Stuff I Actually Used Up: Skincare and Makeup Empties!

Yes, I did it! I have pan porn and empties to show you guys! And because my last empties post was sometime back in September last year, and because I've been diligently consistently using products until they were all gone, I do have a good amount of finished products to show you this time, and I'm so excited about it! It's been six months, and I've accumulated all this pan!

So proud of my many empties!

Look at all that! Look at all that makeup and skincare that I managed to pan! While it might seem odd to non-beauty junkies, the sheer amount of makeup I have means that using up something is always an acheivement - I take it to mean that 1) I'm not as much of a hoarder as I think I am, and 2) Why yes, I could indeed buy another lipstick to replace the one I just used up! (Nevermind the fact that I already have many other lipsticks...*ahem* incriminating Instagram evidence here.) But I guess if you just have a lot of makeup, it's always a good feeling to actually use something up!

So, without further ado, let's take a closer look at what I've managed to use up in the past half year!

Pretty Purple Spring Eye Look on the Cheap

Spring is in the air, So I thought I'd do a pretty purple eye look for Spring! Since pastel purple is the kind of colour that comes into fashion every Spring season (this year the exact shade is Bellflower, last year it was just plain ol' Lavender), and purple is one of my favourite shades, I thought that would be a perfect shade to use.

For this look, I used my much-beloved MUA Cosmetics Eye Shadow Trio in Passion. If this looks a little familiar, it's because I used it in my Valentine's Day candy hearts-inspired eye look - it's actually the purple shade in there. But I do like this trio, so I thought it deserved some individual lovin'.



The MUA Cosmetics Eye Shadow Trio in Passion consists of three shimmery shades: a basic white, a pastel lilac shade, and a dusty mid-toned purple shade with a slight blue shift. The shimmer in the shades is visible, but not too much for everyday wear, and is quite fine. It also comes in it's little plastic case with a sponge-tipped applicator, which I don't use on a daily basis, but would do in a pinch if I didn't have my brushes on me.



For those interested in a swatch of the MUA Passion Eyeshadow Trio, here it is. As you can tell from the swatches, the amount of pigmentation is actually pretty impressive. With the exception of the white shade, which is a little more unpigmented than the rest of the shades, both these purples have good pigmentation. Sometimes, companies make the mistake of (mis)formulating light shades as sheer shades, so I'm glad to note that these are light, but not unpigmented.



I'm generally quite fond of the MUA Trio Eyeshadows. I have a few, and I've previously reviewed the MUA Eyeshadow Trio in Innocence, and it even made it to my list of Top 10 Beauty Products last year, so a lot of the things I mentioned about that trio are applicable to this one too. For this look, I used your typical application - white on the browbone, lilac on the lid, and the darker purple on the contour area. I should get more creative with colour placement sometime.



I liked this trio, I felt the shades blended easily without too much work.



If you're looking for a cheap-but-good addition to your colour wardrobe this Spring, the MUA Eyeshadow Trio in Passion is a good bet. It's in line with colour trends, it's wearable, it's cheap, and actually of better quality than the price tag may suggest.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Valentine's Day Candy Hearts Inspired Eye Look

Valentine's Day is coming, and that's great reason to get a little more creative with an eye look! This year, I felt inspired by Sweethearts - the absolutely adorable conversation candy hearts that are a mainstay of every Valentine's Day!

After last year's hot pink and purple Valentine's Day eye look, I decided that this year, I wanted to do pastels. But I didn't want to do sweet girly, on-a-date type pastel pink eye. So, instead, this was my inspiration:

Source

And this is the look. For this look, I was trying to fit as many Sweethearts colours onto my eyelid without running out of space, LOL! I was thinking of pastels with a pop. I hope I succeeded.

For this look, I used the pink and yellow shades from my BeautyUK Day and Night Palette, the light purple shade from my Superdrug MUA Eyeshadow Trio in Passion, and the green from the Superdrug MUA eXtreme Metallics Quad in Starstruck. All done with budget beauty products - another yay in my book.



