Note: This is not a sponsored post. All products were personally purchased.

My obsession with makeup has grown significantly this past year. I started a subscription to Ipsy and I’m following at least five beauty bloggers on Instagram. I’m becoming that girl.

Unfortunately, it’s an expensive hobby. Looking cute ain’t cheap, so when I found ColourPop Cosmetics I was elated—all its products are $5.

ColourPop is based in Los Angeles, doesn’t test on animals and most of its products are vegan. Obviously this all sounded too good to be true, and I was highly suspicious of ordering with them. However, a few YouTube reviews praised them and I decided it was worth it to try the brand.

Shipping is free once you spend $30, so I bought 6 items: 4 lippie stix and 2 eye shadows.

Lippie stix

My favorite beauty look right now is a bold lip and ColourPop offers a rainbow of choices.

For every lip color it makes, ColourPop makes a lipstick (lippie stix) and a lip liner. This made me worried that the lippie stix are not pigmented enough to wear on their own, which defeats the purpose of it being a $5 product. I don’t particularly care for lip liner, so I purchased only lippie stix, hoping for the best.

  

The packaging is simple, clean and compact.

  Raw, satin finish

  Brills, satin finish

  Brink, matte finish

 Frenchie, matte finish

The satin finish was my favorite as the matte lippie stix were a little drying, but I guess that’s expected. Overall, there is some good staying power with these colors: Brink being the worst, Frenchie being the best (my lips were stained pink the next day).

Frenchie is a bright, true red. Brills is a little bit more lavender than light pink. Raw is just super fun, and I’m excited to wear it out one night. Brink is supposed to be a Kylie Jenner lip dupe, and I’m sure it is, but being pale, I’m not sure it’s my best option for a nude lip.

I’m sure all of these (especially Raw) would be enhanced by using the accompanying lip liner, but I didn’t find it necessary.

Eye Shadows

Like I said, lips are my beauty focus right now, but I couldn’t help but peruse the eye shadows before making my order. And of course, I found some that I loved.

  Once again, packaging is clean and convenient.

  Sequin, metallic finish

 So Quiche, metallic finish

These eye shadows are such a great formula for only $5. They have an a creamy consistency that’s best applied with just your fingertip.

Sequin is a orangey copper and it’s amazing. Intense pigmentation with pieces of glitter, but not too much. I foresee me wearing this color a ton and it layers really well with other shadows. So Quiche is a color that I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else. It’s a smoky olive brown with purple glitter. It’s gorgeous up close, but unfortunately it’s a little transparent. It’s good for less intense smoky eye.

Conclusion

These products are overall exceptional for the price. I would recommend buying from ColourPop, but just know that not every item is a 10/10. Do your research on the specific item ahead of time to see if it’s truly the color you want, and if the item has good color payoff. I would turn to YouTube and other blogs because nearly all the reviews on its website are positive, which I find a little suspicious.

I will definitely be ordering more from ColourPop, especially for fun, out-there items because even if you wear it only once, it’s $5. Hard to beat that.