Illamasqua Empower Palette

Yay we are getting a new makeup brand very very soon!! For those who hadn’t heard, Illasmaqua will be opening at Robinson’s Orchard (at Heeren Shopping Center) in a couple of weeks!! This famed UK brand has made its mark on the beauty world by making professional-quality makeup with bold, avant-garde looks, available at an accessible price point. Think MAC UK-style.

I’ve been wanting to try Illamasqua for the longest time, but I found it impossible to pick a handful of products from the vast variety Illamasqua had to offer, least of all off the Internet. So, I was ecstatic when I stumbled upon the Illmasqua counter in Bangkok last week. On my first visit to the counter, I was totally overwhelmed, and went away empty handed. But when I found myself back in Central Chidlom during my final hour, I abandoned all reasoning, and just went with my instincts. I wanted to try an eye palette just to get a sense for the quality, and I picked entirely based on instant attraction, no pre-conceived notions based on previous reviews or what’s the latest, etc. And I picked the Empower Palette.

Illamasqua’s Empower Palette consists of 4 eyeshadow shades in 4 different textures. Clockwise from top left:

• Blink – a matte beige which is fairly soft and well pigmented
• Synth – iridescent light pink glitter, is slightly on the dry side but well pigmented
• Slick – this is a Liquid Metal, i.e. a metallic cream shadow, which photographs quite differently under different lighting. It is a metallic charcoal gray but could look both dark blue-ish and red-tinged depending on how you look at it.
• Fervent – reddish brown with multi-tonal shimmers. This is my favorite shade, and the reason I chose Empower!

Here is a swatch to give you an idea of how the colors really look on my skin.

I found Blink to pretty much disappear into my lids once applied, and thus acts as an all-over base. Synth is lovely, and shows up well but is easily dupeable. Slick is absolutely stunning, and blends like a dream. Fervent was the most disappointing – I tried applying it as a liner on my lower lid, but I simply couldn’t get any color to show up! All I managed to achieve was a light grey metallic shadow instead of the dark, bold color that swatched on my arm. I tried applying it all over my lid as a dark base too and I simply couldn’t get any color down! I think the only way to get this to work is to use a finger (which is the way I swatched them above), which is quite sad really.

The above EOTD was created using Blink as a base all over, Synth on the inner half of my lid, and Slick on the outer half. I also lined using my NYX black liquid liner along the lash line, but I tried to smudge it with Fervent without much success.  My apologies for the clumpy lashes *yikes!*

And here is a 2nd EOTD that I experimented with.  This time, I primed my lids with NARS Pro-Prime Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base first.  I then dabbed Fervent along the lower half of my lid with my finger, then I patted Slick over the top half of my lid, and finally dusted Synth above.  My apologies for the blurry image, I will try to get a better photo later today!  NARS Pro-Prime extended the wear of my eyeshadow, but there is still noticeable creasing (just less) by the 6-hour mark.

I’m not sure yet how Illamasqua will price the eyeshadow palettes locally, but they retail for GBP34 (about SGD68). I managed to get Empower from Bangkok for about SGD66 (after VAT and other prevailing discounts). Overall, I liked Illamasqua Empower Palette – I am really digging dark bronze-browns and metallic hues for this upcoming holiday season, and you will *hopefully* be seeing a lot of those here in the months to come! Quality-wise, I think it is fair for the price point (it is afterall, only SGD66!!), and I loved the variety of textures and shades in the palette. I’m not crazy over the bulky plastic compact it comes in, and I wished Fervent was much easier to work with. I will keep playing with this over the coming days, and update if I discover anything new. And a final note, Empower lasted about 6 hours on me before I noticed creasing and fading, so a good primer is a must if you’re planning to wear this for a long day out.

xoxo

If you’re interested in more Illamasqua items, please check out my review on Illamasqua’s S.O.P.H.I.E. Powder Blush here.