drugstore makeup review

I guess you could say I'm obsessed with makeup. I have so, so much of it that I barely have enough space to keep it. And what do it do? I buy more! As I watch makeup videos on Youtube basically everyday, there are countless American brands that are frequently mentioned and I really want to try, including Colourpop, Makeup Geek, e.l.f, Milani, and of course, Anastasia Beverly Hills. But, until I can get my hands on them, I've decided to try out some NYX goodies that Boots have recently started to stock! I made a few purchases that I have been dying to make since I first heard about them. I also picked up some items from the UK based brand Sleek MakeUP, which I've heard is very similar to NYX and other drugstore makeup brands.

***This post was written about a 6 months ago so these products are not so recent. More up to date
drugstore reviews will come soon, I promise!

NYX Colour Correcting Concealer Palette:

Swatches of the palette (dark brown colour is next to the purple but just quite hard to see)

This palette retails at £10 in the UK, so although for some it may seem like a lot to spend on one product, it is a decent price when you take into consideration that you are getting 6 colours. I was pleasantly surprised at how pigmented they were and also how creamy they were. A little goes quite a long way with the colours which is great. I mainly used the green, pink and lighter regular concealer colour, as my trouble areas are redness and dark circles. I found that the green covered up redness pretty well, however I still had some darkness coming through the pink colour. This is probably on me and not the product though, as I applied it and blended it just with my finger, whereas the best results are given with a concealer brush and a damp beauty blender. Although I haven't used it yet, I'm curious to use the darker brown colour as a cream contour, as I haven't yet managed to get my hand on a cream contour kit!

In case you are unsure of how to use the different colours (they're pretty daunting), here's a guide to show you how to use the palette.

Source

From what I've used so far, I'm really impressed with the product and it's given me a great first impression of the brand. I can give an updated review on the palette in a few weeks or so to see how I feel about it then!

NYX Dewy Finish Setting Spray:

As someone with dry skin, I don't really like setting my makeup with powders because they just dry out my skin even more, and show up all my dry areas. However, if I don't set it, I find that my makeup moves around throughout the day and doesn't last well. This setting spray retails at £7 and has such a nice, moisturising feel to it, leaving your skin feel hydrated and does give it a dewy, healthy finish. It also sets my makeup really well, to the point that it doesn't even feel like I have makeup on anymore because it's so smooth and flawless. The only down side to this product is that the nozzle could do with being slightly finer. The spray leaves a few droplet marks on your skin if you apply it too close and feels quite harsh when you apply it, even at a distance. There's nothing wrong with this, it just means that the product could feel heavier in some areas than others.

Overall I think this is a great product that definitely does what is says it will. It also doesn't seem like you need much product (maybe 4-5 sprays) to set your makeup, so it looks like it will last a while.

Sleek MakeUP Solstice Highlighting Palette:

First of all, I cannot get over how freaking beautiful this palette is, both inside and out. The packaging is a reflective gold case and ohmygod it's gorgeous, and the highlighters themselves are so sparkly and just so pretty I can even... The palette comes with two baked highlighters (top and bottom right), one cream highlighter (top left) and one shimmery highlighter (bottom left). All of them are just as pigmented as each other, so they all have crazy pigmentation, especially for a drugstore product. I personally prefer using powder highlighters because I don't like the way cream ones pull on my skin, however the cream highlighter in this palette is beautiful and would definitely look really nice. I've found that I like mixing Subsolar and Equinox (bottom two colours) together, and used them on my own brush, as the one given doesn't have the greatest bristle quality. 

Swatches from left to right - Ecliptic, Subsolar, Hemisphere, Equinox

As you can see, just taking the product on my finger gives pretty intense colours, so that just goes to show how pigmented these highlighters really are. I would say it would be best to first apply these lightly with a brush, so that you can build them up to achieve the desired effect. So far I absolutely love this palette and it has definitely become a staple in my everyday makeup routine. 

Sleek MakeUP Matte Me Lip Cream - Birthday Suit:

I've been wanting a liquid lipstick for absolutely ages because I've heard so much about how long wear they are, and I find that after wearing matte lipsticks for a while they wear off in the centre which isn't great. I picked up the Sleek MakeUP's version of a liquid lipstick in the shade Birthday Suit, which was the closes colour they had to a nude - all the others I found were too pinky or red. The formula itself is really nice, it dries super fast and doesn't feel that dry once it is dry. The only thing that could be improved is the applicator as it's quite big and therefore difficult to achiever clean, precise edged. I've found that it's easier to get a cleaner line if I line my lips with a lip pencil before hand. I also think that using the product on a lip brush could also work for the edges if you want a really clean finish. As for wear, I'd have to say it's pretty good. It probably doesn't wear as long as brands like Kylie Cosmetics or ABH, but they're high end products so that's kind of expected.

Till next time,

Nicole 
xoxo