Hey honeys! I feel like all I post on here is reviews, but I have literally zero originality/time at the moment to come up with unique ideas, so I do apologise!
The other day I came home to see that M&S had sent my mum a little card introducing Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's new make up collection with Autograph. I looked at the packaging and fell in love immediately, and went online to order a few things to talk to you all about. I checked online beforehand for reviews - naturally - and I could only find a couple, so I decided that maybe an in-depth one of my own could help a few people out. Just to let anyone who's wondering know - as Autograph is owned by Marks and Spencer, their make up is Leaping Bunny Certified. I'm still sticking to being cruelty-free!
I purchased four products from Rosie's range, which technically means I'm entitled to a free rose gold make up bag (which I was actually really looking forward to!) but I wasn't reminded at check out to add it in, so naturally, I forgot. Oh well. If any of you go to buy a couple of products, please remember to add in the bag! I had a small issue with delivery, though, as M&S claim to deliver within 3-5 working days, it took a week for my package to arrive. When I went online to track my order, I found that it had been sent to the wrong depot, meaning that it had to go back to the hub all over again and the entire process took twice as long. I suppose this is more down to the Royal Mail than M&S, but I just thought I would warn you all that it's unreliable, so don't plan to only be home on a particular day! Now that I've ranted a bit about those issues on my mind, lets get to the proper reviews and swatches.
The packaging is beautiful, and easily compared to Charlotte Tilbury. It's entirely Rose Gold, even though the packaging on some products looks slightly more golden online, I can assure you that it's not. Everything looks worth the price, which I would definitely consider high end. However, it is less than half the price of Charlotte's line, so it's worth it! Are the products dupes though? Let's see..
Eyebrow Pencil
I ordered the brow pencil in the shade Natural 2, as I love to try out new brow products in the hope that one day I'll find a super speedy option for mornings! This pencil, however, is not what I was looking for. I'm used to using powders or waxes on my brows, so it's likely that it was my problem more than the pencil's, but I actually had to attempt using this product twice, as it looked so bad the first time that I wiped it off immediately. It's a good enough pencil - granted on some parts of my brow it looks a little odd - but I just couldnt deal with sharpening it. It was possibly thrown around a few times to many in the post, and so every time a new lead emerged it broke off. My pencil is now half the size it was this morning and without a lead... This is probably the only product I fully regret buying, just for the reason that half of my money is going in the bin with the sharpenings.
It swatches quite pigmented and smooth, and it's a pencil that I'm sure a lot of people who aren't me would get good use out of! Natural 1 is a shade suited better to blondes, while my shade, Natural 2, is quite dark. Two shades does seem slightly limited, but Rosie brought out a fifty-two piece collection, a huge number for her first one, so I can't blame her!
Liquid Liner
I was so excited to see that Rosie had brought out a marker pen style eyeliner, as I was yet to find a decent one. They always look to be so easy to use, yet any I had previously tried were dry and had no pigmentation when used over eyeshadow. Rosie's, however, is amazing. It's practically dripping ink it's so damp, and it glides along my eyelid easily. I really enjoyed using this eyeliner, and I managed to achieve a wing - something I haven't done in a good while, as my eyes have gotten extremely hooded of late.
The back of my hand is really, I don't know, wrinkled or something? No one seems to have the same issue as me, but the back of my hand has lots of little dents and lines, almost like a pattern, so the liner ink kind of sank into them. The fact that I had wiped them with a make up removal wipe beforehand to get the previous swatch off didn't help, either. This is a common occurence for my swatching though, and it doesn't mean the liner will be the same around the eye area. The swatches are terrible, it's like I wasn't even properly thinking when I ran it across the back of my hand - they're careless, wonky and uneven. I love how you can see the pigmentation of the colour, though!
Lipstick
The online shades of lipstick are not very accurate, and it upsets me because there's such a beautiful range and I've managed to end up with the worst one for me. I really wanted to get a lovely mauve/pink/nude colour, as I've been looking for one for a while and they're the type of subtle shade you can just throw on with any look. I chose the shade 'Dolly Baby' - such a cute name! - but when it arrived, it was more of a corally-pink shade. Now don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful colour. But when you're as pale as I am, these types of shades look luminous on the skin. Pink colours don't suit my lips at the best of times, but coral is really horrendous. I would return this and send for the other shade I had my eye on, Lady Rose, but I don't think M&S will return a used product. I think I can just about get away with it, particularly if I layer it over a lipliner or mix it with a sightly nude shade to tone it down. If you are someone with slightly sunkissed skin (by slightly I mean 'doesn't look like a ghost') then this colour will be stunning on you! However if you're practically transparent like myself then stay away.
The actual formula and consistency of the lipstick is lovely, its creamy and hydrating, whilst being long lasting too. I would say that after time it would dry down to a matte, and it thankfully doesnt highlight how dry my lips are. I'm having one of those days where I just can't get them smooth, as you'll see in my lip swatch at the end of this post!
The colour is so beautiful swatched, I just wish my face would co-operate and make it look great too!
'Starstruck' Contour Stick
I was really excited for this product, as I've been meaning to get my hand on a cream contour for a while now. This product is exactly what I was searching for! It's creamy, and glides on over foundation without moving it, and it blends beautifully without setting to quickly. I used my Real Techniques buffing brush to blend it, which I'll admit was a little strange, considering I always use sponges for foundation. For some reason, a sponge just wasn't working for me with this contour, yet the brush did exactly what I wanted. The colour is slightly more bronzey than contour in my opinion, as it's warm toned, but this makes it suitable for every day wear and a lovely naturally chiselled look.
It looks a disgusting shade of brown when swatched, but on my skin its subtle, something that's very rare for my skintone. I would say it adapts to suit all skintones, though I don't know that for sure. All I do know is that it looks much better blended onto my face than swatched!
That completes everything! I think the moral of the story is to go to your nearest M&S rather than ordering online like I did - my only regrets are the lipstick shade, broken brow pencil and missing free bag. I really want to try one of the eyeshadow palettes, there's a lovely unique copper one that has a truly gorgeous burgundy shade in it. I honestly think that Rosie has done an amazing job with her collection, I read that it look her two years, so it's clear that she was dedicated and cared a lot about the quality!
Here's a few pictures of myself wearing the products against my skintone:
You can head over to my Instagram where I'll likely be posting more soon enough!;) Lots of love,
Eve xo
Hi eve, I absolutely love Rosie make up (and loathe couriers-who-have-my-parcels just as much!) so I felt your pain. Great blog review! I want the eyeliner so this review was really helpful. You should definitely try lady rose lipstick. I have it and it’s a lovely Mauvey pinky brown on me as I’m quite pale. I also have supermodel kiss and vintage rouge. Both red colours gorgeous on pale skin. I’m considering buying the ballet slippers eyeshadow pallet too.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, happy make up shopping! Can’t recommend this range enough!