Inglot Freedom system 40 shadow palette

At the beginning of this year I swatched and reviewed the Inglot freedom system 20 palettes I purchased in Kuala Lumpur.  I made up 1, 20 pan neutrals palette and 1, 20 pan colours palette.  In typical fashion I only got around to swatching the neutrals....

This past Saturday I visited Sydney's IMAT'S (international make up artists trade show )  My plan was to get there on opening time and hit Inglot armed with a list of exactly what I was after, seeing as at last years IMAT's the Inglot stand was chaos.  my plan worked well I arrived handed over my list to the SA and she simply popped it all together and in 5 mins flat and $180 later, including the 30% Imat's discount, I was done at Inglot.  Later on the crowds were huge and I really don't think I would've bothered with the battle.

I purchased a 40 palette, a 10, a 5 and a 3 palette, plus 17 individual shadows.... this has left me scratching my head a bit as to why I didn't just get an even 20 colours, but anyway..  The plan was to take my new colours and transfer those plus my existing 20 brights into the 40 which I did then added 3 colours from my neutral palette to make it a complete 40.  This leaves me with an empty 20 to fill at some point.

Seeing as I have already reviewed the actual textures etc in my Neutrals palette, I wont bother re-doing that, instead you can find that here, and I'll move straight onto the pictures and swatches.

I really think Inglot has one of the best customisable systems available, plus the quality of the colours is superb.  Who else has tried Inglot or do you have a different customisable palette favourite?

MUA ( make up Academy ) Poptastic

Back again and totally on a MUA roll here.... well if I don't keep going I'll never get onto the next lot of blogs and products, so I'll just keep plodding along!

This time it's the Poptastic palette from MUA.  Now this time I didn't actually purchase it, during the MUA promo with the freebie of the Immaculate palette I was chatting on FB  with a good Friend Michelle of IndieAnna In Search of the Holy Grail, who was looking to take advantage of the promo as well, knowing her love of colour I pointed out Poptastic, and mentioned that I kinda wished I'd ordered that as well.  A few weeks later the potastic palette landed in my letterbox.  What a sweetheart, she'd gone ahead and ordered it for me and sent it off without telling me!  Many, many thanks!

Instead of raving about Mua palettes all over again, I'll just direct you straight to the MUA website and my Dusk till dawn, pretty pastels, and Immaculate collection reviews and swatches and move right onto the photos (my favourite part)

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bottom row

I've gotta say, I really love every colour in this palette, they all indulge my love of brights, plus how many neutrals do you really need anyway?

MUA (Make up academy) Immaculate Collection

Hi again Ladies, I'm going to keep continuing on with my MUA ( makeup academy ) palettes. The others of these Dusk til dawn and Pretty pastels can be found here and here.  Today it's The Immaculate Collection which is the 24 shade palette that was the freebie when you spent over 8 pounds that I referred to in my initial MUA post.

This is great palette, with the matte colours in shades 9, 23 and 23 being either chalky or hard to get good colour payoff from :(  but I kinda expect that from mattes in cheaper brands anyway.

This palettes main difference is that this time they included a numbering system on the back and while that's great it'd be nice to see an overall system with each palette, so that you could tell if you are doubling up on colours in other palettes..... but enough of the talk, blah, blah, blah, etc.... onto the pictures

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top row, numbers 1 to 8

middle row numbers 9 to 16

bottom row, numbers 17 to 24

Was anyone else lucky to pick the Immaculate collection up as the recent freebie, and what do think of it?

Make up academy - Pretty Pastels

Hello again, it seems I'm on a bit of a MUA (make up academy ) roll ATM.  I'd better keep blogging away or I fall behind and run out of time as per usual.  Today it's the pretty pastels palette, which in regards to texture and payoff is the same as my initial MUA post which is here.

This time I'm just going to get straight into the pictures seeing as my feelings on MUA haven't changed at all.

pretty pastels

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And the swatches, as the name suggests these are all pale pastel colours, they are all pretty in their own right and great as inner corner tear duct area colours.

