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

Review: Maybelline Color Elixir Lip Lacquer in '725 Caramel Infused'

To be honest, I bought this at the same time as my other lip lacquer by Maybelline (two for £10), and after deciding it was almost a waste of money, I was wondering or not whether to blog about this, but I decided to try it out anyway... 

Like the other lip lacquer, it has the same cute packaging (I'm not a huge fan of packaging, but I comment on it in case others are), and the same light, candy scent that wears away quickly. In the tube, the colour has a brownish caramel appearance (hence the name), but when it's applied, it's a lovely, creamy pink-brown (yes, you know me, love my nude lips - so predictable, Xen, well done!). After the disappointment of 'Signature Scarlet', I was completely ready to throw down my weapons and admit defeat against the evils of the tyrannical lip lacquer...

But I was pleasantly surprised. The colour was lovely, medium-pigmentation, looked good with just one swipe of the pear-shaped wand (forgot to take a pic, please see previous blog) and the colour didn't settle into the creases in my lips, making me one happy girl indeed. It reminds me of a lipgloss version of MAC's lipstick 'Modesty', which has been one of my favourite nude lipsticks of this year. 

This little beauty has impressed me, and will be joining the ranks of my other nude lip colours, for sure. 

Any lip colours you like/suggest? Have you tried these lip lacquers? Let me know!