Beauty

Fenty Beauty: My First Impressions

I have never been as excited for a makeup launch as I have for Rihanna’s FENTY BEAUTY. Over 2 years in the making, Fenty Beauty was “made to inspire” for women of all colour, all around the world.

The day Fenty Beauty was set to launch, I was ready with three tabs open on Harvey Nichols. I felt slightly panicked as, although the promotional visuals had been great, I didn’t really feel informed about the products so I added a bunch of things to my basket and hoped for the best. I later decided to go to Harvey Nichols to pick up the foundation and picked up products there instead. The MUAs in store were very helpful and having figured out my shade, I was shown a colour-matching chart recommending complimenting shades in the other products.

I’ve since tried the products over the weekend and here are my first impressions!

(Disclaimer: I am in love with Riri but I promise this review isn’t biased!)

Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation (£26)

Now, where do I start with this foundation. Most people will know I’m all about dewy makeup. I tend to avoid foundations with a matte finish, despite having oily skin. Lancôme Teinte Idole Ultra Wear is the most matte foundation I have, although I always mix this with NARS to make it more dewy and get the right shade.

However, it’s Rihanna so for her I was willing to experiment with a matte base. The Pro Filt’r foundation comes in an incredible 40 shades – I’m 420. It is said to have a soft matte/velvet natural skin finish and contains “climate-adaptive technology that’s resistant to sweat and humidity”.

Tip: Make sure you test out your shade in store, if possible! The product dries down slightly darker and swatches can look different in different lighting.

When I first applied the foundation, the coverage and finish honestly took me by surprise. I am very picky with foundations and they are notoriously hard to get right – especially for a brand just starting out. However, this applied like a dream. With 2 pumps, I was able to cover my entire face, including acne scars, using my Real Techniques buffing brush. The finish was, as described, soft and matte and I didn’t need to set my face with powder. I also noticed that it didn’t transfer and seemed to set itself to look like I had nothing on. It did oxidise slightly after about an hour but not too noticeably. It actually slightly fixed the undertone for me as it looked slightly yellow.

I went out that evening and had the foundation on from around 6pm to 4am. In that time, I received so many compliments on my skin (the foundation!) and most impressively, I didn’t start to get oily until around 3am, even after a lot of dancing in a very hot venue. The foundation didn’t budge and didn’t need any touching up.

Would I recommend this? Absolutely! NARS All Day Luminous still remains my number 1 but only because I prefer a dewy finish. The Pro Filt’r foundation is an easy second place however. It is incredibly light and comfortable on the skin and you can build up the coverage to suit your needs. I also have very sensitive skin and it has not reacted to it. At £26 you even get 32ml – a little more than the standard foundation size.

Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter (£26)

I also picked up the Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter duo in the shades Ginger Binge and Moscow Mule. I’m a bit of a highlighter hoarder and have mostly golds and champagne shades in my collection so I wanted to go for something slightly different.

This duo is a warm rose/copper shade with Moscow Mule being slightly more shimmery and intense. The Killawatt highlighters are a cream-powder hybrid which is said to make them easy to blend and build up.

Upon first application, I completely fell in love with this product. Both shades blend completely effortlessly into the skin and give that “glow from within” effect – exactly how I like my highlighters to be. They are both longwearing and not too shimmery or chunky so when they hit the light…perfection. I will definitely be picking up more of these and I hope to see more shades too as the line expands.

To be in with a chance to win this highlighter, click here!

Match Stix Shimmer Skinsticks (£21)

The Match Stix Shimmer Skinsticks are cream highlighters. What excited me most about these were the unconventional shades (e.g. orange and lilac) but I decided to play it safe for now and picked up Sinamon – the shade matched to me along with my foundation shade. When the MUA in store swatched this on my hand, we both gasped because it looked that gorgeous! Especially under the shop lighting.

I had seen some complaints that these sticks were not very pigmented. However, as with the rest of the line, the product is supposed to give a natural look and so the lightweightness of these highlighters is intentional.

As I like a subtle highlight, I have really enjoyed this product so far. The finish is soft and iridescent and the stick shape makes it perfect for highlighting small areas like your nose or brow bone. I will also be going back for more of these 🙂

Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer (£16)

After the promotional videos for Fenty Beauty were released, this lip gloss was the product I was most excited to try. I am not a huge gloss wearer so I was keen to add to my collection.

The lip gloss currently comes in one shade – Fenty Glow – a universal rose nude colour. The gloss is in a compact tube and comes with a super-sized doe-foot applicator. After trying this, it’s safe to say I’m a lip gloss convert. The gloss is very comfortable to wear and not sticky at all, something that had always put me off lip glosses. It is not an opaque gloss so it can be worn alone for a natural look or layered on top of lip liners and lipstick.

I have found it to be very moisturising and comfortable to wear. It also smells amazing so bonus points for that.

Cheek Hugging Highlight Brush 120 (£24)

The last product I picked up was the highlighting brush. My go-to highlighting brush usually is the Morphe M500 – a medium-sized tapered brush. So I was intrigued to try out this “cheek hugging” brush instead. It also just looked super pretty.

As the name suggests, this brush genuinely does hug your cheek perfectly. Because of this, it requires very little effort to blend out highlighter and with the softness of the Killawatt duo, it felt like a match made in heaven. The pointed tips can also be used to apply highlight to other smaller areas.

After just a handful of uses, I can safely say this is the best highlight brush I own – which sounds like a massive exaggeration but I promise, it’s true! If the other brushes are as good as this one, I’ll be adding them to my collection too.

Other products I tried…

At Harvey Nichols, I also tested the Match Stix Matte Skinsticks in both highlighting and contour shades. My initial impression was that they were quite dry. The highlight shade recommended for me was also too cool-toned for my liking and the others around it seemed to be the same. I like a yellow-toned highlight and couldn’t seem to find a colour to suit. I also don’t really contour so didn’t feel a need to pick up a contour stick.

The Killawatt Highlighter in Trophy Wife immediately became a cult favourite so I gave this a swatch too. Personally, I didn’t like the colour. It is VERY yellow and VERY pigmented and as I mentioned earlier, I prefer a more subtle highlight. If you’re more of a blinding glow type of person, I would give this a try.

Lastly, I tried the Invisimatte Blotting Powder – a translucent universal blotting powder. It immediately mattified the skin and was very soft and fine. I didn’t buy this powder at the time as I wanted to see reviews first on flashback for darker skin. However, having now tried the foundation, I don’t feel the need to get this powder right now as I just don’t get oily with it.

Final thoughts

Focussed on making “skin look like skin” and lightweight natural makeup, Fenty Beauty has ticked all the boxes for me. Being completely frank, I was quite sceptical about how this line would turn out as celebrity ventures into makeup can often be very underwhelming (not naming any names…). But Rihanna far exceeded my expectations and has come out with a line that rivals longstanding high-end makeup brands. I have also loved the visuals and packaging.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the product line expands. I’d love to see more lip products as well as some eyeshadows and brow products.

So to conclude: the hype is real. If you haven’t yet, add some Fenty to your collection!