NYX Advent Calendar 2019 – Review
*Info on Parent Companies – NYX is a Cruelty Free company but is owned by L’Oréal Paris (Parent Company) who are not Cruelty Free. It is completely your choice when becoming Cruelty Free as to whether you buy from brands owned by a none Cruelty Free company. I personally try to limit my purchases for these companies but have not ruled them out all together.
Beauty Advent Calendars are a big deal these days. Designer, high street, even the drugstore have gotten in on the action. Finding the right one to buy can be tricky, add in being cruelty free and the task becomes impossible. M&S, John Lewis, Next, Debenhams, they all contained at least one none Cruelty Free item. In the end I decided on the NYX calendar when it was reduced to just £35 in Superdrug.
NYX is a at the higher end of drugstore beauty sold in both Superdrug and Boots in the U.K.. Being higher in price, and being owned by a none Cruelty Free parent company (see more of that in the disclaimer above), I actually only owned two products from the brand.
In this review I will be going through each of the 24 items individually, giving my final thoughts on the calendar at the end.
Let’s get started!
Review from left to right.
Cosmic Metals Lip Cream (Metropolitan Nights) – £7.00
This is a beautiful pigmented lip gloss that can be worn on its own without a liner. Lasts forever and isn’t overly sticky, it’s a perfect summery shade and I will definitely be using this a lot. 8/10 – Not Vegan.
Lip Lingerie (French Maid) – £7.00
NYX describes this as a muted mauve shade, but it is much less purple/pink in person than it is on their website. I’m not the biggest fan of the shade, but it’s the formula that really puts me off this product. Far too drying and takes a long time to take off. It also left my lips stained. 3/10 – Vegan.
Suede Matte Lipstick (STFU) – £8.00
I’ll start by saying that I’m not a fan of the colour, it’s just not very me, but the lipstick itself I cannot fault. It’s creamy, highly pigmented, and the comfortable sort of matte that doesn’t dry out your lips. I would purchase one in a different colour, without a doubt. 8/10 – Vegan
Soft Matte Metallic Lip Cream (Copenhagen) – £6.00
I’d actually heard of Soft Matte Lip Creams before, so kind of assumed they must be popular – I can see why! This feels like a liquid version of the Suede Matte above. The softest, creamiest liquid lipstick I’ve tried, the colour is a gorgeous winter shade. 9/10 – Vegan
Liquid Suede Metallic Matte (Biker Babe) – £7.00
I wanted to love this lipstick, a deeper, more metallic version of the Soft Matte. Unfortunately the formula felt very similar to the Lip Lingerie and felt incredibly drying. It took a very long time to dry on my lips, and then looked streaky. Takes ages to get off, and stains badly. 1/10 – Not Vegan.
Candy Slick Glowy Lip Colour (Jawbreaker) – £6.00
I already knew I loved this product – it was one of the two NYX items I previously owned (in the shade Sweet Stash). This is the best highly pigment lip gloss you can buy. It’s not sticky, lasts a really long time and has a great scent. I don’t have a bad word to say, I love this gloss. 10/10 – Not Vegan.
Slip Tease Full Color Lip Lacquer (Strawberry Whip) – £7.00
Another gloss and another one of my favourites. This is described as a Mauve Tea Rose colour and I’d say that’s pretty accurate. I love the mint-vanilla fragrance and how shiny it is. The wand is a weird shape though. 8/10 – Vegan.
Glitter Goals Liquid Lipstick (Shimmy) – £8.00
You would not believe how happy I was when I found out there was an Orange lipstick in this calendar. It’s my favourite shade and this lipstick didn’t disappoint.
This product is similar to other glitter transforming lipsticks, drying down matte and magically becoming shimmery when you smack your lips together. This particular shade has a gorgeous gold glitter that just makes it extra special. This is exactly what I wanted Lip Lingerie and Liquid Suede to be like, Matte but comfortable. 9/10 – Vegan
Line & Load All-In-One Lippie (Ride or Die) – £8.00
Erm, what do I say about this product – I hate it!
The applicator is a thin stick so you can line your lips before filling in, but whole thing just ends up being very messy and looking slightly wrong. It’s also really streaky. The colour is probably the worst ever and I actually got comments on how wrong it looked – you also only get 2ml! 1/10 – Not Vegan.
Filler Instinct Plumping Lip Gloss (Brunch Drunk) – £6.50
I have small lips and absolutely love a plumping lip gloss, this one of my new favourites. The active ingredient in this sheer gloss is chilli not mint and gives a buzzing sensation to the lips and does give the lips a plumper look. It also looks great over a lipstick or liner and I might have bought another shade in the Boxing Day sales 😬 9/10 – Not Vegan.
Worth The Hype Volumising & Lengthening Mascara – £9.00
This is the only product I can’t give my opinion on as I haven’t actually tried it. I’ve got a fair few mascaras open at the moment and will be waiting until some of my stash has been cleared. Brush seems nice but the price is off putting when I can buy fantastic ones from Primark and the like. Not Vegan.
Away We Glow Liquid Highlighter (Gold Rush) – £8.00
This highlighter is too dark for my skin tone but I am completely okay with that. There’s a highlighter later on that is perfect for me and I’m happy that they have catered for different skin tones in this calendar.
