MUA are probably one of the most prolific beauty brands at the moment (certainly of the budget persuasion.) It feels like every week, a new product is being released. I like it. It keeps the brand fresh in the minds of beauty bloggers/consumers in general, but without feeling tired. Plus, they're scoring hits rather than misses. Take this palette:





I personally prefer this to 'Heaven and Earth', as it feels a little less samey due to the greater variation in colour shades. It still only has one matte, but matte eyeshadows aren't really MUA's strength so I'm not disappointed. At the very least, the fact that MUA possesses not one, but TWO Urban Decay 'Naked' palette dupes in it's line up shows that it sure as hell knows what it's target audience want.

Swatches:



The light brown matte shade (third swatch in from the left) performed better than expectations! If MUA can keep up that sort of formula for future releases, their palettes will officially be on par with Sleek's. Unfortunately, given the horrible matte textures in 'Immaculate Collection' and 'Pretty Pastels' and pretty much MUA palette that I've owned ever, I suspect that the buttery softness of this particular shadow is a one off.


I think this palette will suit a pretty large range of skin tones, and it really is easy to work with. My criticisms would be that the packaging is quite easily damaged (see the very first picture) and that the absence of a matte black means that my shading options are a little limited if I were using soley this palette, but thats a personal preference. Not everyone likes to darken their crease with a little black shadow, that's just me.

For £4, (but with MUA being constantly on promotion either in-store at Superdrug or on it's website, you may well find it cheaper) I think this is a seriously solid addition to my makeup collection.

Who else has this palette?

I was really excited when the promo pictures for these came out. I like mattes. I like brights. I like darks. Triple crown, right?



Sort of. I like mattes, brights, and darks, but I'm not too keen on Sleek mattes. Historically, they've been incredibly hit and miss for me - even the standard black colour that's included with pretty much every palette ever varies in pigmentation from palette to palette (for example, the one included with my Acid palette is pretty pathetic, but the one in my Circus palette is blacker than your average collapsed megastar). The Bohemian palette is full of mattes with fantastic colour payoff, whereas the Chaos palette, an all matte one, won't give you payoff even if you take a chainsaw to it. This inconsistency is present in almost every palette I own by them, and countless reviews on this here blog of mine attest to that. So I was quite cautious when I decided to invest in these.




As you can see, they look absolutely stunning in the pan.


I'm enjoying the colour choices for the Dark palette. Most of the colours are thoroughly useable, and I have a thing for dark blue/teal/green eyeshadows of which there are plenty here.





Again, I appreciate the colour choices for the Brights palette, though I feel a red wouldn't have gone amiss somewhere here, and the pinks are slightly too similar for my liking. Still, a good effort.



The Darks colours are fine when swatched - less fallout than other Sleek shades I own (I'm handing that to the removal of the waffle thatched pattern from the Sleek eyeshadows, now they resemble the MUA ones) and on the whole, good pigmentation. A couple of shades disappointed me, the white and the grey, but as I wouldn't get a lot of use out of those anyway I'm not going to cry over it.



With flash:



The pigmentation of the greens and the lightish brown are especially good, and this transfers to an ease of use on the eyes, as well. Good job!

Unfortunately, it all comes apart here for the Brights palette. Booooo.


Why do I have one stupidly bright green and a collection of substandard other colours? All the lighter shades are pants, the yellow is about as visible as air, the purple is piss poor and the light blue resembles flour. Judging you, Sleek. Tempted to get a refund...the only colours worth using are the green, the turquoise colour, the orange and the slightly brighter pink. Waste of £7.

Conclusion: Darks = good and bang on trend. Brights = buy some chalk instead, it's x10 more effective.

Fancy housing some of my collection? Much of it is getting very little love, which makes me sad.

Postage:

Domestic postage base rate: £1.00. 30p for each additional item.

European postage base rate: £2.00. 35p for each additional item.

Worldwide: £3.50

Can hold items, but usually first paid, first served :L 
Thank you!


Boots top coat, 50p.


MUA Glitter Crackle Polish, swatched once, £1


Lilac No7 polish, worn four or so times, £1.


Diddy OPI, 60% left, 25p.

 
 Elegant Touch False nails, never opened or worn, £2

 
eBay false lashes, couple of pairs missing, 75p.



W7 Glitter Eyeliner (black) never opened or worn, £1.



Sleek PoutPaint 'Minx', swatched once, £2.50



BeautyUK polish, 50p.



Two 17 polishes, 50p each. Both swatched about twice.


17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Cookie, worn two, three times on lips. 25p each.



MUA Trios used a couple of times dry, £1 each. Immaculate Collection palette, £1, barely used.
Pretty Pastels palette, 50p, usage as shown.




ASOS Ciate Paints, had for ages and most have like half left (formula is still great though) so the lot for £2 or 60p each, aside from the orange (Olivia) as that has the least so that's 20p.



Kiko nail lacquers, numbers 273 (silver) and 259 (pink), 95% left, £2

Funky Fingers nail paint in Snakeskin, £1

17 Nail Glitter top coat, 75p.

No7 polish, 'Beautifully Black' 90% remaining, £1.

Barry M polish in 'Coral', 85% remaining, £1.

Rimmel 'Lemon Drop' polish, worn once, £2.
 
MUA All in One Beauty Balm in Dark, about half left, £1.50.

 
SunSense, 'Daily Face' SPF 50 Invisible Tint Finish, 70% left, £2.50



Sleek MakeUp Pout Polish in 'Powder Pink' - one single dent in it where I applied it once. £2.50
Sleek MakeUp Pout Paint in 'Minx' - swatched once.

Lip Smacker in Cherry Coca-Cola, used three times on lips, 75p.

 

Unopened and unused, still in original packaging Nails Inc for Fabulous Magazine nail polishes,
£3.

Blistex Lip Brilliance Lip Balm, unopened and unused, £2.

I've been MIA for so long, it's actually shameful :( My only excuses are exams and the fact that I spent every single week of the summer holidays doing work experience of some sort. This is the year in which I apply to university, and since I'm hoping to study Medicine I've been trying to do as much extra curricular stuff as possible, now that the academics are somewhat out of the way.

Peace offering: May I show some pretty pictures of what I've been up to while neglecting my poor blog? Then tommorow, I promise to answer my comment backlogs and work on some new material. I've seen some product launches that are impressive and I'd like to talk about them, though I'm way behind the times!
 
Boo, Chemistry.
 
Boo, practice exam papers.

 
Volunteering at the hospital!

Out with friends to celebrate the end of results...we went out to eat a lot. Wagamama was probably one of my favourites.



I was lucky enough to be able to watch the Athletics at the London 2012 Olympic Games! One of my Mum's friends works at a company involved with the Games and was able to score us free tickets. We saw the morning athletics, including the men's 200 metre sprint heats - which featured Usain Bolt! Slightly in love with that man.




Interesting entertainment outside the stadium!



 Gold Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition up the Brecon Beacons. Seriously hard.




Back to work at the library! My college was one of the earliest in the area to go back. Typical. Latest to break up, earliest to start term again...


Squirrel in the bin. Not sure why I found this so amusing.


I'll endeavour to update far more regularly now things have calmed down somewhat. To be a good doctor, I'll need good time management skills, and where better to start but here?

(If you made it all the way to the end, please award yourself an e-medal)