I have already admitted this to myself but I’m without a doubt an eyeshadow palette addict, I just love them. I think it’s because the colours look so pretty altogether and I like that you can easily create an eye look without too much fuss. So when I saw this absolute beauty of a palette from W7 on MissMakeUpMagpie blog a few weeks ago I had to get it.
On the grapevine, I have heard that this W7 palette is meant to be a dupe for the MAC Burgundy Times Nine Palette & I wondered if the pigmentation would be there but I have to say this palette knocks it out of the park. All 9 shades are gorgeous, very pigmented and have little to no fallout The shades in this palette are perfect for Autumn / Winter.
The packaging is very MAC inspired, it feels like its very good quality, it’s slim, compact and sturdy, I also love that it has a clear lid so you can see the eyeshadows. You get 4.5g of product and 9 shadows in total. I think its a fantastic palette for the price. As with most budget brands, they haven’t named the shadows which annoys me slightly but that doesn’t take away from the quality, which is very good.
You get 9 shadows in the palette and I like the range of nude-toned neutrals & the fact you get a good selection of coppers, cranberries and a few nude pink tones. I would wear every shade in this palette, it makes a very good everyday option as you can make it look quite minimal and muted with the pretty nudes or vamp it up with more of the deeper, richer shades.
There is a nice mix of mattes, satin finishes and shimmers all of which are pigmented and blend well. It’s unusual to find good affordable matte shadows but these are very good quality, in fact regardless of price, this is an outstanding palette and one I highly recommend checking out.
So this month I was introduced to Blank Canvas who are an Irish, online cosmetics brand. Their product selection is quite small but they are constantly adding to the line and growing as a brand. I have been trying out one of their latest releases, the Master Series Palette One. Being a complete Neutral Eyeshadow Addict this 12 pan neutral palette had me very excited.
This palette comes well packaged in an outer sleeve and the palette itself feels very sturdy and good quality, it has a great sized mirror, and the palette has a magnetic close so its not going to end up open in your makeup bag. You also get a really nice quality double ended (vegan friendly) makeup brush which is also for sale separately and retails at £10. One end is fantastic for packing on the shadow and the other end is a lovely fluffy blending brush. Its a total 10/10 for the quality of this brush, I am very impressed.
You get a total of 12 colours, 11 matte shadows and 1 shimmer shade, often it is hard to find good quality matte shadows and a couple of the lighter colours in this palette are a little hard to work with which is a shame but I like that you get a nice selection of warm neutral colours, these colours are so easy to wear and exactly what I reach for daily so I was hoping this could become my new goto palette.
I really wanted the quality of these shadows to be great and in the pans they looked gorgeous and rich but once I started swatching, the shadows had quite a lot of fall out and quite a few colours applied patchy. The top row has all of the lighter shades which are not the best quality, the three darker shades on this row are better and their texture feels a lot softer in comparison, they’re much easier to blend and have better colour pay off.
The bottom row is much better, these 6 darker shades are on the whole rich in colour and easier to work with. There are a few shadows in this palette that I absolutely love like HIBISCUS, CARMIN and COCOA but I really wish all the colours were of the same quality. I had to work hard to get the swatches below to look as bold as they do.
I didn’t use a primer because day to day I don’t wear one and not everyone would have that step in their makeup routine. If I could make a smaller palette out of the shadows I love I would 100% purchase it. I have searched for other reviews of this palette and a few people have said they are not completely in love with it but there are also quite a few people that love it and say that it’s pigmented and wonderful quality. I wonder if I have a dud or maybe I’m being super critical.
To look at this, its a gorgeous neutral palette & has the potential to be my dream palette but overall for me the quality just isn’t there so I’m sticking to my guns and saying this Master Series Palette One isn’t one I would recommend.
My blog is fast approaching its 4th birthday & I always like to take a moment to have a look back over all my posts from the previous year & pick out my favourites. I did this last year & you seemed to like it. Its been an exciting and busy year for me both in the blogging world and in my real life. So many changes and I am very much looking forward to 2016 and seeing where it takes me.
If you click on the photos it will take you through to that specific post.
I have so much content planned for 2015 and I even have some food related ones lined up too. My new kitchen is gorgeous and I have been getting a little more adventurous so I thought I would share with you more baking and cooking posts.
Let me know which of my posts has been your favourite this year!
Autumn is my favourite season and I always like switch up my makeup at this time of year, so I was having a look through my collection & I thought I would share a few Autumnal products that I’ve looked out. I have put them with my everyday makeup so I will be prompted to use them more often. Let me know if you do this too?
