H&M HAS LONG been the go-to spot for a cheap fashion fix, but its efforts at beauty were pretty subpar until the launch of its new makeup range late last year.
The range made its way over to Ireland only recently – at the moment, it’s available in the Liffey Valley and College Green stores, but you can also order online.
Prices range from €4.99 to €12.99 and the packaging is excellent across the board, with gold accents giving it a luxury feel. Do the products live up to their beautiful exteriors? We tried eight of them to find out.
1. Cream Lip Colour in True Falou, €9.99
This applies fully opaque in one swipe, with a comfortable satin finish. Like most lipsticks of this ilk, it’s not going to stay there all day through eating and drinking, so you will have to reapply.
To my eye, True Falou is a reasonable dupe for MAC’s Russian Red, albeit with a creamier formula. 8/10
2. Gossamer Lip Stain in Centre of Attention, €7.99
This magenta lip stain has a gel-like, glossy look upon application, but dries down matte and stays there all day long. A good choice for anyone who hates the bother of touch-ups.
The downside? Be careful how you apply – due to the nature of the stain, mistakes tend to linger. 8/10
3. Lip Definer in Au Naturel, €4.99
This lipliner is creamy and glides on – the shade was very ‘concealer lips’ on me, but if you love a good pale nude, this is your man.
I would advise you to have makeup remover on hand in case you make a mistake though, because it will NOT budge once you’ve put it on. Good news for your lipstick, bad news for your shaky hands. 7/10
4. Radiant Concealer Pen in Vanilla Peach, €7.99
This is H&M’s answer to YSL’s cult Touche Éclat pen – and though it looks the part, you’re better off going for the real deal. The fluid is very thin, with virtually no coverage or radiance that I could spot. Avoid. 0/10
5. Pure Radiance Powder Blusher in Soft Russet, €7.99
In a sea of gorgeous packaging, the hexagonal blush compact is particularly cool – this dusky peach tone is my favourite blush colour, so I was hoping for good things.
At first, you think nothing’s happening, but it eventually builds to a natural ‘Just went for a brisk walk in the countryside’ flush. Which is exactly what you want. 8/10
6. Nail Polish, €4.99 (not available online)
First of all, we must commend H&M for a truly staggering selection of colours, with every possible shade of orange to pink to green represented.
And isn’t this metallic turquoise, Undersea, just dreamy? In the bottle, at least. It applies smoothly and with good coverage, but – and this is a big but – it chips. Straight away. Very disappointing, and sadly not unusual with metallic polishes. 2/10
Potpurri is a murky lavender that gave me very Grown Up Lady Nails (something I’m always trying to achieve). And unlike the metallic, it stayed put. 10/10
7. Colour Essence Eye Pencil in Panther, €4.99
I don’t know about you, but I’m only ever looking for two things in a black eyeliner – a) it is actually black, and not greyish green; and b) it’s smooth and creamy enough that it doesn’t tug on my precious baby eye skin.
This H&M pencil ticks both those boxes and refuses to budge once it’s applied. 10/10
8. High Impact Eye Colour, €5.99
Like the nail polishes, the eyeshadow collection also features every shade under the sun – I chose two very on-trend copper/orange shades to try out.
Canyon Clay is a matte, rusty brick red, which would look beautiful on those with blue or green eyes. It’s highly pigmented and blends well. 10/10
Russet Rose, meanwhile, is a shimmery rose gold shade – but in comparison with Canyon Clay, it applies quite sheer and needs a few passes to build it up to the desired opacity. 6/10
VERDICT
All in all H&M’s new beauty range is great quality for the prices – my picks would be the nail polishes (just avoid the metallics), the eyeshadows and the lip stain. Lovely stuff!
