Illamasqua Paranormal Collection

It's Friday!! Looking forward to the weekend? My boyfriend and I are throwing a rooftop BBQ party tomorrow as a housewarming for our Penthouse. Got the kegs of beer ordered, and right now I've got about 6kg of potatoes boiling away for a potato salad. Slaving away over a hot stove in the summer, oh dear...

Anyway, I thought I'd get a break from the party preparations by showing you some pieces of the new Illamasqua Paranormal collection that is out now. You can view the entire collection and some instructional videos on the Illamasqua website - here.

First up the Paranormal Palette (Price: £34)

Illamasqua describes this as "A unique water-resistant eyeshadow that can't decide if it's a cream or a shadow. Instead it combines the best of both worlds, delivering the textured silky appearance of a powder, but with the deep color wash of a cream."

I played around with this briefly and I'd say that description is pretty accurate. At first I couldn't tell if it was a cream or a powder eyeshadow and it's a very unique texture, one I personally haven't seen before. The pigmentation is nice, but I haven't actually worn this on my eyes yet so I can't make any claims on its longevity, creasing, smudging, fading and the like. I'm really keen to try this out because I think it's pretty neat! The colors are also really bold and fun for summer.



Illamasqua Gleam in Supernatural (Price: £18)

This is a cream product that can be used for bronzing, blushing, and maybe even highlighting on darker skin tones. It has a pearlescent finish that can really give you that beautiful glowing, dewy finish on your cheeks. For me personally, this shade is pretty intense - maybe a bit too dark for fair skin tones, but I can imagine this to look really beautiful on darker or very tanned skin. Since I don't do much tanning (just say no to future wrinkles) I don't know how much use I will personally get out of it, but the product itself is nice.




Illamasqua Lipsticks in Posture (L) and Esp (R) (Price: £16.50)

When I saw the lipstick Esp (pictured on the right) I was so excited: Intense, vivid Purple!! Egad!!! Both lipsticks have a matte finish. Esp seemed right up my alley, Posture - however - makes me look zombie-fied, or like a corpse. Super unflattering on fair skin, in my opinion at least.

Also, both lipsticks have an extremely dry, sort of chalky texture. It's really hard to get an even, smooth color payoff because they don't glide on very well at all. Posture just looked quite strange on me overall, and Esp was hard to work with. I might put up with it anyway because the color is so unique. I think it's probably really difficult to make a lipstick out of purple pigment, because pretty much every purple lipstick I own or have tried has some kind of issues. Either the color is patchy, or doesn't spread evenly.

Swatches of Esp, Posture and Gleam in Supernatural.

Precision Gel Liner in Infinity (Price: £18) and Hydra Veil (Price: £27)

First up, the gel liner I haven't tried yet so I can't make statements about it. It's a black gel eyeliner.

The Hydra Veil is another unique, new product, one I haven't seen before yet on the market. When you open the jar, you are met with a completely transparent jelly, which moves exactly like Jell-O in the tub. Very funny! There's a little scoop applicator which you can use to get some of the product out, and when you rub it onto your skin, it turns into a super fast absorbing gel, almost like water. This is supposed to be a hydrating gel that you can use as a base before make-up. It has a beautiful light texture, and feels very refreshing on your face and absorbs fast. I don't think it can replace a good moisturizer completely, especially if you have dry skin, but as far as primers go it's quite nice. I think I will have to try this out a bit more, I'm very intrigued!


Overall I think it's a very interesting and innovative collection, and aside from the troubles I had with the texture of the lipsticks, I'm really looking forward to using everything a bit more. Are there any pieces here that have caught your eye and that you might pick up?

For more information and online shop: Illamasqua.com

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