FENTY BEAUTY // FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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The collection of the YEAR has finally come out and I cannot tell you how excited I was about it, so excited in fact, that I made my order at 8am on my commute to work – don’t you judge me!

Fenty Beauty dropped at Harvey Nichols here in the UK and Sephora in the US and Canada on the 8th September. Now, up until around 3/4 days before the release we received teasers about what products you could expect from the release as well as the rumour of 40 shades, needless to say, every beauty lover was excited!

I made my order fairly quickly, colour matching myself by the shade finder online and in the end I ordered 5 products from the line, I then ordered two more products when I went to collect my order and test out the foundation shade I picked.

Now, as this is a first impression, I’m not going to say this is my lasting review, over the next few weeks I will be testing out all of these products but for now, I’ll give you my first impression of the 7 products I ordered.

Before we get started, I’ll be referring to my finished “Fenty Face” above quite a bit, just note, I used EVERYTHING Fenty on my face, the only thing that I didn’t use that wasn’t Fenty was my brushes and sponges, my lashes (Esqido, review coming soon, sooo pretty) and thin layers of my Laura Mercier Translucent Powder to set the creams. I used nothing else. I didn’t even spray my face with finishing spray. I wanted these picture to be a true representation of the makeup.

Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation – £26.00 – 420 Neutral

If you’ve ever wanted a natural look but ended up beating your face to high heaven or caked up, this may just be the foundation for you. I found that when building this up for more coverage my skin did not look cakey at all, it looked natural and luminous. It covered my hyper-pigmentation and blemishes REALLY well. There were some dark marks still poking through but for the most part, it did a great job whilst still looking fresh and skin like. I was seriously impressed!

When choosing my shade I was a little nervous as the swatches I had seen showed 420 to be lighter than my skin tone (think NC45) and when I pumped the foundation it looked light, but once blended in I was pleasantly surprised. It was a near perfect fit, maybe a tad bit too golden but that’s not an issue for me. I have to admit I’m surprised that this is a neutral shade as I feel it is pretty golden but this not a real problem. Fenty Beauty does state that these foundations dry down darker so if you are undecided between two shades, they recommend you go with the lightest shade. 

The foundation itself is lightweight but I did find that it settled into my smile lines almost immediately which worries me a little, I experience smile lines with all the foundations I wear but normally after the first few hours. This was near immediate so I had to keep going in with my brush and powder to even it out. I also found that the foundation emphasized the texture of my skin as well, which I was not used to. My skin isn’t smooth and I feel like I could see this evidently through the foundation. I was advised to not use a matte primer but a moisturising one, so next time I’ll try a more moisturising primer or maybe a silicone based on to see if that helps.

All in all for the price and how well it blends even when layered, this foundation is beautiful and unlike anything I have tried to so far.

Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter Duo – £26.00 – Ginger Binge & Moscow Mule

This caught my eye almost immediately due to the shades, a rich salmon copper – stunning! The duo’s are multi-faceted and can be used on the eyes, cheeks, and body. There is one subtle shade for day (Ginger Binge) and one more intense shade for night (Moscow Mule). Firstly, I fell IN LOVE with Moscow Mule. It reminds me of my fav Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Weenie. It’s described as a copper for me it’s more of a metallic pink, super complimentary to deeper skin tones and just beautiful all around. I used this on my lids and it had pretty good colour pay off. It’s buildable but by the texture, I think this would also be beautiful applied with a damp brush. I did experience so fall out with this but not too much.

I used Ginger Binge as a blush and found it to be sheer which helped to pull off a more natural look. I really needed to pack it on to get that colour payoff so I think there’s no way you can go crazily overboard with it. As you can see, once again, it works fantastic on deeper skin and doesn’t appear to shimmery making it a perfect choice for a blush.

Match Stix Matte Skinstick – £21.00 – Suede

Fenty Beauty also came out with Skinsticks in matte and shimmer finishes. The matte Match Stix are perfect for highlighting and contouring and they are actually pretty portable so they would also do well in your travel or makeup bag, the fact that they are magnetic also helps to make sure that you don’t lose them, but knowing me, I will at some point.

