So, my I have received all my orders from the official VB site. In total I made 4 different orders (please don't judge, I know it's a waste of shipping costs...)
Here's my first thoughts, long post ahead, sorry for the ramble.
First order (Powder, and two eyeliners in java and backup for black saffron) came in a box, box was held with bubble wrap, in the box were papers. No complaints
Other orders (one was the eye metal in blonde gold, one contained the eye shadow palette and the gray matte eyeliner, and the last was the blush, the lipliner and the victoria lipstick) were sent in a black envelope. I guess it's cute if you don't know how the original orders were shipped. Also, the boxes of most of the damages were damaged just a little. The box with the Blonde Gold eye metal was even open and the blonde gold had slipped out and was lying in the envelope alone...
Overall, I was displeased with the price of shipping because apart from the first package the rest arrived so so. I probably would order from her site again because the shipping was super fast though. But last year I placed an order on Selfridges (already told about that fiasco a few posts up), Net A Porter (perfect), Sephora (really good) and my official EL site (really good). Given the choice, I would prefer to order with either of these last three.
Products wise, I have not used anything just yet, apart from swatching and trying on the eyeshadow palette and matte eyeliner before bed.
First impressions
- eye shadow palette: gorgeous colors, but the gray is weak. still glad i got it
- matte eyeliner: so much fall out when i tried it. I may be using it wrong but so far I regret purchasing this, because I'm the type of person that just has to have their base done before doing their eyes. I won't do it another way as I don't like it.
- eyeliners in java and black saffron: great, love java and glad to have a backup of black saffron. Given the chance I'd like to pick up the blue as well. From the switching I did the formula seems to be the same
- face powder: beautiful compact, but swatched a bit dry/ patchy on my hand? Have not used it on my face yet, hoping it does excellent things. Glad I got it.
- eye metal: nice color but very very dry it seems. Doesn't feel like last year's eye metals. I wish I had a need to pick up the bronze one as a backup so I could compare if they changed the formula on that one too (I won't lol)
- Blush: I told myself I wouldn't get this because I don't use cream products. But then I saw two swatches of it and caved, this is my kind of color. However, the size of this is shocked me. I was expecting something along the lines of the bronzer or the highlighter, but it's around the same size of the eye metals... I mean, for the price, I would have liked it to be a little bigger.
Now these are the items that ticked me off the most, the lipstick and the lipliner.
- Lipstick in Victoria: this is way darker than imagined. I read it paired up nicely with the lipliner, and I did see them speaking about a cool new shade but considering they were talking about lipliner 01 Victoria, I thought it would be a perfect match with the lipliner from the last collection. It's not. I took a gamble because some swatches made it seem ok, and some made it seem dark. I have not tried it on yet, but it is def. not her perfect nude like she wears all the time much like last years Brazilian nude. So this didn't really ticked me off, just more a mistake of my own for buying it.
- Lipliner: I have no words. The Lipliner is where I feel cheated, angry and why I am making this post lol. Actually, I just looked at her official site and scratch "feel", I was cheated.
So the lipliner carries the same name like last year's 01 Victoria, but it is a completely different darker color. Which in itself annoyed me as I was looking to buy a backup of last years gorgeous lip liner. But the lipliner itself looks like some cheap thing you get at the drugstore, and it is super dry (to me at least, I have dry lips) and in nothing it looks like the creamier pencil from last year.
If you go to her site, it looks like the same one, doesn't it? At least the same formula? Nope. Sorry for my rank lipliner left, but that is last years version and the one on the right is this years version. It's not creamy, it's smaller than last year, it looks cheaper, no black on top (unlike the photo displayed on her website, sorry, it's the details that do it for me). It feels like a coloring pencil. Personally, I would not spend your money on this.
Unless I got a faulty one? Is there anyone else that picked up the lipliner?
here is a picture of the shade for anyone who is interested, i did this on a piece of white paper and bad artificial lighting, so not that good. It looks more different on the skin. Left is the old one, right is the new one.
Overall I was excited (didn't immediately check the eyeliners or the lipliner as I thought I knew them) and was willing to spend even more money to pick up some other products, but now I'm not too sure, the lipliner (cheapest thing on the site even lol) kind of hit me the wrong way, especially because it doesn't look as advertised.
Am I being too critical and overreacting here? I know it's just a lipliner but it feels like the biggest disappointment to me.
Overal, I feel like the quality of most of the products that I got is not the quality I was expecting after the amazing collection from last year.
I see that she's been doing the rounds with some UK bloggers so I am interested if they will be critical or if they will turn a blind eye.
I didn't really like that, since last time I ordered from her site there wasn't even shipping for the products, so I found that strange. But I really want to have that lipstick too, and didn't want to risk it not being restocked at Selfridges.
