Tag Archives: palette

Colourpop Chasing Rainbows Palette – Swatches and Thoughts

What’s that? Another Colourpop palette added to my collection? I’m not even gonna pretend this was an accident..

I asked my mum for Chasing Rainbows for Christmas, perfectly timed with a 48 hour free international shipping offer, and although that meant I had to wait until New Years to get it, I’ve never found Colourpop products to not be worth the wait.

So this is the fourth Colourpop palette that I have reviewed on here, and if you look back over all the previous ones, you would quite easily come to the conclusion that I have a thing for bright eyeshadows, and that is 100% true, which is why this particular palette jumped out at me – well, that and the super cute packaging..

As the name of the palette also suggests, the range of colours covers a good amount of the colour spectrum, with some staple browns and golds to round it out, and as the swatches below show, the pigmentation is of a classic amazing Colourpop standard.

Left to right: Realness, Feeling It, So Meta, Blurred Lines, Wiggles

Left to right: Not Playing, Keep Cool, Manifest It, Wish List, Woke

Top to bottom: Lucid, Bring It, On One, Eclipse, Prism

I really like the versatility of Colourpop palettes; it makes life so much easier when I’m travelling if I can take just one palette but am able to produce a whole bunch of different looks from it, and this is no exception. Special mention goes to the shade Lucid, which on first look didn’t look like my cup of tea, but when I swatched it I discovered its blue-ish duo-tone effect which is really beautiful.

I feel like I’m often spouting the same spiel when it comes to Colourpop, but the fact is in my eyes there’s not a whole lot they can do wrong.

PS I’m super interested in trying out their No Filter Foundation, so if anyone has ever tried it or reviewed it, please let me know in the comments below!

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W7 Blazin’ Palette Review

So a few weeks ago I mentioned that I’d bought a couple of W7 palettes from TKMaxx, and shared the first one which I thought to be a potential dupe for a Too Faced palette. Today I’m reviewing the second palette, which I think could also be a possible dupe, but this time for Urban Decay’s Naked Heat eyeshadow palette, but as I don’t own that I can’t really do a side by side comparison!

So this is the W7 Blazin’ palette. The RRP is £9.95, but I picked it up from TKMaxx for £4.99, and looking around you can get it from a lot of places for under £5.

As with most of the W7 palettes, it comes in a tin form, and its quite a sizeable one, but I think it looks the part and the outside definitely gives a good indication of what’s to come on the inside. There’s also a double-ended brush included, but one end is a foamy applicator which I personally don’t like so won’t use, but the other end is fine!

The inside, however, is when it really starts to look like its Urban Decay counterpart, and looking at photos of Naked Heat the shades do seem to match up pretty well, but as I said I can’t do an exact comparison! I started off by swatching the shades, and the below swatches are one layer using just my finger.

First off, I really liked the feel of the formula – it was soft and buttery to touch, but when using a brush later on it did have a little bit of crumble to it but I personally like my shadows to be a bit powdery as it means they get picked up well by all brushes. I thought the pigmentation was really good for something that cost less than £5, with the middle shades coming off best I thought – my forearms are super super pale so I always struggle to get whiter shades to show up when I swatch them, but as you can see in the second swatch photo they did hold out ok, and when using them on my eyes I’ve had no problems. I felt like the darker colours could have been a little darker, but it really doesn’t bother me as those are the ones that I know I won’t use so much.

I have had a lot of fun playing around with this palette! There are a lot of looks that you can create, which surprised me considering there’s not much range in terms of colour, and I was also uncertain as I’ve not been much of a reddish shadow kinda girl before, but going into autumn I think this is definitely a palette I will use a lot. The colours build and blend like a dream and there’s a good mix of matte and shimmery shades so you’ve got all bases covered! W7 is also a cruelty free brand, so for £5 I have absolutely no complaints about this palette, and now I don’t need to fork out £30 for the Urban Decay Naked Heat one!