The top row

The bottom row

I really dig that purple at the end of the first row, so pretty!

Is anyone else thinking of rocking the pastels this spring?

Make up Academy - dusk till dawn

For a while Ive been a follower of MUA ( Make Up Academy ) on Fb.  MUA is a UK cosmetics brand that produces what looks like great quality, cheaper priced cosmetics and is sold in department and drug stores in the UK.  They often do really great GWP's ( gift with purchases ).  They recently started international shipping on their website, which I've been browsing on for a while, but unable to buy from due to the lack of shipping to Aus.

A couple of weeks ago a new GWP popped up in my FB news feed, which was spend 8 pounds and get the 24 colour Immaculate collection palette for free.  After a bit I settled on the Dusk to dawn palette and the Pretty pastels, it was close though and I almost got Poptastic as well  ( next gwp purchase maybe )

I've used Dusk till dawn a few times and been quite impressed with the quality, the shadows are soft and have good colour payoff, and easily last all day when being used over an eye primer.  The palette contains 12 colours, none of which have individual names or numbers and is 9.6 gms in total.  The palettes are 4lbs each, and with 2 palettes and shipping the whole order came to approx $23 Aud so factoring in the freebie, that 48 eyeshadows for 23 bucks.  Unbeatable!

Anyway onto the good stuff, Photos!

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So as you can see, it's simple no fuss, no frills packaging that's effective, but kept simple in order to keep prices down.  It'd be nice to have an internal mirror but really who needs one anyway.

Swatches
Top row

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Bottom row

There's some great colours in the palette but the only one I'm not really fussed on is the 2nd colour in the bottom row, the grey isn't quite as pigmented as the others and seems to have a lot of glitter fall out.

who else has tried MUA?

Eye primers galore!

So awhile ago I did a post about the Nyx eye primers ( and I mean ages ago) which can be found here.  I seriously just in the last week finished using my first of the 3 pots, and that's with daily use, every single day, 15 months out of one pot, how brilliant is that... crazy that one pot can last that long.  In the meantime I managed to collect a few more eye primers that I wanted to try out.   How the hell do I manage to collect so many things???

Anyway these are the next on my primer hit list :)

As you can see I still have one NYX left, and I'm pretty sure the neutral one is lurking somewhere too.

I'll throw in some close ups just so you can see better what I managed to collect while waiting to finish the first NYX pot.

The NYX shimmer base

Essence I love stage base, this a fairly new cheapie brand to hit Priceline and Target stores in AU, I think it's priced around $3.50 AUD.

Too Faced shadow Insurance, this is one of my all time faves.  I think I have a tube somewhere in a blue version that was discontinued.

Then the Face of Australia bases in both matte

And shimmer, both of theses are available at Pricelines and Big W stores and I can't remember how much they were at the time.

I have no idea which one I plan on starting with.....

Do you hoard products too, then realise later you have stacks of the same kind of thing squirreled away?  Has anyone tried any of these and what do you think of them?

Revlon 24 hr Colourstay Whipped Creme foundation

Hey beauties, long time no blog!  To tell the truth I kinda decided to save my cash for Sydney Imats in September and haven't really bought much of anything worth blogging about since the Urban decay haul from the mini cruise, but I'm going to try and find things to blog on anyway. LOL.  

Recently I was sent Revlon's new 24 hr Colourstay whipped creme foundation as part of the Beautyheaven Trial Team. I am a die hard foundation wearer, it's my one staple beauty product that I have used for years and years, so I was very excited to be asked to trial Revlon's new foundation.

Revlon ColorStay Whipped Creme Makeup has a mousse-like texture  which is almost a bit bouncy to the touch that will give skin a soft matte silky feeling finish.  It contains silk and botanicals and features elastormeric primer technology to give you skin all day comfort and has SPF 20.  The range consists of 7 shades and retails for $34.95 and can be found anywhere you buy Revlon products.

