Victoria Beckham Beauty Review and Swatches

One of the most exciting new makeup brands of this year for me is Victoria Beckham Beauty. Although it technically launched last year, it seemed to really hit its stride this year. The brand is undeniably gorgeous and luxurious, with its tortoiseshell packaging, and the well-edited collection has left me – and many others – waiting for its next launches. And a brand that’s completely the brainchild of Victoria Beckham, the posh spice and style icon for decades? I’m hooked.

It’s taken me awhile to try the brand, but now that I have, I’m hooked. I’ve tried almost a little bit of everything and I have my thoughts now to share, which is well timed, since they are currently running  a 20% off sale. Since the brand launched, this is the biggest discount I’ve seen so it’s a good time to try her products if you’re curious about them. 

A note about their customer service: I placed an order first for the lipsticks, then another when the Black Friday sale started. Upon receiving my second order, which included the Smoky Eye Brick in Silk. Upon delivery, the mirror was detached from the palette because the glue didn’t hold. Upon emailing their customer service in hopes of a replacement, the representative offered me a 25% refund. 

Now, normally a simple mirror wouldn’t be a huge deal. The powders themselves were completely intact. But for a luxury brand whose palette retails for $56, I expect the product to be in perfect condition. And for a brand that advertises itself as a luxury brand, I also expect better customer service than a 25% refund on a product that was damaged before it arrived to me. After I sent back a firm email that I was looking for either a replacement for a full refund – and I received a full refund on the palette. 

While in the end the issue was resolved, I was definitely not impressed with the initial customer service response, and it does make me concerned about their customer service if I did have a more serious issue with my order. 

Fortunately, the rest of the order arrived just fine and I’ve been testing the products out for a couple weeks. I purchased the Smokey Eye Brick, a Lid Luster, Satin Kajal Liner, Bitten Lip Tint, Posh Lipstick, and Lip Liners. Let’s get started with my thoughts.

SMOKY EYE BRICK ($56 for 8.5 g/.3oz)

The Smoky Eye Bricks come in a collection of mostly matte quads, with the exception of Silk, which is the one I purchased. It’s packaged in a small credit card-sized metal compact. The compact is a decent weight that feels luxe without being so heavy it’s impractical. While the compact looks deceptively small, 8.5 grams is a pretty decent amount of product to pack into a small product.

Silk is a gorgeous quad of neutral shimmers. The shades include:

• Linen – a shimmery champagne
• Sunbeam – a shimmer sheer yellow gold
• Sandal – a midtone shimmery brown
• Copper – a shimmery bronze shade

The shades are pigmented but still have a translucence to them that keeps them looking natural and ethereal. These are not super pigmented buttery shades that give you complete opaque pigment, but they allow you to build up the shades to a sophisticated shimmering look.  The finish is what I would describe as a daytime shimmer, and it’s difficult to describe in words exactly how beautiful the shades are, and how easily they work together. I had no trouble getting these to last on my lids with a primer.

Although I absolutely love the color story of this quad, this was the only quad that really stood out to me. Rust looks like a beautiful warm neutral quad, though it was less exciting to me than Silk. The other quads also did not appeal to me, so I hope that the brand releases more shades. 

I’m wearing Silk in all photos below – Sandal on the outer corner, Copper all over the lid, Sunbeam to diffuse into the crease, and Linen in the inner corner. I also have the Lid Lustre in Honey in the center of the lid, and the Bronze Satin Kajal on my lower lashes.

LID LUSTRE ($36 for 5g/.17oz)

The Lid Lustres is a pressed pigment with shimmer that have a crushed pearl effect. Upon first glance, I thought it would be like the Hourglass Scattered Light Pigments, but it’s much creamier than just a pigment. It reminds me more of the Marc Jacobs See-quins Eyeshadows. 

I bought the shade Honey, which is a gold-bronze with an opalescent shimmer. I think this applies best when applied with fingers. I mostly use it as an eyeshadow topper, though it is subtle enough to also use all over the lids without it being over the top. 

