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

top row

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?

Urban decay, NAKED 2

So, I wasn't really going to bother doing a review on the NAKED 2 palette, but I thought I might as well throw my pictures and swatches out there as well.  My opinion on Urban decays shadows hasn't changed at all from the very first time I used a palette of theirs, and for my review of the original NAKED palette you can check here.

Basically NAKED 2 is a welcome addition to the original, I prefer the colours in this one a bit more, they are a bit cooler toned than the other one and these are colours I see myself getting more use out of.  The 2 palettes have a couple of shades in common, which I think wasn't really necessary.  It would have been nice to see a completely new palette with all new shades, but I guess they have done this so people who don't own the older one can still get some of the more popular shades without buying 2 palettes.

NAKED 2 comes with a double ended smudge/shadow brush and a mini lip gloss instead of the eye primer and is housed in a metal tin, which to me feels like it would be more solid for travelling or handbags than the original.

Contained in this palette are 11 shades, which are, Foxy, half baked, booty call, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, YDK, busted and blackout.

 Foxy, half baked, booty call, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, YDK, busted and blackout.

 Foxy, half baked, booty call, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, YDK, busted and blackout.

I think both palettes have some really pretty neutrals, I just wish they didn't have that small colour overlap, and you had all different shades between the 2 palettes.

Do you have both Naked palettes and which one is your favourite?