15 Questions With Illamasqua's Creative Director

Let's play....
15 questions with Alex Box, Creative Director of British beauty brand Illamasqua.



B&TB: What’s the one product you'd grab if your house was on fire?
Alex Box: My signature Illamasqua red lipstick in Box – as hot and as lethal as the fire itself!

B&TB:Which friend would you let make you over?
Alex Box: Danielle Epworth, a best friend and first assistant.

B&TB:What beauty product do you save for date night?
Alex Box: I never save anything for 'best', every night’s a date night!

B&TB:Which of your guy friends takes longer than you, to get ready?
Alex Box: Ha ha, all of them they wear more make-up than me.

B&TB:If you could create your own miracle beauty product, what would it be?
Alex Box: Liquid youth – the time machine in a tube!

B&TB:What's your best beauty tip?
Alex Box: Always blot and powder your lip line. Everyone, whatever age, gets lipstick bleed, so blot and powder.

B&TB: What beauty products do you love to splurge on?
Alex Box: Skin care. I'm a skin care junkie, if I don't get my fix I'm a broken woman.

B&TB:What is your signature scent?
Alex Box: Ah, now this is my raison d'être, I'm very secretive about my smell and I've had a lifelong obsession with perfume. I’ve always layered many scents.

B&TB:Finish this sentence – “I’m on an endless quest for the perfect…”
Alex Box: “…eyebrows”. Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake is a godsend.

B&TB:How old were you when you were allowed to wear make-up, and how old were you when you actually started wearing make-up?
Alex Box: There were never any 'do's and 'don’ts' regarding make-up in my childhood. I would make up and paint anything that stood still long enough, including all my toys and my dad! My parents encouraged self-expression. I remember trying to look like Toyah, using only three face paint crayons, some of my mum’s foundation and blackcurrants squashed to make blusher. I was seven.

B&TB:How many beauty products does it take to get you ready?
Alex Box: I think like anyone, if I have a lot of time I use more products. I do like to streamline my personal kit once in a while, but more always creeps in. It’s an occupational hazard! In answer to your question, I’d say I use one face product, three for eyebrows, three blusher/contouring products, three for eyes, three for lips – gosh that's 13!

B&TB:Who is your celebrity beauty icon?
Alex Box: I don't really look to celebrities; I think everyone is their own creature of creation. But if I had to pick two women whose look I love, one from the past and present, I would say Joan Crawford and PJ Harvey.


B&TB: The last thing you bought at Sephora?
Alex Box: I love Sephora and always visit the one under the Louvre in Paris. The last thing I bought was an anti-fatigue facemask.

B&TB: “I try never to be seen not wearing…”
Alex Box: “…an extreme amount of accessories and cavalier attitude.”

B&TB:One beauty product you recommend to ALL of your girlfriends?
Alex Box: Only one?! That's really tough. It’d have to be Illamasqua Lipstick in Box – it’s been my lifetime’s quest to find the perfect red, so in the end I made one! And I know you said just name one but I’m going to sneak Sealing Gel in there as well, because it makes your powder products so much more versatile.