March Wishlist

Hi Lovely Ladies, Hope you're all okay & doing well. Before I get on to the post which is my March Wishlist and things I am eyeing up and want to buy throughout this month. I just thought i'd give a little mention to the GFC Scandal, for those of you who don't know, Google Friend Connect which the majority of my readers follow me on is rumoured to be leaving over the next few months as Google is getting rid of its partnering app Google Reader, so in the possible future all blogs could be left with 0 followers if Google does decide to go ahead and do that. To be honest I don't think they really will but I'm going to start using Blog'lovin more to follow blogs just because I feel like it's a little more secure, anyway therefore I would love it if you could give me a little follow on blog'lovin on the link here and I would also really appreciate it if you could check out my contact page here and follow me on any of the links you find their too because i'd really appreciate it & it would give me a massssive smile! Now that's all out of the way lets get on to the actual post.

There are loads of things I've been really wanting in the month of March, I've been trying to save and not spend this month and whenever I do that I kind of feel like my wishlist just grows and grows and I end up wanting more and more stuff. There are 7 things I've really been lusting after this month & they're all pretty pricey :( boohoo for me!

Zara Office City Bag - This bag is so gorgeous, I don't even work in an office but I would buy this bag in the hope that I could get a job in an office and take this bag to work with me everyday. It's gorgeous, loads of people have even compared it to Chanel & Prada Bags, so that's how utterly gorgeous it is. I love that this bag is so big, it can fit a full size laptop, has a pocket for your tablets or kindles, can carry A4 folders and is actually so nice. Seriously the pictures I have there do not do it justice, it just looks like such a solid and well made bag. I was looking for reviews of it last night (ya know just to make myself want it even more!) and I found this one from Chloe over at CVG and you can see a detailed review (including pictures) of her blog here so yeah go and show Chloe and her blog some love & check it out because her review was super helpful to me. Definitely going to save up for this bag now because it retails at a pretty pricey £49.99 on the Zara website here.

Naked Basics Palette - I've wanted this bad boy for a really long time now, it's the perfect matte palette and it's Urban Decay's 3rd offering of the Naked palette, I love that the shades are perfect for every day and from all of the reviews I've seen the colours are all really pigmented and blend well. If you've read my blog for a while you'll know that I really love Urban Decay & I don't think that they can really be beaten in term of eyeshadow quality so I'll defo be picking this up at some point in the future. I also think it's pretty reasonable in terms of price as well, it retails at £20.00 which I don't think is too bad for an Urban Decay palette, plus I love that it looks pretty travel friendly too. You can pick this bad boy up on the Debenhams website here.

Mac Rebel - I've been eyeing up this lipstick for ages, it started becoming really popular in the blogging world in the fall time & i've seen it featured on loads of blogs since. The thing that attracted me to it was just the fact that it's so individual, you don't normally see a lot of shades that are such a vampy pink and I think it's quite wearable after seeing it on lots of different people. The person who made me want to get it the most though was the gorgeous Sammi over at Beauty Crush! I was reading her Outfit post here and saw she had it on and I just thought it was the most gorgeous colour ever & I really like it. You can pick this up on the Mac website here for £14.00 which again is pretty pricey here.

Mac Woodwinked - Again another Mac product makes my makeup wishlist, I think for as long as these have been a feature on my blog Mac have always been mentioned. This time I blame wanting this eyeshadow on Alix from I Covet Thee here (See! If I didn't read blogs or watch You Tube Video's I wouldn't want any of this stuff!!). Anyway Alix did a video here on all of her Mac eyeshadows and it left me with a list as long as my arm but I decided that the one I wanted most was Woodwinked, It looks perfect & a colour that I would get a lot of use out of. So I think that's on my wishlist now, as well as loads of other Mac eyeshadows :(! Anyway you can pick up this eye shadow from the Mac website here.

Sleek Eyebrow Kit - This was is purely me and I'm not going to blame it on the blogging community! I've recently ran out of my Elf Eyebrow Kit after using up every last bit of both the wax and the powder all up and I've found that I actually really love using eyebrow kits to fill in sparse areas on my eyebrows rather than using a pencil & therefore I thought the next one I would try out would be the Sleek one just because I want to try out a few more Sleek products & see what the brands all about. You can pick this up from the Sleek website for £8.50 here.

