Make Up For Ever Artist Palette Volume 1-Nudes

I've always had a bit of a thing about Make Up For Ever.  I think it's because it's a brand that is easily accessible in Dubai-it's sold in Sephora and Paris Gallery but also has a standalone boutique in Dubai Mall.  To me, I've always felt it was quite a 'pro' brand aimed at serious make up professionals but accessible to numpties like me who just love slapping it all over my face.

Ever since the Artist Palette Volume 1 launched I wanted it.  To add to my collection of 134,832 other neutral palettes.  I bought it from Sephora in Vegas.  It was literally the first thing I zoned in on when I entered the store.

The palette is packaged in black cardboard-it's solid enough to not be flimsy but sleek enough to throw into your make up bag when you're travelling.  It features 9 shadows, one matte black, one satin fawn brown tone and the rest of the shadows are shimmery.  Like very shimmery.  They pack a lot of pigment on the lid and have an almost metallic finish-if you like things like Stila Kitten eyeshadow, Make Up Geek foil finish eyeshadows, MAC Veluxe Pearl or the shimmery colours in the Naked palettes then this will be right up your street.

Let me explain the value of this palette.  It costs $45 (sadly not available in the UK yet and I haven't seen it in Dubai although I haven't been to MUFE for a while).  MUFE sell these eyeshadows as singles for $21 each.  So basically you can have 9 shadows for $45 or buy two singles for $42.  I needn't say any more.

MUFE offer 198 single eyeshadows on Sephora.  That is bonkers.  Truly something for everyone but a lot of them are shimmery/iridescent.  In this palette every single shade is in the permanent collection meaning that could buy the individual shades if you want to.  However, if memory serves me correct the singles are sold as magnetised pans of colour only designed to be put into a Z palette or similar. They do sell a MUFE 1 pan, 2 pan or 3 pan holder to put them in for $1 but I have a couple of singles I have just stuck into a Z palette.  Again this is a pointer to the fact this is a 'professionals' make up brand designed for a make up artist to be able to customise a palette.  I've also just spotted this on the Sephora website under these shadows:

Add a MAKE UP FOR EVER Mono, Duo, or Trio Artist Shadow Custom Palette Case to your cart for $1. When you add 2 MAKE UP FOR EVER Artist Shadows and a Duo Palette to your basket, a $9/C$10 discount will be applied automatically at checkout. When you add 3 MAKE UP FOR EVER Artist Shadows and a Trio Palette to your basket, a $20/C$23 discount will be applied automatically at checkout. Only one discount applied per order; discount not applicable for orders shipping outside the U.S.

The shadows are all super smooth and easy to blend.  Pigmentation is really really good as is the lasting power on the lid.

Small criticisms would be that, I guess some people will feel the palette doesn't offer everything you need for a complete eye look-a couple of matte transition shades would have been useful and this may be a deal breaker for some.  It isn't for me because I have those other 134,832 neutral eyeshadow palettes to fall back on and to be honest the satin shade on the middle row is a great crease colour on me.  The shades in the palette are really beautiful and right up my street.  However I was designing this palette I would have dropped two of the highlight-y shades from the top row and replaced it with a matte transition shade and a darker warm toned bronze-y shade.  But I could probably go to MUFE and buy such shades from the 198 strong line up.

I'd love to know if you have tried Make Up For Ever as a brand and what your thoughts are.  And how you feel about this as a neutral eyeshadow palette?

PS-that pot of gel eyeliner you can see in the second picture-amazeballs...... 

PPS-I've been in Sephora today (18th October) and this is in stock in Dubai Mall! 

NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadows-Pasiphae and Telesto

I remember being in London last year when the Dual Intensity eyeshadows launched and Vanessa and I went to NARS in Soho where they were being sold exclusively and swatched away merrily. 

I ended up buying four and spoke highly of them here.  There is just something about a shimmery eye that I cannot resist.  And the formula of these were amazing-wet and dry.

