Wish list: Makeup Geek

  
Z-Palette  //  Shark Bait  //  Ocean Breeze  // 

Unexpected  //  Burlesque  //  Fairytale  //  Unicorn 
Cosmopolitan  //  Crème Brulee  //  Latte  //  Mocha

For some reason, even though I have a lot of eyeshadow palettes, I have the urge to build my own. I was thinking about MAC, but after reading Lilit from Makeup and Macaroons' review on these eyeshadows, it seemed silly to spend all that money on MAC when I could buy Makeup Geek for a fraction of the price! Makeup Geek's eyeshadows are $5.99, compared to MAC's ridiculous $26 for a pro-pan refill, or $33 for a single shadow (which makes the $80 it costs to buy a Naked palette here actually seem reasonable!)

After browsing the Makeup Geek website, and variousblog posts with swatches, it was really hard to narrow it down. It's not possible. They're so cheap that it seems almost silly to just get a few. Instead, I would really like to get a large Z-palette (ideally the pink one), so I can have up to 27 shadows. Or even a medium one would do. Seem excessive? Not for $5.99 a pop! These shadows are at the top of my wish list, but they also do a eyeshadow starter kit ($49.99, you save about $4), which includes some of these shadows, along with a few more that would make my palette perfect.

Greens are something I'm new to. I don't have any, and I've never used them, but Makeup Geek sure have some beauties! If I could get them all, I would, but that would be silly. To start off I would love a beautiful turquoise like Shark Bait, and a deeper sea green like Ocean Breeze would be pretty to use with it. Makes me think of mermaids and tropical islands.

As for pinks, Unexpected is a lovely matte dusty pink shade, which looks quite similar to Nooner from the Naked 3 palette, but possibly even nicer. Burlesque is a shimmery plum colour, quite similar to MAC Cranberry, which is something I already own. But hey, it's pretty!
Purples are another colour that I own a fair few shadows of, but am yet to find the perfect ones. Fairytale is a dusty matte violet shade, which would go with a whole range of looks, but also look really pretty with Unicorn. Or Burlesque's purple cousin Drama Queen.

Expensive Pink is a MAC shadow that I've had my eye on for a while, but Cosmopolitan is a pretty great dupe. It would look lovely layered over Crème Brulee, the first of the neutral matte shadows on my wish list. I have a lot of neutrals, but not a lot of decent matte neutrals. Together with Latte and Mocha (great shade names, don't you think?!), you could create a gorgeous neutral matte look.

Have you tried Makeup Geek shadows before? What do you think of them?

Review: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

It's been a long time since I first laid eyes on this palette and thought "that needs to be mine!". I waited, as it was out of stock everywhere, and then finally Beauty Bay had it in stock, and on sale!. I snapped it up as soon as I could afford it, and within 2 weeks it arrived on my doorstep. Literally, Australia Post, or whoever delivered this particular parcel and my first Lime Crime parcel, just left them on my door step.

After weeks of anticipation, it was so exciting to open the parcel, even more than usual. No only do the beautiful selection of shadows appeal to me, but the palette is in the shape of a freaking chocolate bar! I love chocolate! The smell when I first opened it was delicious! Something I've come to love when doing my make up every day. Granted the smell goes away soon after you open the palette (unsure if that's your brain getting used to the smell, much like soon after you walk into a cafe you can no longer smell coffee, or at least that happens when you work in one. Or if the scent isn't that strong). The packaging is a little less sturdy that I thought it would be. If I was traveling with it I would probably want to wrap a hair-tie around it to keep it closed as the clasp isn't very strong. The lid also flops right over, rather than sticking up like my Naked 3 palette, but that's not really a big deal, just me being picky.

On to the shadows! It contains a mix of shimmers, glitters and matte shades, with enough variety to create a wide range of looks. You also get a 'glamour guide' with 3 looks in it to start you off. There are 2 large highlight shades, a matte and a shimmer, which I think is fantastic as they're usually the first shades to go in a palette. White Chocolate is perfect for the brow bone and Champagne Truffle is perfect for an inner corner highlight.