If there was one product I am guilty of hoarding it is eyeshadow I just seem to be drawn to them and I like the shades which seem to feel quite Autumnal like the browns, coppers and plums. I simply love the MAC Sharon Osbourne Duchess Eyeshadow Quad I know it was limited edition but I just think it’s the nicest quad & one of the shades Embark is a permanent shade. This is my perfect quad & the colours are just perfect for this time of year & creating that Autumnal brown smoky eye. The four shades in this quad in case you wanted to know are Sweet Eyes, Sexy Eyes, Femme Fatale and Embark.
I also like to use MAC Amber Lights a lot at this time of year, it’s just the most beautiful copper, golden brown and I use it all over the lid for an easy effortless eye look. Its so pigmented and it always looks beautiful. The Catrice eyeshadow in My First Copperware Party is a really lovely taupe and it’s my everyday eyeshadow of choice at the moment. Catrice is such an affordable brand and the quality of their products is impressive so if you get chance to try any then make sure you get a few eyeshadows they’re so buttery soft and the pigmentation is on a par with MAC!
Bronzer for me is a product I have really discovered this year, or should I say discovered how to use properly! This Autumn’s bronzer of choice is the Guerlain Terracotta Bronzing Powder the packaging alone is beautiful and makes me feel extremely grown up. The product is equally stunning and it gives your skin just the right amount of bronze & glow. A light hand is needed because this is so pigmented and it stays put all day long which is great because I daren’t take this out of the house in case I break it. It is extremely pigmented but it blends out really well so you won’t look like you have just added a strip of bronzer to your cheeks. It’s just an all round beautiful product!
Nail polish is so easy to switch up for the season and I seem to have an abundance of shades for Autumn I struggled to narrow it down to three. I love to wear deep plums, purples and the occasional grey too but in my lineup I have the beautiful Urban Decay Mrs. Mia Wallace* which is a stunning deep plum with an iridescent shimmer, it looks vampy on the nails and Urban Decay polishes are easy to apply, this shade is opaque in one coat. Also how incredible is the packaging (skull on the lid). The Barry M Gelly High Shine polishes are some of my favourites and their shade range is vast, this beautiful Mustard polish was a gift for my birthday last year from Hayley and its the perfect Autumnal shade. I also have a set of mini OPI nail polishes and this Malaga Wine shade is a gorgeous berry red and is such a rich deep shade, it looks pretty on the nails. I think OPI polishes are fantastic quality and them always last so long on me.
When it comes to base I always like to wear quite a light coverage and I have been loving this Glo & Ray CC Foundation*, the colour was a little too light for me over the Summer but now I have no tan its perfect. I think it’s a good base for this time of year because it makes my skin look fresh and luminous but doesn’t cover up my freckles. So it’s quite natural looking, it does reduce the appearance of the redness in my cheeks and also the darkness around my eyes. It’s a great daytime base and it leaves my skin looking healthy and even toned.
Oh, the Maybelline Colour Tattoos are great for using as a base before applying other shadows or they work well on their own all over the lid. I always have to use this gorgeous burgundy wine colour in the Autumn and Winter it’s called Pomegranate Punk and its unlike anything I have. These wear so well on the lids and even though they are affordable I think they stand up to a lot of the high-end cream shadows for quality!
I like to wear liquid eyeliner but often during the day, I find it can look a little harsh, especially when I don’t want to look like I am wearing too much makeup. So I like to switch up the jet black liner for browns and I find Kohl liners are great and you can smudge them down so they don’t look too harsh or bold. The Clinique Quickliner in intense black honey is a pretty deep brown and I also like the Essence Gel eye pencil in brown. The Essence one is waterproof and is so creamy to apply.
When it comes to lips I like a low maintenance lip product & if it’s not a lip crayon then I always reach for the Rimmel Apocalips, I find they apply so well on my lips & if you make sure to remove all the excess product off the applicator then you will be able to apply the product evenly and it is so pigmented. I think the deep berry shades look best on me so as soon as Autumn comes around I get excited to wear all these shades. My favourite is the Apocalips in Galaxy which is a wine plum shade & I have repurchased this one a couple of times.
I would love to know what products you add to your makeup stash over Autumn / Winter.
Products that are marked with an * have either been sent to me for my consideration or I’ve received at events. I’m under no obligation to review them on my blog. However, if I do, the reviews are 100% my own.
