Long Lasting Stick
38 Golden Taupe
There is quite a hype surrounding these stick eyeshadows, especially since they have been dubbed as the dupe for By Terry Ombre Blackstars. I completely get the hype and these definitely deserve it. The texture is amazingly creamy, in fact, it reminds me of Maybelline's Color Tattoos, but in stick form. The stick just glides on the eyes without any tugging, the shade is very pigmented and it blends out so well. The shade I got is a neutral-warm taupe shade, which is in the same colour family as Satin Taupe, but what surprised me is the amount of shimmer in it. The shimmer is quite big and gold-green, so to me it looks a bit out of place, especially when the eyeshadows is blended, but I still love the shade (swatches are towards the end of the post). Staying power is amazing and once it sets it doesn't budge. On my normal lids it goes strong for over a half a day and it doesn't crease. I've been wearing this loads and I'd love to have a few more shades.
6.90 €
Velvet Touch Creamy Stick Blush
07 Natural Rose
I expected this shade to look a bit different, in particular something like Catrice's Nuts About you, so a natural brownish-rose shade, but Natural Rose is in fact quite pink on me, which is still fine. It's buttery and transfers well on the cheeks in an even swipe, however, I find it's not as easy to blend it evenly on the cheeks with fingers. It's nothing major, but since you're swiping it directly on the skin and blending later, it moves the foundation around, so it can give a bit of a patchy effect, especially when it's fading. I find that it works a lot better if I use a stippling brush to blend. Staying power is quite a strange thing at this blush. If I use fingers it fades a bit patchy and fast, while if I use a brush it stays put a lot better and fades evenly. The finish is natural, so not dewy nor matte.
7.90 €
Velvet Mat Lipstick
612 Strawberry Pink
Kiko has so many lipstick shades and I swear I checked the entire internet for as many swatches as I could possibly find to choose the one for me (I really need to see them in person once). I wanted something completely different from what I already own and Strawberry Pink was literally the last minute choice before I ordered. I definitely don't have anything like it in my collection, but in essence it's just a very classic and almost vintage rose-nude-brown-ish shade. I presume this would be a my-lips-but-better shade on a lot of people, but on me it already gives a bit more colour while still being a natural shade. I wish it were a bit pinker, but you'll see in a full review how it looks on me and judge for yourself. The formula is very creamy upon application, so it's the type of lipstick that glides nicely on the lips leaving behind a classic creamy finish. It does get more matte with wear, but by that time a lot of the colour has worn off, so as far as I'm concerned this doesn't differ from a regular creamy finish lipstick. Just as Sara (Passing Fancy) I noticed that sometimes it does get a bit uncomfortable on the lips after a few hours. My lips are almost never dry, but this leaves me with a tight feeling on my lips, even though the lips don't look dry. The packaging of this is seriously cool though.
6.90 €
Smart Lip Pencil
709 Magenta
This is so my colour. It's a deep, bright magenta colour or a deep hot pink with a bit of red. You'd think it's similar to Relentlessly Red, but it is in fact darker and a lot less coral. It's one of those shades that just works with my colouring. The formula of the pencil is very soft and it doesn't tug on the lips, so it's actually similar to Bourjois' pencils, but less waxy. If you love Essence pencils, you'll love these as well. The staying power is a bit disappointing as due to softness it's smudges easily and doesn't survive eating or drinking, which a lot pencil do, but the colour is seriously gorgeous.
2.50 €
Nail Lacquer
345 Jade Green
I had to get the mint green nail polish, I can't go against my nature. Jade Green is a greener version of Mint Candy Apple, but with a much better performing formula. My Mint Candy Apple is very old and the formula of it is pretty much a nightmare, so Jade Green applies like a dream compared to that one, but it still has those classic faults of the pastel formula, however, all is rectified with two coats.
3.90 €
You may already know that I ordered with two other Slovene bloggers, Petra from Adjusting Beauty and Sandra from Keep Calm and Wear Lipstick, so here is our entire order. Both Sandra and Petra ordered shade 06 of the Long Lasting Stick eyeshadows, so they'll have reviews of that shade as well.
Sandra got the shade 614 Dark Berry from the Velvet Matte lipstick range, so check out her post if you want to see swatches and first impressions. She writes in Slovene, so if you're an international reader I can sum up for you by saying it's a darker shade on the lips than it appears in the tube and as far as texture is concerned she has the same findings as me (by the way, yes the pictures in that post were taken by me if the same background confuses you. Apart from the swatches, those are hers).
I know I'll get questions about the order, so I might just write about it now. I ordered on Kiko's international site, which ships to certain countries (check here which). They offer Paypal as a payment option. The shipping is expensive if you order under 50 €. It's 8.90 € to Slovenia and it varies from country to country, so it definitely pays to order in bulk because in that case the shipping to Slovenia is only 2€. It took a week for the order to arrive, which is average for shipping inside EU. It was all well packed, nothing got broken and all items I ordered arrived in one box. Overall a good shopping experience, but the shipping costs under 50 € need to be addressed.
Oh and another thing. Since I posted the order on Instagram I've had a flood of messages asking me if they can join my next order - will I sound too mean if I ask you kindly to stop asking me that? I have no plans of ordering in the near future and I ordered with the other two bloggers because I know them for quite a while, so I know I can truly trust them. It's a huge responsibility for me to organize everything, please be aware of that. I used to do this regularly, but things got messed up once, so I stopped.
Same goes for potential Boots orders. I hope I don't sound too rude, the last thing I want to do is offend anyone.
Have a great day!