Illamasqua Chadstone Counter Opening

Last Thursday, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Illamasqua counter opening at Myer Chadstone.

To see my write up at Illamasqua’s Blog, click here. My article at the blog has been edited for space, so I’ve decided to include some of the bits that ended up on the cutting room floor in this post.

Let’s get ready to Jacie Smack Talk!

Here are five things you might not know about Australia:

1. One of our former Prime Ministers, Bob Hawke, held a Guinness Book Record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in approximately 11 seconds. Thankfully, he wasn’t Prime Minister at the time but that’s just a coincidence.
2. Australians, annually, eat 260 million meat pies. That’s around 13 per Australian citizen, give or take a further 10.
3. Australia is full of towns with inappropriate names: Swinger Hill, Rooty Hill, Poowong, Snuggery, Cocklebiddy, Bong Bong (so nice, they named it twice) and Doo Town. Only Doo Town was named intentionally to generate giggles.
4. Australians speak English, as it would sound coming out of a wind tunnel. Common ‘adaptations’ include: ‘Gday’ (hello), ‘Who opened their lunch?’ (who broke wind), ‘Rack off’ (mostly witnessed in Australian soap operas and designed to tell someone, in very strong terms, that their presence is no longer desired) and ‘stoked’ (I’m very pleased).
5. The fifth and final fact you may not know about Australia is that We Love Illamasqua. No, really.

We love Illamasqua like we love meat pies and we’re stoked that they’ve finally come to Australia where we can love them up close.

The Chadstone Counter Opening was amazing. Imagine the world’s most fun slumber party without the beds and snoring girlfriends, but with champagne, makeup and makeup artists with mad skills. You’re feeling me, right?

For the bloggers, transformations were the aim of the day. And what glorious transformation we received too!

My transformation was all about post-modern Mad Men.  Philip, my makeup artist, took his time to transform me over the period of an hour. He also gave me some great tips which really work!

• when going for a winged look, as I did, draw the wing first, and then fill in the rest of the eye;
• when curling your lashes, squeeze the curler a few times, rather than one long squeeze. It will enable the curl to go upwards rather than outwards (great for those of us with longer lashes);
• to give lips a multi-dimensional look, line the outer third of the lip with pencil, then fill in the inner two thirds with lipstick;
• to draw out the cupid’s bow on your lips, press a lighter colour or pigment into the centre of your lips; and
• if you have dry skin, try using a cream based foundation.  It’s way more forgiving on flakies.

Enough yapping, here’s my transformation!

My girl Violet had the most amazing transformation.  She went full Japanese horror on us.  I’d still take her to church looking like this.

What really stood out to me about the night was the energy. The opening became a live stage show, with curious onlookers watching the transformations unfold. The makeup artists were unflagging in their energy and drive to create a counter opening that exemplified everything we love about Illamasqua.

It was the most fun I’ve had in ages that didn’t involve Cheezels and Tim Tams.

To everyone at Illamasqua, you embraced Australia and we, in turn, embrace you and welcome you to our shores.

And, since you’re one of us now, when can we take you out for meat pies and a linguistic class. I think you need to eat about 13 more to get you to the quota.

And you won’t believe what a Yewy is (hint, it’s not sheep related).