theBalm Meet Matt(e) Hughes Mini Set

Hi everyone! It's been so long since I blogged but October so far has been a VERY busy and not going to lie very stressful month! I'm definitely feeling the pressure now of being a recent graduate and a '20 something' year old who has no clue what they want to do with their life. Every time someone asks me what I'm doing now I've finished university I feel like it stresses you out more and more each time and you literally feel like you're about to scream at them to shut up even though they are just being nice! Thankfully I'm going on holiday in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping that will cheer me up and also getting back into blogging should hopefully take my mind off things! That being said it makes me so happy seeing all the gift sets being released around this time of year and it inspires me so much to try new products to post on my blog. For ages I've seen the liquid lipsticks by theBalm which are called Meet Matt(e) Hughes but I'd never got round to trying them, however I saw Debenhams had a set of six of the liquid lipsticks in a gift set in mini size so I thought I'd buy it and see how the colours were and how the formulas performed. 

I felt like the shade range in this was perfect for me as they aren't too bold, there is a red shade and a slightly berry toned shade however they aren't too full on which usually puts me off. I have to admit matte finishes really aren't my favourite, however I love theBalm and I felt like this set had such pretty shades and I do love a gift set so I wanted to try them anyway and maybe see if it turned my head more towards a matte finish.

One of my biggest issues with this set is that it is such poor value for money, which I really didn't take into consideration at the time of buying which is my own fault however it really is disappointing how little product you get when you look at the price. From Debenhams this set retails at £25, however you only get 1.2ml of product in each mini, so that totals 7.2ml of product. In comparison a single full size liquid lipstick is 7.2ml for £13.50. So you're paying almost double the price of a standard liquid lipstick for the same amount of product which I think is so ridiculous. I do love trying a range of shades but I feel like this set is such poor value for money you may as well just buy one full size, or two full size products which would be almost the same price as this set anyway. 

Left to right: Charming, Sincere, Committed, Doting, Dedicated, Loyal

Despite the issues with the price of this set and the amount of product you receive I still had high hopes for the formula and the shades because when I swatched them I thought they looked so pretty and basically were some of my ideal shades especially for this time of year. They also swatched very pigmented and didn't seem too drying, however when I actually wore them on the lips they were so disappointing. They felt very 'gloopy' and messy to apply and once applied I pursed my lips together they actually started to crack and flake off. As well as that the smell of the product put me off so much, it was very minty but very sickly as well and I already don't like the smell of mint so it wasn't for me at all unfortunately.

I hate feeling like I'm coming on here and having a whinge but this product really was a disappointment for me especially as I have only had good experiences with theBalm before, it is a shame because the actual shade range is pretty and I usually love gift sets where you can try a range of colours from a product you have never used before but the value for money and the actual performance of these were just too poor so I definitely would not recommend. Let me know if you've seen any good Christmas gift sets out already in the comments!