Illamasqua Purple Smoke Eye Quad Review by Guest Blogger Helen from Just Nice Things

Hailing from the UK, I am very proud of some of our “home-grown” brands, of which Illamasqua is one. I’ve been interested in the company and its products ever since its birth in 2009, and have been lucky enough to attend various masterclasses, events and product launches. Indeed, I even had one of Illamasqua’s own make-up artists (the fabulous Halimah Haque) do my wedding make-up last year.

At the moment, everyone over here is getting pretty excited about the impending Spring/Summer 2011 collection (Toxic Nature), which will be previewed in the first week of March. It’s always exciting to see what Alex Box is going to come up with next, and from what I’ve heard of the new collection, we aren’t going to be disappointed. But in the meantime, let me show you one of my favourite items from the core collection.

Purple Smoke is an eye quad that I actually purchased at the IMATS expo last month. I love, love, love purples. In fact, show me a beauty blogger who says they don’t love purple, and I’ll show you a fibber. Although I’ll pretty much wear any old shade that takes my mood, I return to these colours more than anything else. More interesting than taupes and browns, and (just about!) subtle enough for work.

Clockwise from top left, the shades are: Machine (black with silver sparkle), Spectre (gorgeous white with pink flash), CanCan (lilac toned matte) and Fatal (deep purple matte). These colours work together beautifully to create an effortless smokey eye with a difference. It reminds me strongly of MAC’s (now discontinued) Team Violet, except it is a million times better value and easier to use.

Application is pretty good. I find that the matte shadows can be a bit hard. I use a lot of Nars eyeshadows and am used to the fallout from them, so it took me a while to pick up enough here to build it up. However, they are nice and pigmented and do build really easily with no fallout. My only complaint (and it is minimal) is that Machine, the black, is harder to control and does fade off after a while. Maybe I need to use it wet?

Confession time. I’m addicted to eyeshadow. It’s true. Although most people know me for being a nail blogger, I also have a serious Achilles heel for pretty or dramatic eyeshadows, and have drawers full of the things. Why? Well, awesome eyeshadow never makes you look fat, or stops fitting after you’ve overdone it on the pizza. It always cheers me up, and I have been known to spring out of bed (yes, really) on days when I’ve got something new to test out. It’s a slippery slope, it really is. I’m a bit apprehensive about showing my face here on Vampy Varnish – usually all you see of me is my hands. So be nice.

Thanks to Kelly for letting me do this guest post. I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my make-up collection. And as for my eyeshadow addiction? Just don’t tell my husband, eh? He’s only just coping with the nail varnish army that currently occupies our spare room…

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