Urban Decay Smoked Palette Review and Swatches

My Mum got this palette for me last week and I have to say I love it! It makes such a change to the Naked palette and I love smokey colours. I was slightly put off getting it at first as a I already have 4 of the colours from other palettes but I am glad I did as I did some comparison swatches and they are different.
Anyway on to the pictures

The palette comes in a zip case which is different from previous ones but I actually really like it, it's safe and secure. There is a decent sized mirror in the lid. You also get a mini primer potion, a full size 24/7 glide on pencil in Perversion and an amazing look book, the instructions are so detailed. I am going to try and work through the book and post the looks as I do them. All of the swatches below are dry without primer.

 From left to right Kinky, Freestyle and Mushroom

 Mushroom, Backdoor and Blackout

 Barlust, Rockstar and Evidence

Evidence, Loaded and Asphalt

Kinky: A gorgeous highlight shade, this is a matte colour but isn't chalky at all.

Freestyle: A subtle matte brown, great for blending

Mushroom: An absolutely stunning taupe, incredibly pigmented and blends like a dream

Backdoor: A matte dark brown, it's slightly more powdery than the other mattes but still nicely pigmented and blendable.

Blackout: One of the most intense matte blacks I have tried.

Barlust: A gorgeous medium bronzey brown, very pigmented and absolutely gorgeous.

Rockstar: A slightly red toned purple, again very pigmented.

Evidence: A navy blue shimmer shade, this is the least pigmented of all the colours but is still decent.

Loaded: A blackened green, this is stunning and blends beautifully.

Asphalt: A gunmetal shade with gorgeous multicoloured shimmer.

I already had Mushroom, Rockstar, Evidence and Loaded from previous palettes so did some comparison swatches, Smoked palette on the left and older ones on the right

There is a huge difference between these two, the swatch on the right is from one of the BOS and as you can see it is much lighter and browner. The new version of this shadow is more intense and a lot more pigmented.

 Not much difference between these two although the newer version was a tad more pigmented.

 Again no real difference here, it felt as though the new version applied a bit easier but the end result is pretty much the same.

This was the only shade that is not as good as a previous release. The swatch on the right is from the 15th Anniversary palette and it is much more pigmented.

Overall I am very happy with this palette, it's such a nice mix of colours and will be perfect for travelling. Have you been tempted by this palette?

Huge Taupe Comparison

I took the photos for this post last year before I moved house and it has been sitting in my draft folder ever since! As I am a complete Taupe addict there are a few more that have found their way into my collection since then so I will try and add them into this post later. Advance warning this post is very picture heavy!

So there you go, that was my Taupe collection as of last summer, I have at least 5-10 more to add! What have I learnt from doing this? If there are any shadows you are interested in seeing a review of please let me know in the comments.

I MUST STOP BUYING TAUPE EYESHADOW!!!

Beauty UK Baked Eyeshadow Trio Earth Review, Swatches and Comparisons

I used this Beauty UK Trio in my face of the day yesterday but I felt that it deserved a post of its own. I picked this up in Superdrug for £3.99 and I am really impressed with the quality of it. There are 6 trios available, I picked the Earth trio which is the most neutral as I felt I would get the most use out of it, I am definitely going back to pick up a couple more now though.

In the trio you get a light champagne, taupe and a lighter brown/gold. These are baked shadows so can be used wet or dry depending on the intensity you are going for. That being said I have found these to be really well pigmented and haven't felt the need to use them wet. These are shimmery though so if you prefer matte shades then you might want to give this a miss, personally I like a bit of shimmer!

Swatched in the same order as in the pans, these are literally one swipe with my finger without any base, they are nicely pigmented and adhere to the skin really well.

I couldn't help but compare this to a few higher end shadows that I own which are priced a lot higher.

Above are the Beauty UK Earth Trio, Stila Champagne Glow Trio and Nars Exotic Dance Duo

These are not dupes of each other as the colours are slightly different but the texture and pigmentation is pretty much the same. The Stila trio is currently on sale for $28 on sephora.com

This was a bit more of a shock, it's not a 100% dupe but it's not far off! The gold is slightly browner and the white is not quite as bright in the Beauty UK trio but applied on the eyes I struggled to see a difference. Actually the white in the Beauty UK duo applies more evenly then the Nars as it seems to adhere to the skin better. The Nars Duo retails for £23.50.

I can be a bit of a make up snob at times but this just goes to prove that a higher price tag doesn't always mean better quality!

Nars Dogon Swatches, Review and Face Of The Day

As soon as I heard about the new Nars summer collection I knew I had to get Dogon. I have an obsession with Taupe and after hearing how impressed everyone that saw this duo at the preview event was I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. The duo consists of a taupe with a green iridescence/duochrome and a charcoal with a very subtle shimmer. The taupe is gorgeous on it's own but looks even more gorgeous layered over the charcoal.

Left to right: Charcoal, Taupe, Taupe over charcoal

People have been comparing this to Club from Mac, it is similar in that it is a brown based shade with a green duochrome but as you can see from the swatch they are not really similar at all.

