KIKO was a brand of makeup that I was aware of and had seen in a few YouTube videos, but I had never been bothered to try. There are lots of cheaper makeup brands on the high street these days and in recent years I have just gravitated to the more high-end side of makeup, as to an extent I do think you get what you pay for, until I tried KIKO.
KIKO is an Italian professional makeup range and recently opened a store in Newcastle so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get a couple of things and see what the hype was about. KIKO has been bigged up as a great dupe for Mac and other high-end brands so I was very hopeful that this was true, especially once I saw the prices of everything. They also had a 50% off sale on some items. so I went a little crazy.
I think I spent about an hour in the shop looking at everything, which could be the longest I have ever spent in one shop. I was amazed by the variety of products, usually the cheaper make up ranges you see in Boots and Superdrug just have the standard makeup, like lipsticks, eye shadow, blushes etc. but KIKO does everything you need for a full advanced makeup collection, they even do skincare, face wipes, nail polish, and makeup brushes.
So what did I purchase, well I went a little crazy and got 10 items, and do you know how much it all came to? £35.30, I was looking at the prices when I was going round, but I was still shocked at the till when she said that..
The lipsticks were my first port of call and oh my god there is a lot of them, I needed a nude lipstick so my first choice was their Velvet Mat - Satin lipstick, this is a highbred between a matt lipstick and a satin lipstick as the name suggests. Starting with the look of the product, it comes in really nice gold packaging that you press down on the top and the lipstick come out. The lipstick itself has a beautiful finishing touch of the KIKO name embossed on the side, which just makes it look high-end and expensive.
I love the texture of this lipstick it definitely does what it is supposed to, it leaves my lips hydrated and does not dry out like some matte lipsticks, but it still gives off the look of a nice matte. I love the colour as it's a great everyday lipstick. Staying power is good but amazing for the price, I wore this and went out for some food and it was still on when I had finished eating, probably wouldn't last all day but that's not an issue.
I love the texture of this lipstick it definitely does what it is supposed to, it leaves my lips hydrated and does not dry out like some matte lipsticks, but it still gives off the look of a nice matte. I love the colour as it's a great everyday lipstick. Staying power is good but amazing for the price, I wore this and went out for some food and it was still on when I had finished eating, probably wouldn't last all day but that's not an issue.
I picked up a second lipstick which was from there cheaper (if that's possible) range Ultra Glossy Stylo SPF 15. Again this is a really nice nude, the colour pay off on this one isn't as much but is definitely high gloss and great to throw on in a rush. These lipsticks do not feel like they were less than £10 each with the Ultra gloss being less the £5. Out of everything, the Lipsticks are on the top of my things I would repurchase straight away list.
The one KIKO product I was very excited to get my hands on was their Long Lasting cream eye shadow sticks. I have been obsessed with this type of eye shadow ever since I got my ByTerry eye shadow stick, which I talk about in my Summer Essential post. It's amazing, great colour, easy to blend and stays on forever, I think it's really hard to find any high street/drugstore brand that does the same type of product. On looks alone the KIKO version is pretty much identical to the ByTerry one, just in different packaging. At £6.90 vs £28 if it works just as well it would save me a lot of money. I swatched it in the shop and it was really pigmented and creamy, KIKO have a really wide range of colours usually but the shop was running low so I thought I would choose two colours I wouldn't usually wear. 
The pink is called 34 Pearly Quartz Rose and is much pinker than I would usually go for, but this has actually worked really well as an underneath shade a bit like a primer and makes my Urban decay Naked pallet colours pop a lot more. The Deep Red is 37 Burgundy, I thought this was going to be far too red, but I love it. When I was wearing this eyeshadow I got a compliment on how nice it was, I don't think anyone has ever complimented me on a single eyeshadow colour before.
The staying power is perfect, lasted all day and doesn't crease at all. I think I have found my new love.
I also picked up a powder eyeshadow. I was drawn to this colour as it is very similar to NARS Outerlimits which has been out of stock for forever. It is a peachy gold colour and is really pigmented. This one is part of their CLICS system which means you can create your own eyeshadow pallet, I love this idea.
The staying power is perfect, lasted all day and doesn't crease at all. I think I have found my new love.
I also picked up a powder eyeshadow. I was drawn to this colour as it is very similar to NARS Outerlimits which has been out of stock for forever. It is a peachy gold colour and is really pigmented. This one is part of their CLICS system which means you can create your own eyeshadow pallet, I love this idea.
I really didn't need another cheek product, I had recently purchased a Stila cheek stain and one of the Beach Sticks from Charlotte Tilbury, which I absolutely love and will be doing a post on soon. So I was torn as to whether to get this one from KIKO but I am so glad I did.
I am obsessed with cream products at the minute and their Velvet Touch Cream Stick Blush looked beautiful, I go this in 02 Golden Peach. It's really creamy so blends really nice but doesn't take off your makeup that is underneath. This product also smells amazing its a lot like the Charlott Tilbury one and smells like vanilla. This is great for a cheaper range product as usually they smell like plastic as no scent is added to keep costs down.
Finally, I picked up a new mascara and 2 eyeliners. I haven't changed my brand of mascara in about 3 years which has always been the Arbonne Its a long Story mascara, apart from recently adding Benefits Roller lash mascara. So finding a cheaper alternative was something I was interested in. I chose the KIKO Ultra Tech mascara which was only £7.20 so a total bargain. The wand is really nice and doesn't clump together and I have been wearing this every day since I got it and I love it, it makes my lashes really stand out and look really long and like everything else I bought has really good staying power.
Unfortunately not everything can be perfect and I wasn't really impressed with the two liners I bought, both just need to be rubbed on the waterline a few times before there are fully dark and this just irritates my eyes.
So my final verdict is that KIKO is 100% worth the hype. I am so impressed with it and really happy we have a full shop for in Newcastle. If you don't have a shop near you then you can purchase everything they have online here
GIVEAWAY - NOW CLOSED
So if you have read all the way to the bottom well done!! as I like to babble a little bit too much, so you are in for a treat.
I have recently hit 14,000 views on The Life Bath so to celebrate and to let you discover KIKO for yourself I am giving away a £20 online gift certificate. This is just a big thank you for supporting my blog. The rules are below.
To enter, please comment below telling me The one makeup product you can't live without, You can use your Facebook, twitter or email account to log in and comment.
You need to also share this blog post, you will see the share buttons below or sharing the Facebook post, there are also other ways to gain more entries. Once you have commented and shared, please mark it below as this is your entry.
It will run from 7th September for 1 week and then a winner will be randomly picked and the voucher emailed to them.
Good Luck x
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