Building My Urban Decay Palette

Hello my lovelies, today wanted to share an eye shadow palette with you that's currently a work in progress. Being a huge fan of Urban Decay eye shadows, last year I decided to pick up one of the "build your own" palettes from the House of Fraser's sale so that I could store my single shadows together. I'm not personally someone who will take away singular eye shadows when I go travelling as I much prefer to have everything I need in one little palette.

Urban Decay have a small range of build your own palettes available, each in different designs, sizes and some even come with a free eye shadow. I'm not entirely sure what my version is called as it's no longer available, but it has a gorgeous bright paint splatter effect on the front and has space for 6 individual shadows. It came with a free travel sized flat shader brush and there is also a large mirror that sits inside the lid of the palette which makes this a travel friendly piece to have in my collection.

One of the first single eye shadows I owned from Urban Decay was a shade called Midnight Cowgirl. Being one of the first Urban Decay shadows I'd tried, I wanted to keep it a simple and neutral shade yet at the same time something I could wear day or night. Midnight Cowgirl is a warm sand colour with shimmer, so it's neutral enough to wear daily but also has that beautiful glitter in it for an evening look. This is a really beautiful shade that doesn't get much of a mention on blogs, but this is definitely a shade I'd recommend people trying if they like a bit of shimmer!

With the build your own palette I also got the eye shadow shade Walk Of Shame for free which I was really pleased about. At this point I was using my Urban Decay Naked Basics palette religiously and Walk Of Shame had quickly become one of my favourite base shadow shades. As this shade is a light matte nude, it's the perfect colour to create a clean, natural lid that will help blend together any other shadows you apply. After using this shade all the time, I have now really hit pan on Walk Of Shame in my Basics palette so I'm glad I picked up this palette when I did! Now have I have a back up of one of my favourite eye shadows plus I remember only paying around £9 for both the palette and shadow so it was a complete bargain!

My final eye shadow in my palette is one I have used for years, my beloved Sin! This beautiful shimmery champagne is a very popular shade amongst bloggers and features in the original Naked palette. Like Walk Of Shame, I have completely hit pan on this shadow so I was super excited to have received a brand new one for Christmas to pop in my palette! Sin may look exactly the same as Midnight Cowgirl, but I find Sin is much more pink compared to Midnight Cowgirl's golden tone and both look different when on the lid. This is a beautiful shade and if you're going to try out your first ever Urban Decay eye shadow, then I would say give this one a try as it looks really flattering in any eye look!

As you can see from the swatches (or can't see as these shades are all very light and natural - sorry!) all 3 shadows are buttery smooth and are well pigmented. I adore all of the shades in my palette and cannot wait to pick out the next 3 to complete it. What's great about these build your own palettes is that you can swap and change the shadows you put in it depending on what looks you want to create - so there's no reason for me not to buy more shadows! I would love to hear in the comments what other Urban Decay eye shadow shades you think I should add to my little palette as I would love to complete it soon.

Once I have completed this palette I'll update you all with what eye shadows I have decided to put in it! Let me know your thoughts on the 3 shadows I have already chosen and whether you own them as well. Thank you for reading today's post and I will speak to you again next week!

What are your favourite Urban Decay eye shadow shades?

Do you own one of the "build your own" eye shadow palettes?

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Review | Stila "In The Light" Eye Shadow Palette

Stila "In The Light" Eye Shadow Palette | £25.00

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely day! I'm spending mine catching up on some blogging as I really haven't been posting as much as I would like to. Today I'm going to be reviewing an eye shadow palette that is really popular amongst many beauty bloggers. This is the Stila "In The Light" Eye Shadow palette that contains 10 beautiful neutral eye shadows plus a water-proof eye liner. I picked this up around my birthday as a little present to myself as I had been lusting after it for months! It's quite similar to the Urban Decay Naked palette so I didn't know whether I needed both in my collection, but I definitely do and I'm so glad I picked up this gorgeous little palette!

