Natural Collection have been present in Boots for as long as I can remember, infact their Toffee Cream Juicy Lips Lipgloss was my go-to lipgloss throughout sixth form. I have to be honest, since I left sixth form I haven’t tried any of the Natural Collection makeup as nothing has ever taken my fancy, however I was recently sent a small selection of their newest releases so I decided I would give them a try.
There is no doubt that the Natural Collection makeup range is very affordable however the packaging has a lot to be desired and I don’t find their stands to be particularly appealing when I’m instore. Each of the Natural Collection products are £1.99 each which is pretty good value but I wanted to know if the quality had improved since I last tried their products.
The majority of the products I was sent was from their new brow range which consists of brow pencils, a brow powder and wax duo as well as some tinted brow gels. The brow collection’s shade range is very limited with just two shades available for the brow pencil and brow gels, and only one shade available for the brow powder and wax duo.
I think one or two shades is really disappointing as there’s absolutely nothing for those with fair hair as both shades are catered for brown hair. I appreciate Natural Collection is a budget brand, but even the likes of MUA and Makeup Revolution have a better shade selection on offer.
Each of the Natural Collection Brow Pencils have a pencil nib on one end and on the other end there is a spoolie. The pencil nibs are very hard on both pencils which is actually a little uncomfortable and they made my eyes water the very first time I tried them. The Medium Brown Brow Pencil is quite a strange colour as it pulls slightly green on me no matter how lightly or hard I use it.
The Dark Brown shade is much better and is a better match for my eyebrows with a cool undertone and no reddy tones like a lot of brown brow pencils have. The pencils are not particularly long wearing and they transfer easily if you touch your brows, and they fade throughout the day which isn’t ideal if you have sparse brows to begin with as your brows will just disappear.
Next up we have the Natural Collection Brow Kit which contains an eyebrow powder as well as an eyebrow wax alongside a dual ended angled brush and a mini spoolie. There is only one shade available which is Medium Brown, but I think it’s very much a dark brown and the eyebrow powder and the wax match almost perfectly. I think the Brow Kit is the most decent product within the brow collection, but it desperately needs to be available in more than one shade as it only caters for those with dark brown hair.
When I first saw the Natural Collection Brush On Brow Gels I was looking forward to trying them as I love a good tinted brow gel however I think they might be the least impressive product in the range in my opinion. Firstly the bristles on the wands are extremely hard, stiff and uncomfortable to use and are also quite thick so you can’t comb through your eyebrows easily. The wand is almost the size of a mascara wand so they don’t offer any precision and because they’re ridiculously big they’re quite messy.
The formula is quite sticky and wet and tend to just deposit colour onto the brows rather than being combed through and blending with the individual hairs. Colour wise both shades are shades I could use but the formula really puts me off so I would skip these and perhaps go for the powder and wax duo instead providing you have dark hair as there’s just one shade available.
In addition to the new eyebrow products there are also three new Natural Collection Highlighter Sticks which are packaged within small, white plastic twist up tubes. The three shades are; Rose Glow, Copper Glow and Coral Glow. I have seen a little bit of hype around these sticks so I had high hopes when trying them however the shades are all quite dark.
The formula of the Highlighter Sticks is a little thick and sticky so I wouldn’t recommend applying them by swiping the stick directly on the skin. I have found that it’s a little better to use your fingers to apply the highlighter from the stick to the skin as it reduces the stickiness just slightly and it looks a little less garish.
Sadly all three shades are a little too dark for my skintone but if you have perhaps a medium to dark skin tone, I think they will work quite well as they are pigmented. I would like to see Natural Collection introduce some powder highlighters as I feel these would be more popular than a stick format as the stickiness isn’t ideal, especially for those with oily skin.
Even though I didn’t like everything, I am still happy to see Natural Collection releasing new products as it feels like it has been years since they did. I think Natural Collection are a reasonably good brand for those on a budget however I feel like budget makeup has really stepped up a gear within the last couple of years.
With the likes of Makeup Revolution, MUA and even Miss Sporty, I don’t feel that the Natural Collection products are in the same league as those brands as they offer budget beauty but good quality budget beauty but that’s just my opinion. I don’t think I’d try anything else from Natural Collection as I’d rather pay an extra £1-£2 and know I’m getting nicer packaging and better quality from other brands, and I can’t help feeling that Natural Collection are sadly stuck in the early 2000’s.
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