Beauty File: First Look at NYX The Mortal Instruments Box Set

NYX Cosmetics sent over the new Mortal Instruments Box Set, inspired by the new movie City of Bones. The Mortal Instruments is a series of 6 fantasy novels written by author Cassandra Clare that have been adapted for the big screen.

I love makeup! I was really excited to try out these products.  The gift set retails for $24.99.  It includes the following:

• An eye shadow palette with 6 colors called The Smokey Shadow Palette
• A NYX Powder Blush in the shade Pinched
• A NYX Soft Matte Lip Creme in the color Istanbul
• A NYX Studio Liquid Liner in Extreme Black
• A NYX Boudoir Mascara, "Le Frou Frou"
• A coveted NYX Jumbo Eye pencil in Cashmere 

The products in the gift set are meant to be used to create both day and night time looks.  

Swatches of the lip creme and the liquid liner

NYX Soft Matte Lip Creme in Istanbul: The lip gloss is a really good consistency and smells strongly (in a good way) of vanilla.  It is a light and rich formula that is not sticky.  One coat gives really good coverage. It does not apply or dry glossy or creamy, but rather matte.  It is long lasting, almost like a stain.  I also wore a clear gloss over it for a glossy look, and the staying power remained.  

NYX Studio Liquid Liner in Extreme Black: The liquid studio liner was difficult for me to use because I'm generally not great at applying liquid liner.  I found that too much product came out on the wand and the brush was not stiff enough for me to handle the liner evenly.  One other problem I noticed with the wand was that the brush hairs split on the end, making it difficult to create a winged liner look.  This also stings for the first 2 seconds after I apply it :( 

NYX Powder Blush in the shade Pinched: The blush is a pretty coral color.  It's got a lot of pigment and a little goes a long way!  Apply with a light hand!  Another great product.

NYX Boudoir Mascara, "Le Frou Frou":  The mascara did a good job at separating and lengthening the lashes.  I did not notice any thickening of the lashes but I liked it a lot for a daytime mascara.  No clumping, which was a plus.

NYX Jumbo Eye pencil in Cashmere : The NYX Jumbo pencil is a really good creme shadow stick that applies very easily, with a nice consistency.  It has good pigment.  I really like these creme shadow sticks; they're very versatile.  They also work well as eye shadow primer.  I know that the NYX pencil in the shade "Milk" is a popular layering shade and I've seen this Cashmere shade be used to layer blue and teal shadows over it.

Swatch of NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cashmere

The Smokey Shadow Palette: I found the first three matte shadows in the palette to be of lesser quality than the last three shades.  I was disappointed in the color payoff of the really pretty aubergine shade - you can see on the swatch above (first color on my hand), it is not really vibrant or pigmented when swatched.  The last three shades (blue, gold and white) are of pretty good quality, but need to be applied with a shadow primer first.  I need to play around with the shades a bit more, but I've seen some cool online tutorials for this kit, where the gold color really pops. 

Overall, I thought that for the price, the products contained the gift set are a good value.  My favorite products are the jumbo eye pencil and the lip creme.  This set is worth picking up!