REVIEW: TOPSHOP MAKE UP

I decided to pop into Westfield on my way to university today:

TOPSHOP'S NEW MAKE UP COLLECTION:

Click to enlarge - APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE for the crappy pictures taken with my phone!

Blushes and nail varnishes

Lipsticks

Highlighter

Loved her make up in this picture!

And being the good blogger I am, I TRIED to take some swatches for you. Unfortunately, I didn't have my digital camera and my phone camera is pretty damn amazing for things more than 1 metre away from the lens.

However, for anything closer, this happens:

BLUR!!! Argh!! See how clear my converse are in the background? Dangnabit!!

But waste not, want not, I decided that I'd still post them anyway - at least you can make out the colours even if its all a blurry mess! You can click on the pictures if you want to enlarge them (and see my blurry hand in all its glory). I hope this is somewhat useful :(

So onto the swatches: the 2 pictures above are of the same thing, I just thought that I'd put them both up to try and compensate for the crappy picture quality. SORRY!!!

• Starting from that little foundation blob on the top: That is the Skin tint in light. I am around an NC25-30 and it was just about right. I guess the lightest is "fair" so "light" is 2nd lightest (4 shades).
• Next row down - the pinky smudges. The smudge on the left is blusher in Flush and on the right is the colour Neon Rose.
• Next row down: The brown glittery smear is a Crayon in the colour Satchel and the bright blue glittery thing is another Crayon (basically a chunky eyeshadow pencil) in Cosmic.
• The first horizontal line (the light brown smudgy one) is... I'm not actually sure, sorry! Maybe its the Satchel crayon again. The other 3 below it are Eyeliners - from top to bottom - Thistle, Saddle and Petrol (a gorgeous turquoise green.. may have to go back and get this).
• The two swipes at the bottom are Lipsticks - the light peachy colour is Desert and the muted rose colour is Mink.

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I then swatched the two S/S 10 Trend crayons in Sun Shower (gold) and Moon Shine (silver).

THESE ARE SO GORGEOUS!!! Really long lasting (I couldn't smudge it/wipe it off once it settled), AMAZING COLOUR PAY OFF, lovely and glittery. Use them as eyeshadows on their own, or as eyeshadow bases (they work great) and you could even use them as highlighters if you dare!

Oh and the pinkish shimmery stuff on the right of my hand near my knuckle (picture below) is the Skin glow - the lighter of the two colours. I didn't swatch the other one because when I swatched this one, it looked like... well, it didn't look good. How on earth are you supposed to put this stuff on your face? It did not blend well with my skin at all, it looked like I'd rubbed some Rubenesque paint pot on my face (except more of an obvious pinky-purple-holograph colour). Yeuch. Not good.

I ended up with the S/S 10 Trend crayon in Sun Shower (the gold) and a blush in Neon Rose (a bright coral-pink). If you're thinking of buying the Coral Crepe paint pot from MAC's Pret-a-Papier collection then consider buying this as a dupe - its lovely and blendable (even though its a cream to powder sort of formula) and looks just like it!

(Ignore the smudgy mess that is my eyeliner mixing with the Sun shower crayon)

Nothing better than a nice little mini-haul to lift the spirits!

Topshop Nail polish in Grey and the Sun Shower crayon

Topshop nail polish in The Big Smoke and Neon Rose cream blush

Sorry again for the crappy picture quality but I hope this was at least a little bit helpful for those who haven't seen the collection in person!

A quick rundown of the rest of what I tried from the collection

(trust me, I spent way too much time in here testing and swatching):

• Nail polishes - Nicely pigmented, a bit runny and therefore a bit streaky (but better that then sticky right?) and 2 coats is more than enough for a solid colour.
• Mascara - Nice even standard brush barrel (no bulges and funny rubbery sticky out things, etc), quite a thin formula that took a while to dry, the brown colour I tried didn't look brown on my black eyelashes :P
• Glittery crayons (swatched/mentioned above) - full of glittery, smell a bit weird, very easy to smudge (whether that's a good or bad thing i don't know)
• Kohl eye pencils (swatched/mentioned above) - soft and super-pigmented, the lilac, white and black colours are not metallic, the brown, blue and teal ones are. Long-lasting once dried (didn't budge off my hand).
• Glitter jars - Um... completely loose glitter, does not swatch, falls all over the place... you need some adhesive with this baby.
• Twist up crayons in Moon shine and Sun Shower (swatched/mentioned above) - LOVE LOVE LOVE. Pigmented, shiny, long lasting. LOVE. Possibly my favourite product.
• Eye Shadows - Fine, standard stuff. Pigmentation/colour/fall out all standard.
• Lipsticks - I tried Desert on my lips and it was such a gorgeous nude but SO DRYING!! HEARTBROKEN :( I really would have bought it. I also tried on Mink, the darkish rose colour and it was a My-Lips-But-Better colour, dried to a matte finish, not as drying as Desert.
• Lip Gloss (squeezy tubes) - Some of these were SO STICKY (Statement) and some were really runny (Nude). Huh? Nice pigmentation though but they made my lips tingle weirdly (probably allergic, sigh).
• Polish (the glossy lip stuff in flip top pots) - Adorable packaging with a mirror in the lid, they remind me of MAC's tinted lipbalms but with better pigmentation. They were a bit melted/not very solid, but smelt nice and applied/lasted well. Really liked these.
• Polish pots: Lip balm - The scents (rose and watermelon) were... just there. Not very strong. Just a standard lip balm I guess.
• Bronzers - I preferred the colour "radiance 1" to "radiance 2" - number 2 was a bit more orangey. Both are VERY GLITTERY. if you like glitterbomb bronzers, these are for you!
• Blushes - Already mentioned these above - a cream to powder formula, nicely pigmented, not as bright on the skin as they are in the pan (thank goodness). The compact has a mirror in the lid.
• Highlighter - Really really GOLD, like a sheerish sparkly gold eye shadow. I tried it on my cheek and it looked... well, pretty gold. Would be nice as an eyeshadow? A bit OTT as a highlighter, but I guess with a light hand and the right skin tone it could work.

Hope that's useful :)

Love,

Geisha

xoxo

Edit: Just found good pictures of the collection from a preview (can't remember where they're from, sorry!! If they're yours, tell me and I'll put up the source)

HERE,

HERE,

AND HERE