PRETTY VULGAR.

June 25th, 2017

Testing out a new makeup brand.

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I hope you are all having a relaxed Sunday.

The weather here has gotten much colder all of a sudden, but that turned out just fine for me as I took the time to wash my hair, put on a comfy sweater and try out some new makeup I received from Pretty Vulgar.

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Since I was sent the whole line, I wanted to do a dedicated blog post sharing my first impressions on the products. I am not sponsored by the brand, and I wasn’t asked to do this.

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The collection came in an adorable 3 drawer box.

To be perfectly honest with you, if this brand existed a couple of years ago, it probably would have been all I would have wanted to buy/use: the packagings are totally something I would have obsessed over. The brand aesthetic reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

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The brand seems to targeted towards girly customers, and although I’ve grown to prefer more minimal designs, some of the products still got me very excited. The 3 products above are probably my favourites, packaging wise.

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But let’s begin with reviewing each category, starting with eyeshadow palettes. This collection came with 3 different ones, all with the ‘bird’ theme.

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The one that caught my attention is the light blue one, simply because it has the most fun colours.

The nude one in the middle could become a good everyday palette, whilst the one on the right is something I don’t see myself using, so I’m giving it away (info at the end of this post).

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The pigmentation is pretty impressive, at least with the eyeshadows I’ve tried on this morning.

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I’ve used Ego all over; then I’ve deepened the colour with Formation on the outer corners; and highlighted the inner corners and brow bone with Free.

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Moving onto cheecks, the line includes a blush and a highlighter.

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Unfortunately the blush arrived all broken, but I will try to fix it. It’s still a bit too bright for my taste, but I could get some use out of it.

When I first saw the highlighter, for some reason, I didn’t think I was gonna like it, but just one swatch and bam! I completely changed my mind. This is super intense, and has a peachy undertone. The only complaint is that it fades away quicker than others I use, not fully but it’s not as intense as when freshly applied.

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Onto eyebrow products, they included both pots and pencils. Both options are great, as I tried both. They come in 3 shades each, and I’m using the lightest one (if you scroll back up to the eye close up you will see) of both, together: I started by using the pencil version first, which I’m super happy it exists because I’ve used up the Etude House one I liked so much, and this is a great replacement. Then I went ahead and used the pot, which gave me sharper edges.

As you can see, both products look almost identical on photo, as the differences are subtle. The top line comes from the pot, and when I washed it off, lasted longer than the pencil formula. The pencil is more handy, better for an everyday use as it also looks softer, but if you are looking for something that lasts longer and gives you more precision, the pot is for you. I really like both!

There are also several eyeliners, as well as an eyeshadow primer which I totally didn’t see while getting ready, so I can’t give you a review on it.

Out of the eyeliners, I only used the brown one from the pot, so I also haven’t tried the pencil liners just yet.

I took photos of all the swatches and realised just now that they are all blurry, so I don’t really have anything to show (sorry for the fail), but I can say that I really love the eyeliner pots. They have 3 different colours, the black one is very intense and creamy (a bit more than the other two) a brown one – which I’m wearing in the photo – that went on very smoothly, and a grey-ish one (which, to be fair, I’ve never seen before). I do hope that they make more colours, and a richer brown than the one they currently have, cause the design of the product is gorgeous, and the formula is great.

As I mentioned, I really love this design as well, it’s so unique! I’ve been using the Marc Jacob’s mascara (the one I’ve included in the Summer Favourites Box) and that one is insanely great at providing volume and length, whilst this one up here is more on the natural side – which is not a bag thing. The one thing this one does better, is the way it curls the lashes as you apply it: I never had a mascara that truly helped with curling, so I was surprised that this one did.

Now, for lips, the are a ton of products. Let’s start with the lipsticks, which offer 6 shades.

I really like the formula, I tent do go back to this type more and more often cause they have a rich pigment and fade beautifully. Whilst I love the look of matte lipsticks, they tent to not look so great after a little bit that you wear them, or dry out the lips, or need constant touch ups – so a formula like this one, which isn’t sheer or matte, but an in between kind of deal, is probably the easiest to pull off.

Talking about matte formulas, they have these 4 shades available, and I was once again surprised. In fact, I was not expecting a metallic finish.

I am gonna keep these two as they match my preferred choices of lip colours, so I should try them out when I get a chance. I feel like the red one could look cool during winter time.

An extra item, that I’ve never seen before, is this hydrating lip product for matte lipsticks – this is not the actual name, I just don’t have the paper it came with anymore. At first I completely misunderstood its use and got really excited, because I thought that you would apply it to a regular lipstick and it would transform it into a matte finish (like the matte nail top coats). But then I realised it’s just supposed to hydrate the lips when you are wearing matte lipsticks, which is really good anyway, since I previously stated that I sometimes avoid matte lipsticks because they dry out my lips.

When I applied it on top of my regular lipstick (incorrectly) I noticed that it had the same velvety feel of a liquid to matte lipstick.

The final thing for the lips are lip glosses. Now, you know I stay away from these, for the most part, because living in a windy city, it’s just too messy to bother, but once I saw that 3rd shade, with shimmery gold sparkles, I couldn’t resist to put it on.

These are plumping glosses, and they all look very pretty. They are minty, as you would expect, but they are not painful, whilst still making the lips look a bit more full.

I have to say, I might actually start wearing lip gloss from now on!

The last thing in the line are 6 nail polishes. I really wanted to try one on, so I could let you know about the drying time and application, but I’m out of nail polish remover so for now I can just say that I’m into the muted shades. And the bottles are so cool.