BYS Animal Instincts Eyeshadow and Nail Enamels

Hi dearies! How has everyone been? For this post I will be reviewing some BYS products from their Animal Print range which was released back in September (I know I'm a few months late!) which are eyeshadow quads and nail enamels. These products were provided to me for consideration and by no means will this influence my thoughts and opinions.

In case you didn't know, BYS is an Australian cosmetics brand which stands for 'Be Your Self'. Their products are really affordable and are mostly aimed towards young teenagers and adolescents, mainly because of their packaging designs and prices. I remember when I was around 12, I bought my very first makeup product. Mm I guess for some people, 12 is a really young age to start using makeup etc. but being a very girly girl made me develop this makeup interest at a pretty young age. It was only eyeliner, mascara, lip gloss and eyeshadow that I had some interest in... definitely not foundation, lipstick, concealer or blush. Anyway continuing on with my story, BYS was the first makeup brand I purchased with my very little amount of pocket money and knowledge of cosmetics. As long as the product did what it claimed and wasn't a waste of money, I was happy! And yes, I was at the time haha.

So here are my newest BYS products:

BYS Animal Instincts Eyeshadow - Darks

BYS Animal Instincts Eyeshadow - Naturals

BYS Nail Enamel #01 Black

BYS Nail Enamel #08 Purple

Where to buy:
I am not 100% certain whether BYS is only found in Australia because I have seen it in Japanese magazines such as Popteen (really surprising and awesome)! I know that some Australian department stores have them like Kmart and Gloss but you could get them online at Fashion Addict.

Firstly I'll talk about the eyeshadows in the Animal Instincts range. There are 4 different quads - Darks, Greens, Naturals and Purples. The ones I got were Darks and Naturals which I am really happy about because these are the 'shades' of eyeshadow that I use the most! I didn't have a choice of products that were sent to me so I am very pleased.

BYS Animal Instincts Eyeshadow in Darks and Naturals

I am unsure whether that little crack in the eyeshadow on the bottom right quadrant was there when I first got it or if I did it accidentally ._. Just ignore it hehe ^^"

Here's a picture of one swatch with my finger on the silver and black striped eyeshadow. Sadly, the vibrancy of the black had already faded from one swipe which means that the eyeshadow will eventually become just a single silver eyeshadow. So to me the animal prints on the shadows are a little pointless :( Good to look at but is gone after use!

My swatches. I think the... zebra prints would look quite nice for eyeshadow, as long as they're not too bold and look like my swatches (blended nicely). The pigmentation is really impressive.

 Swiping the eyeshadow doesn't allow for the same print to be on your finger, maybe if you pressed on it instead... though there wouldn't be that much pigmentation.

Definitely some very wearable colours for day time looks.

Both quads after swatching once - patterns are clearly not as noticeable as before

Darks vs. Naturals

My thoughts on the eyeshadows:

First of all, I really love metallic and shimmery eyeshadows and I am a massive fan of both naturals and darks (so glad I was sent these!). There is a consistency between the shadows where the pigmentation is the same for each colour, which makes blending quite easy - because you wouldn't like to have one colour more vibrant than another etc. I like the fact that they aren't overly shimmery to the point where the glitter overpowers the colour - to me it's just right! The combination of colours in the quads are perfect as there isn't a colour that doesn't suit the theme or looks odd.

Although the pattern/print does sort of fade after a few uses, it's only more obvious with the Darks quad and this actually isn't a big problem because the colours that fade are actually colours already in the quad... if that makes sense. The silver stripes that fade are the same colour as the silver in the first quadrant. I still don't like how it fades though :/ But anyway, I am very happy with the pigmentation, one swipe goes a long way! The eyeshadows aren't chalky but it's not like they are extremely smooth either. This could be something they could improve on, and also the staying power. I'd feel that a eyeshadow primer is necessary if you want your eyeshadow to stay put and be crease-proof.

