NYX natural palette...

So far, everything I've tried from NYX I've fallen in love with, most of the products making their way into my everyday makeup routine. This palette kept popping up on Pinterest (come follow me if you don't already!) and I'd never tried any of their shadows before so thought, for such great value for money I'd give it a go. My initial thoughts were, what a great range of shades! I thought this would be perfect to create light, shimmery day looks, and then the darker shades in the crease smoked out for a more dramatic night look. It's got two matte shades so great for subtle highlights, and the rest all have varying amounts of shimmer throughout them. 

My first thought on these was they were really hard to blend. I used the glitter champagne shade (second in from left) all over the lid, with the taupe satin shadow through the crease, and they just kid of sat there. I also really didn't think much to the consistency of them. Very powdery and chalky...when I wiped a clean finger over my lid the shadow just came away. Slightly better with a lid primer but still nothing to write home about. 

Pigmentation was pretty poor, the swatches above were done without a primer which, as I said, did help matters along a bit but they were no Urban Decay! The last thing was the glitter....the champaign shade was so glittery it took me back to my 15 year old self when I was glitter obsessed!

All in all, not great from NYX in my opinion; there are definitely better budget eyeshadow brands on the market (Rimmel and L'Oreal etc). I still love NYX for their cheek, base and lip products but I don't think I'll be reaching for the eye section any time soon!

Am I on my own with this?

Loves

xxx

NYX takes on Illuminators....

My last makeup purchases in Australia (I promise) was, quite predictably, from the NYX stand in my local Target. I've heard on the grape vine that you can buy NYX in some Next stores in the UK but as I'm unsure how true this is I'm taking no chances and stocking up while I can! I've only really got into highlighter and illuminators in the past 6 months but now even my usual oily skin is loving it!

Usually one for powder highlighters I picked the Born To Glow Illuminator (mine is shade 01 Sunbeam) up a bit unsure what to expect. It's very glittery so calls for a matte face to begin with, and I would recommend to keep this one purely on the tops of the cheek bones to avoid the dreaded disco-ball face. It blends to a beautiful pink sheen on the cheeks which is my preferred illuminator/cheek colour so I love pairing this with Sleek Pixie Pink type shades. I would say this is a soft highlight that doesn't really build to well but for something sheeny and pretty on the cheek bones this one is your winner.

I picked the powder Illuminator for Face and Body up in the shade Narcissistic after seeing a few reviews floating around on the blogs, and immediately fell for it. It's a powder, which I prefer, despite it being a peachy golden colour which is a bit of an unusual pick in my collection. It can be applied lightly all over the high points of the face and on the body (as the name suggests) with a duo fibre brush   or built up for a more obvious, stronger highlight for the evening. It has some glitters in this but most of them seem to disappear when blended. 

Personally I think I'll be getting more use out of the powder illuminator but I think, for dryer skin, the liquid illuminator is still absolutely beautiful. All in all...NYX can do highlighters!

Has anyone else tried these? 

Loves

xxx