Review & Swatches: Fenty Beauty - Match Stix Trio

I'm sure you already know that Rihanna has launched her own makeup line called Fenty Beauty "so that women everywhere could be included" and initially I was dubious seeing as celebrity makeup launches tend to be a bit gimmicky, but as the launch approached I became more and more intrigued especially because of my quest for finding the perfect match foundation, so I decided to sit up and research this new brand.

In case you didn't know, Rihanna's full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty which is where her "Fenty" brand comes from and she's focused her line on "hard to match skin tones" as well as products that should work for all skin types.

I'm here to test out a few of these products and give my opinion based on my experience as a makeup artist and of course years of blogging; I already held an instagram live the day I visited Fenty Beauty, so if you're not following me, make sure you do (@safiyahtasneem) for more current opinions!

In this Fenty Beauty blog post I'll be reviewing the Match Stix Trio that I purchased on the first day I visited Fenty Beauty at Harvey Nichols (I waited an hour and a half!) 

Read on to see why I bought this and for the full review with swatches <3

Swatches

iPhone 6S camera swatches in store - top: "daylight" bulb, bottom: store lighting

iPhone 6S camera swatches of the "concealer/matte highlight" skin sticks

Packaging The outer cardboard packaging for all products is covered with graffiti which ties in with her view of "makeup being there for you to have fun with". The product packaging for these Skin Sticks are a work of art. I love that they're magnetic even though I thought it was slightly gimmicky at first. The general theme of the range is based on hexagons which is very distinctive of course and the soft millennial shade of pink is obviously very on trend and attractive to my eyes especially (I barely wear my other coloured hijabs because pinks make me feel happy!). The only downside to this shade packaging is that it does get dirty pretty quick as many of you who have the ABH Modern Renaissance palette probably know already 😅
Shades The Skin Sticks come in two forms: 

• shimmer (highlight, blush, enhance) 
• matte (conceal, correct, contour)

There are 10 shimmer skin sticks and 20 matte skin sticks which is pretty amazing if you wanted to use the matte skin sticks as concealer as even the Pro Longwear concealer by MAC only has 16 shades. The trios in the UK at Harvey Nichols are pre-made (you cannot customise them like you can on the Fenty website), so when I first visited, I had a lovely lady swatch them for me on her arm and was almost going to buy the Light 100 trio as I liked the cool toned contour shade "amber", however, when I swatched it on my own arm (see pic above) all three shades did look too light/ashy on me, so I decided to go for Medium 200.
Bamboo and Mocha suit my skin very well as a contour and concealer/matte highlight, even though I thought Bamboo would be too light (its a neutral matte skin stick, not warm).  Mocha looks warm when freshly swatched but when blended it looks more cooler toned which is perfect.
I was almost not going to buy the trio because I was disappointed that the other trios had "highlighting" shimmer sticks and the Medium 200 had what I'd consider a blush shade - Trippin - which is a golden apricot colour, similar to NARS Orgasm.
Personally I'm not a fan of stick blushes (I just about use liquid ones!), but because the set was most suitable to my skintone and there was a £17 saving, I went for it to try out anyway, especially as I was given a foundation sample of Pro Filt'r in 290 (swatched above too).
Coverage Coverage of the matte skin sticks is pretty good; I'd say it's on par with the Urban Decay 24/7 concealer pencils (blog post here) so around medium to full coverage but they do take warming up to build up coverage.
Finish The finish of the matte skin skin sticks is mostly matte but can be kind of creamy once warmed up; when I've used Bamboo as concealer under my eyes it definitely needs setting powder as it doesn't dry completely matte on me once warmed and is prone to creasing. The shimmer sticks are of course shimmery.
Texture  The texture of these skin sticks (both matte and shimmer) are very dry when cold. I find that they work best when warmed up on the skin, whether it's the back of your hand or your actual face. If using directly on the face, I'd suggest letting it sit on your face before using or you can drag the skin, which isn't great if you're using it under your eyes. Dry skin types may need to add primer/oil to the product to help it glide on the skin.
Longevity When used as a concealer (set with Laura Mercier Translucent powder), Bamboo has lasted without creasing for up to 5 hours which is good. By the end of 12 hour wear however, there is visible dry cracked creasing under my eyes. Personally I prefer using creamier/more full coverage/long lasting concealers as I feel like they do last better especially when baking with translucent powder, but I feel these matte skinsticks can't be "baked" too much as they're already a drier formula.
Price The price of the skin sticks individually is £21 each, however the pre-made trios are only £46 which means you save £17 which is means one skin stick is almost free. Both are only available at Harvey Nichols in the UK (apparently Rihanna's favourite store) and Sephora elsewhere in the world 😏
Overall rating:  Overall, I wish this particular Medium 200 trio would have replaced Trippin with Blonde; I feel like it was a mistake (or smart decision!) to add Trippin in this trio when none of the other 3 trios have a "blush" shade in it. Because of this, it gets a 3.5 from me as I find the Trippin shade hard to work with on the cheeks as a blush, even when warmed up on my face/hand or even fingers and would have much preferred a highlight shade to pop at the top of my cheeks. The other two matte skin sticks however have surprisingly worked well with my skin tone and type so those aren't a miss for me.

Here's a very simple look I created using the Match Stix Trio (no highlight or further face products other than Laura Mercier Translucent powder under the eyes) along with the Fenty Beauty foundation in 290.. keep an eye out for the foundation review coming next!!

What do you think of the Fenty Beauty range and what have you bought if anything?