black gel liner following it. clinique mascara. high impact, i think?

lips: i did them over a lot, but this is a base of illamasqua's brink, with a shitty $2 purple lipstick on top. they look really overdone but that's only a little bit outside my real lip shape. okay.

cheeks: estee lauder blush/contour from palette.

wolle walo

i can't tell if my life is really great at this point. if i had done more things in the recent past, i would be really keen, but not so much since i spent the last year and a half essentially fucking around. i learned a lot of things that someone my age probably needs to 'grow up'. i don't have a peter pan complex, but i felt that at this point i would have got a lot more things done and i haven't. i am the kind of person that doesn't volunteer themselves for anything. i wait to be asked, and it really hasn't been beneficial so far. not so much achievements in terms of popular success, but more about feeling like i am on track and have accomplished something. i always feel like i haven't done my best or given enough, so i give nothing unless pushed. here is a list of things i like about ville valo, who i've been watching way too much of:

• baritone
• charming without grossly overdoing it/being a wanker.
• likes music i am too afraid to admit to liking/doesn't worry about saying 'i like them but not their band' without having people misconstrue his words.
• has a better command of english than most english people.
• you can tell he has an ego but he keeps it under check.
• cool guy. nice hair. grows my favourite beard.
• cares about poetvy and films and shit and has a lot of 'good' (correlating with mine) points of view on things that i haven't been able to talk to people about without feeling like a toddler.

okay.

makeup

i really like makeup. this is how i did my eyes every day for a while - quite a few months ago but i still like it, aside from the eyebrows.

recently i ran out of foundation and i've been looking for a new one - i used maybelline mousse for a while, which i like a lot; it's sort of medium coverage but it can be sheered down, goes on really nicely and lasts for a decent while. but i heard that high-end foundations are better, so when i ran out i went and got samples:

• chanel prolumiere
• m.a.c. satinfinish
• two bobbi brown foundations
• two stila foundations
• clinique
• estee lauder doublewear
• and i had a make up store sample from when i made friends with the lady working there.

this is what i wore today:

base: chanel prolumiere in 01 clair. it's a shade or two lighter than me. i tried the m.a.c. satinfinish but i think it had either oxidised or was just too dark/orange based, as every single foundation i've had from the mac booth has been also. they seem to always have one person who knows what she's doing and one that stands around and 'promotes the image'. but that's why i was white today: overcompensation. highlighted with fyrinnae's center stage on browbone, inner eye corner and cupid's bow.

eyes: da vinci pigment (i forget its name but it's a gorgeous gold-shimmered pink  loose powder), fyrinnae's sumatran tiger (i love this shadow so much. so much), fyrinnae's fyre & ice on the lashline. clinique mascara.

blush: fyrinnae's seduce and the little purple 'beauty mark' (red spot that wouldn't disappear) is fyrinnae's sennyo.

i had illamasqua's brink lipstick on my lips, sheered with a clear gloss, but these pictures were taken later in the evening and it had come off. that's why my eyebrows are so messy, i don't own a brow gel and they never stay put.

have a good day.