I was trying to get the right type of shades so that it would be pastel but still vibrant - after all, nothing's quite as gross as overblended muddied up pastels. So I ended up with a sort of pastel rainbow, which I hope wasn't overblended or underblended. Well, when you have as little lid space as me, it's a challenge fitting more than three colours in an eye look!



The BeautyUK Day and Night Palette (which I've reviewed before) had good pigmentation and texture, and so did the Superdrug MUA Eyeshadow Trio (I've reviewed a Superdrug MUA Eyeshadow Trio before too, only in a different shade). The only one with a slightly odd texture was the Superdrug MUA eXtreme Metallics Quad, which was a little more powdery. You'd have to use it foiled to get the full metallic effect. I didn't for this look though, because I wanted it to look pastel.



Anyway that's my Valentine's Day inspired eye look! I don't recommend anyone actually wearing this out for a date (unless a pastel rainbow is your kind of thing), but this was just something I did for fun.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

MUA Pro Eyeshadow Trio in Innocence Review/Swatch/EOTD

As an avid bargain hunter, I love when I discover a gorgeously cheap little gem. And the MUA Superdrug line has done it again!

MUA has launched a MUA Profesional line, and I gotta say, this line is great value for money. And they have some gorgeous shades! I especially love the Eyeshadow Trio in Innocence, shown below. You can kinda tell that I'm in love with this right now, simply because I'm going to spam you with photos of this Eyeshadow Trio!

The MUA Pro Eyeshadow Trios come packaged in a plastic container that's cheap and light, if a little flimsy-looking. But it's the inside that counts, right?



Inside, you get a three small domed eyeshadows, as well as a tiny sponge tip applicator. Personally, I prefer using my brushes, but that tiny applicator is good in a pinch, too.



Innocence, as the name suggests, consists of a lovely set of three neutral shades, all of which have some shimmer. There's a light beige, an antique golden brown, and a deep chocolate brown with a little bit of green flash.



Here are swatches of the Innocence Eyeshadow Trio. These are actually well-pigmented, and worth it for the price. The beige shade is the least pigmented of the lot, but even that can be built up. The two brown shades have great pigmentation.



My favourite shade is the golden brown shade in the middle - it's absolutely gorgeous and neutral without being boring or looking muddy. It kind of reminds me of Stila's Wheat and MAC Patina eyeshadow. The base colour actually reminds me of the Mimididi Diamond Powder Eyeshadow I reviewed recently. I love these type of golden antique brown shades! I also like the deep brown shade, which has a green flash that makes it so much more interesting.

But enough with my raving, here's an EOTD (Eye of the Day) with the MUA Innocence Eyeshadow Trio.



I really love these shades, they go on nicely, have a pretty decent texture, and are very blendable. I half-expected them to be all rock hard with lousy pigmentation, but the quality is much better than I expected from the price tag. You can see the blending in the photo below, with my eye closed:



The shades in the MUA Innocence Eyeshadow Trio also go together very well. Initially when I swatched the colours, I thought the pairing of the warm chocolate with the cool-ish antique gold was a little bit of an odd combination, as they looked like they may be clashing colours. However, upon application, the colours worked together quite well. I'd be absolutely willing to use these shades altogether, just the way they are presented in the palette.



All in all, I'm pretty impressed by this, and there isn't much I don't like. The Innocence MUA Pro Eyeshadow Trio has a bunch of pretty shades, is super cheap, is well-pigmented and blendable, and can easily be anyone's go-to trio of neutral shades. The only thing I felt could be done to make the palette better was to coordinate the shades a little more - perhaps by making the warm chocolate brown less ruddy. But for £2.50, I really can't complain!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

MUA Nail Quake Shatter Polish Swatches: Quiver, Shiver, Shockwaves

Shatter polish now comes in colour - and without the exorbitant price tag, or the crap-it's-only-available-in-the-USA headache! Superdrug MUA has now launched six (yes, six!) awesome shades of Nail Quakes, and I'm absolutely shattered (I know, so lame)! The first three, which I showcased yesterday, were great polishes, but the colours were largely already available on the market (black and silver shatter? Been there, done that). So this batch is definitely much more interesting to me - all colours, and not a single boring shade in sight!