The highlighter isn’t oily, so it won’t remove your foundation, it’s blinding, and dries down really well and quickly. I’ll be using this as a liquid eyeshadow on minimal makeup days. 8/10 – Not Vegan.
Face and Body Glitter (Bronze) – £6.00
If you’ve ever read this blog before then you will know how I feel about cosmetic glitter. I hate it!
Made from plastic, this glitter really is no better than the rest I’ve reviewed. It gets everywhere, is a pain to use and without the glitter glue it’s not really much use. On the plus side it’s much finer than most and the colour is very pretty. It’s also apparently a dupe for Anastasia Beverly Hills. 1/10 – Vegan.
Foil Play Cream Pigment (Malice) – £7.00
This is nice. This is the sort of product you try and end up wanting every other shade they make in the range. It’s creamy, pigmented, easy to use if not a little messy. Like the Revolution Foil Frenzy Palette, but less thick with better payoff and less creasing. 8/10 – Not Vegan.
Duo Chromatic Illuminating Powder (Snow Rose) – £9.00
This highlighter is the perfect shade for me. A cool toned pink with a blue/lilac shift, it can be easy to apply too much. Not very soft in the pan, but very easy to apply. This would be fantastic on deeper skin tones as an inner corner highlight or as an eyeshadow. 7/10 – Vegan.
Hot Singles Eye Shadow (Heat) – £3.50
NYX eyeshadow formula is fantastic and I have loved using my Ultimate Shadow Palette in Brights for over a year now, so I knew I would love this single. It’s got great pigmentation and is super easy to apply.
My only criticism is that the shade doesn’t really go with anything else in the calendar. A blue or silver/grey shade would have been better. 7/10 – Not Vegan.
#Thisiseverything Lip Scrub – £6.00
This isn’t a great lip scrub, more like a lip balm with the occasional bit of sugar. The ingredients in it also aren’t the most natural (its first ingredient is a sweetener), something I prefer in a lip balm or scrub. I wouldn’t buy this again as the price point seems too high for the quality, but I still think it’s a good addition to the calendar. 4/10 – Vegan.
#Thisiseverything Lip Balm – £6.00
Similar to the scrub, this isn’t the best. The main ingredient in this is Petroleum, so once again not very natural. I’ll use this once my current one is finished, but I would not buy again. 4/10 – Not Vegan.
Metallic Eyeliner (Gunmetal) – £7.00
I didn’t know what to expect when I got a metallic eyeliner in one of the calendar doors. This is a beautiful colour and goes perfectly with the Foil Play Cream Pigment. I can’t say how good it is at not smudging as I usually use these liners on my waterline and lower lash line. Expensive, but better quality than I’ve seen before. 7/10 – Not Vegan.
Faux Blacks Eyeliner (Obsidian) – £6.00
This midnight blue eyeliner is creamy and highly pigmented. It applies easily when I tried it on the back of the hand. The colour isn’t something I’d wear unless wearing a dark blue eye look, but I will definitely be using it. 9/10 – Vegan.
Suede Matte Lipliner (STFU) – £4.00
Not the smoothest lipliner I’ve ever tried, but the colour payoff is fantastic. This particular shade matches the lipstick of the same name above. I can see myself buying more of these in the future as at time of writing this, there are 72 shades to choose from – and there’s orange. At £4.00 the price point is pretty good too! 7/10 – Vegan.
Retractable Lip Liner (Nude) – £6.00
Much creamier than the last one, this liner glides on easy, but negatively you use a lot of product in just one go. Considering you get so little, I imagine it will be used up very quickly. I have no problem with the liner itself, I like it, but I can get the same quality product from Primark for £5.00 cheaper. The shade range also isn’t that great. 5/10 – Not Vegan.
Not Pictured:
Pro Crease Brush – £9.00
I feel like I’ve said “nice” too many times in this post, but that’s literally all I can say about this brush. I like it and I think the quality is good, I still have questions about how cruelty free these brushes are as they contain natural fibres. I contacted NYX directly and their reply was:
“I am pleased to confirm that here at NYX we do not use animal hair on our brushes.”
Hopefully this means that they’re cruelty free and vegan.
Pro Spot Concealer Brush – £8.00
Another great brush perfect for concealing but can also be used for eye lining. This brush is made with synthetic fibres but is also not listed on their website as Vegan.
I wouldn’t buy more NYX brushes, not only because of their ambiguous labelling, but because I have found BH Cosmetics to be of equal quality for a better price point.
The Verdict:
I came to this calendar with scepticism and reluctance to like things at the price point and I can’t honestly say that that has completely gone. I still look at items from this list and think they aren’t worth the money, but I also think some things are worth the extra expense.
This calendar cost me £35 and for that I got £165 worth of cosmetics, so it was more than worth the cost. I might have been a bit negative about some of the things above, but I will definitely be using all the things I got – except maybe the Line & Load.
I would recommend this to anyone who either already loves NYX products and wants more at a great price, or people who are new to the brand and want to know what’s good.
Will I be buying another one in 2020? Maybe, if it’s not the same as last time!
9/10
Sophie x
This post has been re-uploaded and edited from its original posting on the 13th January 2020.