Illamasqua Multi Facet Palette in Aura

Illamasqua's latest release is a neutral palette.  Bit weird, again, for a brand which has traded so much on unusual shades and textures, but I guess their recent, more wearable collections speak to the fact that brands cannot trade on the unusual alone - most of us love more wearable shades, and thus, Illamasqua are making more of them.

Anyway, the palette itself is a bit of a departure from Illamasqua's previous rounded-edge, squareish shape - this one is a simple black square, embossed subtly with the brand's name on the lid.  Whilst I definitely liked the original shape (and it certainly stood out in my makeup collection), this new shape makes the palette much more compact.

Inside, we get a variety of Illamasqua favourites - on the left, Aurora cream highlighter and Tremble powder blush, and on the right Hollow Cream Pigment (included for contouring), Thunder brow cake, and four powder eyeshadows in Vision (shimmering white), Servant (peachy matte), Feint (reddish pink matte), and Machine (black matte with silver shimmer).  As someone who'd look quite frankly stupid with brown eyebrows, I've been using the Thunder brow cake as an eyeshadow / eyeliner instead.

Tremble Powder Blush, Aurora Gleam highlighter, Hollow Cream Pigment, Thunder Brow Cake

Vision, Servant, Feint, Machine Powder Eyeshadows

And here is most of the palette on my mug.  I'm wearing Tremble and Aurora on my cheeks, with all four eyeshadows on my eyes, and a bit of Aurora on my browbones too.

This is mostly Servant (peach) and Feint (reddish pink) blended across the lid and into the crease, with a touch of Vision (shimmering white) in the inner corner and Machine (black) along the lash line.  All the colours blended easily, although I did find that the matte colours needed a bit of layering to give a strong finish.

Tremble powder blush is a rather nice pink, but the thing I'm most impressed with is Gleam in Aurora - it's an incredible highlighter, as you can see above on my browbone and cheekbone.  It catches the light subtly, and doesn't rely on glitter or shimmer, just a very smooth sheen which manages to look perfectly natural and very polished indeed.  I'm definitely buying a full size once I've used up the pan in the Aura palette.

Overall, this is a lovely palette for workhorse every day looks and I'm particularly pleased to see it include so many cult favourites such as Aurora and Hollow.  Illamasqua fans will like this one for the sheer number of products crammed into one tiny package, and those new to the brand will find it a great introduction to a variety of Illamasqua products.  At £45, it's not cheap, but given the number of products included, I think it's worth the cash.  Find it now at the Illamasqua website, alongside it's sister palette Semblence, which is designed for deeper skintones.

Disclosure: PR sample

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