The shades here are all cream finish - no foils (like the silver shatter polish) or interesting finishes. But they definitely bring in some colour to your nails - on the cheap, too! These come in Shiver, a peach-coral shade, Shockwaves, a red shade, and Quiver, a cobalt blue. All the names are earthquake theme - I guess that's why they're called Nail Quakes!



L - R: Shiver, Shockwaves, Quiver

I'm sure you don't want me blathering on about how awesome these shades are, so without further ado, here are swatches of the Nail Quakes!

First up we have Shiver. This is a coral-looking peach in the bottle, but on my finger it looks a bit more pinky-peach. It was the hardest of the lot to apply - for some reason it didn't seem to want to cooperate with the polish underneath. Perhaps it was because I was using one of the China Glaze Khromes, which can be tricky to layer with (if you've tried konading on top of them, you'll know what I mean). Still, it went on nice and thin, instead of thick and goopy like most shatter polishes, so I'm not complaining.



Next up, we have Shockwaves, a red. Mmm, red shatter polish. Just imagine the possibilities. Red over black, red over white, red over silver, red over anything! This one was also easy to apply, coming out in thin instead of thick coats, and more fluid than some other brands. Because it tends to apply thin instead of thick, it tends to crack into longer, thinner, pieces, instead of shorter, square-shaped pieces, which I rather like.



Lastly, but definitely not least, we have Quiver, a colbalt blue. This one also applies fluidly and thinly, and thus doesn't look as dark as it appears to be in the bottle. It's actuallyi more of a medium blue on. I really like this one - blue is definitely another colour where the possibilities are endless.



All in all, I can't actually find anything I don't like about the MUA Nail Quakes. They apply well, aren't as prone to being dried up or goopy unlike other (sometimes more expensive) brands, and come in a wide variety of colours to shatter yourself into shatter nirvana! The only downside I can think of is that because these apply in thin coats, rather than thick coats, they aren't as opaque as some other brands, although they are by no means sheer, as the photos attest. If you're looking for cheap and good quality shatter polishes, I definitely recommend the MUA Nail Quakes.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

MUA Nail Quake Shatter Polish Swatches: Jailbreak, Shattered Ice, Broken Arrow

Superdrug MUA has come out with a whole range of colours for their new Shatter Polishes! As a huge shatter fan, I'm so excited. They have not one, not two, not three, but SIX colours of shatter polish! How exciting is that!

I'm featuring three of the shatter polishes today, and three more the next time. There's just so much shatter goodness that it simply won't fit into one post!

Here is a closer look at the MUA Shatter Polishes below. There is a shimmery deep royal purple, Broken Arrow, a silver, Shattered Ice, and a black, Jailbreak. These come in tiny little bottles that are slightly smaller than your average nail polish bottle - think along the lines of the Rimmel 60 Second Nail Polish range, and you've got the size about right. Still, for the affordable price, these still make good value for money.



First up, let's look at Jailbreak, the black. This is just plain, pure black - not very interesting as far as colour goes, and of course black shatter polish has been done by a gazillion brands. The good thing about MUA's Jailbreak, though, is that it's not thick or goopy in texture. It's actually very thin and fluid, and thus has a tendency to crack into finer, thinner pieces, although you could layer it on more thickly for bigger shatter pieces. I quite like this - it has the visual effect of looking shredded into thin, long pieces, rather than crackling into big fat chunks.



Next, we have Shattered Ice. Like Jailbreak, Shattered Ice is also a colour that
other brands have done before. But unlike other shatter polishes I've seen before, Shattered Ice also has a very thin, fluid texture that makes it easier to apply than some of the thicker types. This one doesn't "shred" as much as Jailbreak, but if applied thinly it would produce a similar effect. I quite like Shattered Ice, the silver finish is really cool and it twinkles a little in the sun.



