Colour Me Pretty.

Three weeks ago (yes, that is how backlogged I am when it comes to blogging), I had the pleasure of going to an Illamasqua masterclass held by the make up maestro Nicola Burford.

Illamasqua is a London brand that celebrates the "alternative"in us all. Heavily influenced by the hedonism and underground vibe of the 1920s, their makeup gives you a platform to be truly dramatic and self-expressive. 

For the Myer S/S 2011 show. Theme: Golden Goddess.

The class was, in one word, awesome. Nicola was so generous, giving many little make-up tricks and encouraging us all to make full use of the statement trends this season: i.e. dramatic and colourful eyes, cheeks, and lips.  Colour blocking is not only a hot trend in fashion, but in makeup too!

The most important philosophy that I took away from the class was that any colour combination can work well together - all you have to do (MUST do) is make sure the undertones of the colours and shades that you use match with each other, and for the love of all things beautiful, the shades must complement your overall skin undertone. For example, I have a cooler undertone, and I had never thought to use a green eyeshadow, mostly due to the fact that I didn't want to resemble some cheap Australian green & yellow (read: Asian skintone) merchandise you can get at the $2 shop. Oh, how wrong I was. The only trick is to find the RIGHT shade of green - and luckily, the bright colour trend that is the rage at the moment meant that I had a lot of cool shades to choose from. 

Nicola in her element, with the beautiful model Charlie (sp?). Photo courtesy of Miss Adeline

Frances, one of the lovely people from the Illamasqua counter at Myer Sydney, not only recommended that I use a green eyeshadow, but matched it with a baby pink lipstick, and a subtle orange blush!

Product Roll Call

Foundation: Skin Base in No. 7

Gleam Cream (for a little sparkle)

Eye Shadow: Dare

Eye Pencil: Whiplash 

Eye Shadow: Slink (used as highlighter above cheeks)

Powder Blush: Lover

Lipstick: Liv

Lip Pencil: Bait
Lip gloss: Divine (sheer)

Mascara: Harness

Ta-da! Here are the results (photos courtesy of Miss Adeline from Through Beauty Eyes as I was negligent and forgot to bring my camera): 

Before you experiment with colour blocking your makeup, make sure that the colours you choose match your outfit. This is a very important but oft ignored step. As you can see in the pictures above, I was wearing neutral colours that day - so Nicola recommended that I use more pastel brights. My friend, Adeline, was wearing more bright colours, so dramatic colours like orange and electric blue worked well with her outfit. 

I ended up purchasing the Skin Base (oh-my-god-best-foundation-ever), eye shadow and eye pencil, despite my (poorly upheld) shopping ban. Thank you Nicola and the Illamasqua team for such a great time! xx.