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation - This is a new release in the drugstore beauty range & if you know me or my blog at all you will know i'm a sucker for foundation, it's probably my favourite product to buy and the amount of foundations I have from Boots at the moment is ridiculous (but there's a post to come soon on all of that) and therefore because this is new and I've heard great things about it from America for months and months now I really want to pick this up and give it ago. From what i've heard it has a really good coverage but looks like you're wearing no makeup! Sounds pretty perfect to me. You can pick this up from the Boots website for £8.99 here.

Tangle Teezer - Again the blogging world is to blame for me wanting this so badly, I'm not someone who has ever gone out and spent money on pricey hairbrushes or anything like that but i've heard pretty amazing things about this one. The idea behind the Tangle Teezer is that it apparently combs through all the knots and tangles in your hair & detangles them without it hurting you. I haven't tried one so I don't really know about that but I've heard a lot of people in the blogging world rave about it so i'm interested to give it a try. You can  pick this up from the Boots website here for £10.99.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this post & are having a nice day and I would love to hear what's on your wishlist this March! :) xxx

February Wishlist

Feb Wishlist - Chanel Bronze Universal, Benefit 'Fine One One', Rimmel Apocalips, Real Techniques Eye Kit, Proactiv Solution, Mac Creme Cup & Rimmel BB Cream

 

Hi everyone, hope you're okay! Today I thought I'd do a February wish list, I have done a wish list post in ages and I personally really like reading them and it adds a bit of depth to my blog rather than having constant review posts. Anyway I'm not going to ramble for ages I'm just going to jump right in and get on with it.

1. Chanel Bronze Universal - I've wanted to try this product for such a long time, I've heard so many great things about it from lots of different bloggers and I have never actually tired any Chanel products so I think this would be a great way to dip my toes into the Chanel pond so to speak. I think the packaging of this product is really luxurious and it just looks lovely. I'm out of bronzer so I can probably justify picking this up but the price tag at £30.00 has always put me off, I think that's sooo expensive! It looks lovely though and apparently the 30ml contents lasts for absolutely ages seeming as it's a cream product and from my experience with cream blushes I would expect it to last a long time too. I have ready so many reviews on this product and I think it's the product that I want to pick up the most in the month of Feb.

2. Benefit Fine One One - This looks like a really cool product, it's a new release from Benefit and I have been seeing it on loads and loads of blog posts recently and it's really made me want to try it out. Sticking to the cream products this is basically a cream stick that contains a stripe of blusher, a stripe of bronzer and a highlight shade, this means you can just hold the product at the center of your cheek and in one quick swipe have your blusher, bronzer and highlighter done. I think it's such a cool idea and I think the reason I want to try it so much is the fact that it's so different to a lot of products on the market and I've not seen anything like it. I also think Benefit is such a cool brand and the packaging and idea behind this is really cool. This is a fairly expensive product at £23.00 but I think it would be good quality the only thing I would be worried about would be how messy it would get and I would be a little skeptical in case the shades mixed in together and I ended up without the definition of the 3 individual shades. 

3. Apocalips - I recently did a post on the new offering from Rimmel and I said that they weren't that ground breaking or different to be getting the huge and over top amount of hype that they have been served by the blogging community. That being said I do quite like them I just wish they didn't smell funny. I really want to try the shades Big Bang and Nude Eclipse to see how they are and I'm wanting to try those out this month.

4. Real Techniques Eye Collection - You may have seen on my blog this week that I have recently picked up a new Urban Decay eye shadow palette - the Glinda. But recently I've just been experimenting a lot with eye shadows, I want to pick up some eye shadow brushes that I can use with all my new palettes, I do have a few old ones from Elf but I know real techniques are good quality and a bargain for the price!

