Goodbye Shopping Ban, Hello Illamasqua Shopping Hauls!

So after the end of the week, where I:

1) Got the thumbs up from my doctor about my fracture healing well

2) Got 3 of my 4 wisdom teeth removed in the chair with IV sedation (which, by the way, was amazing - no swelling, some pain, and the weekend to sleep it off)

3) Reached the end of my shopping ban!

I thought I'd celebrate by going by David Jones and picking up a beauty bag, for which I qualified by purchasing a candle for Mr Prince for his birthday. I then headed to Illamasqua for the very first time to see what the hype was about and boy was I glad I did!

I bought their sculpting duo, which, while not particularly dark, actually does make a difference. I can't wait to crack it open, but I'm trying to be good and use up the Lorac one that I have, and love, first. I also got this GORGEOUS glittery green nail polish called Destiny, created for the Chinese New Year for the US and Aussie markets specifically, so this limited edition baby isn't even available in the UK! I've already used it and it's incredibly opaque. One coat was enough to cover everything!

While I was there, I learned that they were having a beauty school drop in, which is a makeup class that they hold several times a year to go through certain looks and is free of charge! One thing to keep in mind is that they can end up getting a little full, and there are limited spaces, so if you ever head to one of them, I'd suggest you get there early. The theme this round was Red Carpet Glamore. I managed to get there on Sunday and the girls were the sweetest!

They handed me a little popcorn container of M&Ms and marshmallows, as well as a bottle of water, and asked me to get settled in, so I did!

Frances, who was doing the makeup, started by prepping the skin with hydration, then built a good base (which was helped by the fact that the model, Dima, had amazing skin already!) with foundation.

 

Ta dah! And that's the finished product! As you can see from the above pictures, Frances went through a simple but effective smokey eye, concealer under the eyes, bolder brows, sculpting and highlighting and bright lips, all of which came together to look stunning. I also managed to pick up a tip or two that I've been eager to test out! 

Guess what else I managed to pick up? You guessed it! Some naughty Illamasqua goodies! It was too good to resist, what with their 10% off demonstrated products and their GWP - I just couldn't say no!

And that's everything! I got 4 items, and 1 gift with purchase.

 I got two polishes, Destiny (again, but it's a gift for someone else!) and Blizzard, which looks almost like a matte glitter coat (to be used over a different colour). Very interesting, and definitely gorgeous. Did I mention that Illamasqua's polishes are 3 free?

I also got a blending brush for my concealer. I really liked how it was used in the demonstration, and as the brushes are vegan and cruelty free, I thought this would be a good one to try.

Lastly, to qualify for the gift with purchase, I got the eyeliner in Sophie, which is a creamy black. Not having had much luck with using pencils on my waterline previously, I'm going to give it a go this time, because that's how it was used at the demonstration, so I figured it might be ok. Fingers crossed!

And, ahhhhh... look at that pretty GWP! I got their bronzing duo, and it's beautiful! While I was there, they asked if I wanted to have a look at anything else, and I had to turn the offer down. After all, I still want to go back there - what if I'd been tempted to buy everything?

As for the shopping ban (now a distant memory!), I did think it was a great idea, and that it was very good at curbing unnecessary spending, but 3 months was a very long time. I think I might cut back to 1 month for next time. It was definitely interesting, even though I had to buy things a couple of times (necessary clothing for my arm, and the Priceline goody bag that came up, which I used my voucher for).

Have you used anything from Illamasqua before? What's your favourite?