Smokey Brown with MUA

MUA have just released a whole raft of new products so I placed an order last weekend and my goodies arrived a few days later. I had a chance to play around with them this weekend and came up with this look yesterday, where all the products that I used except for my face powder are by MUA.

Above: the selection of products that I used. Clockwise from top left: Undress Your Skin Illuminating Foundation in Porcelain (£5 RRP but purchased on special offer at £3), eyeshadow palette in Undressed (£4), Pro-Base Conceal and Brighten Kit in Porcelain (£3.50 RRP but purchased on special offer at £2.50), Mega Volume Mascara in Brown (£3), MUA powder blusher in shade 2 (£1), Undress Your Skin highlighting powder (£3 RRP but purchased on special offer at £2), MUA Lip Boom in OK.com (£3)

I also used an Intense eye colour pencil in rich brown (£1 RRP but purchased on special offer as a free gift) which I forgot to include in my photograph, oops! It’s a brilliant product and I definitely recommend checking out their range of pencils. They basically tick all the boxes – soft and smooth to apply, highly pigmented and very long lasting. And as an added bonus, they even come with an integrated pencil sharpener in the lid!

If you’re interested in the maths then the total that I paid for all these products came to just £18.50 which is an absolute bargain for a full face of make-up. But let’s move on to some product swatches and mini-reviews to see if they are actually any good.

I haven’t swatched the Illuminating foundation on my arm but you can see it on my face in the pictures at the top of my post. It’s a very light, warm toned shade so it’s actually a pretty good match for my skin tone. I’m not a big fan of the consistency though, which I find to be a bit sticky and difficult to blend. It’s much easier to apply if worn on top of the Undress Your Skin Flawless Face Primer (also from the MUA Undress Your Skin Range, not pictured here) but I can’t really be bothered with the hassle of layering so many products just for the coverage of a foundation. I’ll definitely be using this foundation up but I probably won’t be repurchasing it.

I’ve already swatched the Undressed palette in this post. I really like this product and at £4 it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of neutral eyeshadows.

The Pro-Base Conceal and Brighten Kit comes in three shades, of which mine is the lightest, and contains two concealers and a highlighter. One concealer is cool toned (excellent at covering dark circles under the eyes) while the other one is warm toned. My skin is very warm toned so it’s quite a good match for me already, but since there are two shades you can mix them to create your own perfect match. All three products have a very sticky, oily consistency which I think works well for the concealers (the lasting power is quite good as long as you set them with powder) but I don’t like this consistency as a highlighter. It’s also quite pigmented so for me it’s more similar to a cream blush. I would only use the highlighter in the summer if I was going out with very light coverage and not powdering my skin, otherwise I don’t think it would fit in with the rest of my make-up.

 

The Undress Your Skin highlighter has already been compared by some to MAC’s Whisper of Gilt extra dimension skin finish, but as you can see from my swatch above it’s a completely different shade. It’s a pale white pink but Whisper of Gilt, as the name suggests, is very golden (a light, yellow gold) and personally I think they’re completely different.

Above: Whisper of Gilt, and left-most in swatches.

The highlighter actually has quite a nice finish and it’s my favourite product from MUA’s new Undress Your Skin range.

The Mega Volume mascara has a plastic wand packed with bristles. It actually works quite well on my stubby, sparse lashes and I could definitely see myself buying it again as I find mascaras quite over-priced in general, especially as I’ve never found one that I’ve considered particularly amazing.

I’ve also reviewed the blush already which you can read about in this post. It’s not my favourite blush ever but they’re good to try if you want to find out which shades you like best as they are all wearable and only £1 each (so you could buy the whole range for £6!)

I’ve been meaning to try out the MUA Lip Booms for a while but I only got round to buying this one a couple of weeks ago. The Lip Boom contains a matte lipstick in one end and an extremely glittery lip gloss in the other. There are currently eight shades in the range but I have to admit that some of the colour combinations do seem a bit strange. I went for this caramel nude and orange glitter combo which I’m really pleased with. The lipstick glides on quite well for a matte finish (often I find matte formulae very dry) and lasts me from the morning until lunchtime. The lipgloss is a nice colour but it is very glittery and consequently a bit gritty. I tend to either wear it alone or just a dab of it in the middle of my bottom lip if I’m wearing it over the lipstick. I’m just wearing the lipstick in the first photo at the top of this post.