5. Pro Active Solution - 4 Piece Set - My skin has been playing up loads lately and I've heard that Pro Activ solution is one of the best ways to get your skin under control quickly and also improve it's quality. Also seeming as it is the new year I really wanted to start taking care of my skin more and I though a 4 Piece Skin care set would probably help me to do this. As much as I do want to try this though I'm a little bit sceptical, I've heard very contrasting reviews on this product, some people love it and swear by it and some people hate it and swear that you should stay away from it! So I don't really know.

 

6. Mac Crème Cup - I love Mac lipsticks, if you haven't heard me rave about it enough I got Mac Angel as a Christmas present and love it to absolute bits, I've used it every single day since and I don't seriously think I could live without it. Mac lipsticks are hands down the best I've ever tried and I really enjoy using them. I've heard crème cup is the same sort of colour as Angel but more of a creamy formula and without the frost finish so I would love to try it out.

 

7. Rimmel BB Cream - This is a new release from Rimmel and in all fairness it's a product that I haven't heard a whole lot about, I think this is why I am so fascinated by it, I really haven't bought into the whole 'BB' trend and think that the whole idea is a way for companies to just rebrand tinted moisturisers, I've never really found one I liked either but I'm quite keen to try this just because i'm a huge Rimmel Fan and they're a brand that never seem to get it wrong for me. This isn't a product that I've been lusting after but a product that I am curious about.

 

As a side note since I made this wish list I have added 2 more things to it haha, i'm so rubbish! I really want to try out the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette and also the Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette, both really interest me & intrigue me and I have been loving Urban Decay over the last few months so I would love to try their new releases!

 

Hope you enjoyed this post, let me know what's on your February wish list! Thanks for reading! :) xxx

 

Beauty Favourite's 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Real Techniques Brushes/Juicy Couture Perfume/L'Oreal Telescopic/Benefit they're real/Palmers Cocoa Butter/Rimmel Wake me up concealer & foundation/ Soap and Glory you won't believe your eyes/ Rimmel Fix and Perfect Pro Primer/ Mac Studio Fix fluid/ Lancôme hyponose star mascara/ Kate Moss Lipsticks (Rimmel)/Mac Studio Fix Powder/ Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural/ Mac Studio Finish Concealer/ Bourjois Bronzer/ Maybelline Colour Tattoo's/ Mac Lipsticks - Angel and Outrageously fun/ Topshop Crescent Moon highlighter

Beauty Favourites 2012

Today I wanted to show you all my fav products of 2012, firstly I want to say sorry for the rubbish photo's, winter is making it really hard to get a decent photo! the lighting was crappy all day today so I just had to try and do the best I could with what lighting we did have.

Anyway, I have discovered so many new products this year, a lot of them I found through the blogging scene, reading blogs and watching beauty video's has really helped me to discover some amazing products and all of the products I've featured within this post are definitely the best products I've found throughout the year and the products that I would continue to repurchase in the future. Sometimes I find it quite hard to do monthly favourites on my blog simply because I find it hard to pick amazing stand out products that I've only discovered for a few weeks but the fact that I've loved the majority of these products for months and months makes them stand out to me way more. Anyway on to the post.

Firstly I thought I would talk to you about my stand out face products of the year, firstly the Palmers Cocoa Butter has kind of become my must have moisturiser, I LOVE the smell of this product so much, it's simply gorgeous and it's the best moisturiser ever, it leaves my skin feeling really smooth and soft and keeps it from drying out for hours, you can use this moisturiser all over your body but I find that it's perfect for my face.
Something else that has really transformed my morning makeup regime this year would be the Soap and Glory 'You won't believe your eyes' this is such a great product, I have a really hard time sleeping and i'm therefore left with really puffy under eye circles and very red and sore eyes, the one thing that combats all of these problems for me is this S&G product. Within minutes it helps to de-puff the area and it makes my eyes look much more awake and normal. God send I tell ya!

