Illamasqua Generation Q swatches & review

Last week a surprise package in a very familiar black box arrived making my heart skip with excitement. Of course it signified the arrival of the new Illamasqua Generation Q collection which I had been lucky enough to attend the launch of back in June (you can read about that and see swatches here!)

I came back from the launch super excited about this new collection; not only does it come with another positive message (no age limits in beauty) but the collection on first glance had a lot of purple in it; and for those of you who know me by now, I love purple.

On to the products then!
I received the powder blush in Sophie, lipgloss in Opulent and nail varnish in Charisma:

Powder blush in Sophie

At the launch the Sophie blush struck me as less pigmented than Allure, however this blush I received is super pigmented; after swatching I went to apply some with my brush and ended up with too much on my cheek, so a word of warning: go light handed with these blushes!

Colour & Pigmentation: Sophie is a coral-pink with golden shimmer and I love it. With flash you see the pink more, however without flash it's a more coral tone. Pigmentation-wise, its super pigmented!
Texture: Powder.
Longevity: Being a powder blush, I find they last a lot longer than creme/liquid forms.
Price: At £18 it's about the same price as a MAC blush, however with Illamasqua you know you're getting consistently great pigmentation and longevity, so it's worth it.. plus Sophie is so pretty!

FrootiFactor: All in all, I'd give Sophie a 5 out of 5 as I can't fault it!

Intense lipgloss in Opulent

with flash

without flash

This lipgloss is such an unusual but lovely colour; it should pretty much suit every skintone and I love that it looks different from every angle! You can see in the swatch above how many different colours show.
Colour & Pigmentation: Opulent lipgloss is described as a "rainbow beige". To my eyes I can see quite a bit of lilac tones to it too (which of course I love). Pigmentation-wise it's quite opaque, no more than two coats is needed if you wanted to wear the gloss fully opaque, but I prefer wearing it a bit more sheer.
Texture: I found it just ever so slightly sticky, which I'm not usually a fan of, however it is less stickier than other brands that claim to be non sticky!
Longevity: Glosses that are stickier tend to last longer and with Opulent there's no strong colour to stain the lips so I think longevity would be 3-4 hours max.
Price: Both lipglosses are £14 each which isn't too pricey for an intense colour gloss from a high end brand! With Opulent, you know you won't find the exact same colour anywhere else either ;)

FrootiFactor: I'd give the gloss a 4 out of 5 losing a full point purely because of stickiness and longevity:

Nail Varnish in Charisma

Charisma was probably my favourite out of the two polishes as it's more wearable and a slight shade of purple. I do quite like Creator as it's a magical black with gorgeous micro glitter in it, but I'd only wear it going out or to match an outfit I think.

Colour & Pigmentation: Charisma is a deep metallic raspberry pink/purple that is slightly two-tone. It's fairly pigmented, one coat being pretty much opaque, two coats needed max.
Longevity: I haven't yet tried the polish for over a couple hours since the swatch at the launch (here) but Illamasqua polishes tend to be fairly chip resistant and long lasting so I'd expect no less from this collection too.
Price: At £13.50 it's not cheap but both polishes are a beautiful colour, just looking at the swatches by Fashion Polish makes me crave Creator too!

FrootiFactor: I'd give this polish a 4 as it does what it says on the tin!

The full range (below) will be available from the 6th September, however if you have any favourites that you'd like to buy before the release date, then you can get tweeting, pinning or liking and the 3 most voted products will be released on the 28th August!