Illamasqua Hollow.

When Illamasqua, a famous UK-based beauty brand, decided to exit the North American market after a couple of years, I took the opportunity to stock up on a number of beauty guru favourites. Since pretty much everything was on sale, I purchased quite a variety of products, and one of my favourite buys was the IllamasquaHollow Cream Pigment ($24).

The cream pigment is unique in the sense that there’s a lot of uses for it – as a lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, concealer – the variety is really endless. I purposely chose the shade Hollow, which is a matte cream ashy grey-brown shade that works well on my NC25 skintone as a variety of different products. I use this as a contouring shade, eyeshadow and eyeshadow base, and as a brow gel. I’ve heard you can use this shade as a lip colour as well, but it looks more as if the 1990’s asked for the lipstick back.

The product is encased in Illamasqua’s signature curved pot shape – it’s a very interesting choice of container because you can’t really get to the products on the corners due to the shape of the pot. Plus it’s not a very sanitary way of storing the product. But I digress. What was really interesting is that the colour at very top layer is slightly misleading as you can tell from the images above. The top layer leads you to think that the pigment is more orange and bronze than it looks. A little swipe of the cream reveals the actual colour of the product, like the swatch above.

The cream, while creamy, is just right in terms of consistency. It doesn’t leave garish streaks and blends really easily on the skin, leading to a very natural-looking faux hollow cheekbone. Although it leans slightly cooler than what I’m used to wearing, it has enough neutral tones to look great on a golden NC25 skintone.

It is such a shame that Illamasqua’s Hollow is not easily accessible after Illamasqua pulled their line from Hudson’s Bay. I could imagine there’s a lot of disappointed fans out there! Similar alternatives (although in different forms) is NYX Taupe Blush (or Bronzer) which leans warmer than Illamasqua’s Hollow, and has more purple undertones to it.

Now it’s your turn! Have you tried Illamasqua’s Hollow Cream Pigment? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Share with me comment section or through Twitter or Instagram!