Review: MUA Elysium Palette

I was in Superdrug, on a mission to buy cotton pads, when I stumbled across this little beauty on the MUA stand today:

An eyeshadow palette consisting of 10 eyeshadows and a double ended black eyeliner/pale pink highlighter pencil. This retails at just £6. Of course this made its way into my basket! 

Above is a picture of the back of the palette, with the names of the shadows. 

And a picture of the ingredients. As you can see, these shadows do contain parabens, so if you're tempted to buy these then please use a primer (paraben free if possible!) underneath to stop your body from absorbing them. 

I noticed that at least 6 of the colours bore a striking resemblance to 6 of the colours in the Naked 3 palette...

"Air" and "Cherub" look very similar to Naked 3's "Strange" and "Dust".

"Charm" is an amazing dupe for N3's "Limit".

"Refine" is also a great dupe for N3's "Nooner" (one of my fave matte crease/blending colours).

"Adore" is similar to N3's "Blackheart".

"Astral" is a very good dupe for N3's "Buzz".

The other four eyeshadows don't much resemble the Naked 3 palette, but I really love this palette as a cheap dupe. It has 5 metallic colours, four mattes and one black matte with red sparkle (Adore). 

Of course I had to try this palette out (sorry, swatches turned out crap on my phone so I deleted the pics), so I did this look for college today:

For this look I used Charm as a transition/blending colour, then Refine in the crease and lower lash line. I used Cherub on my eyelid, Adore in the outer third of my eyelid and on the outer third of my lower lash line, lined my upper lash line with the black eyeliner pencil and set it with some more Adore. I then used a highlighter around my inner eyes to bring light to this look, lined my waterline with black waterproof gel liner and curled my lashes and added plenty of mascara (around 3/4 coats) to pull the whole look together. 

My thoughts: I absolutely love this palette, it's a fantastic price, the colours are well pigmented (the metallic ones are super creamy and beautiful to wear), has some brilliant Naked 3 palette colour dupes and they apply and blend amazingly well. The only negative thing I can think of (other than the shadows containing parabens) is that the double ended pencil (the size it is now with the lids on both ends) fits perfectly in the palette, but once the pencil is sharpened, it'll be shorter and it won't be able to fit, so will fall out easier and perhaps even get lost. But! That's only a minor negative - I'm sure I can move the pencil to somewhere safer! I will definitely be using this palette a lot in the future and I recommend it to anyone on a budget or that doesn't want to fork out £37 for the Naked 3. 

Hugs x

MAC Kinky Boots Collection

So! This is my second try at blogging today... My cat deleted my last attempt with just one paw. I lost all my pictures, words, everything. So, im going to start again! 

Kinky Boots is based on a true story of a man whose shoe making business is going under, so he ends up making kinky boots that are made just for men. Apparently this MAC collection is based on the Broadway play, which I've never seen (but I did watch the film when it came out around 10yrs ago, and I really enjoyed it). 

Kinky Lipstick:

 

Kinky Lipglass:

The last picture is the lipglass applied over the lipstick. 

The lipstick is a blue based red matte, smoother/easier to apply than other, older formula mattes I own, and it's not quite as drying as them either. The lipglass is a sheer red with tiny flecks of gold glitter. It looks beautiful on its own or on top of the lipstick (it gives it an attractive, darker, glittery finish). 

My thoughts: MAC already has some very famous blue-based red lipsticks (Ruby Woo and Russian Red being amongst the favourites), so this lipstick doesn't really stand out but it definitely holds it own with pigmentation and staying power. The lipglass, however, is more of a favourite with me. The base colour has just enough pigment to make my colourless lips look rosy (when applied on its own) and the glitter makes my lips sparkle. Another plus is that when the gloss wears away, the glitter remains on the lips, which I personally like a lot. 

Have you got the Kinky Boots Collection? 

Any collections you absolutely love that I need to know about? Please let me know!