An Interview With... Kate Massarella, Brand Director

I grabbed a quick word with Kate Massarella, Brand Director of Illamasqua, for her views on the past year and what we have to look forward to in 2010...

As Brand Director of Illamasqua, you have final say on all marketing activity and new product development. Which aspect of your job have you enjoyed the most over the past 12 months?

"Creating the Sirens and Dystopia collections. They are both so different, yet so distinctively Illamasqua. Katie, our Product Development Manager along with Alex Box, has created some hugely iconic products for these collections - Liquid Metal in 'Solstice' and Nail Varnish in 'Obsess' are my personal favourites.

I also love the process of creating the images - Alex (Box) and I have so much fun coming up with ideas and I have had the fortune of working with some amazingly talented people on the photoshoots. I also really enjoy working on the way our counters look in store - it's such a great experience seeing an initial sketch turning into an actual counter, stocked with beautiful make-up and managed by our amazing teams of artists.


What has been the highlight of the past 12 months for you?

In addition to the stunning collections, one of the biggest highlights has to be the launch into New York and the week I had there introducing the collection to the beauty directors and editors at the top US magazines. An exhilarating experience as they all loved the brand already and couldn't wait to get their hands on the USA assortment. Plus, having a meeting on the 45th floor of a towering Manhattan building overlooking the city is like nothing else!

What do you think the next 12 months will bring for Illamasqua?

More creativity, more excitement, more great product development, more iconic imagery and loads more fun. In particular the Summer collection out in April - it's going to take Illamasqua to a whole new level.

Alex Box By Rankin - The Fallout

Several of us are nursing Champagne induced hangovers today - always the sign of a great night - and have been gossiping about the Alex Box by Rankin book and exhibition launch all morning.

Sam Chapman of Pixiwoo fame, Talita from theglossgoss, Helen from Helen and Sheenie's Nice Things, Ian from Diary of a Fashion Mister , Sophy Robson, the gorgeous Tricia Woolston, Johnny Blue Eyes, Anouck Lepere, Rankin, Tuli, Erin O Connor, George Lamb, Jefferson Hack, Gareth Pugh ... lots of familiar faces were present to witness Alex's finest moment - a collection of stunning images that she has been working on for over two years. I felt very priviledged to witness Alex's special moment... but I'll start at the beginning!

The plan was to leave at 6. . .

... the plan was to leave at 6. . .

... but girls being girls in an office full of make-up ...

... so at 7pm [!], Kate, Katie, Halimah and I hailed a cab and were whisked off to the gorgeous contemporary gallery/ studio space of the one and only Rankin , the newly built Annroy Gallery in Kentish Town.

As you walk up to the gallery, you are confronted with two images that seductively lure you in to the gallery - as it is all glass fronted, we could see that the crowd inside was already pretty big and it turns out we arrived about a minute after Alex has made her grand entrance!

She looked her usual kooky glam self in skintight Gareth Pugh and top hat and what I suspect were those headlining monochrome Chanel tights...

After grabbing a quick glass of champagne [which seemed to magically stay full for the next three hours....hmm] I managed to grab a few words with all the bloggers that I had invited to come along - everyone seemed genuinely thrilled to be there and be a part of Alex's triumphant night. I can't begin to comprehend how stressful the past few days must have been for Alex!

After about half an hour, Gareth Pugh made a grand entrance with a bunch of red balloons and after congratulating Alex on the exhibition, he handed the balloons over to her. She spent the rest of the night holding them so you always knew where she was!

I spent most of the night chilling with Gillian, Francesco and Mika from the Selfridges Oxford St counter and the Head Office staff - Julian, Illamasqua's Chairman and his PA Jo even made it down so it was lovely to see them, as well.

So a bit more about the images! To understand the full magnitude, I suggest you get down to the exhibition - which runs until 22nd December - or check out the book which is available to buy from today.

By using a variety of different mediums - including Illamasqua make-up, pigments, poster paint and post-its! - Alex pushes the boundaries of make-up application and conventional techniques and uses the face as a canvas with which to create innovative, thought provoking and sometimes radical art. No rules, so to speak.

You can really see Alex's art school [not make-up school!] trained obsessions about fantasy, science, environment, fashion and illustration jumping out at you from the canvases - it's powerful stuff. From strongly sculpted, directional images to impressionist-like images, there is something here that will make even the most jaded art critic go "wow!"

So what sort of gossip do I have for you? Well, there was some cracking outfits, funnily enough! There was also lots of directional make-up. Kate, Halimah and I rocked the new coloured lashes that are to be released on 31st October - in time for our birthday celebrations! We have three sets; one that is shot with purple 22, one that is shot with green [no. 23] and one that is shot with pink [no. 24] I had so many compliments on them [even some girls on the tube on the way home!] that I think these may soon replace number 19s as my favourite!

How cute did Katie look? Halimah created her look for the night and it looked stunning. I'll ask Halimah to do a look break down at some point!

Mika was modelling his new undercut...


I also saw a girl with a painted face mask and crystals around the edges which looked terrific - unfortunately I didn't take as many photos as I should have, something to do with the lack of canapes and abundance of champagne I am inclined to think!

Johnny Blue Eyes [from the House of Blue Eyes] turned up dressed as Jesus [!] with a full-on crown of thorns and stigmata!

I had a really, really great night and would like to thank Rankin and his team for pulling together and hosting a wonderful event.

Alex will be at the Illamasqua counter in Selfridges Oxford St on the 5th November to sign copies of Alex Box by Rankin.

People Update!

Hello everyone - phew, it's been a busy past few weeks but I am here to give you all some updates!

We were really thrilled on Saturday because the Independant ran a great feature on theatrical make-up and even had our beautiful Dystopia promo image as the front cover of The New Review, the Saturday supplement.





Click on the images to enlarge them and have a read of the article - it's very interesting and thought provoking.

We had the House of Blue Eyes show and the All Walks Beyond The Catwalk event on Friday and yesterday we created looks for A Child of the Jago fashion show at Wilton's music hall. The label is the brainchild of Joe Corre [of Agent Provocateur fame] and was attended by Vivienne Westwood, amongst others. Unfortunately, I didn't get the time to go! I am awaiting some images from the show though and will get those up as soon as I receive them.



By the way, has anyone read the 1896 Child of the Jago book by Arthur Morrison? It's a Dickens-esque novel about the life of street children in the Victorian slums. I read it as a comparison point to Oliver Twist when I was about 16 and it's a very beautiful [but brutal] analogy of the streets of London in the 19th century.

So a quick update on people:

Katie, our wonderful Product Development Manager has several top secret projects on the go for next seasons collection [ideas currently being bandied around] as well as the mascara expansion project and special products for our birthday and Christmas coming up [the celebrations begin on 31st October - I'll let you know more closer to the time but it's going to be awesome!]

Jennifer is currently managing our Sephora expansion - 27 stores at present and I can reveal that we now have a new one in Roseville, California due to launch in November! Exciting stuff.

Kate is in Birmingham today, assessing sites for our new counter and taking a look around Birmingham for marketing opportunities. I have only been out in Birmingham once but it was a great city with a fabulous night-time vibe and we really want to embrace that!

Jonathan, our Retail Operations Manager has been hard at work picking a brilliant team to head up the new Birmingham counter - new additions to the Illamasqua family! To think we only had 16 artists when we first launched... we have over 50 now, less than a year on!

Alex Box is really busy with the Fashion Weeks across the globe - Paris is the big one for her but we have still managed to squeeze some time in for an appearance at Selfridges Trafford on Saturday 3rd October - more details on that to follow!

We have some great events coming up for our first Birthday and with the excitement surrounding Dystopia, we will be sure to include demonstrations and get-the-looks across town. Plus, we have a new recruit to our Selfridges London freelance team that I think that some of you are going to be very excited to hear about....

London Blogger Event

After weeks of planning, Thursday 3rd September saw the London Illamasqua beauty event, held at the beautiful and historic Kettners in Soho.

We served Champagne and Guinness cocktails [you know how we love to push the boundaries!] as well as really delicious vivid orange Apricot and Rum cocktails and an abundance of yummy canapes, which Halimah, Katie, Helen and I had no trouble in finishing off after the event!


After the meet and greet aspect, I briefly introduced myself and the team and handed over to Kate, our Brand Director. She gave a great insight into the brand; the history aspect, the initial launch, the research behind the brand and to update everyone on our next steps as a company.

We then played a presentation of Dystopia that detailed the influences and the ideas behind this fascinating collection.

Alex Box, Illamasqua's Artistic Director and legendary alternative make-up artist, talked more about the collection and also about her influences as an artist and her background in fine art, fashion and beauty. It always fascinates me to hear Alex speak; she has such a brilliant way of explaining and describing things to make them sound really magical, for example - her descriptions of Dystopia as a "rebellion against perfection" and "a distorted, twisted concept of beauty".

One of the blogger who attended, Lydia, was picked as a model by Alex Box to demonstrate the versatility of the new collection and the number of different looks that could be created with the palettes of warm greys, charcoals, granites and shots of neon pink and smoky purples. It was a real transformation!

We encouraged everyone to mingle and have a play with the products and invited them to talk with Alex, Kate, Katie, Halimah, Helen and myself if they had any questions or just wanted a chat!


I would like to thank everyone who managed to come along for coming and sincerely hoped you enjoyed the event!

** Special thanks to Kettners, especially Stef and Fergie for serving some delicious cocktails! **

La Roux is La Rude!

Here is a picture that Product Development manager Katie found online - the singer La Roux [whose album is constantly on replay as Brand Director Kate loves her!] having some Cream Blusher in 'Rude' applied to her lips! You all probably know by now that is one of my favourite Illamasqua products - I actually feel naked without it!

Totally loving the funky applique on La Roux's forehead - she has an almost Tilda Swinton swag which is really, really cool. Plus 'In For The Kill' is officially the most played song at Illamasqua HQ!

A Time To Reflect

I have been location scouting in Soho today, as we have an event coming up that needs to be as fabulous as our Autumn Winter collection. I cannot believe that it is getting so close to launch time!

Launching a new collection is never easy - how some brands launch 12 a year is unbelievable! After the initial idea has been discussed and evaluated between Alex Box and the Head Office team, Katie and Alex will spend several days locked away discussing colours, textures influences and product stories, from samples sent by our suppliers.

The initial samples will then be approved or sent back with comprehensive notes on how we think they can be improved or how they can fit the collection better. After all the samples have been approved, Katie and Alex will take a look at palettes and what colours will create an interesting yet unique combination.

After this process? Naming the products of course! This is always good fun and there are many rejects until [corny as it sounds...] the name just fits.

Once the final products are all sorted, then our PR team will come to take a look and have a meeting with Kate, Katie and Alex to understand the collection, the fundamental inspiration and to 'have a play' with them all to get a good idea of the texture and the looks that can be achieved.


The next stage [and this stage concluded about a fortnight ago...] is to consider the collection campaign. Models, hairdresser, photographer, stylist, location... all these individuals have to 'get' the idea behind the collection and be working towards the same goal - it's an extremely creative environment and there was plenty of working on instinct at the shoot.

Since the shoot, we have been whittling down the number of photographs taken [literally, hundreds] to about a dozen to use in the final campaign, for Point of Sale, advertising, leaflets, postcards, product books, website, duratrans...

So this is the stage we are at now! The deadline we are working towards is the beginning of September when all the blood, sweat and tears [I'm so dramatic...!] will be out for you all to see...

A Day In The Life

It just wouldn't be possible to come up with a job description for my role at Illamasqua.

I am currently looking like Jill Masterson in Goldfinger. Want to know why? Well, it goes something like this...

Alex and Katie alone in office working on various tasks.

