Illamasqua Facets collection Aura palette review

Illamasqua’s latest collection is one that’s got me a bit hot under the collar. I’m not ashamed to say I’m a nude makeup lover – give me mushroom and taupe over hot pink and blue any day of the week. So when I saw the new palettes from the Facets collection I did a little squeal. Out loud. In public.

Facets is a celebration of nudes, and while it’s a world away from Illamasqua’s usual bold looks, I think it’s a collection that’s going to appeal to a massive market. The highlights of the collection are two new palettes – Aura and Semblance – which are pretty much the ultimate Illamasqua travel palettes.

Instead of just focusing on eye shadows, they’ve put together a selection of everything from brow powder to contour cream and made it into something that’s the perfect handbag companion.

Aurora highlighter, Tremble blusher, Hollow pigment, Thunder eyebrow cake

I’ve been testing out the Aura palette*, which is perfect for paler skin tones and I’ve been super impressed. Inside the palette you get: Gleam highlighter in Aurora, Cream Pigment in Hollow, Eyebrow Cake in Thunder, Powder blusher in Tremble and four powder shadows in Vision, Servant, Feint and Machine. While none of these are brand new shades, it’s basically a line-up of Illamasqua’s super star products – throw in a Glamore lipstick and you’re pretty much set up makeup-wise.

Hollow is a really great contouring product for lighter skin tones – it’s slightly ashy in colour, so won’t leave you with that tell-tale contour line running down your face, but instead gives you some seriously good cheekbones.

Thunder is a little on the dark side for my blonde brows, but is a great all round shade and is one that I’ll use instead as a darker shadow to complement the others in the palette.

All of the products in the palette are the same quality you’d expect from full-sized products. They’re long wearing, pigmented and easy to blend. You just get smaller sizes and more choice in the one case.

At £45, I think this is a great palette to have – it’s flexible enough to create multiple looks from, and is a great way of trying out lots of Illamasqua products in one go. If you’re darker toned, give Semblance a try. This contains Gleam highlighter in Mirage, Cream Pigment in Hollow, Eyebrow Cake in Thunder, Powder Blusher in Hussy and four slightly stronger eye shadows.

These are limited edition palettes so if you like what you see, I’d recommend picking one up sharpish. Or maybe pop one on your Christmas list and see if Santa delivers!

What do you think of the new palettes from Illamasqua?

*PR sample

Share: