Meet our new US Brand Ambassador!

For our international fans may we introduce Kim Anderson, our new US Brand Ambassador and how excited we are to have her on board! For all you lucky New Yorkers Kim is going to be the person to know; not only will she be overseeing the day to day running of Illamasqua in Sephora stores and offering brand support, she’ll be planning loads of amazing in store events across New York City. Excited much?

We thought to welcome her to the team and to get to know her we would drop her a line and ask a few important questions to get her settled into her new role. The only downside is that technology is so good we didn’t have a good enough excuse to fly over to New York to see her.

Kim, tell us about your training and background..

I started my makeup artist career around seven and a half years ago with Stila Cosmetics in New York City as a Business Manager, moving on to MAC before my freelance career began to grow. My most recent gig was as a part time instructor at MUD (Makeup Designory) School in New York City teaching Beauty 101 and Portfolio Development. I'm a self taught makeup artist...I decided that I was going to 'just do it'. I've always been enamoured with the art of transformation now I get to share it!

(Hair & Makeup by Kim Anderson, Photography by  Nevin Jethmalani)

We know your role is the US Brand Ambassador but what do you want to bring to the brand?

Well Illamasqua already has a lot! Though I particularly love the message of individuality and empowerment; I think I'd like to spread that around the US with a healthy dose of my own sassy charm.  I say we're makeup artists...because we 'make it up'. Letting women and men know it’s okay to do it your own way is my jam!

We’ve just launched a new Autumn/ Winter 2010 collection, The Art of Darkness, where Alex Box created 13 very individual characters, which is your favourite?

I loooove Queen of the Gypsies! I feel her.

If she’s your favourite character we’re dying to know your favourite Illamasqua piece...

Lipstick and Liquid Metals! Specifically Maneater and Box, which I like to mix with the Liquid Metal Resolute...sick amazing!

With that in mind, have you got an ultimate makeup tip for our beauty lovers?

Own it! Inside and out...from head to toe. Easy peasy.

(Hair & Makeup by Kim Anderson, Photography by Daniel Murtagh)

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! So what’s happening first in your new role?

Well, September 30^th at Sephora 5th Avenue we’re starting Cast Training and October 1^st is Brand Support...however I'm super excited about the Art of Darkness Event on October 2^nd and 8^th on 5^th Avenue and Times Square respectively.

Kim, it’s been an absolute pleasure meeting you and we wish you the best of luck in your new role at Illamasqua!

Thanks, I'm so excited the welcome has been amazing!

To know more about Kim and her beauty insider knowledge you can check out her blog http://mskimisfierce.onsugar.com/

And don’t forget to go and see Kim and get her expert advice by meeting her in store on 5^th Avenue today and tomorrow! She wants to meet every Illamasqua fan in New York!

More on the Art of Darkness events tomorrow!!

School of Make Up Art: Date Breakdowns

Over the past couple of months we’ve been posting about our new School of Make Up Art and finally the first courses have arrived! Written and taught by Illamasqua’s Director of Product Development and Educator David Horne; each course offers something completely different than ever before and today we’re reminding you of every great course on offer. For further details or to book your place please email school@illamasqua.com or call 0844 984 1700.


Evening Course: £50 (7-9pm) 

Course: The Night Time Diva (Booking Code EV1)

Perfect for finding a new glamorous evening look and heading out into town afterwards, fun bold evening make up.

Course Dates: 

8th October 2010

22nd October 2010

5th November 2010

19th November 2010

3rd December 2010

17th December 2010

7th January 2011

21st January 2011

Course: Drag Star Superhero (Booking Code EV2) 

Explore wild and outrageous make up with extreme shapes and runway scale- big, bold and high drama.

Course Dates: 

12th November 2010

26th November 2010

10th December 2010

14th January 2011



The ‘Art of Self Indulgence’ Party: £75 per person (Group of 6-8 Attendees)

(7-9pm Booking Code EVG1)

Book a private party for you and your friends, perfect for birthdays, hen nights and those infamous Christmas Parties, perfect for hitting the town afterwards. The party includes private shopping, use of the store and school and a goodie bag each!

