NYX Eyes

An affordable cosmetics brand often mentioned by many beauty bloggers and YouTube gurus is 'NYX'.  The brand has always been well recommended, yet not too pricey.  But, I tend to find that, in the UK, 'NYX' products can be quite difficult to source-though I have a tip of where it may be possible for you all to find them.  I was recently shopping at a designer outlet, when I came across a cosmetics discount store, which stocked a number of brands which can be a little more difficult to find, particularly American brands.  So I would recommend checking out designer outlets near you to see what sort of brands your stores may stock-I would love to hear of any other stockists that anyone knows of for 'NYX'.

So anyway, whilst there, I picked up a couple of products to test out the brand, and its quality, before splashing my cash! (Student debt-post uni and a beauty addiction is no joke!) 

I bought a 'NYX' eyeshadow and a 'NYX' shadow brush.

The Eyeshadow:

I brought one of the 'NYX' ultimate pearl shadows in the colour '01 Black Pearl'.

So first things first, lets talk about the packaging: I love the case I think the design is simplistic yet pretty and the window makes it easy to see which colour is inside.  I travel up and down the country a lot and so, whilst I love a palette, singular shadows like this are perfect for packing light and still being able to create amazing look.

This shadow is a black to charcoal colour with a slight shimmer/glitter to it.  It is fairly well pigmented and is great for a smoky eye or night time look.  The best thing about this shadow is how blend-able it is.  It can be made to look very pigmented to create a bold, dark look, or blended lightly to give colours a smoky look with a charcoal tone.

The best technique I have found for using this shadow is to apply it to the outer corner of the eyelid and then to blend it towards the middle of the lid and up towards the crease of the lid using a fluffy brush.  This shadow is great to use on top of another lighter shadow to smoke it out.

Overall, I really like this eyeshadow and would love to try out some other colours.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact price of the eyeshadow but it was around £5-£6.

The Brush:

I thought I would also buy one of 'NYX's brushes to review - I bought their 'point brush'.  The brush has a practical long, thin handle which makes precise application easy.  The brush is cut into a dome-shape and it is short cut, which makes this particular brush great for packing on shadow for a pigmented look.  It is a soft, thin brush, meaning it is perfect for applying shadow under the eye near the lower lash line where precision is needed and the skin is delicate.

Again, I was impressed with this product and would be interested to try some of the brand's face brushes to test how they apply product here.  This brush was around £3-4...sorry I can't be more specific with the pricing, I must have hidden this receipt in denial of spending the money!