Beauty Brand Focus: MUA

Hi guys! 

   So today I'm starting a new blog series called Beauty Brand Focus, I'm also going to be doing these for Clothes brands so stay tuned for them. These posts will be going quite in depth into products from a selected brand and I will be giving my opinions of them, let me know if you like this idea and hope you enjoy reading.

This Beauty Brand Focus as the title suggests is on MUA (MakeUp Academy) I have quite a few products from this brand and they are all very affordable so I thought this brand would be a good one to go through. These products are all sold in Superdrug or on the MUA online store which ships internationally.

http://www.muastore.co.uk/

http://www.superdrug.com/brandshop/mua#.U_5XCMVdU1I

Eyes

Eyeshadow Palettes-

These are one of the main things MUA are known for, the eyeshadows are all very pigmented and good quality and are even classed as dupes for the UD Naked Palettes. I have the Heaven & Earth Palette £4 and the Immaculate Collection palette £8. I love these palettes so much and would definitely recommend, they are a complete steal for the price and the colours are amazing. The colours in the H&E palette really suit my eye colour (blue) and are some of the nicest eye shades I've come across.

 

Eyeliner-

I have the MUA extreme felt eyeliner pen and this is good but I find it quite difficult to apply which isn't great so I don't use this very often.

Face -

I currently only own one 'face product' from MUA but have tried others in the past. I have the 'Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter' and I really do like this product, it adds such a nice glow to my skin and for the price(£3) you can't go wrong.

In the past I have tried The mosaic blush in English Rose and I really love that product, the pressed powder which was nothing special but for £1 it is worth it, and the matte perfect foundation. I bought this due to the fact I have oily skin and although it was an alright foundation I wouldn't agree with the fact it's shine controlling and also it didn't last throughout the day.

Nails- 

 

I currently own 4 of the MUA nail polishes - deepest purple,bold blue, pistachio ice cream and one from the love hearts collection in UR FAB (which I don't think they sell anymore.) I definitely prefer the new packaging as they look like the essie bottles. The dark shades are very opaque and you can get away with only one coat,butwith the lighter shades they obviously are not as opaque so you'd definitely need more than one coat. The colour range is also amazing as there's 30 different shades to choose from and at £1 each you can't go wrong.

and last but definitely not least... Lips -

These,along with the eye palettes are what MUA is most known and popular for as they have the amazing £1 lipsticks.

I have 3 of these lipsticks - Shade 2,3 and 13 and for what they're priced at they are incredibly pigmented, and even though they aren't that moisturising I can't complain. I love   shade 2 and it's one of my favourite autumn/winter lipsticks. 

I also have 3 of the lipsticks from the One Direction range - Rock Me, Be Mine and I Want, these are £3 instead of £1 due to the fact they're marketed as 1d products but they are still completely worth the money. I Want is probably my favourite as it's an orange toned red so I find it more wearable than most other reds I've got and it's a beautiful colour.

 with flash

without flash

                                                  Swatches (from top to bottom) - I want,

                                                  Rock Me, Be Mine, Shade 3, Shade 2, Shade 13.

So that was my first ever Beauty Brand Focus, I hope you enjoyed reading and have found out about some new products, if you would like another of these on a specific brand then please leave it in the comments and I will be sure to do one and also let me know if you liked this! thank you

Disclaimer- I have not been sponsored by MUA to write this post i am just writing this purely to show my opinion on their brand and products.

January Beauty Favourites 2014

So I've been loving quite a few things this month, some that are new products and some I've had for a while but here is the beauty things I've been loving this month. I'll also be doing a random favourites post in a couple days so look out for that, hope you enjoy reading

My first favourite for this month has been the POREfessional primer by benefit, I received this in the january birchbox which i did a review on here. This is the mini 7.5ml one but I think it will last quite a while. I use this everyday before my foundation and I love how it makes my skin feel really silky and smooth and I do notice a different on how long my foundation stays on for,it really helps with my oily skin and I would definitely recommend this!

Another favourite of mine from this month is a dark berry lipstick from the 'gothic glam' range by collection in the shade 1 'seduction' I've been loving dark lips this month and have been using this almost everyday,but I tone it down for school so it's more wearable and I got this from wilkinson for under £3!

Also from benefit I've been loving the erase paste concealer this month. I ran out of my collection lasting perfection concealer and was going to purchase another one when I remembered I had this one, mines in the shade 02 medium and is a bit too pinky toned for my yellow undertoned skin but when I blend it in with the right brush it looks fine and covers most of my redness, it's especially good for under my eyes.