Phone rings. It's our PR agency. Top fashion magazine wants to shoot Liquid Metal 'Solstice' for up coming feature. Deadline 6pm. Alex looks at clock. 5:20pm. This could be tight, thinks Alex.
Alex rummages around Press samples -No Solstice.

Panic.

Alex rummages around product development samples - No Solstice.

Panic.

Alex rummages around desk [you never know...] - No Solstice.

Panic. Quick, think.. Artist kit! Solstice... with large finger dents. Covered in Pure Pigment.

Panic.

Katie gets tweezers and picks out pigment particles. Great, but still lumpy.

Panic.

Katie suddenly remembers there is a hairdryer in the meeting room... Worth a shot. Hold hairdryer over Solstice until it begins to melt [which makes it looks incredible, by the way!] and suddenly it looks like new. New problem - it's now bloomin' liquid.

Panic.

Katie points out that we have a fridge. Solstice goes into fridge until three minutes to 6. Nicely solid, looking like new. 30 seconds later courier rings doorbell. Alex drops off Solstice to courier.

Disaster averted. Smug looks exchanged between Katie and Alex.

The End.

OK - so it wouldn't have been the end of the world, but it's just been one of those days where that little sense of achievement goes a long way :-)

Sephora Q&A

As promised, here is a Q&A about the Sephora launch, based on questions that I have received through this blog, facebook, Youtube and from the general information line. I've drafted in Kate, Katie and Jennifer [our International Account Director] to help with answering all your queries...

Will Illamasqua be available on Sephora.com?

Jennifer: Yes! All 200+ products that will be available in store will also be available to purchase online through Sephora.com and through their telephone service.

Will Illamasqua be available in my local Sephora?

Alex: We will let you know nearer the time - at the moment we have confirmed several cities including San Francisco, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Atlanta.

Which Nail Varnishes will Sephora be stocking?

Katie: Almost all! We know how much you are all loving the Nail Varnishes, so it was a big priority of ours to stock as many of these fabulous colours as possible - twenty four in total, including the legendary Phallic, revered Baptiste and kooky cool Milf!

I'm hearing reports that Illamasqua will be launching at 5 Times Square on the 30th July yet I'm also hearing it's the 31st - I want to come to the launch!

Jennifer: Our products will be available to buy in 5 Times Square from the 30th July - but this a Thursday and everybody knows that launch parties are always better on Friday nights and so that is the 'official' launch date! Don't forget, it's the Sephora Flagship launch too, so there will be plenty going on. If you can get down, do! I will be there with a couple of the London artists so come and say hi!

Will you be coming to Canada anytime soon?

Kate: The plan was always to roll out to the USA and then consider the rest of the world. As it stands, there are no plans to bring Illamasqua to Canada, but then things have been happening so quickly that you could never rule it out!

Will Sephora.com be shipping to Canada?

Alex: This is a decision for Sephora and not Illamasqua. We ship to Canada on our online shop at www.illamasqua.com/store however it is best to contact Sephora directly about where they will be shipping too, sorry.

What will the prices be like?

Jennifer: The prices will be similar to the UK - approximately $20 a Powder Eye Shadow, $24 for a Pure Pigment and $19 for a Sheer or Intense Lipgloss.

Will you be stocking the more daring colours of the Illamasqua range, for example Repulse, Torrid or Gender Intense Lipgloss?

Katie: As much as we would have liked to, we couldn't stock the entire range. After weeks of umm-ing and ahh-ing, we came up with a SKU list that we feel reflects the brands ethos and values as unique, individual and daring but also inkeeping with the philosophy of Sephora.

Will the Sirens collection be available?

Alex: Only in New York, as by the time the rest of our roll out begins, it will be time for our Autumn Winter collection! We will be incorporating some of the Sirens collection into our core range, though, so you will all be able to try out Liquid Metal in Solstice and Enrapture [as if you haven't already!] as well as one of the Bronzing Duos and the Nail Varnishes in Lament [my favourite!] and Muse.

Illamasqua Icons: Ziggy Stardust

Katie Sangers, Product Development Manager, has chosen David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust as her Illamasqua icon.