I eagerly anticipated the launch of the palette but was left very disappointed.  Not really because of the formula but because the shade selection really did nothing for me.

But the two newly released single shades looked absolute perfection colourwise to me-a duochrome khaki bronze and a suit all golden bronze and so although I need more eyeshadow like a hole in the head they were purchased and now live in a loving and supportive eyeshadow haven.

Pasiphae has an incredible tone and is absolutely unique in my collection.  And for a girl who owns 345,972 eyeshadows that's quite an achievement.

It's a hybrid between khaki and bronze-it's not too warm nor to cool.  Dry it pulls more khaki than bronze on me and has an almost oily reflective finish.  Wet it makes me feel like a mermaid.  I spray my brush with a little MAC fix plus and use the damp brush to pack the eyeshadow on my lid.  I find a short haired dense brush (like a MAC 239) works best with this sort of shadow whether you are using them wet or dry.  Used wet there is a marked difference to how it looks dry.  It looks more duochrome, more intense, the golden tones come out more and it looks more metallic.  It remains easy to blend and once on it doesn't move.  I used a warmish matte transition shade just to blend out the edges-here I used MAC Cork which is very subtle and could easily be made darker and more smokey.

On the left is Pasiphae applied damp and on the right is Pasiphae dry-you can see how much more intense it is when applied wet.

Telesto however is mediocre at best.  It's a very average bronze shade that is absolutely dupeable (at a much cheaper price point).  It looks the same on me whether applied wet or dry and it has a tendency to crease on me very quickly.  I wanted it to be akin to MAC Woodwinked but it has a bit of a yellow undertone to it even though when applied to the lid it's a darker brown than I expected.  I've tried it a couple of times but each time I think 'meh'.  Put it this way-it's no Woodwinked.

I still think the price point on these is too high for a single shadow and I do prefer the NARS old school/been around for yonks shimmery duos over these.  I just don't reach for these very often.  Don't get me wrong, I love Pasiphae because it's unique but I feel like I am pretty much over these Dual Intensity shadows now.

MAC Extra Dimension eyeshadows-they're back and permanent!

Surely MAC's most instagrammable eyeshadows ever?  MAC Extra Dimension eyeshadows are the most amazing formula and now they're back and permanent!  I had a very impromptu splurge on the above five because basically I am weak and they are shiny.

They're beautiful to look at but thankfully they're not style and no substance-the formula is one of the very best I have tried.

MAC describe the formula as a liquid-powder and the shadows are packed with pigment with a metallic finish.  They're incredibly reflective yet don't contain any glitter or microshimmer.  The formula is incredibly smooth and a delight to blend and I just love them.  I wish MAC did palettes of this formula!  They're not dissimilar to the NARS Dual Intensity eyeshadows but I do think the MAC formula has the edge.

The pigment can be intensified by using them wet-this amps up the metallic foil like finish.  I spritz my brush with MAC Fix Plus (newest purchase and addiction) and use the damp brush to pat the shadow onto my lids.  

Have you tried these eyeshadows?  Do you love them as much as I do?

All about....Kevyn Aucoin eyeshadows

I don't feel like I see a whole lot of reviews of products from the Kevyn Aucoin range and I personally have had a bit of a hit and miss experience with some of the purchases I have made.

But something definitely worth talking about are the Eyeshadow Duos-and I own two of them (both bought from Space NK btw).  There are both matte and shimmer duos in the range-I have, as usual plumped for the shimmery formulas.  Some of the colour combinations are quite unusual but the two I own are really complimentary to each other.

They are pricey though-£34 for 4.8g product (by comparison NARS duos are £25 for 4g of product).  They're housed in a russet red compact with gold trim and a big mirror and the eyeshadow pans do seem substantially larger than their NARS counterpart.

The formula of both are sublime-really buttery and easy to work with, buildable and pigmented and a doddle to blend.  I can't speak for the matte shades but the shimmer shades are top notch. (NB Laurzrah tells me the matte ones are also excellent and you can definitely trust her opinion!)

