Beauty Bible has never quite been able to get its head around Illamasqua - until this new Art of Darkness collection which was unveiled this week (in a very gothic-y Soho church, of all places). We'd seen Illamasqua's shades in Selfridges: all scare-the-horses colours, and oh, precisely how is anyone meant to apply canary yellow eyeshadow...? But this collection is sultry, smoky, wearable - though perhaps on balance we won't be going for the navy blue lipstick - and now we get the fact that Illamasqua is all about self-expression, drama, play. Founded by Julian Kynaston in 1993 and with make-up artist Alex Box as its Creative Director (she's created avant-garde looks for everyone from Stella McCartney to Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel, and is pictured left), this is a great brand for the young, the daring - and those of us who are happy to play with the rich, intense colours till we find the most flattering way to apply them: a light dusting of gorgeous gold Powdered Metal (a shimmering powder) on the décolletage, or a single coat of the amazingly covering Nail Varnish in deep metallic red (Scarab) or even peacock-esque Viridian, which we're rather loving. We're very taken with the Hermetic deep burgundy glimmer Intense Lipgloss, too. Now that Joe Corre - co-founder of Agent Provocateur - is on board, the brand's on a Saturn 5 rocket of a trajectory and word is there'll be a stand-alone Illamasqua store. And you might just find Beauty Bible in there, tapping into our own inner goth. (Meanwhile, we totally applaud Illamasqua's support for S.O.P.H.I.E., the charity named for teenager Sophie Lancaster who was beaten to death for 'looking different'. We don't think anyone should suffer for that, and wholeheartedly back S.O.P.H.I.E.'s drive to stamp out prejudice, hatred and intolerance.)
www.illamasqua.com
www.sophielancasterfoundation.com
