NYX Smokey Look Kit / Review

NYX is an interesting brand. Hard to find and when do you can only see some of the products it offers since I don't think you can find the whole line in one place. In Montreal I've seen it in only 2 places and one of the 2 was discontinuing it so everything was in cheapish looking bins for clearance. The other point of sale, a drugstore in Les Hâles d'Anjou, only has a little display which includes some eye shadows, blushes, lip glosses and crayons. The lipsticks are on on a shelf in another area of the small cosmetics department which is where I found this little palette.

That was last Spring. If I remember correctly it was selling for $12.99. At such a low price I was quite tempted but I figured I would ask on MakeupAlley's makeup board first. The comments where quite positive  so I decided to go for it and purchased it.

This all-in-one little kit includes 9 eye shadows, 2 lip colors and 2 tiny applicators. The picture below is a screen shot from the NYX website and on it the shades appear lighter than in reality. To give you an idea, the shade on the left, in the middle, is actually a black and yet here it looks like a dark grey.

The top right, middle left and bottom middle are matte shades. I have to say that they are a little hard to work with. You have to use very little at a time. The others run from satin finish to pretty shiny. The lip colors, presented in a little drawer are useless on me. True that with a real smokey eye one has to tone down cheeks and lips but these barely give a hint of color so I don't bother with them. Do note that I have good lips, not like Angelina Jolie but well proportioned and with good natural color. I can often get away with only a light colored gloss. On pale lips these might show but even if you don't use the lip colors it's still a good value.

Sadly I can't use this kit anymore. I wanted it mainly for the dark matte shades but whenever I apply one of them I end up with teary eyes. This happened again yesterday. I hadn't used it in a while and had totally forgotten about this reaction since I didn't use it often. Hopefully writing this review will make me remember not to play with it anymore.

Would I still recommend this kit? Yes!

Very affordable, the shades have good staying power. The small size makes it easy to carry in your purse or in a weekend bag. On the downside, the dark colors are a little hard to work with and the lip colors are not very pigmented. Still, it's all the shades you need to create a perfect smokey eye look. The fact that for me it's a no is simply due to my mild allergic reaction.


Reviews:

MakeupAlley: 4.6 / 5 lippies for 8 reviews.
Beauté-test: there are no reviews for this palette but the overal rating of the brand is good.

As mentioned previously, NYX products are not that easy to find. Some drugstores sell them but do not have the full line. In fact I wonder if there is a place where you can find it beside their website. The Smokey Look Kit is retailed at $14.99 but I know I paid less for it. It was in a reduced price bin.