Illamasqua Bloggers Event and SOPHIE

So as you probably know by now, Illamasqua threw two events this weekend, which a lot of us lucky UK beauty bloggers were invited to - I haven't looked forward to something for so long in ages!

The events were held in London and Manchester - I attended the Manchester event which was held in a bar/restaurant called Ithica. It was afntastic venue - Very "Illamasqua" with dramatic modern chandaliers, mirrors and dark walls with big leather booths. I arrived a little bit early to try help with setting up etc, and got to have a good old play with the products in the Dystopia collection - all of which I really loved.

Dystopia is about as far from Sirens as it's possible to get - The collection is inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. I have never actually seen the film, but I'm aware of some of the stunning images from it...

Alex Box, creative director of Illamasqua explained that the film is centred around the creation of a perfect society - ie a Utopia. In the film, this utopic vision shatters and becomes a fractured reality - a Dystopia. The Dystopia collection is therefore based around an idea of flawed perfection, which some might say is perfect in itself.

The collection is based largely around cool colours - greys, blacks, pinks and purples - with angular and sharply defined colours in the Promo images. The main promo image features the same model pictured back to back showing two looks - Alex Box's interpretation of Utopia V's Dystopia.

Products in the new collection include a new liquid metal in a stunning pure silver shade, two palettes - smoky pink and smoky purple, a hot pink (virtually neon) lipstick, two lipglosses, including a silver intense gloss and two nail varnishes - one a beautiful purple with a dirty undertone, and a hot pink.

Illamasqua laid on delicious looking cocktails (unfortunately I wasn't able to drink them as I was driving - diet coke for one lol), and also some fab canapes, including sushi, and tempura veg.

I was lucky enough to be asked by Alex Box to be her "model" (and believe me I use that term in the loosest possible sense lol) for her makeup demonstration - let me tell you, this made my year! I met Alex once at an Illamasqua masterclass and she is so lovely. I was absolutely thrilled to have my makeup done by such a massive artist. Naturally, the look she created was extremely dramatic - not an everyday look lol, but I was suitably amazed by her amazing skills - she sculpted amazing cheekbones and gave me the best smoky eye I have ever had!

The other major highlight of the night for us all was meeting Sophie Lancaster's mum - For those that dont know, Sophie Lancaster was a goth. Her and her boyfriend were out a couple of years ago, and they were set upon by a group of thugs, beaten and left for dead. Sophie unfortunately did die, and her boyfriend and mum now have to live with the consequences of that terrible hate crime.Sophie's mum is possibly the bravest and most inspiring woman I have ever met - she has faught to raise awareness of the issues faced by many of todays societal subcultures such as goths, emos etc, and is currently trying to get councils around the country to add discrimination regarding dress and appearance as part of their definition of hate crime. She has been successful too - but her fight agains tsuch intolerance will not stop until people can walk around dressed the way they want to, without fear of violence or abuse.

Since Sophies death, her mum has also set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a website I would urge you to check out and have a look at. From day one, Illamasqua have supported this foundation, with its SOPHIE (Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere) wrist band and medium pencil - again, products I would urge you all to have a look at on the website.

So thank you so much to Alex Cummins for organising the whole fab thing, Alex Box, Krystal and all the lovely Illamasqua ladies, and a special thanks to Sophie's mum for coming along and sharing her story with us all.

Oh, and if you would like to see the products I recieved in my goodie bag - please check out my youtube video here!

MizzWorthy xxx