Another product that I've loved since about August this year would be Rimmel's Fix and Perfect Primer, i'm not going to go on about it to much because I've mentioned it in various posts since I began blogging but I just find it to be incredible for the price that it is, it smooth's my face like nothing else and means that my foundation goes on really flawlessly, I haven't strayed to another primer since and am now on my 3rd bottle, it's an absolute fav of mine.
There were two foundations that really reached out to me this year and have stood the test of time, firstly was Rimmel Wake me up foundation, this is the most fantastic foundation ever, it's so cheap and definitely the best foundation from the drugstore, it smells nice and really does 'wake you up' and help make you look lest tired with all of its light luminizing properties, it never fails to make me look more awake in the morning and has a really good coverage and also lasts all day. I've been completely impressed with all of Rimmel's new releases this year and this one is top of the chart! Also the wake me up concealer is exactly like the foundation but perfect for the under eye area and really helps to make your eyes look more awake so comes first place as my favourite drug store concealer.
This year was also a year that I decided to go on my quest for a more expensive foundation, I came to the assumption that the more expensive foundations were probably worth spending the money on and that I would probably get better results, I purchased a few since I started blogging some from Benefit and then I got the Mac studio fix fluid (NC15) and I love it, it gives me the most flawless face ever, it is a foundation with full coverage but it doesn't look too cakey and its lasting power is amazing. I think this is such a great product and is perfect for evening wear, in all fairness I happily wear this in the day sometimes too but I feel like my skin can breathe better if I wear my Rimmel wake me up so therefore i'm going to be keeping this foundation for special occasions, it's just simply gorgeous.
Towards the end of this year  I began to experiment much more with mac products and in the short time I've been trying them out and using them I've fell in love with them and three of their products are literally so amazing that they had to make some of my favourites of the year. Firstly Mac powders have really won me over this year, the Studio Fix Powder is amazing when paired with the Studio Fix Fluid for a really flawless night look, this powder actually has so much coverage that you could wear it by itself or pair it with a foundation to make your skin look amazing! Another powder that has really impressed me this year would be the Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium, this is the perfect powder for everyday due to the fact its got minerals in it so it's good for the skin and it's a baked product so it is really finely milled and soft, I feel like my skin can breathe when I wear this product but also that I have enough coverage for everyday, it's a great addition to my makeup bag and unlike any powder I've ever tried before.
Another product that easily made my yearly favourites this year would be the Mac studio finish concealer, for bad skin days and those days where you've had no sleep this bad boy works wonders, it literally covers everything but is creamy enough that you can blend it in and it won't look too cakey, a must have Mac product for me.
The Topshop highlighter in 'Crescent Moon' was another stand out product for me this year, it helped to divine my cheekbones but also make my skin look much more glowing and lovely, plus it just gave my face a lovely golden sheen which was beautiful when my face hit the light. Lastly my fav product for my face this year was one that would probably have been in my favourite products for the last 4-5 years, it is the Bourjois Bronzing powder, this is a product that I've had for ever, it lasts so long and its great for contouring your cheekbones and also just adding some colour all over the face.

This year I actually only found a few eye products that I actually really enjoyed. Firstly I've been loving Urban decay as a brand and I think their eye shadow palettes are amazing! I currently have Naked 2, Smoked and now the UD Vice palette that I got for Christmas and love. I think they have some of the best and most pigmented eye shadow shades and I love them all and get so much use out of them, hopefully they have more lovely palettes to release in 2013.
My favourite eyeliner of the year would have to be L'Oreal's super liners simply because they are so easy to use and don't dry out really quickly, they just give a really professional line and also are so easy to use. I also loved L'Oreal's telescopic mascara this year and would say it was my fav drugstore mascara of the year, it has a plastic brush that grabs the lashes and really lengthens them and I find it does the job really quickly.
I've also featured 2 high end mascara's in my 2012 fav's, up until Christmas my fav high end mascara would be Benefit's 'They're Real' Mascara, I loved how it lengthened my lashes and help a curl in my straight lashes all day and I felt that it really performed for me. But my mum got me the Lancôme Star Mascara for Christmas and I personally think this beats this product hands down! The reason I like it so much is because the Lancôme mascara is of a much wetter consistency and I felt that the Benefit Mascara dried out very quickly and therefore was much harder to work with, especially as it was a dry formula mascara in the first place. Other than that they basically did the same thing but because I've only been using the Lancôme one for just over a week I thought it was only fair to give a shout out to Benefit as well.
The last eye product that I've been loving throughout this year would be the Maybelline colour tattoo's, I've spoken about these a lot on my blog as well but I think these are just great eye bases and also work well all over the lid for everyday, they're such great products and are meant to be great dupes for the Mac Paint pots.