Nars Dogon on left, Mac Club on right

I finally got a chance to wear this duo this morning and I love it! Please excuse how tired I look in these photos, they were taken when I got home from work. The good thing is it has shown how well the products last as this is about 12 hours after I put my makeup on and the only things I touched up were the powder and lipstick.

Products Used:
Face:
Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque
Bourjois Bio Detox Foundation
Mac Studio Fix Powder
Mac Sakura Blush
Eyes:UDPP
Nars Dogon charcoal shade in crease and outer corners
Nars Dogon taupe shade on lid, crease and under lower lashes
Mac Blanc Type as highlight
Gosh Long Lasting Eyeliner Pen Green on upper lashline
Covergirl Lashblast Mascara
Lips:Beauty UK Lipstick in Snob

I also picked up the Cap Ferrat trio so will post a look using that soon!

My Favourite Lip Glosses

I have to admit I am not a huge lip gloss fan, I much prefer wearing a lipstick that I can blot and know will last the majority of the night. That being said there are a few lip glosses that I love the colour of so much that I still wear.

 This is a beautiful mauve toned gloss with blue shimmer, it was one of the first high end glosses I bought and it's still one of my favourites. It's not overly sticky so I find it quite comfortable to wear.

This is another mauve tone with blue shimmer but this one is a bit darker. As its a Dazzleglass it's incredibly sticky which is a bit off-putting but it does last a decent amount of time on the lips.

This is a gorgeous nude with a golden shimmer, it's a buxom gloss so it plumps the lips, it does tingle a lot on application but this fades after awhile. This is another very sticky gloss but it does last well.

This is just so easy to wear, it isn't sticky at all and feels more like a balm on the lips. Love the scent of this one too.

A gorgeous rosey pink shade, on me it's a my lips but better shade. It isn't at all sticky but I do find it wears off pretty quickly.

This is more of a liquid lipstick than a gloss, it's a gorgeous mauve tone. I would describe it as a satin finish, it has no shimmer and is not at all sticky. These last a decent amount of time on the lips and can also be blotted to leave a subtle stain.

I think this is my all time favourite gloss, again it's a mauve tone with blue shimmer but I just find that it wears better than some of the others I own. I absolutely adore the scent of this gloss.

This is an intense gloss and you only need a tiny bit to acheive full coverage. It's a gorgeous vampy red. It dries to am almost lipstick finish and I find it lasts really well.

Do you have a favourite gloss?

Comparison Mac Ultra Darling and Crosswires

Ultra Darling was the only lipstick I picked up from the Supreme Sheen collection, there have been a lot of comparisons between this and Crosswires which has put some people of buying it. I now have them both so thought I would do some quick swatches.

On the hand swatches I think they look very similar, the main difference being that Ultra Darling is a lot more glossy but I think the lip swatches show just how different they are. UIltra Darling is a lot pinker and less pigmented where Crosswires is a lot more coral. Because of this I think Ultra Darling is a bit easier to wear and will suit most skin tones whereas Crosswires may be a bit harder to pull off. I think they are different enough to warrant owning them both.

Illamasqua Sangers & Box Lipstick Comparison

My friend was curious about how similar Box and Sangers were and since I have both thought I would do a quick comparison.

They are not hugely different but I think Sangers has slightly more orange and Box is slightly darker. Box can be a bit drying as its matte whereas Sangers is slightly glossier, neither lipsticks are moisturising so I would always recommend using lip balm first. I think its worth owning both but then I have a slight obsessions with red lips! Do you have a preference?

OPI Absolutely Alice Vs OPI Reflecting Pool

This is just a quick post comparing the two, I was almost put off ordering Absolutely Alice as it's a blue with gold glitter which sounded really similar to Reflecting Pool but I'm glad I did get it as actually they are totally different. So just incase anyone else thought the same thing I thought it would be helpful to post swatches, these are done on tape as Mad As A Hatter is not coming off my nails yet! This is pic heavy but I wanted to show the difference as much as possible.

Absolutely Alice

Reflecting Pool

Top Absolutely Alice Bottom Reflecting Pool

L: Reflecting Pool R : Absolutely Alice

Hopefully you can see the difference as in person it really shows. Absolutely Alice is almost clear with blue and gold glitter, it's pretty chunky and will need a thick layer of top coat to feel smooth. Reflecting pool has gold glitter and is more of a green blue. It's a much smoother polish as there is not so much glitter. Both of these need 3 coats to be opaque.

If I had to choose I think Absolutely Alice would be my favourite of the two as its a much brighter colour and just looks a bit more special!

Quick comparison - Mac Hypnotizing, Style Snob and Shale

When I first looked at the Love Lace collection I really liked Hypnotizing eyeshadow but thought it looked a bit too similar to Style Snob for me to buy it. I then spent a huge amount of time searching for comparison swatches and decided it was different enough!
So today I happily nipped into Selfridges on my lunch break and picked it up and I have to say I am glad I did, it's actually very different. Here are some swatches, I have done this tonight and as there is no natural light this picture is with flash but it shows the difference between them.

L to R: Style Snob, Hypnotizing, Shale

These are heavily swatched and shale looks much more brown than it does in reality but the other two are pretty true to colour. It does have a brown tone to it but it has more purple than Style Snob, it's also much more pigmented than Shale.

Am happy I relented and picked it up!