MUA Undress Me Too Palette - Review

I picked this up in Superdrug a few days back. I had decided I wasn't going to buy it as I have the Urban Decay Naked 2, but when I saw it in person looking so pretty I just had to buy it. I am glad I did, as it is a great little palette for the price.

The Shimmer shades are brilliant. As you can see from the swatches they are pigmented, and they apply smoothly. They do fade a little when blended out but nothing that adding a bit more product cant fix.

The matte shades are a different story. The colour pay off is poor and they are chalky and don't apply evenly at all. To get decent pay off I had to really pack it on using the sponge applicator. Luckily there are only 3 matte shades in the palette, and the price is amazing, so I can overlook this.

For me, lasting power is great. The shadows last at least 6 hours on me without fading or creasing.

Overall I am loving the MUA Undressed 2 Palette and definitely recommend getting it if you are a neural lover like me.

Gem x

MUA Eyebrow Palette Review

I love MUA cosmetics. Their products are so affordable and great quality and I cant recommend them enough. I was so excited to see that they had brought out an eyebrow kit I just knew I had to get it.

My eyebrows are not my best asset. They are sparse and quite thin, I would love gorgeous thick brows. I like to fill my eyebrows in, and before I bought this kit I was using a light brown eye shadow to fill them.

The kit comes with a dark brown, a light brown, a highlight and a brow wax. It also includes a little double ended angled brush and a mini tweezers. So handy!

Since my hair is blonde, I use the lightest colour to fill my brows. The powder is a good match for me and lasts pretty much all day. I think the dark brown will come to use as an eye shadow for me.

The highlight shade is a bit of a fail for me. It is matte and has an orangey tone to it. I am quite pale so it would look really strange on me if I used it as a highlight. It may work better for those of you with a darker skin tone than me.

My eyebrows are quite sparse so aren't unruly in the slightest. I did try using the wax and I found that it didn't really do anything for my brows except make the shadow on them appear darker. I think it could work well for someone who has unruly brows though.

I love the packaging and the size of the mirror inside the compact is great. I love the little brush and tweezers. I find they work great for me although when I am at home I will be using my Too Faced angled brush with the kit as it is such an amazing brush for eyebrows.

Overall, this is a great eyebrow kit and a great price. I would recommned this to everyone. Even if you are not dark brunette or blonde. You can mix all the colours together to get your perfect brow shade.

The Palette retails for £3.50 and is available from Superdrug and MUA cosmetics website.

Gem x

MUA Lipstick in 'Bare' Review and Swatches

My local Superdrug doesnt sell MUA, boo. So when I went on a little shopping trip to the city, I headed straight to Superdrug where they do stock it, to stock up. 

I bought two lipsticks and their new gel eyeliner, keep an eye out for a review soon. 

I love this lipstick. It is a lovely nude lipstick, with very slight peach tones in it. The formula is great. It isn't drying and looks quite creamy on. It lasts about 3 hours on me if I don't eat/drink, which is about average. 

The only negative thing I have to say about this lipstick is that I don't like the smell. Its a bit too sickly sweet for me, but others may love it. 

For £1 you really cant go wrong. I would definitely recommend this lipstick to everyone, its great and the value for money cant be beat. 

Have you tried MUA lipsticks?

Gem x

MUA Undressed Palette Review and Swatches

I was lucky enough to win this palette through a blog giveaway. I was so pleased to win as I really wanted this palette but hadn't got around to buying it yet.

MUA are an amazing make up brand that offer quality products at affordable prices and I must say that they have exceeded themselves with this palette. All the shades, (bar one but we can let them off for that as all the others are amazing) are highly pigmented, easily blended and gorgeous.

I have been using this palette almost everyday since I got it, even using shade 3 to fill in my brows. It is the perfect neutrals palette and you can create a simple neutral day look to a more sultry smoky eye.

The pigmentation as mentioned is amazing and the shadows blend and stay on all day (with primer). If you haven't got it already, what are you waiting for?

I highly recommend this palette and at £4 its the perfect price too.

Gem x

MUA Lip Boom Review

I love the concept of the new MUA Lip Booms. A lipstick, lipgloss and balm in one to me is such a good idea. The fact that Alexandra Burke has endorsed/designed them doesn't bother me either way. I am not a fan of hers and if it didn't have her on the packaging I still would have got them anyway.

