Makeup by One Direction Review!

Hello again! Today I have a review for you all about a new makeup collection available from Markwin’s Beauty and One Direction, and which is now available in the US in Macy’s, and will also be released in Canada … eventually.

I received one of three sets from Markwin’s through BrandBacker for testing and so I could do this review for you. The three limited edition sets are based off of One Direction’s albums: Up All Night, Take Me Home, and Midnight Memories, and each set comes in a cool collector’s tin.

I got the Take Me Home set. Here’s a quick look at it before I get into my reviews of the products inside:

The set comes in a fairly large, hinged tin, which on its own makes a nice collectible, with the band and their signatures printed on a plastic slip with the product information on the back.

Inside the tin, they've printed three suggestions on how to use the products for different looks, and the products are of course held together in a cardboard and plastic insert.

Liquilights Glow Gloss in Kiss You:

The Take Me Home set comes with a neon orange lipgloss called Kiss Me. It's a fairly standard gloss size, and the applicator is a nice doe-foot applicator. Also, the colour on its own is a fairly subtle, but fun, shimmery orange colour. However, the coolest thing about this lipgloss is the part that makes it a "glow gloss":

The only blacklight or UV light I own is part of my sonic screwdriver, so I turned off the lights and used that to get these pictures! Look how crazy this gloss glows under the UV lights! Granted, you aren't going to see that very often, unless you're clubbing or something, but it is a pretty cool quirk! As a lipgloss, it's fairly nice (remembering I'm not a lipgloss person), not terribly sticky or slippery. It smells sweet, if a little bit chemically, though you don't really smell it once it's on your lips. I found the glitter a touch gritty, but I think that's my biggest complaint. Also, did I mention it glows!

Eye & Body Crayon in I Wish

This is probably the weakest part of the set, in my opinion, as I don't feel like it has any staying power to talk about. It is pretty well pigmented, and a nice, neutral brown colour, but as it is a chubby pencil, it is a bit fat to be used as an eyeliner. As a base for a smokier eye look would probably be the best use for this particular product, though you might run into creasing or smudging, like with the NYX jumbo pencils if you have oily skin or eyelids.

As for using it as a body pencil (presumably with the kit's stencils), while that's kind of a cute idea for (mainly) younger girls (or maybe big fans of the band?) I don't think this is a practical product for that, because if you rub or scratch the area you've drawn on, this pencil is just going to smudge and wipe away.

Lipstick in Last First Kiss

You probably know by now how much I love my pigmented lipsticks, but I know plenty of other people love sheer lipsticks as much or even more than an opaque lipstick, so I'm going to try to be fair. The colour that is visible at the base of the lipstick is exactly the colour that you find inside: a pretty pink that falls somewhere between bright and neutral. It swatches very faint on my hand, but shows up a fair bit pinker on my pink lips; I would compare the colour pay-off to a Maybelline Baby Lips. It definitely appears as more of a tinted balm than a full-on lipstick, which would be great for a younger girl, or anyone who likes a more natural look. It also doesn't have any scent to speak of, and feels pretty creamy and moisturizing on the lips.

5 Piece Decorator Stencil Set

This is probably one of the clearest signs that this makeup set is mainly directed at kids/preteens/teens, as I think they're probably the most likely to want to draw on themselves, their friends, and their stuff. This set in particular comes with stencils for crowns, arrows, lightening bolts, and triangles. Pretty random to me, but maybe they have something to do with the cover art for this album?

Although I've already discussed how I disliked both the eye & body pencil, I think the funnest way to use these stencils would be to use the crayon to draw them on, and then pat some of the glitter overspray from Take Me Home over top. I think that the crayon would give the glitter more to stick to, and perhaps the glitter would make the crayon a bit harder to wipe away.