Various dates are available; please discuss your special event date with our team. Email school@illamasqua.com

1 Day Course: £200 (10am-4pm)

Course: Creative Couture Lash Workshop (Booking Code 1L) 

A day making and crafting customised lashes with legendary 80s Blitz kid Christine Bateman who is also the makeup artist for Boy George.

Course Dates: 

16th October 2010

15th November 2010

18th December 2010

10th January 2011



Course: Experimental Colour Workshop (Booking Code 1E) 

Everything to do with understanding and working with colour confidence, finding your way with working with bold colour cosmetics and high pigment. A ‘no to neutral make up’ zone!

Course Dates: 

22nd October 2010

26th November 2010

6th December 2010

24th January 2011



2 Day Course: £375.00 (10am-4pm)

Course: Building Expertise & Confidence- Perfecting Eye Design (Booking Code 2A) 

Everything to do with eye make up and understanding eye shapes and which designs suit what types of eyes.

Course Dates: 

14-15th October 2010

16-17th November 2010

16-17th December 2010

11-12th January 2011



Course: Building Abstract Creativity- Art & The Alter Ego (Booking Code 2B) 

A great course to sharpen your technical lining skills and abstract creativity- one day on technical and one day on expression with make up.

Course Dates: 

20-21st October 2010

22-23rd November 2010

22-23rd December 2010

17-18th January 2011



Course: Building Creativity- Vintage Glamour (Booking Code 2C) 

A course to understand and recreate the looks of the 1930s - 1950s; truly photographic, truly glamorous!

Course Dates: 

18-19th October 2010

24-25th November 2010

20-21st December 2010

19-20th January 2011



3 Day Course: £575.00 (10am-4pm) 

Course: Building Creativity (Booking Code 3A) 

A more advanced top up course if you have done some make up training to really find your creativity and develop lateral thinking- some make up training experience beneficial.

Course Dates: 

11-13th October 2010

18-20th November 2010

13-15th December 2010

13-15th January 2011

5 Day Course: £1000.00 (10am-4pm) 

Course: Mastering Professional Make-Up (Booking Code 5A) 

Getting started in the world of make up- a full understanding of the job, the career, the principles and how to become a professional make up artist.

Course Dates: 

4-8th October 2010

8-12th November2010

7-11th December 2010

3-7th January 2011

To book or for further inquiries, please email school@illamasqua.com or call 0844 984 1700.

Waiting List Now Open For Nail Varnish Competition Winners!

The hugely exciting Nail Varnish competition winners are limited edition, so we have set up a waiting list online for you to register your interest and get an email as soon as they go live online next week!

Exclusive to Illamasqua.com and Selfridges Trafford, Birmingham Bullring and Oxford Street, London these three colours are expected to be the colours du jour for the upcoming Wintry season!

Click here to register your interest and click here to find out more about our unique competition...

School of Make Up Art: Course Breakdowns: Building Creativity- Vintage Glamour

Under the influence of theatre, film and burlesque you’ll learn makeup techniques to create an incredible array of vintage looks right through from the 1930’s to 50’s. This two day course focuses on brows, liner, sculpted eyes, perfect lips and lashings of lashes as well as maximising designs for that after dark impact.

Throughout the course, guest professional make-up artists will be on hand to help and advise you on taking your creative skills to the next level and to achieve the perfect vintage look.

Price

£375 (including a complementary Illamasqua Make-Up Education kit)


Course Dates:

18-19th October 2010

24-25th November 2010

20-21st December 2010

To book or for further inquiries, please email school@illamasqua.com or call 0844 984 1700.



Beak Street Flagship store opening times:

Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm

Thursday 10am-8pm

Sundays 12-6pm

Mizzworthy/ London Muse Art of Darkness Competition

If you haven't yet entered the brilliant competition being held in collaboration with Illamasqua, London Muse make-up school and Mizzworthy, then you are missing out on a seriously great chance to get creative and win a fantastic prize.

The Rules:

The Art of Darkness collection includes 13 characters for a fantastical banquet.