Last, but not least, we have Broken Arrow. I'm not sure why the polish is called Broken Arrow - to me, that gorgeous shade of shimmery royal purple doesn't resemble an arrow or anything being broken, but it's a lovely shade all the same. Like the other shatter polishes, the texture of Broken Arrow is also thin, fluid, and easy to apply, and the polish also shatters vertically, giving it the same shredded effect. I really love Broken Arrow, and out of all of today's shades, this is probably my favourite, simply because I love purple.



For the price of the MUA Shatter Polishes, I've got to admit I'm very impressed by the quality. If you're looking for a range of shatter polishes that is easy to apply, come in a variety of colours, and is of good quaity, these are definitely worth looking at. These colours are so value for money, there's nothing stopping you from getting one of every colour!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Superdrug MUA Lipgloss Shade 4: Cheap and Awesome!

Superdrug MUA (the MUA stands for Makeup Artist) is a line of makeup launched by Superdrug, the eponymous drugstore line. The main attraction of the makeup line is that all its items are just £1. Yup, everything is just a quid! Of course, this means that there are hits and misses - some items are great, some are not so good. Here's one that I think is fantastic.

Introducing the Superdrug MUA Lipgloss in Shade 4. I picked up this little gloss when I stepped into Superdrug for a quick browse and got tempted. The Superdrug MUA line actually has two ranges of lipgloss, both called Lipgloss, but the colours in each line are different. The packaging is also different - one of the glosses comes in a squeeze tube, the other one, which I bought, comes in a hard plastic tube with a wand applicator.

Here's the gloss that I bought. I wasn't impressed by the other shades I swatched, but I did like Shade 4. so I ended up buying it!



Here's a swatch of the gloss. Unlike the other glosses, which were just very sheer and glitter-laden, Shade 4 actually is a colour I really like. It's a deep rosy pink with fine gold shimmer. Very wearable, and very flattering on almost all skintones! Pigmentation was also very good, unlike the rest of the Superdrug MUA lipglosses. As you can see, my skin doesn't even show through.



And here's a swatch of it on my lips. The gold shimmer doesn't really show up on my lips, but it imparts some subtlety of colour that I really like. It would be suitable even for work.



So that's my cheap and awesome find of the day! I certainy hope I'll be finding more gems like this!

Cheap Dupe: Becca Prairie Moon Eye Look with Superdrug MUA Shade 1

Becca is one of those brands you'll never have heard of unless you're a beauty addict, and even then, it usually takes a little while to get over the shock of how expensive tiny vials of makeup can be. That said, almost all their items are of very good quality - I personally am a fan of the Pressed Shimmer Powders (or PSPs if you know the lingo) and Loose Shimmer Powders (or LSPs). Every season, they also release palettes containing eyeshadows, cream blush and eyeliner that get a lot of good press. This season, they released the Prairie Moon Palette, which consisted of a lip/cheek creme, and some eyshadows.

(Picture courtesy of Northender on MUA)

As usual, I was drooling over those pictures, in particular the beautiful silvery-green eyeshadow. It's second from the right, and it looked absolutely gorgeous. I was thinking - since it was that silvery-green eyeshadow I wanted most, surely in my massive stash, there must be something similar, if not a dupe, for it?

So I rooted around in my makeup stash, and voila. This is what I found. Not a dupe, but pretty, nonetheless.



Yes, that's the £1-a-pop Superdrug MUA line. They have a series of loose eyeshadow powders, called the Eye Dusts, which I found a little bit overrated, to be honest. But for £1, what's not to like? This is Shade 1.

Shade 1 is a silvery-green with gold shimmer, much like the Becca version. I really like this colour - I think it leans cool, but the gold shimmer warms it up so that it's not unwearabble if you're a warmtoned girl. It's very pretty, and it was the colour that made me buy it in the first place.



