All of the shades in this product are very rich and are mostly deep or bright shades. I wanted to get a feel of the shade range and therefore I bought both a medium-toned neutral and a deep true red shade. "Let your lips speak volumes. Indulge in colour-intense lipstick with a highly pigmented formula, available in a choice of flawless finishes, from creamy matt to iridescent finishes. Illamasqua Lipstick glides on smoothly and doesn't give up without a fight for the perfect all-night pout. A must-have for professional make-up artists, and those who want to make a statement." The product description from the Illamasqua website does states that this product is best used in a nighttime makeup look, many of these shades are too much for use during the daytime, either for a casual look or a professional look.
It was hard to pick out only a few shades in this lipstick but I had to focus on shades that I would wear out at night instead of trying to buy shades that I will wear on a daily basis, it took a bit but I narrowed my choices down to Test and Maneater and ordered them both from the Sephora website. I loved Maneater when I tried it out and I liked Test but had I been able to buy these at the counter, I don't know that Test would have been one of my first choices. First we will look at the shade range and then go into some details about the shades that I bought. I choose to use the shade descriptions from the Illamasqua website since the Sephora descriptions have been off more than once...
- Wanton - warm lilac rose with matt finish
- Kontrol - blue violet with matt finish
- Atomic - fuchsia violet with matt finish
- Flare - bright orange with matt finish
- Disciple - deep navy with matt finish
- Submit - pale biscuit with matt finish
- Pristine - pure black with matt finish
- Growl - rich mahogany brown with matt finish
- Melt - warm gold nude with shimmer finish
- Sonnet - cool peachy nude with matt finish
- Test - soft pink chocolate with matt finish
- Brink - warm peachy pink with matt finish
- Climax - dusty rose pink with matt finish
- Plunge - bright mauve pink with matt finish
- Liv - soft lavender pink with matt finish
- Fable - bright rose pink with matt finish
- Obey - bright peachy pink with matt finish
- Scandal - warm coral pink with matt finish
- Over - bright coral pink with matt finish
- Perilous - bright apricot orange with matt finish
- Blaze - bright orange red with matt finish
- Howl - deep terracotta red with matt finish
- Tramp - classic rose red with matt finish
- Ignite - bright red orange with matt finish
- Encounter - classic brick red with matt finish
- Maneater - classic cherry red with matt finish
- Box - deep scarlet red with matt finish
- Drench - pink berry red with matt finish
- Salacious - raspberry red with matt finish
- Corrupt - warm bright pink with matt finish
- Resist - deep rose pink with matt finish
- Flicker - bright metallic bronze with shimmer finish
- Welt - deep magenta pink with matt finish
- Utopia - deep rich brown with shimmer finish
- Underworld - iridescent blueberry violet with shimmer finish
- Fetish - bright blueberry violet with matt finish
- Poison - rich burgundy brown with matt finish
- Diablo - dark wine red with matt finish
- Sangers - blood red with matt finish
- Trash - molten gold with shimmer finish
Some of these shades weren't labeled with the finish so I went off the picture on the website, all of which ended up having a matt or semi-matt finish. There seem to be many more shades on the Illamasqua website than I ever saw on the Sephora website so I am considering just ordering directly from Illamasqua instead of Sephora. Also, Illamasqua has just updates their website, making it much easier to navigate and the swatches on it are much improved. Both the shades that I bought were mattes, which it seems that most of the line is.
The first shade that I bought is Test, the soft pink chocolate shade with a matt finish. On the Sephora website, this was described as a "pink beige" and made me think that this would be good against strong eye makeup or for a more neutral day look. Yet again, the Illamasqua website's description was much more accurate. This shade is a very intense neutral pink, this is not office appropriate when worn at full pigmentation. This shade ended up being deeper than I originally thought it would be based on the photos that I saw of it. This shade is flattering and I do like it but it is best worn at night against a strong eye look. This is not a "sheer My-Lips-But-Better" shade but a full pigmentation pink nude, very Bridgette Bardot look. When I wear it at full pigmentation, it lasts for about hours before beginning to fade. This formula is slightly drying and I do need to apply lip balm over it every few hours, which I know shortens the wear time and is why I don't get the full eight hours that other people have gotten from it. To make it easier to wear in more situations, I apply a lip balm first and then dab this shade on, making it much sheerer and more work-appropriate however this takes the wear time down to about four hours maximum. This is the shade that I don't know if I would have bought had I been able to play with the products before buying, this shade wasn't quite what I had in mind when I ordered it. Don't get me wrong, I like the shade and will use it but I wasn't looking for something this bold in a neutral shade.
Maneater is the second shade that I ordered from the Sephora website, I love this shade and I am so glad that I bought this one. Maneater is a classic medium blue red matte and this is another great shade of red lipstick. Many of the same comments that I made on the wear of Test hold completely true for this shade, I need to use lip balm with this product which shortens the wear time to around five hours. This shade wears off better than Test though, it stains my lips to a nice red shade so it still appears as though I have color on. This is another shade that I sheer down with lip balm to make it easier to wear in daytime situations, this really shortens the wear down to less than three hours. I love red lipstick shades and I am so glad that I ordered this shade.
Based on my experience with these shades, I would be more likely to purchase more shades that are deeps and brights and that I plan to wear for a more dramatic lip look. When I was ordering these shades, I was also looking at Corrupt and Atomic for a bright pink lip look but I skipped over them for Test in hopes that I would get more use from Test. I know that if I had seen these in real life, I wouldn't have made that decision.
I really loved Maneater so I would start by collecting more red shades from this product line: Tramp, Encounter, Box, and Sangers are on my shopping list. After those, I would be interested in buying the brighter pinks, so I would go after Atomic, Corrupt, and Resist. The last shade that I really want is Climax, this is a matte dusty rose that I would get a lot of use from in the cool weather months.
This lipstick formula is best for when you want a dramatic lip look with full pigmentation, all the shades are very unique and not for the faint of heart. There are no sheer shades in this product so if you don't want a full lipstick look than this is not the brand for you. The formula was a bit drying so if you have dry lips then lip balm is a necessity with this product, it shortens the wear time but improves the lip look overall. This is a classic matte lipstick formula, once you apply it it will stay put through the next few hours and fade off gradually (leaving enough of a stain to still look as though you have color on your lips). This lipstick formula performs better than most others that I have tried, I would knock off a few points for the dryness of the texture but otherwise this is the perfect full pigmentation lip formula. I mostly use MAC Lipsticks and I found that the formula of the Illamasqua is much better however the shade range is very focused toward dramatic and bright shades, which will alienate a certain population of lipstick shoppers.
photo courtesy of Illamasqua
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