Sugared Peach/Rusted Brown Sugar (also seems to be called Peach/Rust Brown Shimmer but both carry the #210)

A peachy champagne shade which is ridiculously pigmented, next to a warm reddy brown.  It's quite a warm duo that would look amazing on brunettes but I think as a blonde with green eyes, the reddy brown really highlights the green in my eyes.

Frosted Jade/Bronze

A cooler toned duo of a mid green with a turquiose-y edge and a medium bronze-this duo would suit everyone.  I personally find it easier to wear greens than grays on my eyes and love using green for an evening look.  These shades work so nicely together but also look stunning layered over each other.

I am also wearing it here and a lot of people asked what I was wearing on my lids.

So a really glowing review of the Eyeshadow Duos but now a not so glowing review of the Eye Pigment Primatif's which I picked I picked up recently and featured in my Space NK haul .

I should start by saying that I am not a big fan of these mousse-y cream/powder hybrid shadows-I've owned Chanel Illusion D'Ombre and Dior Diorshow Fusion Mono which are very similar. Whilst I do find that these type of shadows are generally very pigmented, last well on the lid and have an almost foil like finish, I also find that they dry out very quickly and the 'usage v price point' isn't justified for something which such a short shelf life.

So I was quite disappointed when I opened the Eye Pigment Primatif and saw that they'd both started to shrink away from the sides of the glass jar, suggesting they were starting to dry out already.

They do have that springy, mousse-y texture that you get from the Chanel Illusion D'Ombre but I have found Horizon barely shows on my eyelid.  I apply with either my finger or a flat brush (like a MAC 239) and the colour barely shows, even with several layers.  I also find that already the formula is 'balling up' when I swipe it and I don't find it very easy to work with.  Titian is much more pigmented and looks bold in the swatch, but the finish on the lid is quite sheer, satin and almost flat as opposed to the complex micro-shimmer and depth I see from something like the Chanel Illusion D'Ombre.  Am I saying they're boring?  Yes kind of.

They do however make great bases for powder eyeshadow but do I really want to spend £38 on a base shadow I am then going to cover completely in another shadow?  No.

So in all, a hit and a miss-and quite an expensive miss at that as I just don't see me reaching for the Eye Pigment Primatif very often at all.  When I think back, from the things I have purchased I have overall had more misses than hits-but if you do want to explore the range I suggest you start with the Eyeshadow Duos or the awesome Celestial Powder in Candlelight.

PS-I am thrilled to have been nominated for 'Best International Beauty Blog' in the Bloggers Blog Awards-you can vote for your favourites here.  Massive thanks to Hayley from Tea Party Beauty for all her very hard work with these awards!

Bobbi Brown Shimmering Sands Palette Swatches, Review, and Demos (Day/Smoky Looks)

Bobbi Brown's launched their Summer collection, which includes the limited edition Shimmering Sands palette which a lot of people were very interested in when I posted images of it on Instagram. This palette is actually smaller than it might seem in pictures. My palette is a press sample, so the weight of each pan isn't printed on the bottom, but they are much smaller than a typical circular

Sephora eyeshadows-tried and tested!

Although Sephora's own brand make up is widely available in some parts of the world (including Dubai where I live), the poor beauty obsessed in the UK have to survive on a daily basis without a Sephora. 

But then the world changed for the better last year and Sephora decided to ship to the UK so I had this great idea of doing a series of posts on Sephora own brand make up so that even if you couldn't see the make up in person you could get an idea of what was the good, bad and the ugly from their range.

And then I wrote this one post last year and then forgot about my 'series'.

So I am back today with a review of another Sephora own brand line and I really really highly recommend these as I love them!

Above you can see the Sephora Colorful Eyeshadows and all the ones I own are from the 'shimmer' range except for the mini Hollywood's Calling which is from the 'mirror' range.  Before I start there is a dizzying array of shades of the Sephora eyeshadows-there are 30 shimmer, 16 mattes, 17 glitters and 8 matte lustre single shades before you even start to contemplate the many palettes they also sell plus the odd limited edition shade they bring out.  Here in Dubai, in store they tend to be either on a tall carousel or laid out on the Sephora counter-but I often find the range overwhelming, confusing as they aren't labelled well and the stock all mixed up.  Bad Sephora.