The last products I want to talk about in my 2012 favourites is lip products, I have found two sets of lipsticks that have really impressed me this year and these are such great lipsticks that I am hoping to purchase more within 2013.
Firstly from the drugstore I love the Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks, these have a fantastic formula, are lovely and creamy on the lips and best of all are developed by a true British icon, I find that the shade selection in these lipsticks are great because they're all colours I don't see all the time and I've really been enjoying trying them out so fingers crossed for more being developed in the future.
Secondly this year I finally decided to try Mac Lipsticks, before this I always felt that they were crazily expensive and I couldn't really justify the price because I'm not a massive lipstick wearer, but since I've had these two lipsticks in Angel and Outrageously Fun, I've been wearing lipsticks every single day. These are the creamiest lipsticks I've ever felt and they also smell and wear amazing, I will definitely be expanding my mac lipstick collection in 2013.

Some random products I've been loving this year are Aussie hair care products in particular the 3 minute miracle conditioner, nearly all of the Soap and Glory body care products, all of the Real Techniques Brushes and also my favourite perfume of the year Viva La Juicy by Juicy Couture.

Sorry for the humongous post guys, if you're still reading then thank you & let me know what your favourites of 2012 were!

♥

Tag - 7 deadly sins

Hi Ladies,

Today I'm going to give this 7 deadly sins tag a whirl, the reason for me posting this tag is because I love reading them on everyone elses blogs, they give me a good insight into the persons blog i'm reading and they help me to relate to the writer as well, so I thought i'd give it ago. Especially as this one was simply a bit of fun. I've seen this particular tag mentioned on a few blogs and you tube video's recently so thought I may as well give it ago, so I hope you enjoy it a little.

1.GREED: What is your most inexpensive beauty item? What is your most expensive?

The most inexpensive beauty product I own would be one of the MUA products, I have some lipsticks from their collection that cost £1.00 but are absolutely ace, everyone needs to give them a try, and I also have a £1.00 blush that I like, so definitely something from MUA, love that brand to death. My most expensive beauty product that I purchased for myself would probably have to be one of the Urban Decay pallets that I own, the Smoked Pallet took me back £35.00 which is quite a lot of money, (although I think it was worth every penny), if you think about it I could have brought 35 of the £1.00 range from MUA, so in this way it is quite expensive.

2.WRATH: What beauty products do you have a love/hate relationship with? What product has been the hardest to get?

The beauty product that I have a love/hate relationship with would definitely be liquid and gel eyeliners, I love the way that they look when I have plenty of time to apply them and also am having a non shakey hand day, they look lovely and add such a massive pop to the eye. BUUUUT on early and hungover mornings they are an absolute nightmare, I hate the fact that for me they’re one of those products that is completely hit or miss, sometimes my liquid eyeliner will look dead on and other times it will look like a blurry, smudged mess and make my whole face look like an absolute disaster. The one beauty product that I would loooove to master.

  

I also have no idea what the hardest beauty product to get was, probably my Mac studio fix foundation, for some reason when I went to order it they didn’t have my shade (NC15) and they didn’t have NW15 either, plus there was no Mac counter anywhere near me where I could go and pick it up, so I had to settle for NC20, which is a completely crappy match for me. My shades back in stock now, so I’ll be picking that up soon as it’s right at the top of my wishlist.

3.GLUTTONY: What are your most delicious beauty products?

Hmm, I don’t really know what delicious means in terms of beauty products, I can’t say I’ve tried a lot of mine haha, probably my most favourite and lush product would be my Diesel Loverdose perfume, because it smells absolutely amazing, I could seriously spray this perfume around me all day and just live in a Loverdose dream. Mmm defo fav for life.

4.SLOTH: What beauty product do you neglect, due to laziness?

