Review & Swatcheroonies: Soap & Glory Cosmetics

I love new makeup brand launches because it means there are new products to play with and new things to look out for so when I heard that Soap & Glory were going to be launching a full colour cosmetics range, I was a little bit excited. From their tongue-in-cheek product names (Sexy Mother Pucker, anyone?) to their huge selection of bath and body products, it was only a matter of time before they came out with a cosmetics range. I was recently sent a few pieces to have a play around with and I have to say, I am impressed.

The goodies:

I was sent the Lid Stuff in What's Nude, Love At First Blush in Pink, Pop & Pearl and the Thick & Fast Super Volume Mascara.

The first thing that I noticed about the products were the colours and how they remained true to their roots and stuck with the pink, yellow and black theme of the bath and body range. For those of you who aren't familiar with the brand, Soap & Glory have a HUGE range of bath and body products and are known for their very popular Xmas gift sets which usually fly off the shelves in Boots. Much like the rest of the products, the Soap & Glory makeup range uses vintage-esque images of beauties from years gone by which helps it to stand out from the crowded makeup aisle in your local Boots. Anyway, on to the products!

Thick & Fast Mascara RRP £10.00

I'm a big mascara enthusiast and am always on the look out to try something new so I'm looking forward to trying this out on my poker straight lashes. If you know me, then you'll know that I go through mascaras like anything and I usually know if I'm going to get along with one after the first use so I'm hoping that this performs well. The brush is a jumbo sized one which is similar to Benefit Bad Gal and Revlon Grow Luscious but the formula appears to be slightly more "wet" than the formers so fingers crossed this one works better for me. FYI, I haven't tried this yet because I'm still working through a few others but I will do a full review on it when I get the chance.

Love At First Blush Cheek Powder RRP £11.00

Somewhere along this makeup purchasing journey, I became a blush hoarder. I'm not quite sure when it happened but I think it was somewhere between MAC and, well, every other brand. Blushers are now my first stop when looking at makeup so when I saw that I had been sent this beauty, I was a very happy bunny indeed. The Soap & Glory Love At First Blush cheek powder is a gorgeous multi-tone blusher which is super soft and is made up of 3 pretty shades of pink and 1 highlighting shade of white. Although the guidelines (I never understand why blushers need directions but whatever) on the back suggest tapping a brush in to one colour or all of them, the segments aren't really large enough to pick up only one shade on a brush. There are quite a few of these multi-tone blushers on the High Street now and this is another one that I'm sure will be a big hit!
Swatcheroonies:

I've tried to take half decent swatches of all shades but they aren't amazing so I'm hoping that you'll get the idea anyway. The texture of the blush does remind me of a Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick but this is definitely more affordable and as it is available on the High Street, it's easier to pick up than having to visit your nearest department store. I know that the shades look somewhat shimmery in the swatches above, I can guarantee you that it doesn't translate as a disco ball on your face. There is just enough shimmer to highlight the cheek and add a dash of colour but not too much where all you can see is the light and no colour. This gets a big thumbs up from me!

Lid Stuff in What's Nude RRP £10.00

The Soap & Glory 'What's Nude' eyeshadow quad is made up of 3 matte shades and 1 metallic shade so you can play up the shimmer or tone it down as much as you like. Personally, I am a big fan of metallic/pearl eyeshadows as I find them a lot easier to work with so I can't see myself reaching for this quad time and time again. The matte shadows are pretty and some people may like them but they're definitely not for me, whereas the metallic shade will definitely be seeing a lot of love from me because it is just so damn pretty.
Swatcheroonies:

The trouble with matte shadows is that they tend to be quite chalky and give rubbish colour payoff but the Soap & Glory ones aren't actually that bad. I probably won't use them but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the quality of the shadows and the fact that some of you out there will actually purchase the palette because of them. The metallic shade in Aubersheen is the winner for me and although I have about 20 other eyeshadows that are similar to it, there is just something about it that makes it look better. I have a feeling that I'll end up using Aubersheen all over the lid and maybe Mudhoney in the crease... What do you think?

Overall:

Like I said earlier, I am impressed. The quality of the products are great and considering they aren't super duper expensive, I can see these becoming popular among shoppers who are after something different and want to try out a new brand. As Soap & Glory is already a well known brand here in the U.K, the cosmetics range can only be a winner as people are familiar with the packaging and cheeky product names. I actually saw the stand today in Boots (It has taken the space of Prestige Cosmetics, in case you were wondering where that went) and it all looks great. My only problem is that because the packaging is the same for all of the products, I didn't know what I was looking at. I might be the only one who feels that it is all to lookey-likey but when I'm in front of a makeup stand, my eyes dart from product to product but with the Soap & Glory stand, my eyes had to focus on everything because I didn't know what the hell I was looking at. Maybe the brand should mix it up a little to help shoppers locate specific products or maybe it's just me!?

The Soap & Glory cosmetics range is available now from larger Boots stores and online from Boots.com. There is a full range of base products as well as cheeks, lips and eyes so let me know if you pick anything up or recommend I try something else!

Until next time...

Keep swivelling those hips in your

*PR SAMPLES*