Review and swatches: Illamasqua – Art Of Darkness collection

Illamasqua has released a new fantastic collection. It’s called Art Of Darkness.

Deep in an enchanted forest, the scene is set for a sumptuous feast. The chosen have arrived. Where this night will end no one knows. Not even death is inevitable.

Lured by the promise of immortality, a host of fantastical beings try their hand at creating the ever-elusive Elixir of Life. The resulting potions dazzle the eye and ensnare the senses, a beautiful array of jewel-like substances. They may not deny mortality, but they do make the theatre of life a more colourful stage on which to play.

It’s a melting pot of individuals, where ideas are exchanged, and new ones created. A surreal gathering from which the guests might never awake. Which is why this night can never end, and the game must be played for eternity.

So take your place at the table and let the banquet begin.

This is Art of Darkness.

Photo and story source: www.illamasqua.com

I love the whole concept of the collection. Everything fits together (as always with their collections). What I love the most, are the creatures/individuals they’ve created. I can’t decide which one do I like the most. One of my favourites is definitely Jester. His lips, eyes … magically dark. Crazy!

Move on to the products. There are various products included in the collection. We got some of them to review. Here they are.

 

A little side note on this review. Maestra (me) is writing the review. Gejba kindly contributed some of the photos and short thoughts on the products, which I’ll include in this review. I’ll let you know which thoughts and photos are hers and which are mine. Confusing? Hope not. Just a little hint on how to easily find out which photos belong to Gejba and which are mine. In each of the photos there’s a watermark. In Gejba’s photos there’s “gejba” watermark – two squares with “gejba” writen. And in Maestra’s photos there’s the “maestra” watermark. Hope that’ll help you a bit.

• Liquid Metal – Resolute is a dark bordeaux red shade with a strong metallic finish. I’d call it a cream eyeshadow with a metallic finish. It’s extremely pigmented. It’s easy to apply. The down side is, it creased almost immediately on me and I don’t even have oily lids. I wouldn’t use it as a eyeshadow, because of the creasing. For me it’s perfect for eyeliner or an eyeshadow base. You can also use it on your face or body, so there’s a lot of possibilities how to use this product and that’s the beauty of it! And the great side of this product is it’s fantastic metallic finish and great pigmentation.
  Price: £17.
  NET WT. 1.5g/0.05oz.

  Gejba’s review on Resolute:
  My first thought was – now where can I use this rust like color that comes in creme texture? But it turned out that this color is perfect base for copper, brown, reddish eyeshadows. Color itself deserves A+ grade, but the staying power is not very good on my oily lids … not even over UDPP and with Alluvium to set it in. :( Did any of you manage to find base that works well with Illamasqua’s liquid metal cremes?

  

• Precision ink – Abyss is liquid eyeliner in deep black. It’s waterproof and long-lasting. It dries within seconds. The pigmentation is great. The tip is fine, which allows you to draw very thin lines. I fell in love with this liner. It’s fantastic really. It’s so easy to use, the color is really dark and it didn’t smudge or fade even after hours. Great product!
  Price: £16.50.
  NET WT: 1,8ml/0.06oz.

  Gejba’s review on Abyss:
  Now this is my favorite from Illamasqua products I tried so far. Liner is one of the easiest I had a chance to handle so far. Very fine tip is good for drawing thin line, but if you want thicker one, simply draw couple of lines above the first one and you’ll get thicker – but still precise line.
  I put liner through my “stress test”. Well, no amount of rubbing would get this sucker off and I started to worry I will never be rid of it. :D Then I used a little bit of soap and warm water and in literally crumbled of. Very nice.
  And don’t worry – it isn’t “runny” as it looks on my hand swatch.

  

  To Gejba’s swatch photo of Abyss, I’ll add photo of the tip, so you can see how the tip looks like.

  

• Pure pigment – Alluvium is described as “iridescent midnight blue”. I’d say it’s blue with a lot of purple to it. It has some glitter and a metallic finish. What makes it special and complex is the glitter in combination with the metallic finish. The glitter isn’t harsh on your lids, which is good. The glitter transfers quite well on the eyelids, which is also a good thing. As with all the glitters, there’s some fall out, but it’s not that bad as with some. Although I’m not a huge fan of glitter on my lids, this one actually worked for me, because the glitter doesn’t stand out on the lids, it just adds some sparkles. The packaging looks great, but unfortunately it’s not best suited for powder eyeshadows. First thing is, that it’s hard to open and you have to be super careful when pushing up the lid. The next thing is, that the opening is too big. I prefer sifters. But that’s a matter of taste, I guess.
  Price: £15.00.
  NET WT. 1.3g/0.04oz.

  Gejba’s review on Alluvium:
  Very interesting combination of violet blue base with added shimmer and glitter. Base color and shimmer transfered well onto my standard eyeshadow base, but I had fallout from glitter. It wasn’t bad, but my sensitive eyes hate fallout of any kind. On the other hand, I had hardly any fallout when I applied Alluvium over Abyss.

  

  

  Although Gejba did a great swatch of Alluvium, I just wanted to show to you, how does my camera “see” the Alluvium and how does it look over liquid metal Resolute and when applied wet. Click on the photo to make it bigger. You’ll see the glitter better.

  

I used these products for a week or so and I have to say they did impress me. I won’t discus much about the price, because we all know Illamasqua products aren’t the cheapest. I can only tell you, that these products worked for me very well. My last photo for today will be a collage with three make ups I did with the reviewed products (+ some other). Click on the photo to make it bigger.

Would you like to see a separate post with more photos of the make up looks shown in the collage above? Please let me know in the comments!

I’m also curious, what do you think about the Art Of Darkness collection?