This looks quite close to the Becca version to me, only that the Becca version isn't as glittery. I have to admit, the glitter in this one is in rather large chunks, while the Becca version isn't. Also, I think the Becca shade is a bit more brown, leaning khaki, while the Superdrug MUA shade is a more simplistic silver-grey shade, without the khaki hints. So it's not a dupe. But it's still a pretty shadow in a similar colour family.

So, with that in mind, I decided to attempt an eye look with this shade. Here is how it turned out. Firstly, you'll have to excuse the lashes - I had an incident with my eyelash curler, which chopped off a good 4-5 lashes, leaving me with a bald spot along my lashline:



Here is a breakdown of the eye look:

Superdrug MUA Eye Dust Shade 1 on lid
Urban Decay Twice Baked in crease
Milani Snow Frost on browbone
Covergirl Lashblast mascara
Urban Decay Yeyo 24/7 Eyeliner Pencil in inner corner
GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner Pencil in Metallic Brass in outer lower lashline

For this look, I foiled the Superdrug MUA Eye Dust. The Eye Dusts are only of medium pigmentation, so if you really want that wet look you'll have to foil them. And when you foil them, it's a good idea to use a sticky base, instead of just water like I did. These loose powders have little staying power, so a good base is necessary.

Here is a picture of the eye look with my eyes closed. You can see the Eye Dust falling off onto my lashes already without a base. You can also see the stumps of lashes where my eyelash curler brutally chopped them off:



So, was the dupe-the-look attempt successful? Not really, because the Superdrug MUA Eye Dust isn't really a dupe for the Becca eyeshadow in the palette. But I guess for £1, it's the cheapest way possible to get a similar look. So I imagine if you're on a budget, and don't mind the blingy shimmer in the Eye Dust, it would probably be worth a go for you. But if you hate big chunky shimmer, and don't want to deal with loose powder fallout, then the Becca palette will bring you much more enjoyment.

Superdrug MUA Makeup Academy Lip Gloss Swatches

So, months after the buzz about Superdrug launching its everything-is-£1 MUA Makeup Academy line, my local Superdrug has finally gotten in an MUA display stand. Or it could be that I didn't see it before. It's possible, but whatever the case, I finally managed to see the MUA line in person.

My feelings about this brand are mixed. I know everyone and their mum has been raving about this, but I didn't really find the eyeshadows or lipsticks or nail polishes that interesting colour-wise, and honestly, the eyeshadow testers were hardened on the top surface (probably due to the oils from the fingers of customers testing them out, but still...), and the lipsticks seemed a little dry (again, could be the testers drying out). I guess for a quid, you can't complain. But just as I thought I'd give the brand a pass, I saw their Lip Gloss. The MUA line actually has two types of lipgloss, both called Lip Gloss, the only difference being that one is in wand form and one is in tube form. I was drawn to the wand one, because the colours looked so pretty and interesting in the packaging.

They have five shades, numbered simply Shades 1 to 5. Shade 1 was a clear base with glitter, and Shade 5 was just a clear lipgloss, so I didn't bother to swatch either of them. But I did swatch Shades 2-4:



Shade 2 is a sheer neutral red with some shimmer (that doesn't show up in the photograph). It's a very sheer, wearable red gloss that I thought looked more interesting in the bottle.

Shade 3 is a sheer fuschia pink gloss. This one has no shimmer. Once again, it's also very sheer.

Shade 4 totally wowed me after the sheerness of Shades 2 and 3. It's a rose with warm gold shimmer. This is easily the winner of the lot, and very pigmented too!

These lipglosses actually reminded me a lot of the Revlon Super Lustrous lip glosses in terms of texture and smell and feel. If you liked the Super Lustrous glosses, you'll probably like these too. Shade 4 in particular is really pretty - I have this one, and I'll seriously need to get around to doing a proper lip swatch and review soon!