So as I said in this palette there are 10 neutral eye shadows ranging from mattes, shimmers and satin like finishes. All of these shadows are so easy to wear and you can create endless amounts of day and night time looks. You also receive a free full size Smudge Stick Water Proof Eye Liner in "Damsel" which is a highly pigmented dark brown colour that's perfect for everyday use. It defines the eyes really well and stays put pretty much all day long! The eye shadow shades in this palette are:

Bare - a matte ivory shade
Kitten - a shimmery champagne shade
Bliss - a matte beige pink
Sunset - a satin finish golden pink
Sandstone - a matte light brown
Bubbly - a shimmery gold
Gilded Gold - a golden brown with a slight shimmer
Luster - a dark aubergine with a slight shimmer
Night Sky - a shimmery gunmetal
Ebony - a matte black 

I have used all of the shades in this palette to either create a subtle day time look or a more smokey look for a night out and they're all amazing! In the photo above I am wearing my favourite combination where I apply Kitten all over the lid, Bubbly to my crease and Sunset to the outer crease and lower lash line. Then I apply the eye liner in Damsel on my upper lash line and then smoke it out slightly with Luster. This creates a really pretty every day look that's perfect for college, work or a day when you're out and about! I find the shimmer and satin like shadows in this palette are definitely a lot more pigmented than the matte ones. This means the shimmers last all day on your eyes when paired with a primer but the mattes may need a slight touching up after a few hours. For me these eye shadows never crease and they always look amazing even after I have been wearing them for a good few hours. I can't fault the quality of these shadows - they're amazing and well worth the money!

One thing I'd like to mention is that even though Bare comes up pretty much non-existent on my arm, it's actually a really good all over the lid shade or one to use to blend out your eyeshadow. It's quite a light skin coloured shade so is perfect for those days when you don't want to wear a lot of eye makeup but want to even out colour on your eye lids!

As for the packaging of this palette, I really love it and I think the fact that it's light pink makes it so pretty! It also has a huge mirror on the lid of the palette so it makes it perfect to use on the go. The shadows are also a really good size plus I think it's great that they also included the free eye liner (which in itself is worth £13)! However it is only made from cardboard and isn't the more secure when it's shut, so you do need yo be careful when handling or travelling with this palette.

Overall I think this is a stunning palette that every girl needs in their makeup collection! It has every neutral shade that you would want plus at only £25, it's much cheaper than the original Urban Decay palette which is very similar. I would highly recommend this palette as I have used it nearly every day since buying it and I'm still absolutely in love with it!

Have you tried the Stila "In The Light" Palette before?

What are your thoughts on this gorgeous palette?

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Review | Urban Decay Mariposa Palette

Urban Decay Mariposa Palette | £28

Today I'm going to review this beautiful little palette from Urban Decay; the Mariposa palette. This palette contains 10 shimmery eye shadows which range from golden neutrals to bright pinks and blues! I originally found this palette on the Fragrance Direct website for just £11 and instantly put it on my Christmas wish list. My parents kindly got this palette for me and I was so excited to try it out! Being a huge fan of shimmery eyeshadow I thought this would be a lovely palette to add to my collection!

As you can see this palette offers a range of colours and shades to choose from to make an endless amount of eye looks! It comes in a slim, silver tin which makes it very sturdy and strong. The Mariposa palette also comes with a travel sized flat shader brush which is really good quality and makes this palette perfect for travelling with! The main decoration of this palette is butterflies and I love the design on the front and on the inside! 

In this palette you get 10 different shades, 4 of which are exclusive to the palette:

Rockstar - a dark metallic eggplant purple with shimmer.

Gunmetal - a dark grey with silver micro-glitter.

Skimp -  a peachy nude with shimmer.

 Infamous (exclusive) - a fuchsia shimmer with a slight duo-chrome.

Wreckage (exclusive) - a medium taupe with gold shimmer.

Haight - an aqua blue/ green with shimmer.

Money - a green/ silver with shimmer. 

Mushroom - a medium grey shimmer with brown undertones.

Spotlight (exclusive) - a light golden champagne with shimmer.

Limelight (exclusive) - a light bronze with golden shimmer.

As always most of these shadows are soft, extremely pigmented and really easy to blend. The only exceptions I find is that Infamous isn't as vibrant as it could be, but being the shade I've used the least means it doesn't really bother me! I also find Limelight less pigmented and not as easy to work with like the rest of the shades. Apart from those 2, the eye shadows are amazing! For me, Rockstar is a perfect shade to put in the crease as the purple tones really suit my brown eyes and brings out my eye colour! I'm also in love with the shades Mushroom and Spotlight as they are such versatile shades to create everyday looks. With an eyeshadow primer these shadows will last you all day with minimal creasing. 

Overall I love this little palette and offers a great selection of neutral colours which I really enjoy using. I don't find myself reaching for the brighter shades like Haight and Infamous as I'm not confident to wear them just yet. I think these will be perfect to use in the Summer time as a pop of colour on the lash line, especially Haight!

Have you tried the Urban Decay Mariposa Palette? What are your thoughts on it?