While this shade is undeniably beautiful and a very “me” shade, it does take a couple layers to build it up to the intensity that I want. In this case, I was actually hoping for something with just a bit more of a glitter finish, but this just feels like a shimmer pigment but slightly more pressed. I think it was a case of mismatched expectations for what I wanted of the product, since this is a beautiful product. I do think this shade is perfect for the kind of looks I usually do, though like with the Smoky Eye Brick, I don’t really feel the desire to pick up other shades of this.

SATIN KAJAL EYELINER ($26 for 1.2g/.042oz)

I wasn’t originally planning on picking up this eyeliner, but it came with a set that I purchased. I have heard really good things about the eyeliners so I was excited to try it anyway. I bought the shade Bronze, which is a golden Bronze shade. 

The texture of these is beautiful. They are very soft and creamy kajal liners that give you lots of time to manipulate and smudge the product. But after about 30 seconds, they set and dry down. I love a bronze liner for my lower lashline, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It’s not quite deep enough to fully define my lashline, but it adds some really interesting dimension and glow that I like. You can also use these as a base for your eyeshadow, which I haven’t tried just yet, but probably will at some point.

Swatches of the Smoky Eye Brick in Silk, Lid Lustre in Honey, and Satin Kajal Eyeliner

LIP DEFINER ($24 for 1.14 g/.04oz)

I’m going to get straight to the point here – I love this lip liner. I have been a long-time skeptic of lip liners. Even though I have quite a large collection of them, I mostly use them for purely utilitarian reasons – to make my lip products last longer – and not because I necessarily enjoy them. They range from being too dry to too creamy and pigmented – so much so that they give me a completely opaque, painted on look that I don’t love. This formula is pretty much perfect. It feels super lightweight, and at first it almost feels like those too-dry pencil liners I don’t love. However, it glides on effortlessly, giving me medium-coverage without barely any work at all. The best part of these is they don’t feel drying at all, even after several hours, and this significantly enhances the wear time of any product I pair them with. They truly are waterproof and smudgeproof, and they are as close to being featherlight as a lip liner can get.  Formula-wise, these are absolutely ideal for me. 

I bought shade #2, which is a brownish-beige, and #3, a pinkish mauve. Both shades work fantastic for me for different looks. I love #2 for a more nude neutral look, while #3 is great for a usual MLBB or rosy themed look. These days, I’m reaching for #2 slightly more, but #3 is just as versatile in my opinion. 

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The lip liners are definitely my favorite products from the line, and I think they’re absolutely worth the price. I am definitely going to pick up additional shades to wear with more looks.

POSH LIPSTICK ($38 for 2g/.07oz)

The lipsticks are the newest product release from Victoria Beckham, and also the product that really made me want to try Victoria Beckham products. First, the shade range is absolutely divine. It’s full of neutrals, vampy shades, and muted tones.If I had it my way (and a much larger budget), I’d probably own all of these shades. The formula feels like a gel cream that leaves a shine without being a glossy finish. It glides on like a balm would – it feels smooth and comfortable, and it has light-medium coverage. I don’t detect any trace of a scent with these.

I bought these in the shades Spice, Posh, and Fringe. 

• Spice is a ginger beige
• Pose is a muted mauve
• Fringe is a deep brown with some red tones. 

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While Spice and Pose applied evenly on the first swipe, I noticed that Fringe applied a little patchy at first, and required a couple layers to even out. It’s not a big deal, just something to take note of when looking at the deeper shades. 

Although they feel like balms, I find that these last several hours before they fade. They also feel extremely comfortable throughout its entire wear time. Another thing I noticed about these lipsticks is that while they do transfer onto mugs or napkins, they don’t immediately slip and slide around like some creamy lipsticks can do. The gel balm type of formula really adheres well to my lips. And paired with the lip liners, the combination of the two formulas locks the color into place for hours. I absolutely love the combination!

