Illamasqua Glamore Satin Finish Lipsticks in Luster and Soaked

Illamasqua’s latest release sees the arrival of a new lipstick formula for the brand, satin finish.  This will no doubt evoke cries of joy from those of us with lips that just don’t bond well with matte finishes as the satin finish is a lot kinder to far-from-perfect lips, both texturally and aesthetically.  I’m hoping this is a sign of things to come as Illamasqua have created some of my absolute favourite lipstick shades, yet I’m quite limited on what I can where as they’re all matte finish which works out as a lot of work for me; I have to make sure my lips are extremely smooth to start with, then it’s only a matter of hours wearing a matte finish that will result in manky, flaky lips again.

The three new shades are Glissade (WANT), Luster and Soaked.  For more detailed shade descriptions check out my intro to Glamore post here, but for the time being let’s call Glissade a berry shade, Luster a pink and Soaked an orange.  These crude shade descriptions are wildly unfair as the shades are so much more, but I don’t want to bore you with repetition.

Luster, as expected, is a beautiful pink that I absolutely love.  I’m not sure it suits me, sadly, but it is a really gorgeous pink that would look especially good with very pale skin (so you think it would suit me!) and I’d love to see it either with very smokey eyes or my ol’ favourite of a strong flick of liner and heaps of mascara.

Soaked was a big surprise for me as there is no way I would ever consider going for an orange shade, especially one so vivid, but I actually think it suited me and if I hadn’t smoked over a pack of ciggies a day for more than half of my life (up until last year…almost a year ago) then this would be a shade I could wear quite happily.  The problem with any lipsticks with orange tones is that if you have stained teeth – even mildly – the orange will exacerbate it and I don’t think it’s possible to get more orange than Soaked!  Maybe I’ll just wear it lots and be sure not to smile too much.

I will almost certainly purchase Glissade so keep an eye out for that post soon.  The Illamasqua Glamore collection launches on 27th February 2014 and the lipsticks will be £16.50.

*PR Samples