Friday 7 February 2014

Topshop makeup appreciation






Eye crayon in Gold Digger - £6.50
Nail polish in Moondance - £5
Nail polish in Moonshine - £5
Lip and Cheek Tint - £7
Lipstick in Beguiled - £8
Highlighter in Sunbeam - £10
Cream blush in Head Over Heels - £6 (similar)

First of all I would like to ask you to please excuse the dirtiness of some of these products! But hey, that's what happens with white packaging in a crowded and grubby makeup bag.

Although Topshop launched their makeup line in 2010, almost four years ago(!, god that makes me feel old), I have only really become interested in the collection over the past two years. Topshop has been my favourite high-street clothes shop ever since I was about 14, but at the time of this release, I wasn't really overly interested in makeup yet - oh, how times have changed. My first purchase was a lipstick, in the colour Beguiled, a gorgeous dark berry but also vampy shade. I had suddenly became very obsessed with dark lipsticks, and this was the first of many vampy lipsticks (proper post to come hopefully!). It is described as having a satin matte finish, but I definitely wouldn't describe it as being a matte lipstick. It isn't overly glossy, and does have good lasting power, but it has some kind of shine to it. I usually use a lip liner if I'm doing bold/dark lips, but even alone, this colour lasts a fairly long time. The only problem I have found with this lipstick is after quite a few reapplications, the colour seems to just not show up...I don't know what it is. I wore this lipstick on New Years Eve this year, and had been wearing it all day as well. I probably applied it at about 11am, and then reapplied again at about 3pm. By the time it got to about 11pm, the reapplication just wasn't really doing much. I would have been better off taking it all off and starting again, but as you can imagine I didn't really want to abandon the party to redo my makeup. If the rumours are true that Topshop's makeup is made by MAC, then the quality of lipsticks is definitely not as good. Overall, I think that for £8 this is a good lipstick. While being on the more expensive side of 'drugstore'/high street lipsticks, I don't actually think it is much better than some of its slightly cheaper counterparts. Nonetheless, I do love it, as you can see in the photo by how worn down it is!
In terms of face products, I have only tried a blush and a highlighter from the brand. I had heard lots of positive reviews of their blushes, and was quite eager to try them. I had a bit of a blush spree last year, when I decided that I just didn't have enough, and proceeded to buy about 4/5 in a couple of weeks. I don't quite know what happened to me, but that's how I ended up with this. As I have oily skin, I have always preferred a matte finish for face products. Because of this, I owned very few cream products - except foundation/concealer obviously - but was very intrigued by the cream to powder function of Topshop blushes. Head Over Heels is a cute, summery coral colour, which I have no problem with wearing in winter too. I usually use my ring finger to apply it, and blend it out with my fingers, or sometimes will apply and blend out with a Real Techniques stippling brush if i'm feeling wild. It gives a really beautiful, natural finish, which I can tell I will be favouring in the summer for a seasonal colour with matte finish. This is usually my go-to blush when I'm travelling/on-the-go, mainly because I don't need a brush, but also because it has a mirror. I always appreciate a product more when it has a mirror. Vanity!
This highlighter is a bit of an odd choice for me, mainly because of its very golden colour. Now, I am not totally sure of this, because I just don't know how people can know these things, but I think my skin is pink-toned - hence the mismatch with a yellow-toned product. I bought this in the Oxford St Topshop in the summer, probably just because it was summer, and I fell in love with the beautiful colour. If i'm honest, this was a bit of a frivolous purchase for me. We must all do this sometimes, don't we? I think deep down I really knew that it wouldn't suit me, but I just couldn't resist. I think I could count on both hands the number of times I've worn this, and each time has just been on a night-out when I've told myself that it is acceptable to have gold glittery cheekbones when you're going clubbing. I think this product would suit anyone with olive/yellow-toned skin a lot more than me, but I still love it. I think I need to buy the more pink-toned alternative called Moonbeam. But anyway, here's to silly impulse buys!
The lip and cheek tint was also one of my first purchases from the line, but I haven't actually used it for a long time. It's not that I don't like it, I really really do like it when I wear it, but it is a bit of a faff to be honest. On the lips, I've found that it takes quite a bit of time and blending to get it even and a strong enough colour. Of course you could just use a little bit to get a very light wash of colour, but to be honest I bought it for the colour that it appears in the tube. While it looks like a dark berry colour, it actually comes out more of a magenta shade, which I still quite like, and probably should have anticipated considering it is called a tint. I do wish that the applicator was a bit more practical for applying to the lips, but I guess with multi-purpose products you can't have everything! Using the tint on cheeks is a whole other story. The most important thing to remember is that less is more, rather than using it as liberally as you do on lips. I've had a couple of disastrous attempts at using this as a blush, when i've used too much of the product and ending up looking like I've got rosacea/I am a doll. I do think that £7 is a bit steep for a fairly mediocre product, but I do quite like the novelty of having matching lips and cheeks when I do wear it.

These two nail polishes were both recent purchases in the January sales, and I am very happy indeed that I finally tried Topshop's nail polishes. I didn't even realise until looking at the names just now that they match in a cute way. I didn't even buy them together ! Moondance is from the holographic range, a baby blue with lots of pretty little flecks of holographic glitter within it. Moonbeam was the most recent purchase of the two, which I managed to grab for only £1! It is a beautiful bronzey pearly colour. I can't quite describe it. However, this has been on my nails ever since I bought it. I have reapplied so many times, but decided to remove it and reapply just now as my nails were getting a bit lumpy. The most amazing thing I have noticed about these polishes is the speed in which they dry. It is quicker than ANY other nail polish I have used. By the time I finished my right hand, my left hand was already dry! I am so happy with this polish. I absolutely love the colour, and as the world's most impatient person, quick-drying power is brilliant.



Like the nail polishes, this gorgeous eye crayon in Gold Digger was also a sale purchase for me. I have heard quite a bit about how these are similar to the Clinique chubby sticks for eyes, but have never used one of these myself, so who knows how they compare. I really do like this product though. It is a really vibrant, quite yellow-toned gold colour. When looking at it, I immediately thought of Urban Decay's Half-Baked eyeshadow, and when I got home saw that the crayon is actually even more bright than this. However, I do like to pair the two together when I wear this colour. The crayon is so creamy, and can be applied straight onto the eye. I then blend it out with a brush, and usually apply a bit of Half-Baked to my outer V and into the crease, and voila, i'm done! I am definitely up for trying some more of these out soon.

I wanted to link all of these products but for some reason most of them weren't on the website. However, the blush which I have linked looks pretty much identical to Head Over Heels, so who knows, maybe they renamed it. I do know that a lot of these products are still in stores because I have seen them recently!

So there you have it. My opinions on the Topshop makeup which I have tried. I have a few more of their products on my List (the ever-growing wish list of makeup items I want/need) so hopefully I'll have some more reviews in the next few months. Hope you enjoyed!
X

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