Shop My Stash #4

I want to revamp this series on my blog. Basically, every fortnight I will go through my collection and pick out five products I hardly touch, haven't reached for in a while, etc. This fortnight, I will be reaching for blush products, eyeshadows, and a lipstick.

I purchased the MUA Blush Perfection Cream Blusher in Bittersweet a while ago to try out cream blushers. And I've only swatched it once. Although the shade isn't the most appropriate for winter, I want to try and incorporate blushes into my everyday routine (which I've been trying to do lately). This could work, if anything, as a base for a powder blush. 

MUA Pearl Eyeshadow in Shade 1 is a nice shimmery yellow beige shade, perfect as an allover lid colour during the day time, and can even be used as a highlighter. This eyeshadow has hardly been touched, and I hope to change that over the next few weeks.

I must have bought the Elf Duo Eye Shadow Cream in Butter Pecan years ago, and until last weekend, forgot I had it in my collection. Back then, I wasn't a huge fan of cream eyeshadows, but now I love them, and can definitely see myself getting some use out of this duo. There is a lighter warm toned beige and a more bronze cream eyeshadow, and I can imagine myself getting a lot of use out of these shadows (now that I've found them, of course). 

Since working full time and in an office, I like to look put together, but in all honesty, with minimal effort. The Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in 240 Undressed is a nice darker nude, and I've been all about the nude lip recently. 

The FashionistA 4 Pan Custom Design Palette is one I put together last year (see review here). I have the blush shades Juicy Apricot, Cinnamon and Butterscotch, and a nice highlight shade, Barcelona. I actually really do like these blushes. They are super affordable, and pigmented. More than anything, I tend to avoid blush. I have accumulated a few throughout the years, so I do really need to give them some love. 

And these are the products I will be reaching for over the next two weeks!

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The Perfect Palette Tag

I wanted to put a post up tonight, and I thought I may as well do a tag post! Hope you enjoy reading, and get to know what palettes I love and adore a little better! 

1. Best Packaging

This has to go to the Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet and Liner Eye Palette (see review here). The MAC Spoiled Rich Quad from the Archie's Girls collection comes at a close second (see review here), I loved the packaging of the whole collection! 

2. Best Color Payoff

Hmmm, this is a hard one. Each palette I have does have its downfall. But I'd probably go with my Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette, because I find the shimmery shades in the palette perform amazingly, and the matte shadows are much more pigmented and not as powdery as others of Urban Decay's matte shades (I really can't get the matte shades from the original Naked to work well).  

For the price though, you can't go wrong with Sleek palettes! They are amazingly pigmented, especially the shimmery shades. For a beginner, I'd recommend trying some of the palettes from Sleek. 

3. Most Versatile

The Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette is the most versatile palette I own (see review here). It can accompany any palette, and you can create whole looks - even fill in your brows if the shades match - because the shadows are mostly matte (only one shimmery shade, which I use as a highlighter). 

4. Best for Traveling

Hmm, I'd again say the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette. You can create many looks using the one palette, I highly recommend checking it out! Do not regret purchasing it at all. 

5. Biggest Regret

While I love the packaging of the MAC Spoiled Rich Quad, I hardly ever reach for the palette and the shades were a little disappointing. I also regret the MUA palettes I have purchased, although the price of them is nowhere near that of MAC shadows and palettes. 

6. Best Colour Names

I love the names in the original Urban Decay Naked Palette. I also love the names in the Naked 2, but the ones in the original Naked Palette seem to fit the theme of 'naked' better.

7. Least Used

Of my high end palettes, I would say the Urban Decay Fifteenth Anniversary Palette. It is a lovely palette, but I hardly reach for it. It is all shimmer, minus the matte black Blackout (which I love, so am happy having a second one as a backup). Because it is all shimmer, for the most part you cannot create whole looks with the one palette. 

Of drugstore, the MUA palettes I have purchased (I think I have two, I'm not even sure!). 

8. Most Used

Urban Decay Naked 2. This is the first high end palette I purchased, and it has been the most used. Bootycall is basically non-existent right now. Favourite eyeshadow ever! 

9. Most Loved

Urban Decay Naked 2.

10. Desert Island

I'd take my Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette. I love it so much, it is my favourite palette. Second to that, the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette. 

So basically this tag just shows that I really love the Urban Decay Naked 2! I'm currently working on a heap of reviews, so check back soon! And if you haven't already, don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin'! 