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Review | Makeup Academy Undress Me Too Palette

Makeup Academy Undress Me Too Palette | £4

So as you may know, MUA already have an eyeshadow palette called "Undressed" (review HERE) which is meant to be a high street dupe for the Urban Decay Naked palette. Now, there is a second palette that is meant to be the equivalent to the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette called "Undress Me Too". I really liked the original "Undressed" palette, so had high hopes for this one too! Also, as I don't own the Naked 2 palette, I thought this would be the perfect way of creating similar looks, just at the fraction of the price!

The "Undress Me Too" contains 12 neutral eye shadows that range from shimmery champagnes to a matte black, meaning you can create endless amounts of eye looks. Anything from a simple day look to a darker, bronze smokey eye is possible with this palette! I also love how these shadows have names and it makes it so much easier to refer to shades in the palette!

Naked - a matte cream bisque
Devotion - a shimmery golden bronze
Shy - a shimmery off-white
Fiery - a shimmery copper
Lavish - a matte taupe
Dreamy - a shimmery dark bronze
Tranquil - a shimmery golden champagne
Exposed - a shimmery light grey/ brown
Reveal - a shimmery light silver toned grey/ brown
Wink - a shimmery silver bronze
Obsessed - a shimmery deep brown
Corrupt - a matte black

As you can see from the swatches, the matte shades kind of let this palette down! I know that mattes are usually less pigmented, but I'm so disappointed that Naked didn't even show up on my skin, even after packing on loads of shadow! Luckily, there's only 3 matte shades and I personally prefer to wear shimmers, so I haven't really worn these 3. As for the rest of the shadows, I love the colour selection and how pigmented they are for just £4! I like to wear Tranquil over the lid, then put Dreamy and Obsessed into the crease and then use Reveal as an inner-corner highlight for an everyday look! With an eye shadow primer, these shadows can last all day with little creasing but I find the lighter shades can fade a bit quicker than the others.

As for the packaging, I like that they've changed it to white and that the "Undress" collection can be identified from the original collection. It's still made from plastic and is quite prone to breaking, but I'm sure if you look after it the palette will last well! Like many MUA palettes, this one also comes with a sponge tip applicator, which I do like to use to put on lighter shades for my inner-corner.

Overall, this is a lovely palette and a brilliant way to try out the Naked 2 shades for just £4! I think I prefer the original "Undressed" palette but I would still recommend this palette to anyone!

Have you tried the Undress Me Too palette?

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Review | Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette* £20

I'm a huge fan of Urban Decay and when I heard about this new eye shadow palette, I was really excited to try it out! I already own the Naked original palette and absolutely love it, but I felt that it didn't offer a lot of matte shades to make a simple everyday look. This is where the Naked Basics Palette takes the spotlight. This little palette offers 5 matte and 1 satin finish eyeshadows that are perfect for creating that everyday look.

As you can see from the photo, the Naked Basics Palette is half the size of the Naked original making it great for popping in your hand bag and using it on the go, especially when you're travelling. The Naked Basics has 6 full sized eye shadows including 4 exclusive shades to the palette:

Venus - (New) an off-white satin finish shadow which is perfect for highlighting.

Foxy - a creamy biscuit matte finish shadow which is a lovely lid colour.

Walk Of Shame - a very light nude/ brown matte finish shadow which again, is a great lid colour.

Naked 2 - (New) a taupe matte finish shadow which can be use in the crease for day time or as a lid colour for a night time look.

Faint - (New) a warm, dusty brown matte finish shadow which is great for the outer corner or crease.

Crave - (New) a deep, dark brown/ black matte finish shadow which is perfect for the outer corner. 

All of the shadows are soft, pigmented and so easy to blend. I do find Crave to be chalkier than the rest, but it is still very easy to work with. With an eye primer, these shadows last me all day, even through working long hours in the college salon. By the time I'm going to bed, I can still see I'm wearing the eye shadows, but they're just less intense than when I first put them on. I find that Venus wears off quite quicly when placed in the inner corner, but the rest have amazing staying power, which I would expect nothing less from Urban Decay. All of these shadows are really wearable and you can mix and match between the palette and still end up with a pretty eye look. The only problem I have with this palette is that the first 3 look very similar in the pan and when on the eye, however I know I will get a lot of wear out of all of these colours.

As for the packaging, Urban Decay definitely stuck to the "Basics" theme and kept it as simple as possible. The outer packaging is slightly rubberised and is a lovely bronze colour. It also comes with a large mirror which takes up the whole lid if the palette, so is perfect to use on the go! Unlike the other two Naked palettes, this one doesn't come with a brush or a mini freebie. Personally this doesn't bother me as it's much cheaper than the other palettes and contains the 4 new eye shadows.

