NYX Cosmetics Mini Haul

Good Day Everyone,

Want to see what I bought from Sephora on my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur? Well you're in luck because I'm going to share it all here with you :o) I decided to venture into unknown territory and try a makeup brand that I’d never tried before, NYX. NYX is available in the UK, and from Sephora stores in Singapore. NYX is quite an inexpensive brand, relatively speaking, and so if you’re on a tight budget or just staring out in makeup and don’t want to spend a small fortune whilst you find your way then it’s definitely worth checking out. I've not had the chance to play around with all of the products for long enough to form a solid opinion so I'll just give you my initial thoughts as I go along. 

Starting with the lip products, I picked up two Glam Gloss Aqua Luxe lip glosses. I got the colour GLG04 Glitter Dreams which is a raspberry pink shade and GLG10 The Last Party, a salmony peachy shade. Both lip glosses are not sticky (thus reducing the likelihood of getting my hair stuck onto my lips with a slight gust of wind .. phew!) but they do have a lot and when I say a lot I really do mean a lot of shimmer in them so I don’t tend to wear these during the day. The shimmer, and it is shimmer rather than chunky glitter, is very fine and I certainly don’t feel it on my lips. I wear these lip glosses over lipsticks, especially the peachy one rather than alone. This is because due to the natural colour of my own lips the peachy lip gloss just looks like shimmer on my bare lips as the colour doesn't show up against my lips natural pigmentation. I do wear the pink shade alone as the colour is pigmented enough to show up on my bare lips. On top of lipsticks these glosses make my lips look a bit fuller and give a sort of 3D effect :o) 

I also picked up a Color Lip Balm in the colour CLB07 Spasibo, a soft nudey peach, the colour of which doesn't show up on my lips. This lip balm just melts onto my lips when I apply it and leaves them with a soft sheen. It feels very hydrating on the lips and has a slight, not offensive, sweet smell which fades quickly.

L to R: Spasibo color lip balm,
The Last Party gloss, Glitter Dreams gloss

Moving on to the eye products. Given that eyes are my ‘thing’ I picked up five eye products. I got a Jumbo Eye Pencil in the colour 630 Cashmere, a soft gold colour, which I absolutely love and this is the product I've used the most from this little haul. It is an incredibly versatile and multipurpose product. I use to highlight my inner v / inner corner of my eyes to brighten and open them up, I use it as an eye shadow all over my lids and it gives my eyelids a beautiful golden sheen that’s not too much for the daytime, I add a matte brown colour in the crease and lashings of mascara and voila my eyes are done. I also use this pencil on the top of my cupids bow for a bit of subtle highlighting as well as on the centre of my lips with most of my lipsticks for a slightly fuller effect. I love this pencil!

I got a roll on shimmer in the colour RES14 Salmon which I would say is more of a rose gold colour than salmon (I don’t think there is enough pink in it to be referred to as 'salmon'). The roll on shimmer can be used on the eyes, face and body. I tend to use this on nights out on the centre of my lid for a pop of colour and sparkle with darker colours in the crease. As you can see from the swatch photograph the roller ball applies the colour really evenly so I don’t need to use a brush to apply this or my fingers, although you could if you wanted to.

The eye product that I've been least impressed with has got to be the Eye Shadow Base in the colour White Pearl. This has too much sparkle in it for my liking to be used as a universal eye shadow base. The sparkle shines through which is great if that’s the look you are going for but not great for a matte eye look. As a result I only use this when I am going to be using shimmery, sparkly eye shadows on top of this and this base does enhance the shimmery-ness but I’m not sure that it actually makes my eye shadows last any longer than usual or prevent it from creasing – the juries definitely still out on this one!

L to R: White Pearl eye shadow base,
Salmon roll on shimmer, Cashmere jumbo eye pencil

I picked up two eyeliners, one in the colour SL07 Jet Black and one in SL11 Gun Metal, which has silver flecks in it. Both of these are incredibly soft, creamy and glide on easily without any tugging at the skin. They can be smudged when I first apply them as they are very soft but as a result it is difficult to do a very thin and precise line with them but I guess that’s where liquid liner plays a role ;o) I've used the Jet Black colour which is a matte black on the water line and the staying power was pretty good which is what I would have expected given that these are marketed as waterproof liners. Both of these tend to stay in place one applied and I've not suffered any panda eye issues with them yet ;o)

L to R: Single swipe of Jet Black eyeliner , Jet Black layered,
 Gun Metal layered, Gun Metal single swipe

Last but not least, I picked up just one face product and that was the Mosaic Powder Blush in the shade MPB 01 Highlighter. This contains five pastel shades of soft powder which when applied correctly leaves a lovely sheen to my skin. I tend to swirl my brush across all of the colours, tap of the excess (a very important step) and lightly apply it to the tops of my cheek for a subtle sheen. Now it’s very important to tap of the excess because otherwise, with my yellow toned skin, I can look like I just have two lilacy stripes across my cheeks (not cute). 

There’s no sparkle in this highlighter and I wouldn't even say it has shimmer in it (if it does then it’s incredibly fine and invisible to my naked eye!), the best word to describe the effect of this highlighter is ‘sheen’ because that’s what it leaves on my skin. I also use this as a brow bone highlighter given the lack of sparkle and shimmer, and the colours could be used as eye shadows too I suppose.

The 5 colours individually with a mix
of all the colours on the right

Overall I've been pretty impressed with my first taste of NYX cosmetics. The one area where I've not been too impressed is with the quality of the packaging which is very cheap and plastic like. I've already managed to gain numerous cracks in the clear plastic lid of the Jumbo Eye Pencil and I haven’t even dropped it. Plus the black NYX writing on the clear plastic lid of the highlighter has practically rubbed of just by me cleaning the lid. In addition, the powder highlighter is incredibly fragile and crumbly. I can imagine this falling apart if I ever dropped it and it’s certainly not a product that I would ever travel with. But then given the relatively inexpensive cost of the products I guess I shouldn't have too high an expectation from the packaging.

Have you tried any of the NYX products? What was your experience? What’s your favourite NYX product?

Love Sheen xxx

For the UK: Website

For the US: Website

For Singapore, you can find NYX at Sephora

(Note: I purchased these products with my own money)