When trying indie brands and small businesses I'm always a bit uneasy when placing my very first order. That's mainly because I have had my share of nightmare service with small businesses. Which is why I usually try to do some research on the brands before giving them a try, including reading reviews etc. But hey I'm human and sometimes I get those impulses to just buy when I see things that catch my eye.
That recently happened to me over the holidays as I was scrolling through Instagram and saw someone repost a pic of this woman wearing a stunning blue lipgloss. I've been wanting to try a blue lip hue for the longest time which is why it caught my eyes. So from there I browsed through the woman's profile and discovered that she had her own cosmetics line which she was promoting. The woman's name is Kym Lee, whom I've never heard of prior to stumbling across her on Instagram but according to her bio she's a well known celebrity makeup artist who's been in the beauty industry for over 17 years working with BET and has had her makeup artistry featured in several well known publications including Essence, Glamour and Sister 2 Sister. I love to see women, especially black women become multifaceted in business and it's always a pleasure for me to support their visions.
Kym Lee's cosmetic line is called Wink & Pout which consists of a variety of lipsticks, lipgoss, lashes and lip liners. The website is professional looking and pretty easy to navigate. I always like to go small in terms of purchasing when I buy for the first time from a company so I decided to order that intoxicating blue lipgloss that initially caught my eye and a pair of lashes to complete the "Wink & Pout" experience.
The lashes are really pretty & they feel super light. The only thing I don't like about them is that the outer wing of the lashes create a shadow on my face directly underneath - you can see it in the pics below. But that could be contributed to the outside lighting I'm not really sure.
Here's that vibrant blue gloss, it's called Holiday Blue.
Ehh I'm not really sure Blue is the color for me lol but I enjoyed trying it out!
Glare: Ok, so there are a couple of things that kind of stood out to me that I did not like. I'll start with the shipping process. While the order was easy to place there was a communication barrier that bothered me after ordering. I paid with Paypal and received a payment receipt and also an automated response from Wink & Pout immediately after my order stating my order number and items. I placed the order on December 6th and it arrived on the 16th which is about typical in terms of shipping. Now what I took issue with is that I never received a shipping confirmation nor a response to an email sent in regards to it. I understand people are busy, it was the holidays but I am a stickler for communication and that was a major turn off for me. If I spend my money with a company, I don't care how much or how little I still expect communication. I want to know when I can expect to receive my items, I don't think that's too much to ask. I also noticed that there weren't any shipping policies on the website nor the invoice which I think would be a good idea to incorporate in the future so consumers know what to expect. Aside from that, another con for me is that the lipgloss doesn't list ingredients on the container at all nor does the website *sigh* I can go into a whole rant about that but I won't. I will just say that it is a suppliers responsibility just as much as a consumers responsibility to be aware of what ingredients products are formulated with for their own safety. Yes, I made the choice to test this gloss out regardless but I probably will not with future brands that do not include ingredients or product facts.
Would I Recommend It? With all that said I really hope this review doesn't come off as harsh because that is not my intention at all. I just like to share my own experiences and I also like to keep my readers informed and that starts with me always being completely honest in anything that I review. The bottom line is that I am satisfied with my purchase and I received exactly what I ordered. Would I order from them again? Ehh probably not. I do think the company could benefit from a few tweaks including a FAQ's page, list of ingredients and also ordering & shipping policies. Aside from that I think Wink n Pout has a lot of potential, the idea is trendy, the website is cute and the products seem ok. Not to mention this seems to be a brand new venture for Kym and with all new ventures there are trial and errors. I wish Wink n Pout the best of luck and can't wait to see what the future holds for them!
Where To Buy: All of Wink n Pout products can be purchased at http://winknpoutbykymlee.com.
Product(s) in this post were purchased by me. Read our disclosure policy here.
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