MUA and Fashionista Haul

About two weeks ago I placed an order on MUA. When I was overseas, the only MUA stand I saw was small so I didn't get anything from the brand. I was really interested in the Fashionista Build Your Own Palettes - and the three blush and one highlight shade I purchased were only $2.81 each! How can anybody say no to that?! I decided to also pick up some MUA eyeshadows, as after uni finishes this semester I want to depot a majority of my eyeshadows and stick them in Z Palettes, these included. I haven't swatched any of the eyeshadows yet (I think I will do a separate post for that), but they look extremely beautiful in the pan! Here's a quick post showing you everything I got.

First, let's talk eyeshadows. I have two MUA palettes (Undress Me Too - see comparison with Naked 2 here, and the Heaven and Earth palette). I've heard some good things about these single eyeshadows, so I decided to pick up a few. Each eyeshadow worked out to be $1.74, and I got the pearl eyeshadows in Shade 1, 9, 12, 15, 24 and 30, and one matte eyeshadow in Shade 17. I haven't swatched these as yet, but I am excited to!

I decided to pick up the Fashionista 4 Pan Custom Design Palette in Black, along with three blush shades and a bronzer (which is more of a highlighter)

The back of the blush and bronzers looks like this, and they just pop out of the container and you put them right into the palette.

For the blush shades I got Cinnamon, Butterscotch and Juicy Apricot. For the bronzer (which is really a highlighter), I got Barcelona. Each pan was only $2.81, and when you get the four together the Custom Design Palette is free - the price is deducted as a discount on your invoice. 

I also picked up the F2 Stippling Brush, as I thought it would be a cheaper alternative to the MAC 130, but alas, it doesn't seem to be. This brush cost $5.22. 

I picked up a Fashionista Double Take Long-Wear Lipstick in 9 Atomic Tangerine. I'm actually quite happy with this colour choice, as I don't own anything like it in my collection. This lipstick cost $2.61. 

And that's all I got from the MUA site! Postage worked out to be $13.04 (I believe they have a flat rate for international postage), and my order including postage only came to $44.53! MUA is definitely an awesome brand to check out! Look out in the next few weeks for reviews of these products. 

Shop My Stash #1

It has recently come to my attention that I own way too many products. I like sticking to some products, but I need to work on reducing the size of my stash so I've come up with this idea. Every week, I'll go through my draws and pick out 5 items that I have to use that week - blush, an eyeshadow, or an eyeshadow palette, a lipstick, highlighter, bronzer, nail polish - anything! On Mondays I'll post about which products I have chosen, and on Sunday I'll give a review of how it went.

Here are the products I've chosen for my first Shop My Stash.

Australis Ready Set Go Finishing Powder True Translucent 

I've had this powder for a while, and it's about finished. I have dry skin, so I only really use powder to set under my eyes. The container is getting to the point where I can't get product out, so maybe by the end of the week I'll have used it up. 

Coastal Scents Eclipse Palette

I reviewed this back in April (see review here). I have used it, but it's not the best because it isn't really creamy - it needs to be warmed up with your hands. I've had some pimples pop up, so this will be good to use to cover those up. 

Vivo Cheeky Cream Blusher in Bloom

I'm not really the biggest on blush, but I'm going to try. I love this blush colour, it's a nice pinky peach and very suitable for spring. I find cream blush is better suited for me at the moment because it is more subtle than powder. 

Australis Eyeshadow Primer

This was the first eyeshadow primer I bought. It's okay, but like the Australis Finishing Powder I just want to use it up. I use a base, but I always use primer beforehand. 

MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlight 

I bought this highlight last time I ordered from MUA (see haul here). I haven't really used it, because at the same time I purchased theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer which I absolutely love. But I will try use this over the next week and see how I go. 

(L to R: Vivo Cheeky Cream Blusher in Bloom, MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter) 

MUA Undress Me Too Palette vs. Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

For over the past year, I have enjoyed using my Naked 2 Palette - for the first six months, almost on a daily basis. My favourite shade in the palette - Bootycall - which I love as an allover lid colour, has hit pan drastically, and Urban Decay do not sell singles of this shade. I do have the Naked 1 Palette, but I don't use it as much. When I saw this dupe palette by MUA, I had to purchase it, mainly for the possible dupe shade of Bootycall. My second most used shade in the Naked 2 is Snakebite.

In the photo above, the shades do look very similar. Sadly, the two shades I wanted to be similar in the Undress Me Too Palette (Bootycall and Snakebite), were the most disappointing. 

The first row is the first six shades of the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette - Foxy, Half-Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease and Snakebite. 

The second row is the first six shades of the MUA Undress Me Too Palette - Naked, Devotion, Shy, Fiery, Lavish and Dreamy.