As for the rest, the matte shades are the let down, as always. They're not very pigmented, and really need work, and a primer, to get anywhere with. The glitter shades are a bit better, but I find the glitter doesn't really show up on the eye, which is probably a good thing, and they end up looking more like a matte shadow. Lastly, the shimmer shadows, are the star of the palette. They're super pigmented and really fantastic to blend. All the shadows in this palette can be a bit powdery (as you can see in the top highlight shade in the photo above) and a little bit of care is needed to make sure you don't apply too much, or make a mess of your palette. However, this is less of a problem than it would normally be, as the shadows are so good to blend, you can blend it out for a perfect look. Seriously, I can't even say how great these are for blending. I would even go as far as saying they're better than my Naked 3. Yep, I went there.

Semi-sweet also seems to be a fantastic eyebrow shade for me! So if I find I don't use it too much on my eyes, it'll always get used on my brows.

Top Row (l-r) Guilded Ganache, White Chocolate , Milk Chocolate, Black Forrest Truffle, Triple Fudge

Middle Row (l-r) Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon-Bon, Candied Violet, Amaretto

Bottom Row (l-r): Hazelnut, Creme Brulee, Haute Chocoalte, Cherry Coridal, Champagne Truffle

I'm really chuffed about this purchase. Before, I had my eye on another Naked palette as well, but I think this is a much better palette, as it's way more diverse. I'm quite content with eyeshadow palettes now, so it'll take a really good new release (Ok, or the Chi Chi Elegant palette, whatever) to put another palette on my wish list.

Have you got the Chocolate Bar palette? What do you think of it?

What's your favourite palette?

Urban Decay Ammo Palette

Another lovely prize from a giveaway from Sophie from Born to Buy was the Urban Decay Ammo Palette. At the time I won this, I didn't have any other UD shadows. Before I got home and got my mitts on this palette, I bought myself the Naked 3 Palette (read my review here). I loved it, so was excited about getting to play with some colourful UD shadows!

This palette is in cardboard, but is surprisingly sturdy. I wouldn't be worried about traveling with it at all. This is the first release, which comes with the dreaded double ended sponge applicator. It's not my first choice of applicator, but I do find it comes in handy with cream eyeshadows and to highlight the inner corner of my eye. It comes with 10 of Urban Decay's best selling eyeshadows, which are a lovely mix of colours and neutrals, so a large amount of looks can be created with this palette. They are arranged in pairs, so the top colours compliment the colours below them, but you really can use any combination of colours!

Smog - Deep caramel shimmer
Mildew - Light mossy green shimmer
Oil Slick - Glittery black
Last Call - A lovely deep pink shimmer
Chopper - Light carmel with glitter.
Maui Wowie - golden brown with glitter. (FYI, this is also the name of a strain of marijuana. I did not find what I expected when I googled this shade name.)
Shattered - Light blue with glitter
Polyester Bride - Off white shimmer
Grifter -  Light pinky lavender with glitter.
Sin - Champagne shimmer, the perfect highlight shade.

In direct Sunlight - in the same order as the palette.

Natural light.

With flash.

The formulas are lovely and pigmented, and so easy to blend. There is a lot of fall out with glitter, but I haven't found it to be a problem. Last Call is my favourite of the lot, but I find it to be the least pigmented of the lot. Maybe that's just me being picky, or maybe it's because I'm not using a primer. I'm on the search for the perfect pink, this is lovely, but not it. There is also enough neutrals in this palette to create every day looks, maybe not so much work appropriate because there is a lot of glitter and shimmer. I've had a lot of fun playing around with the the colour in this palette and I really can't wait to get my hands on some more UD shadows!

This palette is available off Beauty Bay, in the second release of the palette - Ammo 2. This release comes with a 'good karma' brush rather than the sponge applicator, and a primer potion sample. Also, the shades are apparently Urban Decya

What's your favourite Urban Decay palette? Or your favourite colourful palette?

Sleek Vintage Romance i-Divine palette

I've been meaning to blog about this palette for a while now, but I've been lazy. Sleek is a brand I was excited about trying when I got to the UK, and it took me a while to decided which i-Divine palette I wanted. But when I saw the Vintage Romance palette, that was the one I was getting. It's the perfect winter palette, full of dark pinks, purples and gold. The colours are also named after cities in Europe, 7 of which I'll be traveling to very soon!!

I love the matte black casing of sleek products, they're so sturdy and have a big mirror inside. Don't use an alcohol wipe to clean the outside of the palette though, because the sleek logo will come off. It comes with a double end foam applicator, which found it's way to the bin soon after I opened it.