Overall I think this is a great palette that I now use in my everyday makeup routine as I find the shades so wearable. If you're into creating neutral eye looks with matte shadows or just want to expand your eyeshadow collection, this palette would be great for you!

You can order the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette from lookfantastic.com for £20 plus free delivery!

Have you tried the Naked Basics Palette?

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Review | Makeup Academy (MUA) Undressed Palette

Makeup Academy Undressed Eyeshadow Palette £4
 

After a long time of wanting to buy this palette, I was able to find a Superdrug that stocked it whilst it was on offer for just £3! This is a 12 shadow palette, that some have said is very similar to the Urban Decay Naked palette, which I have also reviewed HERE! (Do leave a comment if you would like me to do a comparison post!)

This palette offers a range of neutral shades that can give you subtle day looks using the first 6 shades, or much darker, smokier looks using the last 6 shades. There are so many possible eye looks with this palette! You get 2 matte shades (shades 3 and 5) and the rest either shimmery or glittery. I find that the matte shades aren't as pigmented as the other shades, but do give you a good base colour. These shadows are very soft, easy to blend and majority pigmented which makes this palette great value for money. This palette offers you a range of warm golds, browns and pinks and a cooler black and grey. I find the warmer colours much more wearable on my eyes, but the black and grey are too harsh for me.

Along side the shadows, like the Heaven & Earth palette I reviewed HERE, it comes with a double sided sponge tip applicator. I like to use this with shade 1 and an inner-corner highlight as it picks up a lot of colour and gives me a pretty pink toned highlight. They may not be the most hygienic but I think they can be put to good use!

The packaging is also consistent through the palettes, where it's black plastic with a clear top so that you can see the shadows easily. This means it's prone to breaking, but you are getting what you pay for.

Overall, I really like this palette! I always try and use it daily because the colours are so versatile, pretty and natural looking. It's definitely a palette everyone needs in their collection, and whilst it's on offer on the MUA website, it's a great time to pick it up! You can purchase this palette from Superdrug stores, the website and MUA's website!

Hope you find this review useful! Have you tried this palette yet?

Amie ♥

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Review | Makeup Academy (MUA) Heaven & Earth Palette

Top: Shades 1, 2 & 3 | Bottom: Shades 7, 8 & 9

Top: Shades 4, 5 & 6 | Bottom: Shades 10, 11 & 12

Top row: Swatches of the 6 top row eyeshadows | Bottom: Swatches of the 6 bottom row eyeshadows

Makeup Academy Heaven & Earth Eyeshadow Palette £4

Last week I finally got round to ordering the MUA Heaven & Earth palette off of Superdrug's website when they had a free delivery on all orders weekend! I've been meaning to get this palette for so long but just never seemed to pick it up. But now I have these 12 fabulous eyeshadows to play around with and I have been enjoying them a lot!

So as you may know, this palette consists of 12 neutral coloured eyeshadows ranging from whites, pinks, golds and browns. The eyeshadows don't have names, so for the purpose of this post I have put them in number order. Every shadow in this palette is either shimmery or glittery, so there are no matte shades available, but I would say shades 4 and 8 are the colours with the least shimmer in. The quality of these shadows is amazing, for £4 you are getting 12 soft, blendable and pigmented eyeshadows that can be comparable to higher end brands.

Along with the palette, you also get a double ended sponge tip applicator. Many people would discard this because they're not the most hygienic tool or are easy to blend with. However, I really enjoy using this to apply my inner-corner highlight colour (usually shade 1) as it picks up a lot of product and applies it well to the eyelid. Also I think these sponge tip applicators are much better quality than you may think at first, they're soft and feel much more durable than the ones you can get in other cheap eyeshadow palettes. 

The packaging of this palette may not be the best out there, you're getting what you paid for! I do like this fact you can see the eyeshadows through the palette and the plastic means it's easier to clean. However, it's definitely prone to breaking and I have seen from other reviews that the hinges get a bit dodgy after a while.

I absolutely love this palette and has become a new favourite for my everyday makeup routine! I would completely recommend this palette to anyone as the shadows are great and it's so inexpensive! You can pick up your own Makeup Academy palette from most Superdrug stores, their online website and now Makeup Academy's online site.

Have you got any Makeup Academy eyeshadow palettes? Do you love the Heaven & Earth one too?

Amie ♥ 

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