EM COSMETICS
GET STARTED WITH EM KIT - $27.50 + tax
Contains:
- 1 Waterliner Intense Color Eyeliner - your choice of shade
- 1 Classic, Matte or Sheer Lipstick - your choice of shade
- 1 Life Palette Trial-Size Sampler - your choice of sampler
I thought this was a perfect beginning sampler, and very well rounded with an eyeliner, lipstick and eyeshadows. Here are the items that I chose and my review on them!.....
EM COSMETICS
WATERLINER INTENSE COLOR EYELINER
in Turquoise
The moment I saw the shades available and the swatches on the website, I knew I had to have Turquoise. Now what struck me as bizarre is that the moment I opened up the packaging I thought...wait a second, they sent me the wrong pencil, this has to be Teal Tease, it looks much darker than on their website. For reference, here are the two pictures from EM's website:
TURQUOISE
TEAL TEASE
It appears more like Teal Tease, doesn't it? Then I looked at the box and at the writing on the pencil and nope! It is indeed Turquoise! Don't get me wrong, I would have been completely happy with either shade, but when I order something online based off of the swatch picture (especially when something as new as EM which didn't really have any blogger swatches or YouTube swatch videos yet), I hope to receive an exact duplicate as I see in the photos. Now wait till you see it swatched on my hand...
Is that color not BEAUTIFUL! and it does look much more like the Turquoise swatch photo on EM's website than the Teal Tease, even thought it's just a HINT darker, but close enough to where I'm happy. The pigmentation is beautiful and it's very creamy. Even the single line shows up well, however the squiggle line isn't as crisp as I would like but still very workable. I could easy rock this color by itself for a fresh daytime look or even blend it over my eyelids for a more vivacious pop of color! The staying power is great when worn over a primer and even better when set with a setting spray. It lasted about 7 hours before needing any touch-ups and was easily removeable with makeup remover. I didn't have any problems with staining once removed as well.
The eyeliner comes with a smudger at the end of the pencil as well as a sharpener when you pop the smudger out and flip it around, which is fantastic if you're taking this pencil on the go. The only con to me about using this smudger instead of, say, a smudger from a brush kit I have is that this one will be a bit trickier to wash only because I don't want to get the pencil itself wet, however if I pull it out so the pencil doesn't get wet then it's harder to hold and is small enough that it may magically disappear while drying (don't pretend something similar hasn't happened to you, it happens to the best of us! Haha!) It's one of those things that you can weigh the pros and cons of and just decide for yourself! I probably won't use the smudger much since I have a few in my brush kits, but I will use the sharpener since that way I won't mix colors that could rub off the sharpener and onto the pencil tip during sharpening! I usually keep a sharpener JUST for black eyeliners separate than one that I used for colors since I've had many a bright liner tinged with some black when I sharpened them.
EM COSMETICS
CREAMY COLOR CLASSIC LIPSTICK
in Be Mine
I fell in love with this shade from the website as well as it appeared to be a gorgeous pink-tinted cocoa. You could choose a sheer lipstick, classic lipstick or matte and I went for classic since they looked very pigmented and rich.
First I'd like to say how much I ADORE the packaging! I seriously did NOT want to throw it away. The black with white script lettering is very chic, elegant and modern and it's made from nice material, doesn't feel flimsy at all. I always seem to get more excited with pretty packaging, don't you?
After I unwrapped the box and opened the tube, I was so disappointed, though. The color is NOTHING like it looks online. Online, as I said, it's a warm cocoa pink, in real life the lipstick looks to be more of a rich rose. Here's the picture from EM's website:
Looks SOOOOO different, doesn't it? Not that I don't particularly like the shade I received, it's pretty, but I have many similar to it, I wanted something I didn't have and unfortunately it looks like I still don't have it.
Swatched it soooooorta kinda looks like the swatch picture from the website, but I'm seeing so much more pink in the tones than the warmer cocoa I expected. The color is still gorgeous, however, look how very pigmented and creamy it glided on with one swipe and it blends beautifully. It's so buttery smooth. You can even see the smallest hint of frost and once blended you can also detect a few shimmers here and there around the edge.
The lipstick lasted quite a while after application! Applied straight on the lips with no blending it stayed pigmented for about 4 hours with no drinking or eating before needing touch-ups and even then I still had some color, just faded. Applying blended it lasted about 2 hours, with still some soft color remaining.
EM COSMETICS
THE LIFE PALETTE TRIAL-SIZE SAMPLER
in Look 1 - Warm Fuzzies
I have a small, small bone to pick with EM about this sampler....then I'll get back to being happy, loveable Cookie, I promise. When this promotion first came out, the pictures that were shown of this sampler looked essentially like this:
From this angle, and especially not quite as close up, detailed and lit similarly it was very hard to see that there is not, in fact, six shadows, 1 blush, and two lip pans, but instead only 3 shadows and 1 lip pan. Here is the photo that EM has on their website now to show what you are receiving:
Originally it did not have the dotted lines around the real pans, so upon glancing it seemed that entire palette was the sample. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up! Now, I'm not complaining because I "want more! want more!", only think it was a bit of false advertising to not fully show in better detail what you'd be receiving. Apparently, many people must have felt the same way since they altered the imaged and added to dotted lines shortly after. Another mention is that before when I purchased the deal, I was unable to choose which sample palette I preferred (out of the six life palettes - Day Life, Beach Life, Career Life, Night Life, Party Life and Love Life), the system chose it for me during checkout, but now you ARE able to choose! It's actually not that big of a deal to me, even though I would have liked to pick my favorite color choices, but once again, I think that was a learning process for EM as I'm sure people may have commented to them about it. Or perhaps they added the other samples later!
