Happy New Year!!! Since it’s a brand-new year, I thought I would start it off with a review of a new drugstore makeup line.

So I’ve always raved about the Kiss nails, including this past Monday (ImPRESS is owned by Kiss), but did you know that they have a full-blown makeup line as well?

Officially launching earlier this year, the Kiss Professional makeup line, available at London Drugs and Rexall, is a Korean-inspired makeup line endorsed and used by celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta. The line consists of contour and strobing palettes, eyeliners, eyeshadows (palettes and single), and lots of lip goodies.  I had previously tried out some of their eyeshadows and lip products but I was super excited to dive into the meat of the collection and really put it to work.

The packaging for the collection comes housed in glossy black containers, bearing much resemblance to NYX Cosmetics. I haven’t seen the full line in stores, however, the brand sent me enough goodies here to really get an overview of the brand.

First up was the Top Brow Brow Cream, a long-lasting cream brow product that is available in six shades. I applied this with an angled brow brush and found that I did have to dip my brush in the product a few times to really get the look I was going for. Kiss says that this is a highly-pigmented formula and is long-lasting. I do have other cream brow products and found those went on creamier than this one did, however, for the price (C$9.99 at London Drugs) you can’t beat that.

Next up is the Hexa Eyeshadow Palette (C$12.99), which is a neutral-toned palette with six shades in matte and shimmery finished. I did use a primer with this, however, Kiss says no primer is needed. This palette also comes in three other shades, but the one I got was Nude Brown. Colour-wise, there are some really nice shades in here, including a big shimmery champagne colour.

Overall, I wasn’t the most impressed with the colour payoff in here, I found the shades to be quite opaque and I had to go in a few times with my brush for it to show up. For C$12.99 you’re not breaking the bank with this one, however, there are so many good eyeshadow palettes out there by drugstore brands that I would skip this one and invest in another one instead.

Speaking of palettes, I was excited to dip my brushes into the Kiss Pro Contour Kit. Available in light and dark, this palette (C$17.99) has three blendable shades for shaping, bronzing, and highlighting. There’s a bronzer, a banana powder, and a highlighter in here to perfectly contour the face. It also comes with an angled brush to apply the product with.  In terms of contour kits, this one is perfect to travel with since it contains everything you need to perfectly contour. The thing is, there is tons of fallout in here. I did use the brush it came with and a quick dip in the product left powder everywhere. If you look at my palette right now you would think I’ve used it 10 times, however, I tried it out once. It does give you nice colour and you can definitely achieve a nice contour in here, but I wish it wasn’t so delicate. For that price though, this is perfect to pick up for travel, just make sure you don’t put it on near something white.

Another standout palette is the Halo Strobing Palette (C$19.99), which is available in three different shades. Light, medium, and dark, this palette has three highlighters in here to give you an out-of-this-world glow. I received light and dark, the latter of which would not work with my skintone, but these guys are a refined powder highlighter containing finely milled powder that blends seamlessly into the skin. I don’t typically do any strobing, so I liked using this palette as a regular highlight for the tops of my cheekbones, cupid’s bow, and tip of my nose.

Out of everything, I think I like this palette the best. The powder in here didn’t get everywhere and I found it to be creamy and blendable. Although I don’t need three different highlights for one look, it’s always nice to have options and this highlighter does give you a beautiful glow.

To finish up the eye look, I threw on a winged liner and a matte lip. I used the Kiss Pro Dead Sexy eyeliner (C$12.99), which is a thick liquid liner.  Since this is a chubby felt-lip liner, I found I had to keep redoing my wing since I kept laying down too much product. This is a long-lasting and waterproof formula that promotes a fine felt-tip applicator, however, compared to a normal liquid liner, I found this one to be hard to use. I personally don’t see the point of a chubby liquid liner. Why not just do it normal sized? The thicker it is, the harder it is to use. Although it was a nice dark black, I think I’ll stick with my normal-sized eyeliners, ones that are much thinner.

Finally, for the lips, they sent me a variety of different formulas to try out, but since I love matte liquid lipsticks, preferably in nudes, I naturally gravitated towards the Celeste Matte Liquid Lipstick in the colour Nude Cameo.  These retail for C$9.99 and are available in eight shades. They apply like any other matte liquid lipsticks, as in you apply them wet, then they dry down to a matte formula that sticks to your lips. I do actually really like this formula, it is a bit thinner than what I’m used to, but it doesn’t feel as heavy.

Kiss Pro has a variety of different lip products in their arsenal, everything from stains to glosses, to regular ol’ lipsticks. Kiss Pro also has another matte liquid lipstick called Belle Soft Matte Lip Cream, which is a soft matte finish, with no smudging and non-drying. To me, these seem really similar, but Belle has 12 different shades in all spectrums of the rainbow (like blues).

So my final thoughts? I had high hopes for this line since I love their press-on nails and their lashes, however, depending on the product, some were great and others I would definitely skip.  I only got a handful of products from the line, but it looks like they have everything.  Since drugstore products are so good right now, it’s hard to come in new and try to compete with stuff that’s already out there. I have to say that I do like the selection of products that Kiss Pro offers, like the contour and strobing kits, I would say their main rival is definitely NYX, although I do think that NYX is a consistently better line. But hey, Kiss Pro is brand new, let’s give them a few years before we pass judgements, shall we?

Have you tried anything from Kiss Professional? What were your thoughts?

Please note, products provided by PR. All opinions are my own.

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