Urban Decay Naked Palette

Hello my lovelies,

I jumped on the Naked palette rather late I got the original Naked palette a few years back, now the original Naked is a neutral girls dream palette. It comes with 12 shades.. shimmery neutrals right through to everything you need for that perfect smokey eye. The colours come encased in a velvet, oblong palette with a good sized mirror and a double ended make up brush. I personally love the brush that comes with these palettes and always use them.  

(L-R Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck. Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal)

I haven't stopped using this since I bought it, mainly Virgin all across the lid, Sidecar or Smog in the crease and Toasted or Hustle in the corners. I am yet to use Creep or Gunmetal, they're gorgeous shades but I'm not very good with a dark, smokey eye and tend to look like a stripper. The shadows are so creamy, and super blendable. I'm having a major love in with Urban Decay at the moment and wonder why it's taken me so long to really look into the brand. Next up the Naked 2 then from there I might build up the Naked collection.

What is your favourite Naked palette? 

Urban Decay Naked Foundation.

Hello my beautiful lovely dolls, now I don't know about you but I struggle to find the perfect foundation especially for my skin tone, I'm fair with cool undertones apparently. All the foundations I've tried from drugstores just don't seem to work. I normally go for ivory shade. Now ivory does suit, however when you changes from say Rimmel to Maybelline they tend to differ a bit.

So I thought why not go up market a bit and try high end brands. So I ventured into Debenhams and looked at Chanel, Mac, Dior and Urban Decay. I went to the Dior stand and got matched to a lovely shade which suited my undertones. So I got it and wore it till I run out, now for me that shows I truly loved it. So when it came time for me to replace it I thought £47 is a bit pricey and it didn't really give that go a coverage I had to put two loads on and yes it looked cakey.

So I went over to Urban Decay and spoke to the lovely girl there and she matched me to Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation in 1.0 now this is medium to full coverage and is runny so you don't need a lot which is good. When she put it on it felt as though I didn't have any foundation on, yet when I looked in the mirror you could see I did as it covered my blemishes. 

The girl told me I didn't have to buy it there and then I could think about it and come back. Needless to say I didn't need to think and I got it there and then and it was only £27, which is a decent price I must say. It gives good coverage, blends nicely, the packaging is simple yet eye catching. You don't need a lot which means you won't need to go out in say 3 months time to buy more, plus it's build able but won't make you look cakey. It has a lovely velvety feel to it and sinks into the skin perfectly.

Here's what it looks like, as you can see it's quite sheer so a little goes a long way!

This is it blended! Now I don't know if you can see but near my wrist I have a scratch that my dog did. The foundation had nearly made it disappear! Also some of my freckles have been covered so they are visible! 

 This is what I look like with one layer of it on. I'm sorry for the quality I took it with my iPad. However as you can see it's given me really good coverage and my blemishes have been covered really well. 

I am loving Urban Decay products right now and this foundation is amazing, it just goes on flawlessly and has a velvety feel to it which makes it feel as though you aren't wearing any make up, hence it being called Naked.

I would love to know if any of you have tried this foundation and whether or not you approve of it.

MUA eye palette

It was the Pixiwoo girls that first introduced me to MUA more than a year and a half ago when they featured the Heaven and Earth eyeshadow palette in one of their videos. Since then, I've read countless blog posts praising MUA eyeshadow palettes as a cheap but good quality alternative to the Urban Decay Naked palettes (with Undressed being modelled off the original Naked, and Undress Me Too the Naked2 palette). I own and adore both Naked palettes, so I never felt compelled to try out a more affordable version (especially when it involves buying online — something I try to avoid unless desperate, which seems to be quite frequently). What really pushed me over the edge though, was recently watching Fleur De Force's £20 Makeup Challenge where she raves about Heaven and Earth and uses 4 shades from it as part of her look. Once I started to properly inspect swatches of Heaven and Earth, I realised practically all the shades appealed to me.

The palette consists of 12 shades — 3 highlight shades, 5 medium shades and 3 darker shades. Each individual eyeshadow doesn't have a name, so I've labelled them 1 to 12 for convenience.

In the top row, shade 1 is a frosty pale champagne/off-white, 2 is a warm, copper-tinged light-to-medium brown, 3 is a dirty yellow gold mixed with a hint of olive, 4 is a pearlescent light pink, 5 is a warm, dark chocolate brown and 6 is an amber/orangey-gold. On the bottom row, shade 7 is a medium-to-dark chocolate brown, similar to the second last shade on the top row but lighter, 8 is a neutral, light-to-medium beige/brown, 9 is a pale, frosty peach, 10 is a cool, silvery, purplish taupe, 11 is a warm, medium-to-dark bronze, and 12 is a slightly ashy dark brown with silvery glitter.

My most used colours are 2, 5, 8, 10 and 11. I tried 3 and 6 as all-over lid colours, but still prefer the other more neutral (read: beige/brown) shades. The shadows aren't uniformly pigmented and some of them were surprisingly difficult to swatch (2, 3, 8 and 10 in particular). Generally, the highlight shades (1, 4 and 9) have excellent pigmentation, with 9 being the clear standout for whatever reason. Shade 5 and 6 also have better than average colour payoff. Surprisingly, I haven't experienced all that much fallout, unlike with my Sleek orWet n Wild eyeshadow palettes. Though all the shades are shimmery, they're more of a subdued, satin finish and aren't as intensely metallic as say, the Sleek i-Divine palette in Storm.

Are these shadows comparable to the Urban Decay Naked palette? I would say a resounding no. Anyone who has experienced both palettes will know what I'm talking about. The MUA simply doesn't hold up to Urban Decay's stunning pigmentation, metallic depth, blendability, smoothness and lasting power. But for the price I paid (under $10), I'm satisfied with the quality and shade selection. There's a good mix of safe, everyday neutrals that you can use for almost any occasion. For the sheer ratio of potential all-over lid colours in one palette, Heaven and Earth is worth having in your collection.