But that's the only criticism I have of these shadows as they are just fabulous on the eyes.  I can't speak for the matte shades as I am definitely a shimmer girl but they are all so smooth and even to apply.  The pigmentation is great on all the shades I own but the texture is light as a feather.  The staying power is fantastic too, once they're on the eyes they will not crease, fade or dry out until you decide to take them off.  They don't contain any particles or glitter and I would say the texture is more satin finish than a true shimmer.  Having said that, in artificial light they really do look luminous on the eyes.  Blending wise-they're so easy to work with and to build up if you want a more dramatic look.  The colour is also true to the pan.  I literally adore every shade I own.

Size wise, you get slightly more product that you would in say a MAC single eyeshadow-MAC is 0.05oz per pan and Sephora is 0.07oz per pan.  I would love to depot these and have them all together but they don't look as easy to depot as a MAC shadow.

Price wise they retail at $13 which is around £8.50 which I think is really good for something that is such good quality.  Of course don't forget US products have an additional 8% tax and of course the shipping charges to the UK.

This is another product I would highly recommend checking out if you're in a Sephora or if you fancy a little online splurge.

Have you tried any of Sephora's own brand make up line?

Christian Dior Mystic Metallic eyeshadow in Constellation

Constellation is the second eyeshadow palette from the Fall 2013 'Mystic Metallics' range and is still currently exclusive to the US and to Nordstrom (Update!  This is apparently now exclusive to Selfridges in the UK yey!)  I snapped it up as soon as I had the chance to go with the first palette from the collection 'Bonne Etoile' which I reviewed here.

Admittedly, there is a little bit of me that bought these 2 palettes because they are so pretty.  The embossed stars are just so so beautiful, it was difficult for me to swatch them for fear of ruining the prettiness but the embossing is quite deep so swatching didn't upset the pattern.

These shadows again have metallic or satin finishes and pigmentation is brilliant even without a primer with zero fallout.  I can't really say anything negative about eyeshadows as a whole from Dior.

This palette is more purple toned than its khaki toned counterparty 'Bonne Etoile' and my first thoughts were that it was much more of an evening palette.

Top left is a pale mauve colour that looks quite boring in the pan but when swatched is a beautiful grey tinged pale purple that blends out slightly darker so almost looks multidimensional on the lid when it hits the crease.

Top right is a complex colour that hasn't photographed well to capture it's true beauty!  It's a silvery olive pewter but it can look gold in some lights and does in this photo.  It's the most glittery of the 5 colours and the one that has a tiny bit of fallout.

The bottom right colour looks quite flat in the palette but translates to a medium grey purple with a satin finish.  What I thought would be the least wearable colour in the palette is actually my favourite because of it's depth and buildability.  It swatches slightly darker than it looks in the photograph.

What's not to love about this sparkly Cadburys metallic purple!  I wish Cadburys still did chocolate in that purple foil wrap!  This is the most metallic shade as you can see from the photo and is a medium dark purple with micro particles of pink and purple.

The centre CD embossed shade is a pale shimmery pink opal-the least pigmented but with a smooth satin finish and good colour payoff.  Good for highlighing the brow bone and inner corner.  Most of the Christian Dior eyeshadows have a 'highlight' colour in the centre of the palette.

Swatches of the centre and top left colour

Swatches of the bottom right, bottom left and top right

The shades top left and bottom right make a nice daytime eye, whereas the other shades are more 'night time' due to the shimmer and sparkle.  Again, as I said about Bonne Etoile, this feels quite Christmassy and I can see myself using this more and more over the festive period.

No regrets over this purchase at all, Dior is absolutely one of my favourite make up brands and both the Mystic Metallics palettes do not disappoint.