Topshop makeup - my haul and thoughts

Topshop's makeup brand launched just over a month ago to much fanfare from the press and bloggers alike. Personally i had some high hopes from the brand as Topshop always seems to aspire to high fashion with a (slightly higher than usual) high street price tag so i thought maybe they would take some risks with their makeup line. I was a little disappointed when i first saw pictures from the launch because there were no real bright, exciting colours or innovative seeming products, but i did see some nice looking things so i  headed off to Oxford Street to see for myself.

I must say that my first impressions of the brand have been very favourable! I think the prices are fair (highest being £10 and the lowest £4 meaning they're slightly over drugstore prices but not as pricey as mid-end brands like Mac) and they have a nice selection of products. I like the fact that there will be a limited edition collection 4 times a year, it means that there will be exciting new products to see, but you'll have a whole 3 months to make up your mind and purchase. Everything I tried seemed to be of very high quality and, while the colour range might not be as exciting as, for instance, Illamasqua, but they're not dull either. There's lots of bright, fun eye colours and lots of highly pigmented red, pink and coral lip colours, not just lots of nudes and neutrals.

Personally i love the packaging. I think it's fun but classy, love the stripes and spots and like the fact it's made of metal, it's unusual. I also love that some products come in black boxes with illustrations of the product inside. 

Anyway here are my thoughts on the range.

The main range, so far, has nail varnishes, eye shadows, crayons, liners and mascaras, sheer foundations, highlighters and a concealer, cream blushes, lipsticks, crayons, 3 different kinds of glosses and balms.

The SS10 Range consists of false eyelashes, glitters, a lip and cheek stain, a big, golden pressed powder (possibly baked?) highlighter (seems to be sold out on the website), 3 trios of baked eyeshadows, 4 shimmery nail polishes, 2 pencil eyeliners and 2 soft metallic crayons for all over the face.

The packaging is similar to the main range but with gold and silver added to the otherwise monochrome packaging. Some have golden stars on the boxes and the crayons come in very luxe golden tube-things.

I tried the lightest foundation (Skin Tint in Fair) and it was too dark and too yellow for me but seemed to be a lovely consistency, feeling more like a moisturiser on my hand (where i swatched it) than a foundation. The colour range of the foundations isn't great with only 4 colours, however it does at least go up to a dark colour which looks like it would be suitable for lighter black skintones as does the highlighting liquid. I tried the eye crayon in Black Jack, which is a black with silver glitter, the pigmentation was great but I found the formula a little odd, to me it felt like i was rubbing charcoal on my skin, it certainly wasn't creamy like eyeshadow pencils often are. There are 3 different types of lip gloss, Glosses, Glazes and Polishes. The Glosses come in a squeezy tube similar to a Lancome juicy tube and are the most highly pigmented (apart from the clear one obviously), coming up quite similar to Illamasqua Intense Lip Glosses (which, in my opinion is wonderful!), they are very shiny. The Glazes come in a stiff plastic tube with a wand and are sheerer and slightly pearlised and the polishes come in a small pot (the lip balms also come in this packaging) and are quite pigmented, 'stiffer' not runny like the other 2 types of gloss and shimmery. 

From the SS10 range i only swatched the eyeliners and crayons. I didn't buy anything but having thought about it for a while i am definately going to get all of them (and possibly some of the nail varnishes). The eyeliner pencils were just beautiful, coming in stunning metallic pink and blue colours with hints of silver, the applied smoothly to my skin. And the crayons, well when i first applied them i thought i didn't need them because i have the Illamasqua liquid metals. The colours and consistency when first applied are very similar, but the crayons were slightly thicker. However after i got home from my day of shopping i realised that while all of my hand swatches had either disappeared entirely or faded into one big stain on my hand, the gold and silver crayons had stayed absolutely perfect. Even when i watched my hand they stayed strong. And so i need them, particularly for my eyes as i imagine they wouldn't crease as much as their Illamasqua counterparts.

And now onto what i actually bought!

 

Neon Rose - a vey bright but light orangey coral and Crushed Berry - a true berry colour

I LOVE these. They are a cream-to-powder formula and are beautifully pigmented and... just lovely! I like to apply them with my fingers, but they do dry quite quickly so sometimes they can be a little hard to blend.

 

 

Rio Rio - an orange toned red and Brighton Rock - a slightly corally pink

These are beautifully pigmented and have a great matte finish. They are slightly drying but nothing terrible.

  

Rosa - a bright fuschia pink and Pulp - a shimmery true purple gloss

I haven't worn the Rosa Lip Stick pencil yet but it applied wonderfully to my hand and felt soft and was slightly glossy and really brightly pigmented. The Pulp lip gloss is nicely pigmented, but not quite the colour it looks in the tube. Also it's a tiny bit shimmery with a slight blue sheen.

 

Gypsey Night - a stunning black with holographic glitter and coppery flakies.

I also got the Matte topcoat, but forgot to photo it.

The formulas of both seem fine, nothing amazing but certainly not bad at all. They dry quite quickly and were nice and not at all thick or gloopy to apply.

Swatches:

 

From left to right:

Neon rose applied sheerly, Neon rose applied thickly, Crushed Berry applied thickly, Crushed Berry applied sheerly, Rosa, Brighton Rock, Rio Rio

 

Pulp

 

Gypsey Night (craply applied and with a top coat that caused shrinkage, the polish itself applied very well)

There will be proper reviews of everything when i've used it properly. But so far i really like everything i bought. 

Hope you found this interesting! You can buy Topshop makeup from the website (available to the US too and possibly elsewhere, not sure) and selected topshop stores across the UK.