Review and swatches: lol (lots of love) cosmetics

Today I have decided to do a review of the very inexpensive cosmetics brand called 'lol' (lots of love). This brand is available at Kmart stores across Australia and you can visit their own website here. They have a wide variety of products across categories of eyes, lips, face and nails. The entire range is retailed for $2.

As we all know, makeup products are very expensive in Australia. I would say the majority of us would be apprehensive to try products from a brand that only costs $2. I expected the quality to be crap, but after I tried one of the eyeshadow palettes I gradually purchased some more products and was pleasantly surprised. There is a huge variety of products available but I am just going to share the few that I own with you. Warning: This may be a lengthy review!

My haul: Lipsticks, face powder, blush duo, eyeshadow palettes and a glitter eyeshadow creme palette.

Eyeshadows

The first product that I tried from lol is their 6 x rotational eyeshadow palette. I was so impressed with the quality and pigmentation of the product that I went on to buy another four in different colours. There are six available, but the blue hued one didn't appeal to me so I did not purchase it. 

'So Rosemantic' in packaging, up close and swatches

Smoky palette in 'Black Betty'

Pigmentation of these are fantastic

Warm toned palette in 'How Now'

In love with the pigmentation and glow of this palette

 

Green hued 'Splash that Cash'

Splash that Cash has such stunning shades

Purple hues in 'Power to the Purple'

So pigmented, but shades are slightly more similar than in other palettes

Overall, I am utterly in love with these shadow palettes. My favourite is definitely the olive toned 'Splash that Cash'. I am a redhead and my favourite colour is green, and I find these shades compliment my skin and my hair. My second favourite is the gorgeous gold toned palette in 'How Now'. I am really loving the warm toned earthy coloured shadows at the moment and these are exceptional. I do love a good smoky eye, so "Black Betty" is great. I don't often wear bright coloured shadows but it is a cheap way to experiment with the pink and purple hued shadows. I absolutely adore the deeper dusty rose colour in the top left of the 'So Rosemantic' palette, and I have also been loving the pale violet shimmer from 'Power to the Purple'.

These palettes have such a buttery smooth formula which was so unexpected. Most cheap palettes are chalky, not very pigmented and have a lot of fall out. These are just so smooth and longwearing and are my favourite product for a $2 buy. I should mention that the applicator that these come with is decent as well. It is not one of those typical flimsy sponge ones; it is made out of a more dense sponge that is a lot easier to work with. Unfortunately there are no matte shades in these palettes so I often need to consult other palettes if I want a matte shade to make an eye look, but that doesn't bother me. I'd rather have the six different shimmer colours. I can't speak highly enough of these and definitely recommend giving one a go.

Glitter Eye Creme

As a rule, I don't use these type of products. Seeing as this was only $2, I decided to give it a go. There are 3 different palettes available, but I purchased the more 'neutral' coloured one in 'Starry Night'

'Starry Night' contains a silver, gunmetal, black, holographic silver, gold and brown glitter creme

Apologies for poor swatching! From top to bottom: Silver, gunmetal, black, holographic, gold and brown

Blurred closeup to show the different colours in the holographic type shadow

Although I don't own any other glitter creme shadows to compare this product with, my first impressions are that these are good for the money, but I won't use them often. My favourite is definitely the white/silver holographic one on the bottom left. It is SO shimmery and eyecatching. The black one is awful, as when it is applied to the eyes, the simmer does not translate and it appears as if there is little black dots all over your lid. I found that these do not apply well with an applicator as they bunch up and are hard to spread out, so I just lightly dab these on with my finger. These are a fun product, but I will most likely only use them when I am dressing up and want a glam look.

Lipsticks

At first, I only purchased one of lol's lipsticks. I was impressed, so I ended up getting 5 more. There is a total of 10 different shades in their lipstick range. 