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I compared the lipsticks to some other lipsticks in hopes for a dupe but surprisingly didn’t really find any.

From left to right: Charlotte Tilbury Birkin Brown, Tom Ford Magnetic, VB Fringe. Both Birkin Brown and Tom Ford had some purplish tones in comparison to Fringe, which has the slightest red tone. 

Rituel de Fille Prey is much cooler and more purple when compared next to Pose, which is more muted and a little more pink. 

I also compared Spice to Pat McGrath Realness, which is a MLBB shade for me, but as you can see Realness is more pink and rosy. It’s also more beige than Surrat’s Lip Slique in Hevyn.

I also compared the lip liners to some other shade in my collection. #2 is lighter and more beige than Charlotte Tilbury Iconic Nude, and much lighter than Pat McGrath Super Natural. #3 is similar to Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk, but is just a touch lighter, and it is also much lighter and less opaque than Pat McGrath Suburbia. 

BITTEN LIP TINT ($36 for 5.7ml/.19 oz)

The Bitten Lip Tints are gel tints that give a soft flush of color. They come in 2 shades, which I purchased:

• Cherie – a rosy pink shade
• Bisou – a berry-wine tint

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Cherie is a gorgeous rosy tint on me that really gives me a flushed rosy look, while Bisou gives me the exact effect of drinking a few glasses of red wine. I love both shades – Bisou is great for the winter months, and Cherie is good for a fresh look.

Although it isn’t described as such on the website, these feel like a gel stain to me. They apply like a watery gel, then set after a 20-30 seconds into a stained look. What sets these apart from other stains on the market is that applying a second or third layer allows you to build up the tint, and it’s possible to achieve a slight glossy look that most stains don’t offer – but you will not be able to build these up to a glossy finish. They still very much work like lip stains to me. 

While I really like the gel texture of these, the cons of this formula are those of any lip stains I use – they tend to settle unevenly into my lips if I have any trace of dry, flaky lips. As someone with chronically dry lips, I almost always have some type of dry lips, and stains always catch onto my dry spots. 

I’ll say that Cherie, the lighter shade, applied much more evenly and didn’t settle oddly into my dry spots, but Bisou definitely had a tendency to apply patchy. Both shades looked much more evenly paired with the Lip Definers underneath, and the resulting wear time over the day was much more even as well – so I definitely recommend pairing these with a lip liner if you also have dry spots on your lips.

I kind of have mixed thoughts on these. I love the idea and shades of them, though the staining effect ends up being kind of a downside for me. I wish they actually had more of the old school YSL Glossy Stain effect of being a longwear gloss over a stained look effect, but I don’t dislike the formula either. It just means I have to prep my lips properly and pair them with a lip liner for the most even look. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, the brand is mostly as exquisite as it looks. The formulas and shades are extremely well thought out for the most part. And the products I don’t like as much are not so much a flaw of the product so much as they are my personal styles and preferences. They feel luxurious while being long-wearing and functional – a combination I can definitely get behind. 

For me, the standout products are the Lip Liners and Posh Lipsticks. I’ve been reaching for both products non-stop, and the formulas of both products are unique to my collection. I will absolutely purchase more shades of both products. My next favorites are the Smoky Eye Brick and Bitten Lip Tint. I love the silky smooth formula of the Smoky Eye Brick, though the shade combinations are not all my style. And I also love the shades of the Bitten Lip Tint, even though the formula was a partial miss for me. 

The skippable products for me are the Satin Kajal Eyeliner and the Lid Lustres. While the liner formula is beautiful, I don’t think it replaces my favorite Marc Jacobs Gel Eyeliners, and the Lid Lustres just didn’t have all the oomph I wanted, even though the formula itself is good. Again,neither of these products were flawed in any way, but just not quite what I was looking for.  

If you’ve tried Victoria Beckham Beauty, what are your favorite products? What products should I try next? 

As always, thanks for reading!