Drum roll please...The winners of the competition have been announced and we are so excited that these are now in production, with an early October launch date currently planned... although the winners will receive their shades in August - it's only fair they get theirs before everyone else!
Before I begin talking about the winners [and why they won] I want to personally thank everyone who has entered - and there were over 6,000 and I was thrilled with how people to took the brief of Create Your Dream Nail Varnish and really thought outside the box in terms of what their ultimate lacquer would look like.
We were originally going to have two winners, but we couldn't decide on just two, so we went for three!
Here they are...
Raindrops - by Ann Black
The inspiration was a photograph of pouring rain and how it settles in to drops on the window - we liked that it was a first hand image from Ann.
Read her full idea here on her blog. The consistency of the varnish is quite sheer, but very buildable and has they wonderful flecks in, a variety of silver, white and darker grey that actually look like raindrops on nails. This varnish was considered so unique and desirable that the nail artist on our Autumn Winter shoot used it on almost every model!
Eclipse - by Dami Lawal
The thing that, to me, was most beautiful about this was the rich purple/grey/blue/black colour that the image conjured up. We felt that this colour was missing from the current colour collection at Illamasqua and yet everyone at HQ started getting very excited when the first samples landed - it was always going to be a winner. There were several colours that came back from our supplier's interpretation of the image and many of them were beautiful; it was extremely difficult to chose but the final colour is a real black/blue/purple colour with a hint of shimmer.
Shrapnel - by Loren Perry
The entry submitted by Loren told us that she was looking for a copper that leaned pink - something she had had real difficulty finding. Her image below is of a pair of unbelivably desirable Lanvin brogues, although she also described a copper coin, so it gave us plenty of ideas in how we could translate that in to a Nail Varnish. We asked our supplier to show us satin finishes, high-gloss finishes and sparkling finishes. We ended up going for a mixture of all three and trust me - this is a really unique finish...
I'm delighted to introduce to you to Illamasqua Founder Julian Kynaston's latest project...
So what is TheO? In a nutshell - it's a styling roller. But of course, I wouldn't talk about any old styling roller - these ones are the shizzle and I can personally vouch for them [photos to follow shortly!]
*thanks to Vampy Varnish for the swatch* 
The packaging was inspired by the cake products that were popular in the 30s and 40s. It reminds me of a by-gone era of Golden Hollywood when the art of making up was at it's height. I love how it dries matt, too.
A favourite tip of our artists on counter is to layer it over Concealer 350 [pure black] on to the eyes; the concealer encourages further intensity and longevity. This is the technique I have used in the picture above, so I know that it works!
The Illamasqua Lounge [a recurring theme at recent events!] will be a hive of activity, with some of our artists from Myer Sydney coming along to meet and greet guests and introduce them to the world of Illamasqua.
Now, I know that hardly anyone goes out for a night on the town without creating a make-up look, but ever feel that you have the same smokey eye, or the same retro lip, or same false lashes every week and want a bit of a creative hand in shaking things up? Then it's definitely worth speaking to one of the team that will give you an alternate point of view and encourage you to explore a variety of alter egos that you may enjoy releasing for nights out to come...
Two sessions - one at 2pm and one at 4 pm - will showcase the work that made Alex Box one of the most exciting, innovative and forward thinking artists of the modern era.
The inspiration was a photograph of pouring rain and how it settles in to drops on the window - we liked that it was a first hand image from Ann. Read her full idea here on her blog. 
The thing that, to me, was most beautiful about this was the rich purple/grey/blue/black colour that the image conjured up. We felt that this colour was missing from the current colour collection at Illamasqua and yet everyone at HQ started getting very excited when the first samples landed - it was always going to be a winner. There were several colours that came back from our supplier's interpretation of the image and many of them were beautiful; it was extremely difficult to chose but the final colour is a real black/blue/purple colour with a hint of shimmer.
The entry submitted by Loren told us that she was looking for a copper that leaned pink - something she had had real difficulty finding. Her image below is of a pair of unbelivably desirable Lanvin brogues, although she also described a copper coin, so it gave us plenty of ideas in how we could translate that in to a Nail Varnish. We asked our supplier to show us satin finishes, high-gloss finishes and sparkling finishes. We ended up going for a mixture of all three and trust me - this is a really unique finish...
