Review: Illamasqua Reflection Palette

Hello!

So today I'm bringing you a review on the Illamasqua Reflection Palette from their Sacred Hour Collection. (Side note: I'm also writing this on my brand new and super shiny iPad Air, which is very exciting for me but possibly not as exciting for you guys!) I went to the launch of this collection up in Selfridges London last July and had a whale of a time (side note: where does that phrase come from??) and met some lovely people, one of which I ended up going to dinner with and making good friends with! I did buy a few items (which my new friend totally told me off for - this is why we ended up being good friends I think as her telling me off was just like my friends would! Haha!) including the eyelashes and some nail polish. This was the most exciting purchase for me personally as it was the first makeup item I had brought from Illamasqua! I'd been wanting to try their stuff for ages but didn't want to order online incase I didn't like it. So, on to the palette....

So the Illamasqua packaging is very simply but classy I think. The only downside being that the shiny shiny case gets lots of fingerprint marks on it very quickly!! I like the case and it's easy to open even if you don't have nails (you know the kind of cases I mean where you need to have nails to be able to flip the lid open right? Ugh.)

The internal packaging is lovely too. My only complaint here is that there is a lot of packaging for a small palette. The packaging probably could have been reduced by about a third really. But it does look lovely, so there's that! The eyeshadows themselves are of the same formula as the Paranormal Palette so are kind of a bouncy feel with a cream to powder sort of texture. The guy who put this on me at the event a) was really lovely b) totally convinced me I needed this in my life for freshening up tired eyes and c) smelt really good which may or may not have helped sell the product to me.... He explained how the lemon/cream colour really helps to open up tired eyes (which it does) and that the others can be used in various different ways. I've used the darker brown colour as an eyeliner several times and a tiny bit goes a really long way. Now then, I don't own a lot of neutral palettes as I do love experimenting with lots of colours on my eyes, but this is one of the best neutral mini palettes I've seen. It can be used for day and night and is easy enough to pop in your bag if you take your eyeshadow out with you. I did find the cream formula creased on my eyes a bit but a tiny bit of primer underneath sorted this out!

These are the colours with one swirl of the shade and a swipe onto my hand. I like the way you can create a dramatic smokey eye with the dark gunmetal grey colour if you want or keep it fairly natural if you prefer. The colours are all very pigmented and I like the fact that there's no fallout with this formula as I do get frustrated with losing a lot of product round the packaging! 

Overall I think this is a really nice eyeshadow palette to start off with if you haven't tried Illamasqua before. I like the way it's quite natural colours as Illamasqua are quite well known for their "out there" colours and products (I brought the Paranormal Palette for this reason alone!) It's a nice way to try out different formulas of eyeshadows too and the sort of bounce that comes with these eyeshadows just makes it feel like a really nice highend purchase! I'm pleased that I invested in this and will be buying other bits from the Illamasqua website soon (I say soon...I've got a lipstick from the sale on it's way now!!) The only thing that puts me off a bit is the price. This palette is £34 which could be considered pricey when you can get one of Urban Decay's various Naked Palette's for £37 that contain more eyeshadows of fairly similar pigmentation. however, it's the formula of these that I liked so much that I was willing to pay that price for to be honest. I'm not sure if I'd want to pay that price for a neutral palette with only 4 shades in in a powder form if the Naked Palette's were a choice too as I'm a value for money kind of girl most of the time! (She says typing on her iPad.....) 

Have you guys tried anything buy Illamasqua? Any products you'd recommend? What do you think of the Reflection Palette?

You can buy the Reflection Palette at your nearest Illamasqua counter or online (where you can get 10% off if you've made 3 or more orders from them!)

Until next time,

xoxo