If you do have Naked Heat, let me know how you think these photos/swatches compare, I’d love to know!

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Colourpop Yes Please Palette

I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally have my hands on this palette. It was love at first sight.

Its yellow, it contains yellow, do I need to say any more? And yes, its probably one of the most hyped palettes of the last few months, and now I know why.

The majority of the shades are matte, although there are a few metallics in there too, and they all compliment each other so well – I swear you could put any two shades from this palette together and be onto a winner.

As per Colourpop standard, the formulas are soft and blend like a dream, and I cannot flaw the pigmentation of any of the shades. I love the fact that the browns aren’t too dark, but they are buildable if you do want to created a deeper shade, and that actually goes for all of the shades, although I think they all go on well with a single application.

What I love about this palette is that I would never normally buy a palette of these shades; I was drawn in by the packaging and one or two of the colours, but now I’ve actually had a chance to use it I love all of them. Its actually turned me into a warm-tone kinda gal and going into winter I am very excited for this.

Have you jumped on the Colourpop bandwagon yet?

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Colourpop x My Little Pony Palette

Have you ever seen a product and while not being able to come up with an exact reason as to why, just knew you needed it? Yep, that was me with this palette.

I don’t even remember being that into My Little Pony as a kid (this is the point where, when my mother reads this post, she’ll text me to tell me if this isn’t true), but my infatuation with Colourpop has only just begun and you may be pleased to know that there are more swatch and review posts coming over the next few weeks, and I have been having the most fun playing with these products!

Obviously I don’t have to tell you how cute the packaging is, that goes without saying really. I’ve heard a few people complain about a lack of mirrors in the eyeshadow palettes but personally that’s not an issue for me – I’ve cracked so many mirrors by accidentally leaning or stepping on palettes before that I’ve probably earned enough bad luck to last a lifetime, plus I’m not one to do my eye makeup with such a little mirror anyway!

The palette consists of primarily metallic shadows, with a few soft mattes thrown in for good measure. They’re best applied using a soft brush as I found when I tried a stiffer brush the shadows went a bit crumbly, but also didn’t apply as evenly.

I was pleasantly surprised at the lighter shades in the palette and how well they stood out, as I often find pale shades either don’t show up at all or just disappear as soon as a darker shade is blended, but the four lightest shades – Butterscotch, Bluebell, Flutterbye and Snazzle – all really impressed me.

In fact, all of the shades impressed me with their pigmentation and staying ability, with my one let down actually being one of the darkest shades in the palette, the deep teal shade, Princess Sparkle, which looks great in the palette but for me just didn’t fit in with the rest of the shades, and also came out a little too grey for me, rather than the metallic turquoise I had hoped for.

But hey, 1 bad shade in 12 ain’t bad, right? And for $16 I’m not complaining one bit! I’m a big fan of the pinky/peachy shades, and I think I’ll be using those along with the more berry-toned shades a lot over the coming months!

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TheBalm Nude Dude Palette Review

When it comes to makeup, I’ve gone from being very much a rookie to slightly less rookie-like fairly quickly in recent months. I’ve always liked makeup, but my old job didn’t really give me any reason to wear it (in fact, I’d probably be taken less seriously if I did wear it), but even when I did go to the effort of sprucing up my face a little, it would generally just be a bit of mascara, brows and face as, as a glasses wearer, eyeshadow has always felt a little pointless.

This palette can only really be described as a gamechanger for me.

It all came about when I chose a sample in my Feel Unique Pick’n’Mix; I received an adorable tiny version of the palette containing just the shade Flirty, and I fell in love. It was creamy and easy to apply, and even now I have the whole palette its still my favourite shade of the bunch, bright enough to stand out as a colour, rather than just a neutral shade, but also subtle enough to be used for an everyday look.

So I bought the whole palette..