To conclude: a mixed bag of products but on the whole more hits than misses. My must-have from the new Undress Your Skin range is the highlighter, the Undressed Palette is great value for money, their eye pencil range is brilliant – the quality is simply incredible given that they only cost £1 each - and if you like matte lipsticks then the lip booms are definitely worth checking out because even if you don’t get any use out of the lip gloss £3 is still great value for money for a good quality lipstick.

Jerome Alexander Stackables

I picked this set up in TKMaxx a few months ago on a whim but since then it’s actually become one of my go-to products that I use pretty much every day. I got mine for £9.99 and I think you can still pick it up for around this price from various sellers online.

The packaging is quite nice – it’s s sleek, gold stack that contains three compartments that slot together, with a mirror in the lid. You can take the compartments apart so for example if you just wanted to pop the powder in your bag you could simply take the top compartment with the lid and it would be a complete compact.

There are different versions of the stacking kit available. The one that I got contains a powder mineral foundation dotted with various shades of “colour correctors”, a highlighting and bronzer duo, and an eyeshadow quad in very warm shades of red, bronze and gold.

As you can see from the swatch above, the pigmentation in the eyeshadows is very good.

My kit also contained a set of brushes: powder, blusher and eyeshadow which aren’t pictured here. They are acutally quite good quality (which is quite unusual for brushed included in a kit) and I use them all on a regular basis. The powder brush is good for light coverage, but when I want heavier coverage I use a flat-topped foundation brush (mine is by ecotools, pictured below).

My winter morning skin routine has basically been to use a light coverage bb cream followed by the powder foundation on my t-zone. The powder is very buildable and I usually go for medium to full coverage, although I’ll be switching to the powder brush from the set and easing up on the amount I use in the spring as we get more daylight.

Below: Superdrug BB cream followed by Jerome Alexander mineral foundation

The powder has lasted really well and I’ve only just hit pan after having used it every  day for about three months. I would definitely consider repurchasing it – I’ve seen larger versions of the foundation alone available from Boots for £19.99, or there are various other products from the range available online.

Mix-Your-Own BB Cream

I’m about to run out of tinted moisturiser, which I use through the week rather than foundation, so I wanted to pick up a BB cream but when I spotted this Colour Supplement in Lush this weekend I thought I’d give it a try instead.

It basically says it all on the lid – it’s a multi-purpose base colour that you can mix with your normal day moisturiser to create a tinted mosituriser/foundation with the level of coverage that you want, or just use it straight up as a concealer.

There aren’t that many colour options with only five shades altogether, but fortunately for me this one in light yellow is a good match for me. The product is not actually that thick and this jar is quite small – only 20g compared to the normal foundation size of 30ml but hopefully it will be long lasting since I’ll only be using a small amount each day as I don’t like wearing too much on my skin for work (I prefer a lighter look during the week as I’m out for 10 – 14h each day). This costs £8.50 so I’m hoping for 2 months worth of wear out of it.

I wore this today by mixing it on the back of my hand with my mosituriser. I think I used a bit more of the colour supplement than I needed, because I got even more coverage than I usually need. So basically I’m really keen on this product but I’ve only used it once and I’m just interested to see how long it will last me before I decide whether or not I would actually recommend it. I’ll update this post in a month to let you know!

Cold Remedy

I had a cold last week that really zapped my skin. Here’s the photographic evidence. Eek!

Happily I’ve come up with a winning team of dull-skin busting radiance enhancers that can perk up my look in no time.

Above left – right: Illamasqua Cream Blush in Betray; Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer, Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation

This is my current favourite foundation - I’ve had it for a few months now, although I only wear foundation at weekends so I estimate it would last four to six weeks if used everyday. The consistency is quite thick and creamy and it offers medium coverage with a radiant finish.

The other two products are new but I think they’ll be very handy over the coming windswept days, rainy nights and whatever winter decides to throw at me this year!

It just takes a touch of this rosy toned cream blusher to add a healthy flush to cheeks. I use my fingers to apply this then blend out at the edges with a duo-fibre brush.

I don’t actually usually wear concealer but I did feel so zapped after my cold that I felt I needed a bit of extra help to restore some life to my skin so I decided to try this for under my eyes and any other areas where my skin was suffering. It promises full coverage, but it’s actually much thinner than the matching foundation! I’ve been applying two layers to my under eye area and dabbing a small amount on any rough patches or particularly gruesome spots – otherwise I’m generally happy with the coverage I get from my foundation. I don’t know that I would particularly recommend this – I’ll have to use it for a bit longer before I can decide whether there are any particular benefits to using this in addition to foundation or if it’s an unnecessary extra product.