The one product that I neglect the most in terms of my beauty routine would probably be my primers, I have the Urban Decay primer potion, but when applying my eyeshadows I can never really be bothered to apply it first, it’s a nice base and makes the colour pop but I don’t think it makes a huge amount of difference. I also go through stages of wearing face primers, but again if I’m in a rush or can’t really be bothered there the first thing I drop from my makeup routine because to be honest I don’t find the results to be very good, even after trying a huge range of brands.

5.PRIDE: What beauty product gives you the most self confidence?

I think the one beauty product that makes the most difference to my face would probably be concealer, I know this might sound like quite an obvious choice, but I have the worst dark circles in the world, and I hate them. If I’m in a rush I will simply pop some moisturiser on the face, chuck some concealer on and then add some mascara to make my eyes pop and I feel fresh and ready to go. I think that therefore concealer and mascara give me the most self confidence. Concealer covers everything that I need it too and makes me feel more self confident about my skin and a light coat of mascara just opens my eyes, makes me look much more awake and together and that’s why they’re the products that give me the most pride.

6.LUST: What attributes do you find most attractive in the opposite sex?

Hmm, I’ve always found this question a hard one to answer, I obviously am attracted to a nice smile and gorgeous eyes but I think the attribute that attracts me the most to any person would be their personality, in a guy I look for someone who can make me laugh, can keep me smiling always and someone like a best friend, I want someone who I can tell my deepest secrets too and confide in, I want someone who will listen to my constant rambling without complaints because they just love me for me. I guess, I just want character, I want a good person, with a huge loving heart and those are the attributes that I look for in the opposite sex.

7.ENVY: What items would you most like to receive as a gift?

I can think of loads of products that I would like to receive as gifts, from really cheap beauty brands to super high end, I would love to receive some Nars products because they just look so beautiful, Mac as well or some benefit products. But if I’m completely honest anything which is beauty related would be a great gift for me and I’d love anything of the sort.

Thank you for reading, if you found it at all intresting give it a go yourself! I adore reading them :)
hope you enjoyed,

lots of love

Gem xxxx

Urban Decay Smoked Eyeshadow Pallet - Review.

Hi everyone!

You may remember last week I posted a blog post about the beauty products I was lusting over at the moment, top of my list was the newly released pallet by Urban Decay, the 'Smoked' eyeshadow pallet. Well, the other day me and my good friend Lucy went shopping at the fairly new Gloucester Quays outlet (some real bargains to be had there, plus its position on Gloucester Docks makes its surroundings lovely) and then we went into town because it was a quiet dull Sunday and I popped into Debenhams to find a completely deserted Urban Decay stand with the new Smoked Pallet sat on it, and I just had to have it. After swiping and swatching all of the lovely shades and them feeling like literal butter underneath my finger tips, I just knew I couldn't leave it sat there on the shelf and needed to take it home for some loving! So that was exactly what I decided to do.

Feeling quite smug, I trotted off home, (after a cheeky Nando's of course) and even though I had just handed £35.00 away I went home with the biggest grin on my face, I love love love love love urban decay, I think it is a love story that will go on for years. Anyway, needless to say I am not disappointed in the slightest. My love affair with Urban Decay eyeshadows started back when I first began reading blogs, I heard countless things about the Naked 2 pallet by Urban Decay and was always in awe of the lovely, glossy, perfectly neutral shades that were in this pallet, so back when I first started collecting makeup and taking the whole thing more seriously it was actually one of the first things I picked up, and I love it, it changed my outlook on eyeshadows and pallets forever, and it converted me to Urban Decay straight away.

Overview:
Anyway, on to the review. The 'Smoked' Pallet is Urban Decay's newest answer to the famous Naked Pallets, gone are the days when Urban Decay simply created a neutral pallet, this pallet can take you from day to night in an instant and is absolutely beautiful, it is literally to die for. It contains 10 beautiful shades, that take you from the neutrals you need for your every day, day time look, to the gorgeous jewel tone shades you need to have those intensified smokey looks at nigh time.

What Urban Decay say:

On the US's Urban Decay website the pallet is described as below:

"This is the smoky eye done the UD way: a true range of shades (Neutral mattes! Shimmering jewel tones!) for a range of smoky looks.