A complete innovator in terms of music and style, David Bowie led the alter-ego brigade with Ziggy Stardust - and the Spiders from Mars, of course! Ziggy embodied the musical freedom of the 70s and allowed Bowie to explore his androgynous side.


Get The Look

The character of Ziggy is very theatrical - think bold colours and shapes. For the above look, I would recommend beginning with a base lighter than your natural colour - try Rich Liquid Foundation in '105' for a just off white colour and set for a completely opaque, matt look with Pressed Powder in '010' [a translucent colour]. After this, it's all about painting your blank canvas! Try Powder Blusher in 'Panic' all over the temples and down the cheekbones and let your inner artist emerge! Use Highlighter Brush to blend.

I love how the eyes are almost blended into the blush colour and so just smudge a line of Medium Pencil in 'Sophie' underneath the lower lid.

The lip colour is similar to the cheeks so I would try one of our matt Lipsticks in 'Tramp' for an off-red shade.

Now all you have to do is find some Spiders from Mars et voila!

Foundation Breakdown

Lure: Bring out the face kept hidden. The face of your bolder half. The faces that dares to take on the night...

I receive a lot of emails from international customers interested in our Foundations and asking if I can help them to pick out an accurate colour. I am of the belief that being able to actually try the product on your own face is the best way to judge if the colour is right, texture is suitable and that you like the finish that the product gives you! I hate buying a foundation and then getting home and seeing that it's all wrong...

For those of you who do like to buy foundation of the internet, I've had a chat with Katie, our Product Development Manager and composed a quicklist that will give you an insight into our foundations:

Rich Liquid Foundation

Texture: Extremely rich and thick, suitable for night-time make-up as it creates a fantastic base for colour application.
Performance: Flawless and opaque. Mixes beautifully with Satin Primer for a dewier look. Dries semi-matt.

Skin types: All
Colours:
100 - purest porcelain white
105 - our lightest 'skin' shade
110-145 - best for pale skins
205-240 - best for medium skins
320-335 - best for dark/ black skins
340-355 - blackest black - brilliant for theatrical use as opposed to a real 'skin' shade


Light Liquid Foundation

Texture: Lightweight and airy, with a very fluid consistency.
Performance: Beautifully easy to apply and very cooling. Dries to a dewy, light to medium finish.
Skin types: All
Colours:
100 - purest porcelain white
105 - our lightest 'skin' shade
110-145 - best for pale skins
205-240 - best for medium skins
320-330 - best for dark/ black skins
340-350 - blackest black - brilliant for theatrical use as opposed to a real 'skin' shade
Performance:
Skin types: All, especially combination to dry.


Cream Foundation

Texture: Cream compact that gives a rich, opaque finish but blends beautifully.
Performance: Has a mirror in the compact, so great for on-the-go touchups! Dries to a semi-matt finish with a medium-full coverage and can be used wet or dry.

Skin types: All, especially drier skin types.
Colours:
100 - purest porcelain white
110 - our lightest 'skin' shade
110-145 - best for pale skins
205-240 - best for medium skins
320-330 - best for dark/ black skins
340-350 - blackest black - brilliant for theatrical use as opposed to a real 'skin' shade


Powder Foundation

Texture: Matt finish creamy feel powder.
Performance: Can be used alone or over any of the foundations. Gives a full, matt finish. Also comes with a mirror for touching up on-the-go. To sheer it out a bit, use with a damp sponge or brush and it still dries matt.
Skin types: Especially good for combination to oily skin types.
Colours:
100 - purest porcelain white
105 - our lightest 'skin' shade
110-145 - best for pale skins
205-240 - best for medium skins
320-330 - best for dark/ black skins
340-355 - blackest black - brilliant for theatrical use as opposed to a real 'skin' shade

Thanks to Lucy, our lovely intern and Crispian, our Customer Services Manager for letting me paint their faces whilst they were trying to work! You can see how thrilled they are....!

I hope this helps! I will do similar posts for our Concealers and Powders - leave me a comment if you would like this, or any other similar info on our products.