TheBalm Nude Dude review

TheBalm Nude Dude review

The packaging is, of course, part of the fun of this palette. Its the sequel to Nude ‘Tude, which I’ve not tried but from looking at the shades I definitely prefer this one – its a fab combination of nudes with a few pops of colour, matte and shimmery shades, and I find myself reaching for this on an almost daily basis.

Depending on the brush you use, the shadows can go a little powdery; I find that the brush included in the palette causes quite a lot of flaking on the palette, but my soft Spectrum brushes don’t produce much mess at all. Pigmentation wise, let’s look at the swatches shall we?

Top to bottom: Fearless, Fabulous, Faithful, Flawless, Firm, Fit, Fiesty, Flirty, Funny, Friendly, Fine, Fierce

While I’ve read some reviews that slate the lighter shades of this palette, I was fairly impressed by them as I often find lighter colours barely show up on my skin. I’m not one for darker shades on my eyes (glasses problems), but they apply smoothly and are nicely pigmented.

I prefer the shimmery shades to the matte – Flawless and Fiesty are a little blah for me – but all the shades blend really easily and there are some fab combinations; Fabulous, Faithful and Flirty is my absolute favourite and possibly the best makeup look I’ve created in my lifetime.

I know I’m a little late to the party with this palette, as its been available for some time now, but I have absolutely no regrets and I might go as far as saying its the best beauty purchase I’ve made this year.

Have you tried this palette? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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My First Makeup Revolution Haul

I’ve seen so many rave reviews about Makeup Revolution from beauty bloggers, I had to know what this hype was all about.

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I will be totally honest, I was a little dubious when I saw the prices. I’m not a makeup snob, but I’m a firm believer in getting what you pay for, and this stuff is cheap, hence my nerves, but when I turned to the twittersphere for advice and beauty bloggers from all over the country were telling me how much they loved the brand, I had to put my previous thoughts behind me and take the plunge.

And for all this, I paid £20 including postage. Umm..

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Ok, so the first thing I was told was an absolute must was a palette, and Mermaids vs Unicorns stood out because I love the name, and I love the colours. Green does not suit me, but there’s not too much of it, and blue is my jam so I was sold.

Application wise, the colours are an absolute dream; super soft and smooth and highly pigmented, and the colours stay true and hold really well over time. I don’t really like using the foam applicators normally, but it does help blend the colours well so I can’t complain!

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Self-confessed lipstick addict, I had to try at least one, and yes, that is a yellow lipstick, but it was on sale at 75p, I have no restraint when it comes to yellow. I wasn’t blown away by either of these, but I’m pretty fussy and considering they’re only £1, its not put me off buying again, although I’ll probably stick to darker shades.

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Foundation is the bane of my life; I am forever struggling to find a shade that suits me, so the idea of spending a lot of money on one that doesn’t work for me is not on the cards. I decided to try two different types, Ultra Face Base (£3) in FB 02 and Matte Effect (£2) in Ivory, and d’you know what? They both work for me! UFB is very lightweight but does a great job of evening out my skintone and giving a little shine to my skin, and Matte Effect is a bit heavier, but covers really well – I can’t believe I’m so happy with both of them!

Lastly, I bought The One Concealer and Awesome Double Flick thick and thin eyeliner pen. I do have dark circles under my eyes (curse of the lifetime glasses wearer), and normally I find the foundation just highlights them, so I finally decided to try a concealer to mask them a little better. The One has a soft feel to it with a creamy centre to give colour; its a little shiny, but once covered with foundation does the job! I’ve always wanted an eyeliner pen – they just look so much easier to use – so I opted for the Double Flick which has two ends of different thicknesses. I was worried the colour wouldn’t be as strong, but its super black and the fine tip allows so much detail, I’m so glad I bought it!

Overall, I’ve had to complete throw my idea of cheap makeup out the window, and I’m declaring my love of Makeup Revolution! I’ve already got a list of future purchases..

Join the revolution!

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