Volumizing Mascara in Little Black Dress

I'll be brief about this, because I'm not sure there's much to say, and we already know how little I think of non-waterproof mascaras, but I understand how some parents might prefer them for use on a younger girl's eyes. Ignoring the staying power for the moment, however, this is a very nice, basic mascara. It has a nice brush, and is a good black colour. It isn't especially volumizing or lengthening, but in my opinion manages to darken the lashes without looking clumpy or too unnatural. A great first mascara. Unless you have oily skin or eyes, sweat a lot, have allergies, or are especially emotional. Most non-waterproof mascaras won't take much moisture before they start to transfer to the skin around your eyes, but I've never looked so much like I had two black eyes as I did when I wore this mascara to the gym to test it's durability! (That's one way I like to test all my mascaras, waterproof or not.) Sorry, but that's a fail from me!

4+1 Eyeshadow Palette

This was probably one of the things I had the highest hopes for in this set. The range of colours in the Take Me Home set are pretty, shimmery, fairly neutral colours that seem to work well together, and which you could mix and match for a few different looks. The palette includes: Back For You, a shimmery/frosty cream shadow; Change My Mind, a shimmery peachy shadow with a crazy shimmery overspray that wipes away quickly; C'Mon C'Mon, a cool-toned shimmery taupe shadow; Little Things, a deep warm brown, almost-metallic looking shadow; and Take Me Home, an actually gorgeous shimmery gold cream shadow hidden under a thickish layer of heavy, gritty gold glitter. The palette also comes with a dual-ended applicator, with a shockingly nice sponge applicator on one end, and a brush on the other, which looks sadder than it is, and if you use the flat end against your lid, it can actually do a decent job of blending.

The four powder shadows aren't anything special or terrible, and can be built up to be fairly pigmented, especially if you use a shadow base underneath. I was disappointed by the thin shimmery overspray on Change My Mind, but the colour underneath is still pretty, and probably more useable. However, I originally thought I absolutely hated Take Me Home, until I put my finger in a little harder, and realised there was a real creamy shadow underneath! I hope it doesn't dry out too quickly, but the cream shadow under that horrible glittery overspray is gorgeous, pigmented, and metallic!

Nail Varnish in Live While We're Young

I love nail polish, but this one looked a little sad when I first pulled it out of the tin. As you can see in the pictures above, in the bottle, it looks murky, like a fishtank that hasn't been cleaned in a long time, with some pretty rainbow-y glitters. It's also half the size of the average nail polish. However, as you can see from the swatches above, the glitters in this polish are pretty sparse, so this is definitely no more than a glitter topcoat, so the smaller size doesn't really matter; you probably won't be doing 2-3 coats painting your nails with this glitter! The murky polish seems to show up clear in the swatch, and doesn't seem to effect nail polish colours when used as a topcoat.

One possible look:

I just wanted to show you one type of look you can do with this eyeshadow palette. This look is super subtle, and uses the four powder shadows over Urban Decay's Primer Potion. I used Change My Mind on the lid, Back To You under the browbone and on the tear duct, C'mon C'mon in the crease, and the tiniest bit of Little Things on the outer corner. The colours don't show up awesome when my eye is open, but they do blend fairly well, even though they aren't very pigmented.

Final thoughts:

I think this would be a really fun gift for a big fan of One Direction, especially for those in the preteen-young teen age range (~10-15 yrs?). None of this makeup is particularly great quality, but it would be a cute, fun kit, especially for a young girl's first makeup kit, as it provides a range of products that creates an almost complete look (minor powder or foundation, but maybe those aren't really that fun for younger makeup users anyways, really). You've got a glittery nail polish, a pretty, sheer lipstick, a fun, glittery lipgloss, some neutral, shimmery eyeshadows, and black mascara. Sounds like a good intro to makeup for a 1D fan to me!

This would also be a fun kit for anyone who loves One Direction and makeup though, so if it really interests you, and you're more interested in the One Direction-ness and some fun makeup, and less worried about staying power, maybe this is for you too!

If you want more information, you can go to the brand’s Facebook page: Facebook.com/MakeupbyOneDirection

Thanks so much for reading, and thanks to BrandBacker and Markwin's for sending me this set to review! I hope you found this review helpful, please let me know in the comments if you've tried this or are hoping to get your hands on it! Have an awesome day!

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