Russian Doll Make-Up

Ah, perhaps I should clarify the title of this post - this isn’t about how to do your make-up to look like a Russian doll (although that would make for quite an interesting post now that I think about it…) but rather about a super cute make-up palette that I picked up in TK Maxx on Friday that’s shaped like a Russian doll.  I love Russian doll paraphernalia, although bizarrely enough I don’t own an actual Russian doll!  Anyway I saw this and just had to have it.

The palette is called the Puposka and it’s by the Italian cosmetics brand Pupa.  There are various designs of this palette available and mine is called Burlesque Dreams.  While they’re not widely available in the UK you can still purchase their products easily enough online.  The price sticker says RRP £13 but I paid only £7.99.  I think this approximately reflects the prices that you would pay for Pupa online as well.

Above: this tiny doll charm is attached to one of the side compartments.

This palette is so much fun.  It would be the worst gift ever for somebody who loves elegant sophistication, but it’s perfect for big kids or lovers of all things kitsch like me!  There are two compartments that you slide out from the sides of the doll, and you can swing the plastic face upwards to reveal a tiny mirror that’s unfortunately much too tiny to be useful.  It would have been nice to have a lipstick stashed there.

There are four eyeshadows; two shimmery shades perfect for highlighting and two darker glittery shades.  There are also four sheer lipglosses.  The eyeshadows are embossed with dolls and doll faces – again, super cute!

The pigmentation of the shadows was mediocre to poor with the shimmery shadows giving the best colour payoff and the green the worst (2nd from left in pic below), while the lipglosses were very sheer but still glossy enough to be useable.  The glosses provided wouldn’t last long if you were using them regularly though as the portions are so small.

I couldn’t wait to dive into that deep purple eyeshadow and, given the name of the palette, I went for a full on dark glittery eye.

I managed to get OK colour pay off by using a glittery eye crayon as a base.  I also like using pencils as bases when there’s a particular shape I want to create with my make-up as it then becomes as easy as drawing it on.  I just dabbed the purple on top of the base I’d drawn on with quite a small eyeshadow brush then blended a shimmery lilac over the edges.  Unfortunately the camera didn’t quite manage to capture just how super glittery the finished look was, although that was more thanks to the glittery base than the eyeshadow (which is also glittery).  I’ve been wearing this look for 6h now and it’s just started to crease a tiny bit but it’s most definitely still there.

This palette’s definitely not for serious make-up lovers but if you’re stuck for a present to get somebody who loves kitsch tat (that sounds like I’m being ironic in a nasty way but that actually describes my own tastes pretty accurately ha ha!) then this might be worth a look.