The aim of this contest is to create a final 14th character. Let your imagination run wild, and play in the shadows to create your own guest for this very special banquet.

There will be two ways to enter the contest - via blog/email on MizzWorthy, or by leaving a response to the London Muse video announcing the contest, and thus two winners.

Your entry must include a description of your character, the inspiration behind it and finally the look you have created. Any additional info such as how you created the look, products used etc can also be included. Please do not photoshop your entries.

Alternatively, to enter by video, you must leave a video response to the London Muse video, which is a maximum of five minutes long - this does not necessarily need to take the form of a tutorial, however as with blog/email entries you must tell us about your character, how you created them, and show us the final look. Again, you can include further information if you would like to.

The contest will run for one month from Thursday 16th September to Midnight (UK time) Sunday 17th October 2010. This is the final deadline,and due to the nature of this contest, cannot be extended.

You may use products/media from any range to create your look. Products do not have to be from Illamasqua.

Blog entrants must be followers of the blog, and likewise video entrants must be subscribed to the London Muse channel on Youtube. Given the effort and planning that goes into these contests, as well as the prizes on offer, this is a reasonable request, and it also helps entrants to be able to find out about who has won easily.

Your entry MUST be an ORIGINAL COMPLETE LOOK of YOUR OWN CREATION. This is a further reason for entrants being required to provide us with some information about the character that they have created.

Finalists will be announced as soon as possible after the deadline.

Illamasqua Creative Director Alex Box will then make a final decision and select one winner from the blog/email entries, and one from the video entries.

NB - The prize does NOT include accommodation or travel to the London Muse course. The winner must cover the cost of their accommodation/travel to and from the course.

The contest is open internationally, and you may enter as many times as you like, each entry will be judges as an individual entry. You may enter the blog/email side, the video side, or both.

Judges decision is final.

Good luck, everyone!

Step into the dark..

Our new Autumn/Winter 2010 collection launched last week, and we've been overwhelmed by the response! So prepare yourselves for the second installment – the Art of Darkness film – and discover the collection's characters like you've never seen them before. From the mesmerizing dance of the Queen of the Gypsies, to the seductive allure of the Wanton Woman, the film is a symbol of Illamasqua’s continued commitment to pushing the boundaries and changing the face of the beauty industry.

Prepare to enter the darkness and watch the film. Illamasqua would like to thank those who provided their invaluable expertise to help make the film possible. 
In particular, German Gothic Cult Band, X Mal Deutschland, for the use of their track “Morning (will there really be)". Many thanks to the band for kindly allowing us to use this long-unavailable track from their album, VIVA. Due to popular demand the track "Morning" will be available on iTunes very soon.

Special thanks to Anja Huwe, iconic singer and front woman of X Mal Deutschland and member of the Illamasqua Art Team for all her support.

Further thanks goes to Paul Barulis, the director, from LoveHate Productions.

My Sugarland Blogger Event

My Sugarland, a unique boutique located in the heart of Islington (Central London) recently hosted a blogger event in store and we were only too happy to provide the makeup for their mini transformations. Each blogger got to choose an outfit and have their makeup professionally applied. Here are some of the shots from the event.

To see the full event check out My Sugarland’s blog and their tags link to all the bloggers that attended so you can grab a sneaky look at their photos too!  

'Who Is Your Mystery Guest?' Competition

We've teamed up with MizzWorthy and MUSE makeup school to bring you an amazing competition.

“For the Art of Darkness collection, Alex Box created a cast of 13 characters for a dark faerie banquet... We want you to create a 14th guest for this feast. Let your imagination run wild, and tell us all about the character you have created, and the inspiration behind the look...”

The prize: win a make-up course worth £500 (a place on MUSE's "Catwalk Trends Makeup Bootcamp”) and the ENTIRE Art of Darkness collection worth £350!!

To enter  you can either create a blog post/ email MizzWorthy, or you can enter by creating a video which is a maximum of five minutes long and leaving this as a response to the video on the MUSE Youtube channel. Remember this is a makeup competition not a costume competition!