Packaging:

The packaging on these eyeshadows are a very sturdy plastic which is slightly on the heavy side. It might just be my personal preference but sturdy, heavy-ish packaging is what I like. Flimsy, lightweight packaging isn't suitable for clumsy people like me because I tend to drop things easily -_- And then what do you know, *crack* or epic breakage. Besides, thick plastic looks much better than thin bendy plastic - it just makes it seem as though the manufacturers have put more effort into the overall design. I reckon it's pretty sleek without being too bulky and I love that the lid/top is a thick clear plastic with the base being a more light plastic. Some eyeshadow quads don't come with double-ended sponge tip applicators but these ones do. I may not use sponge-tip applicators as much as I use brushes but having them in the palette makes it convenient and travel-friendly *thumbs up*

Price:

These eyeshadows retail for $4.95 each which in Australia, is considered to be an absolute bargain. This is what I mean by BYS products being super affordable! Australian cosmetics products are usually cheaper than well-known drugstore brands so people may feel a little skeptical about its quality. Well I can assure you that what you pay for is what you get when it comes to BYS products. Honesty is the best policy for my reviews soooo I can say with confidence that BYS products can definitely be improved to be on par with other brands in terms of quality. But then this would probably mean that their products will have increased prices. Maybe BYS feels that this isn't necessary, just as long as it works well and is affordable for everyone. And for this reason, I don't own that many BYS products as I prefer to spend a few extra dollars for a product with more pros and less cons. Being a makeup enthusiast, quality > quantity.

Now to the animal-print nail enamels:

 As I was saying before about quality... the sticker isn't on straight and it isn't just this bottle that is like this. I've seen some BYS products with slightly slanted stickers etc.

The names are clear and simple, purple and black

Here's a swatch of the black nail enamel of just one coat

To me this nail polish was a tiny bit gluggy/thick and this made it hard to do lots of fast brush strokes to fill in gaps. It got a little messy at times however this wasn't much of an issue as I only needed one coat for each nail. Just glad this black nail polish isn't sheer or a grey-black - it's a pitch black like the night sky. I don't normally comment on nail polish scents because they all smell really strong but this one was a bit different to regular ones. I don't know but this smelt more like a permanent marker :/ Perhaps they used the same ink as permanent marker? Eep, dunno. Oh and this black seemed like a slightly matte nail polish with not a lot of shine.

One coat of this is not enough for me, I can't have the whites of my nails showing! It's just not a good look in my opinion. I guess it's okay if you have short nails but still... I would rather put on another coat for it to seem more opaque.

I actually had a bit of trouble with my second coat. My first attempt of it, I messed up so badly that I had to remove all of my nail polish and start again =_= Maybe I didn't wait for my first coat to dry fast enough but still... it was horrible putting on a second coat. My next attempt was better however it also wasn't that great. Took forever to dry because this nail polish's formula seemed more runny and harder to work with. The opacity wasn't consistent between my nails after putting on a second coat and it seemed too thick..? I'd rather have pigmented nail polishes that only require one coat - I don't need to gradually build the colour, it's a waste of time and makes the nail polish more prone to chipping because of its thickness.

My thoughts on the nail polishes

The black and the purple eh... didn't seem to have the same formulas as the consistencies were different and also the opaqueness. I'm more happy about the black nail polish's formula despite it smelling like permanent marker, but I wouldn't normally wear black nail polish unless I do some nail art. Even though I liked the black one's formula more than the purple one's, the gluggy-ness wasn't too appealing. I've never really been a fan of BYS nail polishes unfortunately...

Packaging:

... At least the animal prints stay on the packaging/products, hehe it's only on the lids. It makes it easier for me to reach for my nail polishes because I'll be able to spot them straight away. Other than the packaging, there are no animal print shades of nail polishes besides gold, black and silver. The other colours in this collection are shades of purple, pink and orange which represent 'fierceness' and bold colours for spring/summer. 

Price:

Again, these are $4.95 each RRP which again is cheap for nail polish. I wasn't able to test how long it would take until it started chipping so I cannot comment on that. In my opinion, these would not be worth any more than $4.95, based on their quality. Without a doubt for nail polishes, you do get what you pay for. I've tried cheap $2 nail polishes, middle-range and high-end... and there is a definite difference between them. For BYS' quality, I would put it in the lower range price instead of between low and middle range. But since BYS do put a lot of effort into their ranges and bottle designs, they wouldn't it price it so cheaply.

So that's everything, thanks for reading this review post. I hope I've given you some insight into BYS cosmetics and their quality/range. I wouldn't be surprised if many of you haven't heard of BYS (especially my international readers). Though those who follow gyaru fashion/makeup might be familiar with this brand :) I'm still surprised that gals use this brand... it's so inexpensive o_o BYS packaging and products reminds me of NYX but from my personal use, I think NYX has better quality. 

I'm still struggling to post more than once a week! One blog post literally takes me hours to do ;__; I will keep trying though~

Questjen of the week, an easy yes or no:

Do you use/know of BYS Cosmetics?

Excuse the random spacing at the bottom of this post :( I can't get rid of it!