Hello there!
When visiting friends in the UK, I picked up a lot of British beauty products, and since getting home and putting them all to the test I have found a few real gems. In my search for the perfect palette, I thought I would venture into the drugstore to see if I could find a palette that has good pigmentation and a variety of shades. Palettes in US drugstores, unfortunately, are quite terrible, and also way overpriced. I was so impressed with the incredible range of palettes in the drugstore, and of course I wanted to buy them all, but I just stuck to MUA palettes and grabbed a few. I wanted to pick up a few of the palettes that loads of people rave about, but I also grabbed palettes that I had not heard of but looked beautiful.
[undressed]
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| top row: puff, rose ash, fawn, gild, hazel, lion || bottom row: bronze ore, burnished brown, tawny, henna, fuel, cool grey |
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| tawny, lion, hazel |
This palette has been talked about a lot in the beauty community, because it is meant to be a bit of a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked palette. And if you look at it it's pretty obvious; the shades are organized in the same way, and the tone of the palette, overall, is the same. I wanted to test out this palette because it has some gorgeous shades in it, including some beautiful pinky shades and a nice matte brown. All of the shadows in this palette apply beautifully and are so creamy and pigmented. It's pretty unreal how intense you can make these shadows. I love that this palette gives you a matte brown and a black, so you can easily travel with just this palette, and creating a smokey eye or a shimmery look is super easy. Unlike the Naked palette, I felt like this palette had more pinky shades than gold shades, but if you want something that is really similar for a fraction of the price this one is a good palette to test out.
[undressed me too]
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| top row: naked, devotion, shy, fiery, lavish, dreamy || bottom row: tranquil, exposed, reveal, wink, obsessed, corrupt |
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| devotion, fiery, wink |
Out of the four palettes I bought, this one has been the palette that I have reached for the most. It was the first one I got, and after trying the shadows I became obsessed and I ran back to Boots for more. To me, this palette is similar to the Naked 2, but not identical. However, I still feel like the cool tones of this palette are the same and, if you got this palette, you could easily replicate some looks from the Urban Decay palette. What I loved most about this palette was the variety of gorgeous metallic shades that are so pigmented and so easy to blend. On days when I wanted an effortless makeup look, I swipe on one of the metallic shadows in this palette and I am basically done. In this palette you get the shade fiery, which is an incredible rose gold shadow; it is definitely one of my top favorite rose gold shadows, up there will Loreal's Amber Rush. I don't use a lot of the grey shades, especially not during the summer, but I love having the option of being able to create a really warm look and a really cool toned look from the same palette. While there is not a warm medium matte brown in this palette, you do get a matte black, which is really good quality and always nice to have on hand.
[heaven and earth]
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| top row: aurora, amazonian bronze, babylon, mayan dust, valley, golden sand || bottom row: rift, amber dune, catacomb, tectonite, canyon, bedrock |
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| valley, amazonian bronze, babylon |
Out of all of the MUA palettes that I had heard about, this was the most talked about, so I wanted to get my hands on it as soon as possible. And while I think the colors are gorgeous and the texture of the eyeshadows is amazing, I was slightly underwhelmed by the composition of this palette. I feel like the selection of shades can't really give you that many different looks, and I didn't really feel like there was a lot of variety. This palette also does not have any matte shades, which for some may not be a bit of a deal breaker, but does make this palette a bit tough for travel because you will have to bring separate matte shadows with you. That being said, I think that this palette is filled with really warm, rich colors that would look good on almost anyone's skin tone, and I think that you can easily create a really natural look that looks effortless and gorgeous. If you want to build up your collection, and need more shimmery shades as well as a lot of neutral shadows, this is a great choice.
[romantic efflorescence]
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| top row: mesmeric, tempt, corrupt, obsessed, lavish, fiery || bottom row: bewitch, magnet, exposed, siren, reveal, captivate |
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| tempt, fiery, siren |
I had never heard of this palette, but I grabbed it because it looked really unique and different from any other palette I owned. Unlike the other three palettes, this palette has a lot of cool-toned matte shades, so if you want more matte shadows in your collection this one is a good one to try. What I did notice was that there was a bit of overlap between this palette and the Undressed Me Too palette, so you don't necessarily need both. However, this palette has a really beautiful plum and a gorgeous forrest green, so if you have been searching for those types of jewel-toned shadows you might want this palette too.
If you are starting out in makeup and need to bulk up your collection, or if you are a makeup aficionado like me and cannot get enough cosmetics, these palettes are absolute must-haves. The shadows are incredibly pigmented, long-wearing, and very blendable, and each palette has a really cool selection of shades for you to create your own looks. I would absolutely recommend these palettes to anyone! For four pounds each you cannot go wrong. I don't think one of these palettes is my all-time favorite, but I think they are all beautiful and it's definitely nice to have a couple on hand.
Have you found the perfect palette?
xx BB