The better dupes are that of Chopper (Fiery in MUA) and Tease (Lavish in MUA). Naked (the Foxy dupe) hardly shows up when swatched, but I'm not a big fan of Foxy as I find it too yellow to work with. Both Bootycall and Snakebite's dupes are not very good ones. Shy is more pink than Bootycall, and way more shimmery. Dreamy is not as dark as Snakebite, and leans more warm than Snakebite does.

The last six shades from each palette look more close to one another than the first six. The first row is the Urban Decay Naked 2 - Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted and Blackout. 

The second row is MUA Undress Me Too - Tranquil, Exposed, Reveal, Wink, Obsessed and Corrupt. 

Tranquil, Reveal, Wink and Corrupt are actually pretty good dupes for their Urban Decay counterparts. Exposed is a bit more lighter and more silvery than Pistol, and the colour payoff of Obsession means that while it is a very similar colour to Busted in the pan, it comes out very sheer and light when swatched. Corrupt is actually a very nice matte black shade, and even appeared darker than Blackout when swatched. It is quite powdery, but a good dupe. 

So is the MUA Undress Me Too Palette a good dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 2?

I would say yes. The two shades I really wanted to have good dupes were a little disappointing, but on the other hand most of the colours in the MUA Undress Me Too Palette are very similar to their Urban Decay counterparts. The pigmentation isn't on Urban Decay standards for some of the shadows, but for the price you can't go wrong. At the beginning of 2012, I purchased my Naked 2 Palette from an Australian seller on eBay for around $70. I could have purchased it off beautybay, but the palette came in two days and since then I have bought from the seller over and over. The MUA palette on the other hand is £4, which works out to be $5.83. No where in Australia are you going to get eyeshadows like these for under $6. I have ordered from the MUA site twice now, and international shipping works out to be $10.95 (£7.50 each order). It's a good deal when you order a few things off the website. The first time I ordered it took almost a month to get my order (it was around Christmas), but when I ordered this palette and a few other things over a month ago (featured in this haul) it came in less than two weeks - which was a nice surprise!
Overall, I would recommend this palette for those that don't want to splurge on the Naked 2 Palette, but still want similar colours in their collection. I love my Naked 2 Palette, and prefer it over the Undress Me Too Palette, but the Undress Me Too Palette is a nice alternative.

I hope you enjoyed this review! And if anyone knows of a good dupe for Bootycall, can they please let me know?! Thank you for reading guys xo

Haul - Essence, MUA, theBalm and Lime Crime

It's been a while since I've updated, and I'm going to blame that on going back to university. Almost two weeks ago, I placed an order on the MUA site - and I wasn't expecting it to come so quickly! My first order from MUA a couple of months ago took almost a month to arrive! So Thursday when I came home from uni, I had two parcels - one from MUA, and the other with my Lime Crime lipstick. I also visited a shopping centre the same day and they had one Mary-Lou Manizer left in stock at David Jones and I had to grab it. I also picked up an Essence highlighter from their new collection. On to the haul!

The MUA purchase totaled $30.97, and in it I bought the Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder, the Undress Me Too Palette, the cream blush in Bittersweet, an eyebrow pencil in Brunette, the Mosaic Blusher in English Rose, and the lip liner in Softly Lined. For this order, I was most excited about the Undress Me Too Palette - which is supposedly a dupe of the Naked 2 by Urban Decay. My Bootycall in that palette is almost gone, so I'm hoping this palette will have a good dupe as Urban Decay don't do singles of Bootycall :'( I will put up a comparison post sometime this week.

In a wish list post from last month, I posted about Serpentina by Lime Crime - a forest green lipstick! The site I have ordered Lime Crime from previously has been sold out, and from my googling last week I found a site that had one left in stock - I was so excited. The lipstick was $21, which is standard, but the postage was a little expensive at $11.95. I ordered it on Sunday night, and it came the following Thursday. The site I got it from was veganbeauty.com.au. I still don't know how I will wear this lipstick, but I am glad to have it in my collection! The order also came with a lemongrass and bamboo face scrub 5mL sample from Ayana Organics, and I am glad to give this a go.

Two weeks ago when I went into David Jones hoping to buy the Mary-Lou Manizer from theBalm, they were sold out. When I went in the past week, they had one left in stock and I had to get it. It retails for $34.95, but I have a staff discount and it came down to $27.95. I absolutely love this highlighter! So glad with this purchase.

Lastly is an Essence highlighter, which I saw in Priceline a few weeks ago and went back to purchase last week. A girl can never have too many highlighters, right? Excited to give this one a go too! It's from their new Circus Circus trend collection.

Don't forget to check out my instagram, where I love to post all things make up (and my dogs!) @_crystalised 

Thanks for reading guys, 
Sarah x