When it arrived I was immediately impressed the glass pot looked like it was from a much more Luxe brand than Revlon. It felt heavy and expensive, that is actually a bit of a drawback  though, as after removing the seal that stops the product from ending up all over the inside of the lid, I discovered that the pot wasn't really user friendly.  If you are a pop your foundation on with your fingers kinda person, then you'll soon find out that trying to get the product out if you have long finger nails is a messy job.  In the end I resorted to using a foundation brush to get the product out of the pot.

the interior seal

the product looks really quite thick at first glance

I ended up using my Sigma F60 foundation brush to apply and it worked like a dream much better than my fingers!

The finish of the foundation is beautiful, with the bonus that it feels amazingly light and silky on.  It spreads well and even using a foundation brush leaves no patchiness or caking. The foundation covers reasonably well with small spot touch ups being needed for stubborn scars or marks and wears well throughout a 12 hr day with no caking or flaking or wearing off after that though it does start to wear off, so it is far from the 24 hr foundation that it is advertised as.  I found I had some problems with my bronzer not going on evenly over it and this just kept happening, and seeing as I wear bronzer daily found this a bit of a deal breaker.

I'm also unsure weather it would be the best foundation for sensitive skin, as my eyes which are quite sensitive have been watering non stop since using this foundation.  I'm trying to get my hands on an ingredients listing to see if there is anything in it that I know will set my eyes off, and have stopped using it, to see if they settle back down.  It does seem the most likely culprit as  I haven't been using anything else new.

oops, silly me discovered the ingredients on the bottom of the underneath label

If it wasn't for those couple of problems then this really would be a 5 star product, but as it stands it's not something I will consider purchasing until I find out if it was the cause of my eye soreness.

***EDIT***  I did eventually discover the ingredients listing on the underneath of the pot, but nothing stood out as being the cause of the irritation.  2 days after I stopped using it the irritation in my eyes stopped, so it was definitely the foundation, and to tell the truth, I'm really not sure I want to do the research and delve into all the ingredients and what they do, as I'd bet some of them would be really quite nasty to allow them to produce a brand that can claim to last 24hrs on your skin.  Plus do I really want to leave it on that long.... HELL NO!

Urban Decay, Black Palette

I recently went on a quick mini 3 day cruise to nowhere with the hubby to get away from the kids and recover a small amount of my sanity.  Boy was I surprised to find a shelf well stocked with Urban decay palettes on board the Pacific Pearl, not only that the were reasonably priced, on par for the US market but on board an Aussie ship, needless to say I felt I needed to indulge in 3 palettes plus the 24/7 shadow pencils :)  They had none of the NAKED palettes, but the SA informed me that when they do get them the retail price is around $44 AUD.

The Black palette is first up, this one was selling for around $33 AUD, which is actually cheaper than the US  RRP of $36 and has 6 shades, all black based shade, plus a 24/7 liner in zero and a mini primer potion.

The colours in this palette are black dog ( straight smoky matte black), barracuda ( smokey steel grey), jet ( shimmery smokey purple), sabbath ( smokey shimmer blue), cobra ( very glittery gold black), and libertine ( smokey olive green)

black dog, barracuda, jet, sabbath, cobra, libertine.

and a quick Eotd I put together using Jet and a a random purple on the inner corner.

Innoxia classic colour lipsticks, Matte shades

Just a quick follow up to the Innoxia classic colour lipsticks post from a few days ago, these are the 2 matte that I own from the range.  I find the pigmentation and lasting power about the same as the rest of the range, although if you have quite dry lips the colour can settle into the fine lines, I find that I can stop this happening if I remember to apply a balm before putting on my foundation.

The 2 colours I have are baby doll and watermelon

baby doll, watermelon

Baby doll is a pale barbie pink

and watermelon is a bright coral pink

Swatches, baby doll (left), watermelon (right)

So loving the lippie brights ATM, do you have a favourite all time bright lippie?