The six different lippies that I own

From left to right: Sweet Disposition, Social Butterfly, Think Pink, I Wanna Be A Princess, Kiss Kiss & Paint the Town

I only just noticed that the order in the above photos is the not the same. Disregard that order and see caption for colour names. I am also apologising for the bad quality lip swatches you are about to see; I am using my iPhone camera and my lips are in bad shape at the moment.

Sweet disposition: A frosty nude peach 

Social Butterfly: Matte cool toned pink

Think Pink: A blue toned  shimmer pink/lilac that has a slight duochrome in real life

I Wanna Be A Princess: A semi-matte hot fuschia

Kiss Kiss: A darker shimmery fuschia berry colour

Paint the Town: A shiny bright red

Light swatches. L-R: Sweet disposition, Social Butterfly, Think Pink, I Wanna Be a Princess, Kiss Kiss & Paint the Town

Once again, for $2 these lipsticks are amazing. Admittedly, the quality and formula varies between the shades but they are all decent quality. My favourite is definitely the gorgeous 'Think Pink'. This was the first shade that I bought and what encouraged me to try the other shades. It is such a unique colour and adds a vibrant pop of colour to the lips. 'Social Butterfly' is my second favourite, as it is another great different colour. 'I Wanna Be a Princess' is a very bright fun colour and I like the formula. 'Paint the Town' is hard to wear - the colour is stunning but the formula is very slippery and takes a while to dry. It can be very messy to apply and is high maintenence. Sweet Disposition is a great colour but the combination of the nude colour and the frosty finish means this one really shows every crack and line in the lips. Kiss Kiss is a nice frosty fuschia, but unfortunately I am not really into frosty shimmer lipsticks. The wear time for these is relatively short, which was to be expected. I'd say they last for about two hours or so without needing a touch up. Final say: I love most of these lipsticks and would recommend Think Pink and Social Butterfly.

Blush Duo

I am relatively new to world of blush but this one has impressed me. There are two combinations available, and I have the duo in 'Chateau Rose'.

This duo has peachy/rosey type hues

These blushes are surprisingly pigmented in this light swatch

Although I am no expert on the topic of blush, to me these are definitely worth the money. The colours are gorgeous and add a natural flush to the cheeks. These last on me for most of the day and I really like them. The brush that comes with the duo is utter crap and does not work, so I just use a regular blush face brush with these. I definitely recommend these.

Face Powder

As a general rule, cheap cosmetic companies can never seem to get face products (liquid foundation, powder and concealer) quite right. I picked up this face powder as I was interested to see how it would perform. This powder comes in three shades: light, medium and dark. I obviously picked up the light one. Curse you pale redhead skin!

This powder is a decent size! There is no applicator included

Swatch on my finger

To be honest, this is my least used product out of all of the lol cosmetics that I own. I don't have a strong opinion on this one - it's not good but it's not necessarily bad either. It's kind of just 'meh'. It doesn't provide much coverage, but works okay as a setting powder for my liquid foundation. It's slightly chalky, but not too dry like I expected it to be. I wouldn't recommend this, but if you're interested to try it out then go ahead. Maybe it will work better for you than it did for me.

Conclusion

I have been incredibly impressed with this line of cosmetics. Most cheap brands such as BYS are generally crap and bad quality. I don't think I'd try their liquid foundation, mascaras or lip glosses but majority of the products I have from this company are fantastic for the price. The standout is 100% their eyeshadows. They have just absolutely wowed me with the formula and pigmentation.

Pros

• Affordable
• Easily accessible at Kmart stores
• Eyeshadows are incredible quality
• Large range of products over most beauty categories (eyes, lips, face, nails)
• Large range of colours in most products
• Unique and on trend colours (especially in lipsticks and eyeshadows)
• Cheap way to experiment with new products

Cons

• Quality can be inconsistent across products
• Some products do not have great longevity
• Packaging looks cheap

Hopefully that provided you with an insight to the lol brand and persuaded you to try out some new products. Please comment down below with any thoughts or any ideas about what sort of posts you would like to see from me in the future. Thanks for reading!