I bought three of these in the colours Cheeky, OMG and OK.COM for £3 each, bargain.

The lipsticks are matte and well pigmented. They have a sweet smell to them which is bordering on sickly and not very pleasant but the smell doesn't last too long and eventually wears away. The gloss on the other end has quite a bit of glitter in it. I was expecting a more shimmery frosty lipgloss, which I think would have worked a little better for me, but luckily the glitter doesn't translate as too chunky onto the lips. If you suffer from dry lips like myself, you need to make sure that your lips are exfoliated and you have applied lip balm or Vaseline before using the matte lipstick as it can cling to the dry patches.

There is also a little pot of lip balm in the end of the lipstick which again is a really good concept but the balm if you can call it that is really unusable. Its sort of rubbery in texture and when you put your finger in it no product comes off it all stays in the pot.

OMG is a lovely coral colour with a matching coral gloss with gold glitter in it. Definitely a statement lip colour that I think would be flattering on pretty much everyone who is brave enough to wear it.

Cheeky is a bubblegum blue toned pink. On me the blue tones show up quite strongly and I think this colour is again a statement lip colour that would look great on a night out. This colour may not be flattering on all but I really like it. The gloss is a matching pink colour with silver glitter in it.

OK.COM looks quite scary and brown but my the lips it comes out a more peachy nude colour and I love it. This is the only colour suitable for a neutral toned down look out of the three Booms I chose. It would also look lovely on a night out when I have a more dramatic smoky eye look. The gloss to me looks the same colour as the one with OMG.

 

Pros: 3-in-1, great pigmentation, can be used together or alone for different looks
Cons: Quite a lot of glitter in the gloss, can cling to dry patches of skin

I really like the concept of the Lip Booms and the colours I have are all lovely and will definitely have a place in my regular makeup routine, especially for nights out I think they would look great.



Rating: 3.5/5

Beautiful Brows: MUA Eyebrow Pencil Review

I had been using a taupe coloured eye shadow to fill in my brows, but I decided to upgrade to a pencil, so when I saw the MUA eyebrow pencil in Superdrug for £1, I had to try it. I chose the colour Blonde as I have naturally light coloured eyebrows with blonde hair, so I think any other colour would have looked too harsh on me. It also comes in the shade Brunette.

Image from MUA website

I love the fact that it comes with a little brush on the end of it, very handy.

The colour is perfect for me, its a light brown slightly bronze colour, but it blends perfectly with my brows and looks as natural as possible.

Its a very soft pencil which is great as it means it is quite hard to be too heavy handed with it. However there is a drawback as it has to be sharpened after every use.

The staying power of this pencil is great, it lasted all day. I highly recommend this pencil for someone who is fair, why spend more money on an eyebrow pencil when you can get an amazing one for £1. 

The only draw back is that it only comes in two shades. Hopefully they will expand the colour options soon because this is a great product.

Rating: 5/5

MUA Makeup Academy Poptastic Palette Review and Swatches

They say: "The Poptastic Palette contains a fusion of vibrant colours for the more daring, with bright blues to a shocking pink amongst the 12 highly-pigmented eye shadow shades. This palette contains shimmer shades with complimentary shades that keep their vibrancy on all skin tones".

The palette comes nicely packaged, it looks quite sleek and professional. It is slightly difficult to open though, if you have long nails you may find it quite hard to open. 

The palette contains 12 vibrant eyeshadows, 7 of them are blues though, so I would have liked a bit more variety of colours in this palette. They are all gorgeous colours and most of them are pigmented and easy to work with. I am dissapointed with the light yellow, it really doesnt show up on my skin at all, even when I use a primer. I would say that with this palette you need to use quite a stiff brush to pick up the colour. I tried using my too faced brushes with it, but that didnt really pick up any colour at all. I swithched to my Japonesque smugder brush and that worked perfectly. 

First row 

Second row

Overall opinion: I really am pleased with this palette, and for £4 its a bargain. its got quite a nice variety of colours and is of a decent quality. 

Rating: 3.5/5 due to the fact that the first and second colours in row 1, and the sixth colour in row two needed a stiff brush in order to be picked up. 

Here's a quick look I did using the darkest blue and the blue above it. 

Gemx