My natural lip colour is very pale, so a bright lipcolour is a quick way to perk my whole face up. Today I opted for a Volume Sensation lipstick by Collection 2000 in shade 4 Plum Perfection. It’s not really volumising, but it does have a shiny finish which always tends to plump things up. I really like the colour though. This is quite a cheap lipstick at £2.99 but it’s pretty good quality for the price. You get a medium coverage, shiny finish that lasts about 3 hours on me.

So, putting all that together, here was the final result today. Ah, much more shiny and happy!

What was the last…?

I thought it’d be fun to do a post like this once a month or so where I just do one overview post of the most recent additions to my make-up collection. The main reason is actually to help myself figure out if I’m getting good use out of the things that I’ve been buying, but hopefully it will also be interesting/useful to post a whole bunch of mini-reviews in one go!

Soooo here’s a photo of my newest make-up babies.

Eyeshadow: I’m such an eyeshadow fan that I couldn’t really remember the last one I bought so I’ve included three. One is the MUA Dusk Till Dawn palette and there is an Accessorize baked duo in Venus and Look Beauty triple hit eyeshadow trio in Party Fever. I haven’t used any of these as much as I should have so that’s definitely been interesting for me to realise and I will try to dig these out more. It’s also interesting to note that the duo and trio both contain very similar shades so they’re clearly favourites of mine at the moment for some sub-conscious reason. I think the deep purple in both will be a great staple colour for autumn.

Mascara: Scandaleyes Show Off Mascara by Rimmel

I’m always interested in trying out new high street mascaras when they launch and I thought this one looked pretty cool. I know the bright pink won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but I quite like the packaging. Unfortunately it doesn’t do much for my lashes as the formula just doesn’t want to build up on my stumpy, sparse lashes. However I’m not worried as I will put this aside while I finish off my current mascaras and when it’s dried out and thickened up a bit I’m sure it will actually perform much better for me.

Eyepencil: MUA Intense Eyeliner in Royal Blue

I bought this because 1) I thought the colour was really cool and 2) it was only £1 – wow! That’s even more impressive when you consider that it even comes with its own sharpener in the lid. It’s really soft and intense when applied and also easy to smudge and blend out but I can’t actually remember if I’ve worn it or not yet so I can’t comment on its longevity – eek!  Another one to make more effort to use…

Foundation: Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation

I don’t actually buy foundation that often so I got this one months ago now but I haven’t needed to buy one since. I tend to have two or three foundations on the go at once and I only really wear it at weekends (I stick to tinted moisturiser during the week just to save time in the mornings). I really like this foundation which I use when I want a dewy finish. It’s quick thick so I only need one pump for my whole face and it’s light to medium coverage.

Blush: MAC mineralize blush in Solar Ray and Mineralize Skin Finish in Star Wonder

I bought these in July and I’ve used them loads so even though they were really expensive I’m happy that I’m getting my money’s worth out of them.  There are also loads of pictures of them on my blog now already as I keep harping on about them and featuring them in my looks posts! The only issue I have is that Solar Ray is a bit powdery and I have trouble getting it to last on my skin which is combination to oily. I have not made a dent in these yet so I think they will last for ages. In fact, I’m probably never going to see the bottom of them as I have so many blushes and love rotating them depending on the weather (yes, really!!)

Lipsticks: No. 7 Stay Perfect lipstick in Glace and Stay Perfect Lip Lacquer in Sugar Mauve

I haven’t really worn the lipstick yet but I wore the lip duo to a party on Saturday and it definitely did the business, staying on through a two-course Indian meal and two pints and a lemonade! It’s a great long lasting lip colour, but it does take ages to apply so I never wear it during the week, although I really want my lipstick to be long lasting when I’m at work. The gloss is quick and easy to apply though as it has a really good brush applicator so I would definitely be able to apply that during the week on my way to work. I have high hopes for the traditionally shaped lipstick therefore, but I have a couple of older ones that I’m trying to finish up first. I bought it as it was on half-price offer but I’m going to avoid buying any more lippies until I get through a few of the ones I have.

That’s it for this month. I feel like it was actually very useful to go through my make-up in this way and I actually learnt a lot so I will hopefully be repeating this exercise very soon!