My favourite mascara for this month has been the Avon super extend extreme mascara, it adds great length and quite a lot of volume to my lashes and I really like the look it gives, you can use it on two different sides, one is thinner and adds more length and the other side has bigger bristles, it's really hard to explain so sorry for that rubbish explanation! This is on half price at Avon at the moment down to £5 from £10.

I didn't know whether to put this product in the non-beauty or beauty favourites but just decided to add it in here as it's to do with your lips, this is the lush lip scrub in Popcorn. Now I really don't like popcorn but this just tastes really salty and quite buttery and caramelly which I suprisingly quite like! I also love how soft it makes my lips, I got this in a lush gift box that my mum ordered when lush had their half price sale but this sells for £5.50 i believe which is quite a lot but i do love it.

My favourite nail polish for this month has been the barry m matte nail polish in 'espresso' It's a real matte black colour which is my favourite type, I also have this in the burgundy wine colour called 'crush' but I find this one more wearable,it only takes 2 coats to be fully opaque and matte nails are my favourite! I found that after 2 days it started to become less matte so I go over it with a matte top coat I got from primark for 99p and it works fine! These are great for £3.99 and I would like to pick up some of the other shades.

A brush favourite for this month has been this kabuki brush which I got in one of the seventeen christmas gift sets, I love the density of this brush and I use it for power and to blend out my makeup and it works really well,unfortunately I don't think you can buy this brush separately but I'm sure there's something like it. Sorry about how dirty it is in the picture,I need to clean it.

My last favourite for this month has been my mac palette, I got the 4x4 one for £6.50 in debenhams, I already had the two eyeshadows but depotted one into this palette and the other one was pan but I love how compact the palette is and it makes it easier to carry them. I have the eyeshadows in the shades 'woodwinked' and 'da bling' which i think has now discontinued which is a shame but I really want amber lights, one because of the name as my names amber but two because it's such a gorgeous gold colour which I think would make my blue eyes stand out.

So that was my January 2014 beauty favourites, hope you enjoyed reading and thank you for 60+ followers!

Naked 3 Palette Review

This review was requested by Catherine from http://beautylovefashionthoughts.blogspot.co.uk/

So as you may know from my last blog post I was lucky enough to receive the Naked 3 palette from Urban Decay for christmas. Today I'm going to be sharing with you a review on what I think about the palette, my favourite shades and how I use the shades etc

The packaging is quite similar to the one of the Naked 2 palette because it is tin, but as you can see this one is a rose gold colour suggesting the types of colours in the palette. It also comes with a double ended shadow brush and 4 samples that each are meant to last a week of the primer potions in: original, eden,sin and anti-ageing.

Here is an overview of the palette

(from left to right)
Strange: A pinky white matte colour, great for inner-corner highlight
Dust: A very shimmery pale pink colour, does give a bit of fall out though
Burnout: A Light pinky peach colour, a neutral tone which can be used easily
Limit: A light dusty rose matte, I love this colour for all over the lid and it looks really pretty.
Buzz: A metallic rose shimmer, with pink micro-glitter, I don't use this colour as much but it's nice to dust on top of another colour
Trick: A pinky gold colour with a little shimmer to it, I love using this in the centre of the lid and is one of my most used colours

Nooner: A medium pinky-brown matte. One of my favourite shades from this palette,I love using this in my crease.

Liar: A medium metallic mauve shimmer. I like how this doesn't have too much shimmer in but still has enough and looks really nice on.
Factory: A pinky-brown satin. I find this a brown-gold colour and I love putting it in the outer corner of my eye to darken up the look.
Mugshot: A metallic taupe shimmer with slight pink shift. I love the shimmer in this colour and the texture is very nice aswell.
Darkside: A deep taupe-mauve satin. Perfect for using in a smokey eye!
Blackheart: It's a black matte colour with red sparkles in it making it a very unique colour,I love using it and it's so pigmented!

Swatches from - http://www.frmheadtotoe.com/2013/11/review-swatches-naked-3-palette.html


My favourite look to create using this palette is a wearable daytime look.
I first take 'limit' and place it all over of my lid, then I take 'nooner' and place it in my crease, I use 'factory' in the outer part of my lid, then add 'trick' to the centre of my lid. I always use 'strange' for my inner corner highlight and if I want to darken up the look I will add a bit of 'blackheart' in the outer v of my eye.
Although this is my favourite look I've created so far using the palette there is so many more to create and all the colours look stunning together.

Overall I love this palette so much,It's my first thing from the 'naked family' but my sister and mum have the naked and naked 2 palette. This palette is so unique and has the prettiest colours in, I've used this non-stop since I received it and I recommend it to everyone. It retails at £37 but it is worth every penny!

Thank you for reading, Amber x