We tried out Zara’s new makeup collection and here’s what we thought

Update your makeup bag with Zara Beauty (Picture: Zara)As for those who wanted one more reason to hotfoot it to Zara, the brand-new collection of makeup simply launched and it seems to be beautiful.
The Zara Beauty inventive director is Diane Kendal, who’s the style trade’s go-to for Vogue covers, Louis Vuitton advert campaigns and Bottega Veneta catwalk reveals, in addition to being the one that helped develop makeup traces for Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein.
And then there’s the packaging: it’s chunky and weighty with a shiny white exterior, all sharp traces and angles.
It additionally has a satisfying clunky click on whenever you shut a compact or the magnetic lid of the lipstick slots into place. This is what you count on whenever you spend £28 on a Burberry lipstick, not £11.99 on a Zara one.
This preliminary drop consists of lipsticks in satin, matte and demi-matte, lip glosses, oils and balms, eyeshadows in 45 completely different shades (together with shimmer and glitter formulations, in addition to a liquid eyeliner and metallic powders), bronzers, blushers and highlighters, nail polish in 39 completely different colors and six makeup brushes too.
A promising vary, then — however does it really do the job? I tried a choice of merchandise…
Face

The face merchandise are shimmery with out being cheesy (Picture: Zara)Confusingly, the standalone bronzers (£14.99, refill £11.99) are completely different shades to the bronzers within the cheek color palette (£17.99, refill of three £12.99, particular person refill £4.99).
However, all of them — bronzers, blushers, highlighters — are full of buildable pigment and have a shimmer with out that cheesy sparkle finances variations can generally have.
Lips

Pucker up (Picture: Zara)The full-sized lipsticks are the Ultimatte and the Cult Satin (£11.99 every, refills £6.99).
There’s stacks of pigment in each however the matte one actually blew me away. Creamy and moisturising, it provides a surprising matte end and jogged my memory of Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution lipsticks (£25).
I additionally tried the Stiletto Demi Matte lipsticks (£9.99, refills £5.99) in skinny tubes harking back to Hourglass’s Ultra Slim and, because the identify suggests, a hybrid of satin and matte.
Eyes

You’ll need to be fast to get your arms on the attention palette (Picture: Zara)I feel these are going to fly off the cabinets.
The six-pan compact (£17.99, refill of six £12.99, particular person refill £3.99) I tried had all of it — muted matte neutrals, delicate shimmer, OTT glitter and metallics together with Psychedelia, a gold that makeup artist Lisa Potter-Dixon in contrast on her Instagram to ‘Pat McGrath gold’ (£24).
Whether your eye makeup must say boardroom or disco, you’re lined.
Brushes

Brush to it (Picture: Zara)A little bit of a combined bag — the big powder brush (£12.99) was a bit too versatile and not dense sufficient for my liking however I favored the big shader brush (£10.99) and the smudge brush (£5.99, proper).
Do I feel they’re higher than the equally priced Real Techniques providing? Nope, and the choice is rather more restricted. But for those who needed to seize one in a pinch, it could do.
More: Beauty

Eye on the planet: How eco is it?
Zara’s web site proudly proclaims: ‘We have rigorously chosen every of our substances for clear formulation with no animal testing.’
However, these merchandise deserve higher than this form of lazy advertising. ‘Animal testing’ of cosmetics has been banned in Britain for greater than twenty years — and what does ‘clear’ imply anyway, precisely? Still, the vary has been designed with sustainability in thoughts.
Not solely is Zara planning recycling bins in retailer for the packaging, however the designs are additionally intelligent. The inside casing of the lipsticks pulls out and clicks again in to permit for refills. Magnetised trays pop out of cheek and eye palettes, and little holes within the base mean you can change out particular person colors. It’s all rather well executed.
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