We’re giving you everything you need to create the perfect smoky eye, Urban Decay style. Zipped inside this sleek, mirrored case are ten decadent shades (five are exclusive), including neutral mattes and shimmering jewel tones for a range of smoky looks. Sure, you can create a smoky eye with a range of gray and black shades. But what about a touch of purple, blue or bronze? The Smoked Palette lets you keep things simple… or get a little more creative. (TIP: If you need a basic daytime look, stick to the range of matte neutrals. Throw the palette in your bag, and add some smoke as you leave the office.)

Our secret smoky eye weapon? A blacker-than-black matte pencil. Included with the Smoked Palette is a full-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion, AND a travel-size Eyeshadow Primer Potion.

Also included is a beautifully illustrated, step-by-step guide to 12 smoky eye looks, written by Urban Decay founder Wende Zomnir. Both smoky-eye pros and shadow newbies will benefit from this detailed guide to looks from “iconic” to “smoldering” to “reality star”.

What I say:

I completely 100% agree with every single thing that Urban Decay says, this is the perfect pallet to take you from a slightly smoked up neutral toned shade perfect for work and the office but it gives you the flare in one small compact that means that you have the best shades to take you straight to a night out on the town, which is probably why I think so much of this pallet. It is just completely versatile, it lets you have the best of both worlds. I think Urban Decay has got this pallet completely right, with the Naked Pallets you had the perfect shades for every day and you could add a bit of drama for the nights with some of the darker shades but they were mainly day time shades, but with this pallet and the jewel tones and the bright pigmented colour selection you literally have everything you need in one simple, sophisticatedly packaged compact, and I have fallen in love.

As mentioned above Urban Decay threw in some freebies with this pallet, firstly with each one of these pallets you got a free sample size of the urban decay primer potion (3.7g, so really sample size), which I am loving using, it's such a good base for the eye. Also you get free the full-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion, which must be the most creamy, black eyeliner I have ever had the pleasure of trying and finally you also get a booklet which contains 12 looks that you can create with the pallet, I personally found this extremely useful, this step by step guide is honestly fantastic, it tells you within 11-14 steps exactly what to d, in real simple language so that you can create the perfect smokey eye, and for somebody who has just started to take a larger interest in makeup this has really helped me to begin to get the best out of this pallet, and i've actually tried out several looks already. Something else that is really good about the smoked pallet leaflet is the fact it gives you a kind of dictionary where it explains some of the terms you often hear when professionals are putting on eyeshadow, so for example it explains pencil-shadow fusion, downblending, brow highlight, working the crease, and other terms and it also goes on to explain the differences between crease brushes, blending brushes and shadow brushes, so this is a really great gift to get somebody who is just starting to experiment with makeup.

Also this pallet is incredible value, when I visited the Urban Decay counter I saw that each of these eyeshadows would actually cost you £14.00 by themselves, so to get 10 for £35.00 as well as an eyeliner, primer potion, booklet, and a lovely case is actually a really good bargain. Plus with this pallet you know you are ensured quality, Urban Decay shadows are known to be some of the best in the world and therefore you know if you buy this you are getting quality for your money and you really are investing in your makeup collection.

 

Colour Range

As I have already mentioned the colour range within this pallet is pretty impressive, from neutral shades to jewel toned shades. There are 10 beautiful, creamy shades within the pallet, the shades on the top row are quite neutral shades, they include Kinky, Freestyle, Mushroom, Backdoor and Blackout.

Kinky

The first shade Kinky, is a very light shade that is between a white and a cream shade, it is really creamy and is perfect for highlighting either the brow bone or also being used as an inner corner highlight of the eye if you are doing a really strong smokey look. This is just a really nice choice of a light shade for this pallet. This is a completely matte colour, which some people may like but I personally feel like I wanted a more shimmery highlight colour.

Freestyle

The next shade is Freestyle, this shade is darker and warmer than Kinky, but still fairly light and neutral. This shade would match up with quite a range of peoples skin colours and therefore it makes a great blending shade and therefore is a good option for any downblending you would like to do within your smokey eye look. This is a completely matte colour and therefore without the sheen this is probably one of the best colours you could choose for blending.