The 12 shades are mostly shimmer and glitter shades, with one matte shade. They're mostly very pigmented (with the exception of Vow in Venice and Propose in Prague, but you can work with them easily enough), and are lovely and soft and easy to blend.

The 12 shades are:

 Pretty in Paris - light silver shimmer

Meet in Madrid - gold shimmer

Court in Cannes - cool bronze shimmer

Lust in LA - bronze shimmer with green tones

Romance in Rome - navy blue shimmer

Propose in Prague - reddy copper matte

A Vow in Venice - dark mauve shimmer,

Marry in Monte Carlo - bright reddy purple glitter

Honeymoon in Hollywood - dark reddy purple with a slight shimmer

Bliss in Barcelona - dark bluey purple shimmer

Forever in Florence- very dark purple with silver glitter

Love in London- matte black with silver glitter.

Top:Pretty in Paris, Meet in Madrid, Court in Cannes

Bottom: Vow in Venice, Marry in Montecarlo, Bliss in Barcelona 

Top: Lust in LA, Romance in Rome, Propose in Prague

Bottom: Bliss in Barcelona, Forever in Florence, Love in London

I found I get the most use out of the 3 shadows in the bottom left of the palette (Vow in Venice, Marry in Montecarlo and Bliss in Barcelona). They're prefect for autumn and winter, and go well with MAC Cranberry and MUA shade 25. Meet in Madrid and Court in Cannes are also really lovely neutral shades.

After using this palette I will definitely be getting my hands on another sleek palette in the near future. This palette is a limited edition, but you can still find it online from a number of websites.

Urban Decay Naked 3!

Guess what guys? Another post about a Naked palette! I don't care if you've read these a million times, because I'm super excited I finally own one of these. I contemplated dropping the money on the other 2, but after getting MUA's Undressed palette, which I love, I couldn't see the point. But when I saw the shades in Naked 3, I knew it was a game changer. I'm a sucker for rose gold shadows, and this palette is full of them. And why not buy it while I'm here in England and it's a bit cheaper?

I ordered off Beauty Bay and it arrived in less than a week. It is as pretty as the pictures! Number 3 comes with a mix of matte, shimmer and glittery shades, along with 4 sample pots of different primers (these will have to wait till I get home, using them while traveling could get messy) and a double ended brush. I'm a little disappointed with the brush. The blending end is absolutely fantastic, but the 'shadow' side is a little to long for my liking. The shadows are all amazing! So fine, soft and pigmented. I didn't think I would actually notice a difference between it and the high street shadows I usually use, but there really is a difference. These are so much easier to blend! They last too! I'm a chronic eye rubber, I can't help it. But these didn't budge all day at work, without any primer either, which is a serious feat. Usually I end up with the shadow of at least one eye completely rubbed off.

The shade selection is perfect for me. Here is an attempt at describing the shades from a person who is not very good with colours. You could just look at the swatches below. Or someone else's swatches, because England has no sun so taking photos is hard. (Sandra at The Black Pearl has done eyelid swatches, I would probably go and look at them)

Strange: light highlight, almost matte.

Dust: Glittery light pink

Burnout: Light pinky brown shimmer

Limit: Matte dusty pink

Buzz: dark pinky brown shimmer

Trick: The perfect gold glitter

Nooner: Dark matte dusty pink

Liar: Copper Brown shimmer

Factory: Chocolate brown shimmer

Mugshot: Taupey brown shimmer

Darkside: Dark taupe, almost black shimmer

Blackheart: Matte black with rose gold glitter.

Natural light  - Strange, Dust, Burnout, Limit, Buzz, Trick

With flash - Same as above.

Natural light - Nooner, Liar, Factory, Mugshot, Darkside, Blackheart.

With flash, same as above.

My favourites would have to be Limit and Nooner - the pair are perfect for a matte eye look, and Dust, Buzz and Trick. I'm surprised how much I like Blackheart, although I doubt I'll get much wear out of it (I'm scared of really dark smokey eyes) but I'll most likely pull it out when I go partying in Europe.

I have a feeling this is going to be my go to palette for the next little while, and certainly for my trip around Europe (why would I need to bring any other shadows?!) and I'm totally not disappointed with the money I spent on it. That being said, as soon as MUA release a version of it (hopefully before I leave) I'll be snapping that up.

What's you're favourite Naked palette? Are you getting number 3 too?