Boots - 17 Make-up Range

I was quite pleased to receive my bundle of Boots card vouchers a few days ago, one of which was for Boots own 'Seventeen' make-up range. I decided to seize the opportunity and try some of it out as otherwise it probably wouldn't have been something that I would have thought of to try. When I reached the stand I also saw that Seventeen was also on 3 for 2 at the moment. So obviously I had to buy three items (it would have been wrong not to!).

I chose 2 of the Mirror Shine Lipstick's and a Va Va Voom Mascara (which I'll come back to in a later post). The lipstick shades I picked up were 'Roserie' - a very pale lilac and 'Cheeky Secret' - a light coral/orange.

The main thing I loved about these lipsticks was the packaging. They look very sophisticated in the vinyl black casing anyway, but when you remove the lid you find that a small mirror is hidden away in the case, what a fab idea! Unfortunately I wasn't as impressed with the actual product, which let's face it is the important part.

Firstly, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of pigment when I applied these to my lips. I was hoping for bright, bold colours but instead it was more like a slightly tinted sheen. The lilac shade showed up a lot better than the orange (which may be to do with the natural pigmentation of my lips) but was still relatively weak. A large factor in this may be the fact that I chose quite pale shades, it may be that the darker shades have a lot more pigment in them, although I'm of the opinion that you should be able to expect the same level of colour saturation from both dark and pale shades. I can't say I'll be rushing to buy any of  the darker shades to test this theory but if there were more discounts available again I may be tempted.

Secondly, I didn't find these in anyway durable. Yes, I was drinking cups of tea etc throughout the day but even my £1 lipstick from Primark lasted a hell of a lot longer under the same conditions! Being quite a bit more expensive I had expected it to be a bit more long-lasting than it actually was.

Lastly, I just didn't like the actual shape of the lipstick, which you don't notice until you find one you can't quite agree with. I definitely wouldn't go so far as to describe it as 'bad', just not as easy to work with as others. I find those that taper to a point are brilliant for application as they make it so easy to apply around your cupids bow and right to the edges of your lip with no mess or hassle. These had a very rounded tip and so meant that you couldn't quite achieve this with such ease.

On a positive note though (as it is always nice to end things on a positive note), I did find these lipsticks VERY moisturising and soft on the lips, which is a massive bonus to me. Therefore if these were advertised as tinted lip balms instead I would have written this post very differently, as I think that would be a far more fitting title for them.

Have you tried any 17 products? What was our opinion of the brand?

Mirror Shine Lipsticks are available at Boots for £4.79