The Deadline: 17^th October 2010. The final entries will be judged by our Creative Director Alex Box. For full details on the competition and how to enter, see the T&C's on the MizzWorthy website.

Good Luck!

A Surprise Visitor

This morning the Illamasqua store welcomed Tremayne Crossley, a builder from Newcastle upon Tyne; he took part in the Great North Run and completed the hardest half marathon in the UK in exactly 2 hours 32 minutes and 7 seconds. An amazing feat and to make it even more amazing, he ran for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation which is very close to our hearts here at Illamasqua. So far Tremayne has managed to raise around £560.

To get involved and raise even more money please follow this link http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/ and click on the 'donate' tab. Please mark your donation either TC or GNR.

A huge thanks and congratulations to Tremayne and to everyone that has already donated!

Gabby Young and Other Animals

Gaby Young is a young prodigy of ours; we’ve been following her throughout the summer providing the make up for her gigs and festivals and generally supporting her. She’s an amazing independent British artist (there’s very few of those left) and we were instantly drawn to her quirky stage persona.

Championed by The Sunday Times and The Guardian, Gabby Young and Other Animals are busy playing a packed festival season following their show-stopping performance at the BAFTAs afterparty.

Gabby is now sponsored by Irregular Choice shoes, Ad Hoc of King's road and Beyond Retro vintage clothing as well as us; she’s also been collaborating with several British fashion designers to develop her stage presence with the aid of amazing outfits.

We thought we would honour Gabby with this blog and to give you an idea of who she is, we have a couple of cool shots of her.

(Photo by Joe Gascoine and dress by Inbar Spector)

(Dress (vintage) from Beyond Retro)

(Photography by Richard Shakespeare)

(Dress by Rosa Bloom)

(All Hair and Makeup by Jennifer Nash)

Don't forget to check out her blog at

 http://gabbyyoungstyle.blogspot.com/

Look Good Feel Better

Illamasqua are proud to be a part of a great charity event Look Good Feel Better who supports women with cancer. On Thursday the 23^rd September Selfridges London are playing host to the event and you can get involved simply by buying a ticket, coming along and getting a professional transformation by our expert makeup artists at the Illamasqua counter (not to mention a great goody-bag too).

It’s Beauty Editor’s day so Alice Hart-Davies from the Evening Standard will be on board to give helpful hints, tips and advice for all you makeup lovers out there.

Tickets cost £20 with all proceeds going to the charity but as there are only a few places left booking is essential! To book call 0800 138 8140.

Celeb Visitor!

Debbie Harry (Blondie's front woman) just graced our Beak street store, embarrassingly whilst a Blondie song was playing on the store's sound system (what are the chances!)

She purchased Liquid Metal Stoic from our brand new collection Art of Darkness, you can't get cooler than Debbie Harry; we're fast becoming the home of Rock N' Roll make up.

20 Beak Street

We have just opened our very first flagship store on Beak Street in Soho (Central London) and we’ve got some amazing snap shots of the store to show you guys. If you can make the trip down to London we recommend you drop by, you won’t be disappointed.

(Photography by Daniel Lismore)

Happy Shopping!

Illamasqua Store Launch: The Fallout

Wow, what a party we can throw at Illamasqua!

With a crowd including club kids, trannies, bloggers, fashionistas, celebrities, make-up artists, designers, models, stylists, journalists, actors and artists it was always going to be one of the most talked about events in Illamasqua history, but the Illamasqua Beak Street store launch on Thursday 16th September surpassed everyones expectations.

With the store open only three days we wanted a party to mark this momentous milestone in the Illamasqua story. Julian Kynaston - Founder of Illamasqua - gave a great speech, as did Sylvia Lancaster, the mother of Sophie Lancaster and founder of the S.O.P.H.I.E charity that is so intrinsically linked with Illamasqua.

I think it's best to let the photos do the talking...

A big thank you to our sponsors Pig in a Poke who provided the wine, Tequila Patron and their Pomegranate cocktails, Patron XO coffee liqueur, Vitamin Water and Cocovita!