A Trip to Kiko

I kind of feel a bit like I've disappeared off the blogging radar the past couple of weeks- but I do have a good excuse as I've been sunning myself up in the beautiful state of Arizona in the US! I'll go into a lot more about my trip and the things I bought whilst I was out there in future posts,  but for now I'm home and ready to get back into the swing of things and begin updating my blog on a much more regular basis! But first, lets discuss shimmering shadows and a glowing highlighter from KIKO.

I'm such a massive fan of KIKO for their great quality and affordable products but annoyingly my nearest store is a half hour drive away so I don't go very often. Since blogging I've seen so many of their products being raved about, namely the eyeshadow sticks, so I've been desperate to get to a store for so long. I finally managed to get there last month and went at a particularly good time too as their sale was on so I got some amazing deals!

The Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks were the first thing I went straight over to and after spending a long time lusting over their rather large array of gorgeous colours and swatching most of them on the back of my hand I eventually whittled it down to just two shades consisting of 06 Golden Brown and 39 Dark Taupe. Golden Brown is the most versatile of the two as it can be worn both during the day and the evening whereas I feel Dark Taupe really is quite dark so is best suited for a dramatic smokey look on a Saturday night out. Either way, I can see myself getting lots of use out of  both.


The next item I picked up was the Illuminating Stick in the shade 100 Gold. This only comes in a choice of two colours; Gold or Rose, and I felt that the gold would look the most natural for everyday wear. It has a lovely pearlescent glow which really accentuates the cheek bones and is super easy to apply!

I got a pretty good impression from my new products near enough straight away. Aside from the stunning shades, they really do live up to their name of being long lasting, as demonstrated by the  swatches on the back of my hand  which still looked as good as new when I  got home hours later! There was no sign of any smudging and the colour hadn't faded at all which is amazing. So far so good, but the real test came when I applied them to my face. I was slightly worried that the fact the eyeshadows didn't smudge would mean that they would prove difficult to apply, however I was pleasantly surprised to find that prior to drying the formula is really lovely and creamy so is beautifully easy to blend! By simply swiping over the eyelids and blending out with a brush they have the ability to create gorgeous eye makeup in an instant that really stands out. They also have such a strong pigment and in the same way that they didn't budge on the back of my hand they stayed perfectly in place on my eyes too. Sound too good to be true? Well there's more- despite being a cream product they don't even crease either! Excuse me whilst I just go back to KIKO to buy them all!

The highlighter also matched up to the eyeshadow sticks in terms of quality. I mainly apply this to the top of my cheekbones which glimmers through in certain lights. It's very subtle which I like for day wear as I don't want it to be too overpowering, however it can built up if you're wanting more of an obvious look. The rounded stick is also extremely easy to use by just swiping over the desired area and then pressing into the skin with the warmth of my fingers for a really beautiful  natural finish. Just like the shadow sticks, minimal effort is required which is great for when you want to add the glamour but don't have the time.

The eyeshadow sticks are priced at a very reasonable £7.20 whilst the highlighter costs £8.50, but as I mentioned I happened to go in when there was a sale on meaning that I managed to pick up 39 Dark Taupe for £3.40 and the highlighitng stick for £4.20- I love it when that happens!

There was so much that I wanted to buy and probably could have filled my basket right up to the brim had I let myself but as I'm going travelling at the start of next year and am having to put a large amount of money away into my savings each month, I have to be really strict with myself and stick to a tight budget- which means not getting too spendy in KIKO! I'm sure I'll come to understand that an extra four eyeshadows sticks really weren't a necessity once I'm scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef or whale watching in New Zealand...maybe...!
 

Have you picked up any little gems from Kiko recently?

 

love Katya x

 

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