Illamasqua Aftermath

You know when you’re just too keen to swatch and end up forgetting to photograph the products before diving in? Well, that’s what happened here. I love this new range from Illamasqua for autumn – it’s metallic with an extra edge but stays wearable by not being overpowering. If you never could get on board with blue lipstick, I think you will find that you can do marbled lips very well, because anyone can. Starting with the Metallic Eye Shadows, £17 (above) – these are a kind of bouncy formula that don’t translate as darkly as you expect. This is what makes them versatile because you can build, but if you really don’t want to go very deep olive or silver, they’re quite light on first application.

As you can see though, they give a great glisten. In the swatch it’s Superstitious, Enchantment and Hoard. They’re pictured here with both Broken Eye Gels, £19, in silver and gold. These are a water gel formula containing cracked foil to be used on cheekbones, inner eye corners or – anywhere! Although you get a shimmery effect, it’s done with some slightly larger shards of glitter in amongst tiny bits – they’re irregular and the ‘foil’ means they’re nothing like glitter ‘chunks’.

Weirdly, one has a brush applicator and one has a doe’s foot and no explanation why.

I love the Lava Lipsticks, £20, from this collection – particularly red with black marbling Rebirth in the centre. The thing about marbled lipsticks is that they don’t look as weird as you think they’re going to! And, each application will come out a little differently, if you can cope with unpredictability!

In the swatch, it’s Emanate, Rebirth and Tetonic. I think Aftermath is an exciting take on autumn with metal elements to make it burnished and lustred while colour seams in the lipstick give shaded and shadowed lips. Autumn is the most predictable beauty season full of ‘berry shades’ and it’s been that same berry line up since 1980! Rebirth has already sold out on the Selfridges and Beauty Bay and at the time of writing the only stock is at Illamasqua HERE.