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.