If you caught my Instagram stories a couple of weeks, you may have seen my haul from Boots.
Among this were two different products from the just-dropped XX Revolution range. Part of skincare giant Revolution, XX claim to roll skincare and makeup into one.
Based on what I picked up, that isn’t a claim I’m able to confirm nor deny; I went for the Hydra Bomb primer and two eyeshadow palattes – but haven’t had a chance to use the primer yet due to having a good few makeup-free days on the trot.
The XXpress Quad eyeshadow palettes retail for £10, when I purchased mine they were on a 3 for 2 deal so that was a decent saving.
Contained in this chrome-effect ribbed compact, these feel far more luxe than their pricepoint.
But do they step up to the mark?
I took two palettes that I thought would flatter my eye colour most; green and purple.
First up I tried XXclusive – a purple based mix. It came with a deep matte purple – think Cadbury, a shimmery lilac and a pinky matte tone, then bringing a little ‘something’, a gold foil shadow.
I’m not denying that my makeup application leaves a lot to be desired, but you get what I was trying.
The pale matte tone made a nice all-over tone, using the lilac to blend it down to my eyelid. Using the dark purple tone I packed some colour into the outer side of my eyelid. Here I had a lot of fall-out, luckily I was just testing this out – had I just finished my foundation I'd have been raging.
I struggled to get the purple blended enough while keeping its intensity which you can see, then faced a further issue with the foil. When swatching with my finger it came up beautifully; but when applying with a brush it was just a no-go.
This was pretty disappointing as I had high hopes for the quality of the shadows based on my previous experiences with Revolution.
Next I tried XXtortion, a beautiful mossy green combination. This was pretty different to anything I’ve tried before, and I fully expected it to be the less impressive of the two, however I was really pleased by the quality of these shadows having already tried the purple compact.
With a matte cream shade, it’s great for smoothing all over to help prevent creasing later in the day. Straight away I noticed far less fall-out from these shades, so that was really promising.
Also in the palette is a shimmery forest green, a shimmery teal and a khaki foil. This took a bit more work than with the purple shades, trying to figure out placement of the colours was little tricky – as I mentioned before, my makeup skills are a bit shit.
But I blended away and worked with it and it really paid off, these colours were far more workable and I loved how much they suited my colouring.
I’ve yet to give the primer a go, but I’m aiming to do so in the next few days.
Has my mixed experience put me off XX Revolution?
Not at all, I’m still super intrigued by the rest of the range and how they’ve combined the benefits of skincare with their products with a relatively affordable pricepoint.
So stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll have further reviews to give!