I needed a highlighting concealer to go with the foundation, I decided this after I had made my online order so in the end I bought this separately when I went to Harvey Nicks. I initially thought Suede may be too deep to be used as a highlighter but I swatched Latte and found that was definitely lighter than I needed.

I would say Suede is a shade and a half lighter than my skin tone. I used it to highlight in the picture above and I think it’s a perfect fit for a natural look. This Match Stix blended out so easily, I really had to do minimal work to get it to blend, it’s so easy to blend in fact, I’m sure you could use your fingers a la Sonjdra Deluxe!

Match Stix Matte Skinstick – £21.00 – Espresso

The deeper shades can be used in the same way the highlighting shades can (but to contour obvs) so not going to make you read another paragraph saying the same thing, however, what I will say is that I found Espresso to set, and I mean SET. You need to work to blend this in! It’s not stubborn, it just sets. After swatching this and trying to wipe off with a wet wipe I could still see my swatch, so watch out for this, I would blend as I go, otherwise, Espresso is deep and rich enough to be used a contour on my skin tone. I found once blended out, it acted almost like a bronzer which I liked. In the picture above I used this on the normal contour areas, so perimeter of face and cheekbones.

Match Stix Shimmer Skinstick – £21.00 – Rum

Once again this works the same way the matte Skinsticks do however this is, of course, a shimmer. I found Rum to be a deep bronze, coppery shade that looks subtle but beautiful on my skin tone. This blended out well on my skin as well as over powder, surprisingly. I think this would also be great to wear on bare skin as an extra added glow to your look if you have deep/dark skin. This is also a good product if you don’t like to go too crazy with your highlight. It’s perfect for every day and like the rest of the Skinsticks, really easy to blend out! What I would say is you do not get A LOT for £21.00, the picture above shows all the product you get in a Skinstick which is not a large amount when considering the price.

Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter – £26.00 – Trophy Wife

The MOST hyped item from Fenty Beauty at the moment. Trophy Wife is a highlighter like no other described as a 3-D hyper-metallic gold. I had no plans to get this as I am not a fan of gold highlighters but you really do get sucked in once you see it because it is so beautiful! Unfortunately, this was the product I liked the least, it is waaaay too glittery for me. I like a smooth, creamy like highlight (think BECCA’s Shimmering Pressed Perfectors) but when blended out I find this leaves glitter particles. If used SUPER SUPER lightly, it can be used a face highlighter like I did above (maybe an eye shadow) but that’s all for me. It’s a bit too glittery for me to use this full force, which is a shame. I’m hoping Fenty Beauty will come out with some highlighters that are a little smoother and without glitter. I’ll also try using this with a fan brush to see if that makes any difference.

Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer – £16.00 – Fenty Glow

I have never spent £16 on a lip gloss but you know what, I’m not mad that I did! Gloss Bomb is one of my favs from Fenty Beauty. It smells FANTASTIC firstly which is always a bonus, secondly, it’s a non-sticky gloss which is what I neeeeed from a gloss but also its 2017 and frankly no gloss should still be sticky, and thirdly, it’s surprisingly moisturising. When I applied it, it moisturised my lips instantly which I was not expecting at all!

Fenty Glow has a rose nude tint that doesn’t show up on my skin tone but the little glitter flecks are present but not overpowering which is what I am looking for. I am also a big fan of the size of the applicator for this gloss, it is bigger than usual which is fantastic for juicy lips! Would I buy another Gloss Bomb? Yes I probably would, it’s not cheap but it is everything I’m looking for in a lip gloss!

And that’s it!

Phew!

Well done if you’ve made it this far!

This is my first impression of Fenty Beauty, but at the moment I am impressed. My favourite items were the Pro Filtr Foundation, Killawatt Duo in Ginger Binge/Moscow Mule and Gloss Bomb.

I’ll continue to test out these products for longevity, oil control, feel and more so stay tuned!

You can also check out my YouTube video for more visuals and to see how I achieved my natural look.

Nat x