MUA Swatches

I was in Dublin on Thursday for the Best in Beaut.ie Awards (more on that later) and I found a bit of time to go shopping while I was there. Of course I had to head out to Superdrug and pick up some MUA cosmetics. I really wish somewhere in Galway would stock MUA, their products are fantastic and so, so cheap. 

My haul :D 

As always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger

This is the MUA Professional Palette in Heaven and Earth. It's one of the most versatile palettes I've ever bought. Every eyeshadow in there can be matched with another one to create a full look. It's got lid shades, crease shades and, unlike many palettes, highlight shades. 

Costing a super reasonable €4.75, this palette can easily fit most budgets. I will be stocking up on these next time I'm in a Superdrug, so a warning to my friends: You're all getting these as birthday presents.

Of course I managed to swatch everything upside down. Top row in the palette is the bottom  row of swatches and vice versa. Eyeshadows are swatched over UDPP

I also got the Starry Night palette. I own very few grey eyeshadows, so this is perfect to fill that gap. I can't see myself getting much wear from the pinks and purples in this palette, as they're a little too cool-toned for me, but I love the greys and the shimmery black. 

The colours are a bit more vibrant than this IRL, my flash washed them out a little. 

Superdrug didn't have a great selection of single eyeshadows when I was there, they were sold out of most of them. Therefore the only single I picked up was Shade 8- Pearl. 

The single eyeshadows are €1.05 iirc.

Swatched upside-down again, oops. Shade 8 is tacked on there at the end. 

I'd never tried MUA's lipsticks before so I grabbed a few of those too. 

I think the lipsticks were also €1.05, but I've lost my receipt so I'm probably wrong. 

L-R: Shade 11, Shade 1, Shade 8. 

Lipsticks are swatched over Urban Decays Lip Primer 

Shade 11 is a lovely, creamy nude. I've been looking for a shade like this for ages so I'm glad to have found one, especially one that's so cheap

My lip piercing looks super crooked in these photos. It's not, I just have wonky lips and the bar is too long. 

Shade one is a quite glossy red. I can see this being my go-to red this Autumn

Shade 8 is the final colour I bought. It's a sheer red with gold glitter.

When I swatched this in Superdrug I thought it would be my favourite, but on my lips it doesn't really work at all. The other two applied perfectly, but this one was a pain. It went on patchily and bled a little at the edges of my lips. I'll get some wear out of it, but I won't be reaching for it as often as the others. 

What's everyone else's thoughts on MUA?

Can anyone recommend me any other products to try from them? 

Kryolan Aquacolour Review and Swatches

You might have noticed in my Halloween post I used Kryolan Aquacolours. I bought this palette last week after eyeing it up for a while. I figured I couldn't let Halloween go past without buying it and I needed most of the colours in it anyway so I decided to go for it instead of buying individual facepaints. 

I'm really impressed by it. The colours are mega pigmented, smooth and creamy and just glide on. It was a little tricky at the start getting the water to facepaint ratio right but once I got the hang of it it was easy. 

The paints all come in individual pots with covers. The covers are nice because they stop accidental colour mixing. Also the pots detach from the palette so I assume you could swap them around with other palettes if you like.

The colour selection is great. By mixing colours you could make nearly any colour you want from this. Here's some swatches. 

The black isn't really glittery, I must have gotten some gold mixed in.

I think the gold is my favourite, it's so metallic and shiny. 

Pros:

Good colour selection

Versatile. They can be used as facepaints, eyeshadow bases, blush, lipstick... anywhere really. 

Great colour payoff

They come in a sturdy metal box. None of that cardboard rubbish that disintigrates. 

Can be applied sheer or very opaque depending on how much water you use.

There's plenty of choice, you can get 6, 12 or 24 colour palettes or buy the colours individually. 

Very good value, this palette was only €25 for 12 colours, which is just over €2 per colour. 

They smell amazing! A little like baby powder. 

They don't budge. I wore these to work on Saturday night for an 8 hour shift in a hot sweaty pub and I had no creasing, no smudging or fading. 

Cons:

The pink and blue stained my eyes slightly. That being said my eyemakeup remover is fairly rubbish, so I'm sure a decent one would remove them entirely. 

