Sunday, February 19, 2012

Review: NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection (Part 1)

Hello gorgeous ladies!

It's been a week since I purchased my NYX haul.
Click photo to  read about my NYX Haul post.
And ever since I got my stuff, I had been using them countless of times. I had used most of the products in my Sultry Valentine look and different makeup styles for prom (since February is prom season here in the Philippines.)

After days and days of heavily using my NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection Palette, I have decided to make an evaluation on how it fares for me. This review, however, will just be plainly a review and no swatches will be posted here since I want to go into details AND I don't want photo swatches to make my post crowded. No worries though! Swatches will be in my next blog entry. Promise.



NYX BOX OF SMOKEY LOOK COLLECTION PALETTE
Photo from NYX Cosmetics site.
The Catch
If you’re addicted to smokey eyes, this kit is custom-made for you. It contains a palette of pigmented eye shadows to create gray smokey eyes, purple smokey eyes, bronze smokey eyes and natural smokey eyes. Kit also contains 3 blushes, face powders, concealers, lip colors, 12 glitter creams and 1 black eye liner.

The Good
  • It is convenient to use anytime, anywhere. You won't find lime greens, bright pinks and oranges, or any other loud shades in this palette which are impractical. What you can find inside are eyeshadows that can be worn during the day and night, blushes that give you a natural flush, eye glitters which are great for parties, concealers, lip colors, and highlight and contour powders -- all reasonably chosen for daily wear. No more, no less. 
  • Most of the eyeshadows are vibrant. Though some shadows need 2 or 3 swipes to get the exact pan color, most only need one swipe to get that rich hue especially the shimmery and frosty shades. The matte white shadow is unbelievably opaque too! The matte black one, however, is a little bit on the sheer side. BUT there's a  beautiful glittery black that's super intense that you can use instead of its matte version. (Swatches and description of each product inside the palette will be in my next post.)
  • The blushes and bronzer complement my skin tone. At first I thought the blushes were more of pinks with bluish undertone because that's how they show up in photos, but no. They are more of  peachy pinks which best complement medium skin tones. Well, except for the third blush which undeniably is purple. I wonder who wears purple blush? Who wants to look bruised? The bronzer is a beautiful shade too! It's the perfect hue for summer night beach clubbin'. By the way, all the blushes and bronzer are on the shimmery side so if you're not a fan of shimmers then this is not for you.
  • The cream glitter eyeshadows are ♥! A little dab of my finger already gives me a rich amount of glitters to stick to my lids. And they stay on for forever! Had no worries on spilling or fall-outs the whole time I used these! The tiny downside is the glitters are a bit gritty to the touch, but this is totally negligible. :)
  • The highlight and contour powders are pigmented. I just use a small amount of these products. Too much (of the bronzer) will give a unnatural muddy look. Plus both products are matte thus they give a natural effect when applied correctly.
  • I love its compact size. Though not as small that you can fit in your purse, but compact enough to bring for travel. You won't believe you already brought your whole makeup kit in this small palette. Compact: 6.75"W x 4"H x 1.25"D; Extended: 10.5"W x 7.25"H x 4"D
Photo from NYX Cosmetics site.
  • It's got a big mirror. I love the size of the mirror of this palette. It's large enough to fit at least half of your face.
  • It's cruelty-free. No animals were hurt by this product. Isn't that just great?
  • It's sulit. It's priced at P850, a hundred bucks less than the Nude on Nude Palette which  I originally intended to buy and has more products than the latter. I definitely got more than what I paid for. :)
The Bad
  • The eyeliner sucks. The pencil eyeliner has a creamy (no, not creamy but oily!) texture that doesn't dry up nor stick to the skin. Even if you let it air-dry for a period of time, when you try to smudge it, it will effortlessly get budged.
  • The lip colors are mostly sheer. Almost all lip shades either don't show up or just give a very light tint which are frustrating and useless. And no, they're no lip glosses because they don't give enough sheen.
  • The concealers are practically useless. The concealers are unbelievably sheer. It doesn't do any justice to its name. Its consistency is very similar to the lip colors so it's just like having additional lip colors in green, purple, beige, and brown. Ugh!
  • It's not readily available. There is no NYX Cosmetics store in the Philippines yet. You can only purchase such products at online stores such as Purpektionshop at pre-order basis. If you're lucky though, they might just have an on-hand stock for you.
For the ingredients, click here.


The Verdict
4.5 / 5
If only the lip colors were pigmented enough, the concealers were opaque enough, and the pencil eyeliner is smudge-proof, I would've given this palette a perfect 5. But you just can't have it all I guess, especially at a  price that's already heaven-sent. I can't complain anymore. Besides, it's the eyeshadows I'm after for, the rest are just bonuses. :)

The Seller
Purpektionshop is an up and running online store since 2007. They sell NYX items are bargain prices. Most of their products are on-hand but sometimes they run out of stocks so they also cater pre-ordering service. Aside from NYX, they also sell GEO contact lenses, clip-on hair extensions, candy bags, sexy corsets, quirky trinkets, and some novelty items. Most of their products are priced the lowest in the online market based on my own research.

Miss Vanessa, owner of the above online shop, is a sweet person. Though sometimes she can not reply immediately to my queries (as she's also busy with other things which I fully understand), she still makes sure that you are not left un-entertained. If you have read my NYX haul post, you would know how she took care of our transaction.
For orders and inquiries, click here.

Thank you for reading! I'll see you in my next post.




1 comment:

  1. Nice review try :) the smokey eyed look is my favorite look. Im into eye shadows too. I bought a dollface palette but unfortunately the colors are too sheer. You have to use a lot for the colors to show

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