the body shop - brush with fashion collection - first preview

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well. I've been a bit of a busy bee this week, sorry about the lack of posts. Considering i've a week off work i've been busier than I normally would at work, darting from gig to gig promoting and attending shows, a number of pr events and general life on top of that. Phew! I was invited to attend the Body Shop's Brush With Fashion instore launch which was last week at their Oxford Street store but unfortunately sometimes from running about like a headless chicken/not eating properly/not sleeping at all I do get down days where I just feel like absolute death and end up just lying in my bed. Unfortunately the day of the event landed on one of these annoying days and so I had to call some time out and had to sacrifice the event. However, the lovely team over at their PR company sent me the full make up collection so I could share with you, and try for myself. Seeing as I just picked it up today I couldn't wait to share with you all! So here's the full range of cosmetics:
I'd just also like to say that all these images are mine and if you want to use them please contact me and link back to them on your website, it's just polite really isn't it.







So it consists of :
Illuminating Face Base



The Body Shop say this can be worn under foundation or alone on the skin, it's kinda like a primer but with added shine and enhancing complexities. It has a brush on the top to apply - this is a running theme throughout this collection ;) - and is supposed to suit all skin types.






Here's a swatch without flash:


and now with flash:


Now because of it's 'click/turn' mechanism I found it quite hard to control how much came out. As you can see in my swatches it's rather gloopy and thick all over my hand - that's because so much all came out of nowhere at once. It's really orange toned in shade and I really daren't put this anywhere near my face because it's going to make me look well, ridiculous! I'm a really pale girl - I sit around NC5 in MAC terms - and just from how different in shade it is on my hand it's not going to suit me at all. I think it would work far better on darker skinned girls, probably from around the NC20 mark. I guess the sparkles are meant to be subtle, and sit prettily on the skin. I think on such a pale girl like me, it wouldn't do that and would instead just make me look silly! I'm also not entirely sure about the brush, my experience with face products with brushes attached mean you have to keep cleaning the brush as it gets dirty with bacteria a lot quicker, and that doesn't appeal to me at all. I will give this a go on my face but going off first impressions this doesn't really look like the product for me.

There are also lip 'treatments' which come in two shades:



Again..the same brush packaging.




Swatches without flash:


and with flash:


Now i quite like the look of these, they're much cuter in the packaging and I think the brush thing will work better with lip products. I'm not entirely sure about the name though - Lip Treatments. They don't really feel and look like a lip treatment as such to me. I use a lot of the Body Shops' lip balms and they work brilliantly, but these look and feel a lot more like lip glosses. Very sticky, and similar to Lancome's Juicy Tubes. I think these will be a cute addition to a lip gloss lover's collection but they feel sticky upon application. I'm not really sure about either of the shades either, the pale one (Juicy Peach) doesn't really show up much at all and is just sparkles, and the darker one (Pink Cream) is more of a dusky, vintage-ier pink than i'd like. I think these would have been a lot better had they been bolder colours, maybe a proper coral and a bright pop pink. They're kind of a safe colour choice..

There's also a Tailored Cheek Tint:





Again...the same brush theme..!



This product is unlike anything i've ever seen before. It's a blush, in a tube, with a brush applicator. It applies wet, with a glossy coating and then when you blend it goes soft and powdery. It's crazy. I spent ages playing with it on my hand like..woaah..! I like this product. I like the shade, I think it's a lovely pink colour that will adapt to any skin. On my skin it comes out perfect, a bright pink shade. I anticipate this will probably be a better seller than the other brush products.

There are also two eyeshadow palettes:



A La Mode:







Boho Beauty:






I think these palettes are lovely. I like the design, I like the feel and I like the soft, creamy eyeshadows. I've never tried regular Body Shop eyeshadows before but the blendable, easy to work with shades in these palettes are definitely on par with some higher end ones, MAC/Urban Decay for example. They both come with an eyeliner pencil and a little Body Shop brush. I love these brushes, they're great and really soft and easy to use - much better than those rubbish plastic applicators you get in most palettes! The pencil however, I didn't rate. It was really hard and didn't blend easily at all. I found it near on impossible to apply to my hand and when i did it was really scratchy and not at all my kind of pencil. Not blendable or soft. I found all of the eyeshadows to be really easy to apply and swatch and with the exeption of one - the lightest in Boho Beauty - they all showed up bright and colourful in my swatches.

So for an overview a la Temptalia (shameless, sorry Christine!)

Must-Haves:
Boho Beauty, A La Mode Palettes (£15 each) and Tailored Cheek Tint. (£10)

Nice to Have:
Lip Treatments (£9.50)

Skip:
Illuminating Face Base (£14)

It can all be found online at www.thebodyshop.co.uk and should be instore soon!
Hope some of you found this helpful. I'm going to do a couple of looks with the make up soon and those will be up hopefully within the week!
What do you think of this range? Do you agree with what I thought of the products? What will you be getting from this collection, and what will you be skipping? Please let me know, I love your thoughts.

Oh and as alumni of University of the Arts London, I felt particularly interested in this range! Are you at UAL? Did you work on this collection?
Much love, Zozo xxxx