Illamasqua May Queen Collection for Summer 2017

Published: 2017-05-03 by Marina Milojević in Makeup

The imaginative beauty brand Illamasqua has announced the launch of its May Queen collection, which is deeply rooted in paganism and British folk traditions. Beckoning the start of a new season, Illamasqua’s new Spring collection is exploring into the annual May Day festival, a hundred year old pagan tradition of celebrating the Vernal Equinox with a Fire Festival called Beltane.

The ancient Celtic festival Beltane, which is commonly held on 1 May, translates as “bright fire.” The festival marked the beginning of summer with a purifying and healing ceremonial. The ritual, which included lighting of a special bonfire, was performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. During the festival, the people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, while all household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. The gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, with some food and drinks offered to the aos si, a supernatural race in Irish and Scottish mythology.

Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness, so girls would wake up early to capture it and wash their face at sunrise. According to the legend, on Beltane night, couples slept together under the stars in the woods & meadows, they coupled freely in celebration of fertility and the circle of life.

Same as many other pagan festivals, Beltane lost its significance over the centuries, as Europe became Christianized. Despite this, May Day is still a recognized holiday in the UK, and modern day festivals often take place in villages across the UK. Today, they are associated with the crowning of the May Queen, representing the beginning of summer, and lighting the bonfire.

Across the UK, on May 1st, a May Queen is crowned and chosen to lead the May Day parade alongside the ‘Green Man’. The May Queen, dressed in a white gown and wearing a floral crown, stands for purity and grace, embodying hope and prosperity. Illamasqua’s Founder, Julian Kynaston, whose grandmother was also crowned as a May Queen, invites you to capture the start of the coming summer, reincarnate your look and become your own May Queen with this new collection that launches May 4, 2017.

Illamasqua’s new May Queen Collection includes a gorgeous new baked highlighting powder, Illamasqua Beyond Powder, in a golden-green shade named Deity ($45.00). There is also a pure pigment metallic shimmer powder Illamasqua Muse in Pink Furore (£17.50). Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow (£17) arrives in three rich metallic shades named Ritual (Pink Shimmer), Invoke (Zinc Bronze Shimmer) and Maiden (Soft Gold Shimmer. The highly coveted semi-matte Anitmater Lipstick arrives in two shades Binary (Warm Coral) and Charge (Hot Pink).

The collection is launching tomorrow, May 4, on Illamasqua.com.

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