If you dislike dramatic makeup these are probably not for you. 

Kryolan products can be difficult to find. I stumbled upon these at a local chemist, they were in a Special Effects makeup section. 

 Overall I really reccomend Aquacolours. I can see mine getting loads of use, especially as eyeshadow bases. Looking at the different palettes I think this one might be the best to begin with, as it has all the basic colours. I'd go with the palettes over the individual colours as you get a nice selection and they're all kept together so if you tend to lose things like I do you'll be less likely to misplace them. 

I bought my palette from O'Beirns Pharmacy in Galway for €24.99. If you'd like to buy them online check out Shrinkle's Ebay shop

17 Review and Swatches

I love expensive brands like MAC and Urban Decay but being a student who only works at weekends I can't afford them very often. So I'm always on the look out for cheaper brands that are as good as the expensive ones. One of my favourite cheap brands is 17, sold in Boots. Their products seems to always be under €10 and  a lot of them are €5 or less. 

Fyrinnae Lip Lustres Review & Swatches

 (L-R: Ryunome; unknown; Type A; Hair Dye; unknown; Hearts & Stars) I'll update with names tomorrow, the Fyrinnae site is down and the names have rubbed of f the black and silver ones.

I bought these products quite some time ago, I'd say it's been close enough to a year. I don't use them as often as I should, I actually totally forgot I had them for quite a while. Lip Lustres are quite a good product though, see after the cut for more.

part two

Oil slick and Kiddie Pool come next. Oil slick is a slightly shimmery black, it's one of the best black eyeshadows I've tried. Kiddie Pool isn't really my kind of colour but it's pretty and it does get a little use.






Then on to Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, my favourite UD eyeshadow (I like it so much I have three) and Flash, a bright purple similar to MAC's Parfair Amour. These two look great together!






And there we go!

Coming up next: Fyrinnae Swatches, keep an eye out for them!

x Sorcha

NEXT!

Next up we have the Sustainable Shadow Palette. It's full of Urban Deacy yummyness and all packed up in a pretty cool box. It also comes with... UDPP!!


Mmm, look at that UD goodness.

Also the eyeshadows are pretty near to being the size of full single UD shadows, which makes this palette very good value. I think the single e/s are 0.5g and these are 0.3g.

As usual, click the photos to see them bigger.












So on to the swatches, right?

Starting off with YDK and Flipside. YDK is gorgeous, a very wearable golden-brown. It's golden, but not too warm toned so it should suit most people. Flipside is maybe a little more tricky. It looks great as an eyeliner on the bottom lid with something a bit more neutral on top.




















Grifter and UZI next. UZI is a glitterbomb, but if you can see round that it's a great colour. Grifter is nice, but not all that wearable for me. It would probably suit someone with less yellow-toned skin.




















Twice baked, a warm gold, and half baked, a rich chocolate. No wait, the other way around.





Things are getting a little cramped in here, so the rest is going in a new post

does this mean that im not alone?

Yeah yeah yeah, Calvin Harris is still occupying a large bit of my brain. Or his music is anyway, it'd be a bit scary if he was actually in my brain, you know? Cause I'd probably be dead or something. It wouldn't be cool.

But enough of that!
While browsing my photobucket account I found some swatches I did a few weeks ago and forgot to share with ye.

Let's start off with a bit of Urban Decay, shall we?


Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencils. These things are amazing. Seriously. If you've not tried then yet (what rock have you been living under?) you need to. Like now. They go on smoothly and evenly and once these suckers dry, they're not budging for no one. I can't reccommend them highly enough, especially Bourbon and 1999.

Included on top are a couple of Urban Decay's Heavy Metal Glitter Liners, which also rock! Mullet is my favourite, because it works with anything but they're all pretty rad. Top row is a few coats applied on top of each other, bottom is just one swish of the wand.

Swatched over no base. On (obviously) quite pale skin, I'm a 71 in Bourjois foundation and Illusion in UD, maybe an NC 15 in MAC?

Top, l-r:
Spandex Glitter Liner; Mullet Glitter Liner; Midnight Cowboy Glitter Liner

Bottom, l-r:
24/7 liners
Yeyo; 1999; Bourbon; Stash; Dime; Honey; Zero