I was happy to see the colors matched the photos on EM's website fairly well though, albeit maybe more brightly lit. Here are some closeups of the pans...
The pans are fairly thin in depth and the sizes seem typical for average eyeshadows.
Eyeshadow Shade: Puppies & Kittens
A warm taupe-brown with soft shimmer. The interesting thing to note about the look and feel of the top of the set shadow powder is that it has an interesting corduroy texture on top from how it's pressed in. It feels quite rough when you first touch it and not as creamy and smooth as other high quality shadows. This pan is the largest of the three is about the size of a quarter.
Eyeshadow Shades:
Left - Springtime, Right - Teal Rain
Springtime is a frosted dusty mauve-purple with gold shimmer, and Teal Rain is a dark frosty midnight blue. The pans were a little bit smaller than the size of penny.
There is a bit of range in difference when applied by different means. On Row #1 (top) I applied them dry but I swiped about 3 times on each color. Unfortunately these shadows just do NOT have much pigmentation. Row #2 is applied over Urban Decay's Primer Potion is Original and Row #3 is over NYX's Jumbo Pencil in Milk. Here's a breakdown and closeup of each....
ROW #1 - 3 Swipes Dry
Puppies & Kittens was the best out of the three, with a warm brown-gold tone and gorgeous shimmer, Springtime was the worst with barely any color at all and a bit patchy, and Teal Rain didn't have too much color but the frosty shimmer covered up a bit of the patchiness. I really don't like wasting shadow having to constantly apply more on top of more layers to create color though, however, if you like just a hint of color then these may work for you, but just to note, some may be a bit patchy.
ROW #2 - Over UD's Original Primer Potion
Over the Primer Potion I had MUCH better results. Puppies & Kittens had more shadowing and depth in color, Springtime actually showed up well and Teal Rain looks much richer and bold. These had about 1-2 swipes each.
ROW #3 - Over NYX's Jumbo Pencil in Milk
By far the best pigmentation, Springtime really came alive with this method! You can actually see the gold shimmer and warm mauve! Puppies & Kittens lost a bit of the gold and instead went much darker, as did Teal Rain, but between UD's Primer Potion and NYX's Milk these shadows are much easier to work with and have much better pigmentation.
Lip Shade: Melon
Somewhere between a lip gloss and a lip balm, this product has an lovely texture.
It's very creamy and smooth and isn't sticky at all, and has lovely pigmentation when swiped on a few times, but blended it's harder to see.
I actually really love the color on my lips, it still looks natural but also brightens the color up a bit and has a soft glossy that isn't too watery looking but isn't matte either. The color didn't last too, too long, but long enough to where I was satisfied, about 2 hours or so.
WORTH AND PURCHASE:
1) Waterliner Intense Color Eyeliner in Turquoise: $20
2) Creamy Color Classic Lipstick in Be Mine: $16.50
3) The Life Palette Trial-Size Sampler in Warm Fuzzies: $10
Total Paid for Promotion: $27.50 deal + $2.26 tax (free shipping) = $29.76
Total Worth of Products: $46.50*
*(not including tax and possible shipping) I'd say that's a pretty good deal, especially since the eyeliner itself is $20. I don't think $10 for the sampler is a good price, though, three eyeshadows and one lip pan, especially the size and quality of the pigmentation, I wouldn't pay $10 for. But the eyeliner and lipstick I feel comfortable with.
FINALE
Makeup finale! Oh yeah!
For this look I used everything except the lip product from the sampler. I have on the Be Mine lipstick which appears much darker on my lips than swatched and turns into a deep rosy-red shade that actually is gorgeous for the Fall!
How fabulous is the eyeliner? Seriously, my favorite product of the entire package, it is SO beautiful! The color really pops! I lined it on the inner half the eyes and on the inner waterline on my bottom lashes.
For the eyes I actually layered all three shadows and it turned into a warm steel. I used UD's Primer Potion first, then blended NYX's Milk over it. I lightly swiped on Springtime all over the eyelid, then blended Puppies & Kittens in the outer edge for a cat-eye. I blended Teal Rain right over that and actually loved it so much I decided to work it in over all the taupe brown for a more steel-shade effect. I finished the eyes with black liquid eyeliner on the outer wing and black pencil eyeliner on the waterline.
All together I'm happy I purchased the set since I was dying to try out the new brand but I'm still a bit wary that the shades appeared differently in the website pictures compared to real life. When purchasing products that are a little higher priced like EM Cosmetics are, I want the shades to match EXACTLY with what I see online. I'm also concerned about the pigmentation of their shadows, I was considering purchasing a Life Palette if I loved the samples, but a Life Palette costs $75! Even though that comes with 24 shadows (12 quarter size eyeshadow pans, 12 smaller eyeshadow pans, 4 blush pans, 8 lip pans), 1 double ended brush and 1 travel compact case I still wouldn't pay that much for shadows that aren't that pigmented and could be patchy. Regardless, this starter kit is of decent value and since it's customizable, I do recommend it! Prepare yourself to possibly receive shades that may differ from their appearance though, and at this time there may be more blogger and vlogger reviews available so do a little research on what colors you may want to see if there are more pictures out there and you'll be good to go!
I hope you enjoyed the review!
Check out EM Cosmetics at:
and if you'd like, you can take advantage of the deal:
Happy Makeuping!
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Loving the eyeliner!!
ReplyDeleteOh yes! It's seriously so gorgeous <3
DeleteThe colors look lovely on you! Not liking how much prep it takes to get the shadows to show up, especially as I cannot get Milk to work for me.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! <3 Yeah, I REALLY wish they were pigmented, I'd pay the $75 for a palette if they were rich, buttery soft and very pigmented like Urban Decay or SauceBox. Oh no! What trouble are you having with Milk?
Delete