My First Venture Into KIKO Cosmetics

You hear about some beauty brands on the reg - their lipsticks crop up in people's monthly favourites and you read countless rave reviews of their bronzers - but for one reason or another, you never find yourself adding items into your basket. KIKO Cosmetics was one of those brands for me and recently I decided (probably after watching yet another Best of Beauty 2015 video that featured KIKO) to make my first ever order. The fact that they had a big sale on might've played a part, also!

Starting with eyeshadows I picked up a couple of the Water Eyeshadows in 'Champagne - 200' and 'Taupe - 228' despite these not being in the sale, simply because I've heard so many good things about these and I haven't tried many wet/dry formulas before. Two pot eyeshadows that caught my eye were the Cream Crush Lasting Colour Eyeshadow in 'Pearly Silver Rose - 05' (already a firm favourite in my daily makeup bag) and the Metallic Shine Eyeshadow in 'Dynamic Taupe - 06'. The latter doesn't seem as pigmented on first swatch, but I get MAC Club vibes from this one and can't wait to test it out properly.

Then things went a little lipliner crazy, as their Smart Lip Pencils were down to £1.20 each. £1.20! I plumped for 'Light Sienna - 700', 'Brick Red - 704' and 'Rose Mauve - 712', all of which have that whole 90s brown/nude/dark pink thing going on. I was really after the Automatic Precision Lip Liner in 'Mauve - 504' solely because Lydia from Fashion Influx wears it all the time in her Instagram photos and looks flipping amazing, but as there was no stock I got the Intensely Lavish lip Pencil in 'Mild Sangria - 04' and 'Heavy Cherry - 05'. I think these must've been part of a collection as they're no longer on the website, but the shades can be duped by the Endless Love Lip Pencils from the new 'Best Friends Forever' range.

After a little browse around the rest of the site I thought I'd leave base products for now and try something from their limited edition 'Rebel Romantic' collection. Loving the look of the Rebel Bouncy Blushes I opted for 'Treasure Rose - 03' and am already infatuated with it, which is probably down to it being lightweight, natural looking colour delivered in pretty yet sturdy copper packaging! Very up my street.

I'd recommend taking a look now whilst these items are still in the sale - everything I've tried so far has a thumbs up for being high quality and affordable! My only gripe is that only the number of the shade is printed on the packaging and not the name, and as a beauty blogger it's nicer to be able to say 'Rose Mauve' rather than '712', but apart from that I've loved delving into the world of KIKO!

Do you have any favourite products from KIKO that I need to try? See me talking about these products in more detail and getting all swatchy in this video!