Shortly after Japonesque launched its makeup collection, I watched several UK vloggers feature some of their products. For some reason I was really intrigued…the packaging looked cute and I dunno…maybe an accent makes everything seem better?!! Ha ha! I finally pulled on Sorrels and braved the snow to check out the collection.

***Each item purchased by me or was a GWP. Affiliate links included.***

Velvet Touch Blush

Velvet Touch Eye Shadow Palettes

Velvet Touch Eye Shadow Duos - forgot to take a picture of them all. But whereas the singles are all very neutral, the Duos offer more color.

Velvet Touch Eye Shadow singles

Comparison of similar colors in a duo vs. a single…they look super close, but did seem to swatch slightly different. Though once applied it might not make a difference.

Pro Performance Lip Lacquer swatches. Shades 1-4 on the bottom, shades 5-8 on top.

Here's what I ended up with! The brush and cute little cosmetic case were GWP's.

Velvet Touch Eye Shadow in Shade 5, $18

Velvet Touch Blush in Shade 4, $22

Eye Defining Pencil in Black, $18

Velvet Touch Finishing Powder, $26

Pro Performance Lipstick in Shade 9, $20

All items are available at ULTA - right now they are running a GWP online, which is a mini Velvet Touch Finishing Powder

A few notes:

* I find it a bit confusing that they give most of their products numbers to denote colors.

* Overall, I like the packaging quite a bit…it's sturdy, cute and something that I don't mind pulling out of a makeup bag!! Not too crazy about the large Japonesque logo/name on the front of the compacts…wish it was smaller or elsewhere less noticeable on the containers.

* Pricing seems a tad high??

Ok, here we go! And swatches will be at the very end...

Velvet Touch Eye Shadow in Shade 5

I really, really love this shade and have kept it in my makeup bag for the past couple of weeks!! It's a shade that's unique to my collection. I would best describe it as a purple/gray/taupe kind of color?? Texture-wise, it's soft with almost a spongey feel. For the most part it's smooth, but I don't think it's as finely milled as it could be. Not a deal breaker because I find the color so flattering on my skin tone and for the most part I enjoy the texture!

Velvet Touch Blush in Shade 4

Sorry!!! I had a tough time getting color accurate pics on this one. It is the brightest blush of the bunch though! The texture was smooth and seemed to blend in very nicely - not at all chalky or powdery. It didn't seem to wear as well during the day…by lunch time I could see it starting to fade. I returned this because of the fading and because of the color…it ended up looking too warm on my face and made me look red rather than bright and fresh-faced.

Velvet Touch Finishing Powder

This is a translucent shade meant to work for most skin tones. It's supposed to provide a velvety, matte finish that also blurs lines and imperfections. The finish on this was very nice. I would definitely say it was a matte finish, but it was a softer matte finish…and as the name implies it seemed to blur things a bit. However, after less than 2 hours I had oil peeking through!!! This was returned. If you aren't oily at all, this might be worth a look.

Eye Defining Pencil in Black

This was terrible. Seriously. Don't even bother. It was very smooth and glided on like a dream, but the color was so patchy and didn't last at all. I returned this.

Pro Performance Lipstick in Shade 9

This was a lovely lipstick!! Super rich color that smoothed right over my little lip wrinkles. This is a lipstick in every sense of the word, so don't expect something balmy, glossy and airy ha ha! That said, this was semi-moisturizing, didn't dry my lips and felt comfortable once on. I loved this color, but had to return it because the formula was starting to cause a reaction…however, I definitely would have kept this and would be looking for new colors if it hadn't started bothering me.

Indoor window light

Indoor window light

With MULTIPLE swipes the liner looks nice and rich, but this picture is deceiving because it real life it doesn't look so nice. Same with the 1 swipe…in the pic it doesn't look as bad, but it real life it's much worse. Very inconsistent in application.

But see how rich and pigmented that lipstick is?!! :-)

Soooooo…very much hit and miss for me. I think the eyeshadow and lipstick were the best of the lot, and I'd really like to get a closer look at the Lip Lacquers. Have you tried anything from Japonesque yet??