Illamasqua DIMUA's 2014

 

The first week of University, Illamasqua came to us and presented information about the company and the various types of products they sell. They helped to promote these products by showing us a demonstration upon one of the students in the audience. This gave us all knowledge as to which products to use and what works effectively and well on different skin types; dry, oily etc. I really enjoyed this particular afternoon with Illamasqua as they are very laid back and open to answer any queries or questions we may have had. Two people from the team were with us on this particular day; Spob and Charlotte.

Spob is the head of professional development with this company therefore we were very honoured to have met this lady. She has many different accomplishments which makes me feel especially privileged to have met her. Some of her accomplishments are; Major box office productions ‘Kings Speech’, ‘Enigma’, ‘Inception’, ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, ‘Ronin 47’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ films, and TV commericials such as John Lewis, Heineken and Hovis. .(http://www.illamasqua.com/explore/about-us/the-art-team/) We also met Charlotte who is an international brand ambassador. She has great experience with products and is the lady who did a demonstration of makeup for us.

After having had a talk and demonstration by these two ladies from Illamasqua, we were then set a makeup task by them. We put ourselves into groups of 4/5. We then had to create a makeup design of a character for a catwalk. We could design anything we wanted, as long as we had a believable pitch to present at the end of it. My group decided to go for a character from the 7 deadly sins. We chose one in particular which was envy/jealousy. The colours for envy are greens but we had our own twist on it; contouring the cheeks with green, adding a black matte lipstick, and shimmers to the forehead for more contouring. My whole group were really impressed with the outcome, and here is a photo of the final look.

 

After creating this look and pitching it, Spob and Charlotte then had to decide on two of the groups to be 'winners'. This meant, one person from each group that won, were then given the opportunity to work with the Illamasqua team at the Distinction Awards 2014. My group and another won, and then our names were picked out of a hat to decide who would be chosen to work with them. I was over the moon when my name was called out, I couldn't believe it! I've never felt so excited and delighted about winning something before. This felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to me.

On Saturday 4th October, 2014 I helped the Illamasqua team out at their Distinction Awards. This was held at the BAFTA's in London, Piccadilly. The Illamasqua distinction awards is an opportunity for the unknown talents as well as professionals, students and non-professionals to create a piece of art upon the face and hair and compete against one another. This year, the brief set was 'Art vs. Textiles'. It was such an incredible experience for me.

On this day, I was working alongside a winner from the previous year of  the Illamasqua awards which was amazing. It gave me the opportunity to ask her various questions and found out how she went about competing and coming up with such a creative finish. The lady I was working alongside was Rona Skuodas who is now an events assistant for Illamasqua.  This is her winning makeup from the previous year. I did some further research into Rona to find out a bit more about her. She is a London-based freelance makeup artist and an art director. Rona mainly works within Fashion Editorial. (http://www.ronaskuodas.co.uk/About) This is great because my hopes for the future are to go down a similar career path therefore being able to work alongside her was really inspiring for me.

 

(http://www.illamasqua.com/socialise/wp-content/uploads/Rona-Student-Winner.jpeg)
We were together co-ordinating the stage area in which the makeup artists would compete. Everything had to be perfect from clean, ironed cloths, to spotless mirrors. It was worth the effort though as it looked incredibly professional. Each time a group of makeup artists had finished their look, they would then have to pitch with a mood board to the professional judges, including Alex Fox! Whilst this was happening, Rona and myself would jump up on stage and clear the station of all of their makeup ready for the next group of makeup artists to compete. It was quite intense, but there was never a dull moment. I really enjoyed just how busy it was, as I felt like I was part of the team able to help out as much as I could.

 

 

During one of my breaks to get a refreshment, I also noticed one of my all time favourite makeup artists was at the BAFTA's; Kara Powell. I got a photo with her and had a really down to earth chat to her. She was lovely just as I expected. We talked about different makeup brands and how she got to the position she is in now. She recommended 'Sugarpill' and 'Limecrime' as they are excellent for high pigmented products, just as Illamasqua products are. I am so pleased I got to meet such a talented woman.

Throughout the busy day, we did have time to grab a drink and refresh ourselves. Although it was a busy day, everything felt relaxed and under control; the whole day was organised excellently. At the end of this experience, Josephine (an events manager) thanked us all greatly for the hard work we did. She then very kindly said that we can choose any three products from the Illamasqua website to then email her and she will send them to us as a thank you for the help. This was just the icing on top of the cake - such a brilliant day and I would do it all over again in an instance.

Here are some photos from the experience I had at the BAFTA's!