Mushroom

Mushroom is one of the shades that actually really intrigued me the most, it is a gorgeous silvery, taupe colour, in the pan it looks like it almost has glitter within it, but once swatched you can see that the colour just has a nice light sheen to it which isn't too overpowering. This particular shade would be complimented with freestyle and kinky for an everyday neutral look and is probably one of the shades within the pallet that actually has the nicest consistency. 

Backdoor

Now, in the pan Backdoor looks like a matte brown colour, that is dark but not that dark, but Backdoor is completely different when swatched, the shade almost comes out black and it definitely has black undertones, this shade would be best used to put in the crease of a really smokey eye.

Blackout

Black is Urban Decay's answer to the darkest and blackest eyeshadow you could ever find, and that is exactly what it is, the blackest, black eyeshadow, great for lining the eye and adding intensity.

The next row of shadows is where the smokey and fun shades come in. Within the bottom row of the pallet we have the following shades: Barlust, Rockstar, Evidence, Loaded, Asphalt.

Barlust

I personally adore this shade, is the most perfect brown I have ever found and it actually really really suits my eyes. Barlust is one of the shades that has that nice sheen to it, without being over glittery, which I hate with certain eyeshadows. Barlust is incredibly creamy and has a gorgeous sheen to it, which when blended out just looks super lovely, I think this is a shade that can suit absolutely anyone, but it would definitely make blue eyes pop.

Rockstar

Rockstar, is just that, this shade would be perfect on a rockstar, it is a deep plumy purple, which is dark enough not to make you look like a 12 year old, and it is a brilliant shade which can be used combined with barlust and backdoor to create a smokey eye with just that extra hint of colour.

Evidence

This shade is my absolute favourite, I think half of the reason I wanted this pallet so much was for this amazing midnight shade, it is gorgeous. For years i've wanted to create a midnight blue smokey eye, and i've never actually found the right colour for it. After searching and searching I gave up, all of the shades that came close were packed with endless amounts of glitter that just looked awful, but evidence is completely different. It has a nice sheen and glow about it, but the colour is just so intense and deep, I'm actually scared to apply it to my eye, it's definitely going to need such a light hand, but I simply cannot wait to do a look with it.

Loaded

A gorgeous emerald green, it is to die for. I think the whole of the bottom row of colours are just out of this world, they're all so unique and nice and they'll just compliment the eye so well. Loaded is slightly darker than an emerald green, it has lovely undertones and if you're not brave enough to use it on your eye it would make the perfect liner for the lower lashes, an absolute win of a shade for me.

Asphalt

Now in the pan Asphalt to me kind of seems such a shade darker than mushroom and therefore I was kind of disappointed to see 2 shades so similar within the pallet, especially as neither of them are matte. Once swatched they are of an identical consistency but Asphalt is slightly darker than mushroom, kind of a shame but I guess you could create a lovely metallic eye using these shades.

Packaging

The packaging of this pallet is the thing that lets it down for me, I haven't heard anybody else say this but I personally feel like it looks like a DS case, I hate the zipper and the whole of the design is quite bulky, yes it looks nice, but I feel like its just going to get dirty every time I touch it. Plus, the inside of the pallet is made of cardboard, and I think this is such a let down for a high end pallet. I personally feel like the packaging of the Naked 2 pallet is much more appropriate and sturdy, where as the packaging of this pallet is to me the one thing that lets it down, it doesn't look like a luxurious pallet and you can tell that if one thing was cut in order to save costs then it would have been the packaging. Some people may love this, but for me it just isn't that nice and i'd have rather had a plastic pallet.

Overall

I LOVE THIS PALLET, the only complaint for me was the packaging, and in actual fact there isn't really anything wrong with it, I would have just personally preferred something that was a bit more sturdy. But the contents of the pallet are out of this world, they're such lovely shades that compliment each other, its perfect for nights out and can also be adapted for the day and it is just an amazing pallet that I think absolutely everyone should have in their collection, I highly recommend it and it is definitely 5* for me! Go and buy this now guys! It's actually worth every single penny!

Lots of Love

(P.S Sorry for the rave review, but until you've tried it you won't understand just how great it is!)

Gem xxx