MY TOP 5: MAKEUP REVOLUTION EYESHADOW PALETTES

What better way to start a Monday than with a little post about my favourite drugstore brand - Makeup Revolution. Today I'd like to show you my absolute Top 5 palettes from MUR that tick just about every single box for me. Cool to warm neutrals with a touch of crazy colour and most importantly lots of mattes and beautiful shimmers.

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I've always been pretty vocal in saying the Chocolate series from MUR are my absolute faves! The formula and shadow pigmentation smashes pretty much any other drugstore brand by a mile! They're this good! I own every single palette from that series and I'm sure I own many more as certain sneak peeks on Instagram suggest (damn you Adam Minto!). It was heartbreaking choosing the best out of them but I have and these 3 will rock your world. 

Let's start with Naked Chocolate. The packaging is of white melted chocolate with its powdery yellow finish. I call it - the wedding palette, as it consists of a great mixture of neutrals with cool mauves, cool & warm browns and lot's of delicate shimmers. The pigmentation is insane and the shadows all blend and transfer well. It's a perfectly balanced neutral palette, so if you do not own any MUR palettes - I'd start with this one! (Click here for REVIEW WITH SWATCHES)

I love warm tones and the newest addition to the Chocolate family is Chocolate Vice. I only just recently reviewed it for the blog so I'll be brief . It's an absolute gem for those loving warm tones shadows. If you are a proud owner of blue, grey or green eyes, these shadows will make your eyes pop! Great mixture of warm tones mostly from golds, through coppers, browns, peach and reds! Stunning palette! I find that pigmentation & formula is slightly better than the previous Chocolate palettes and It's been my favourite for a while now.  (click here for REVIEW WITH SWATCHES)

Salted Caramel palette compliments the others very well. It's a lovely mixture of cool, neutral and warm Browns with a touch of gold and even colour. It's a great neutral palette, especially for evening looks as there's: plenty of medium to dark browns to choose from. Again the pigmentation is great and the shades blend beautifully together. If you're looking to update your collection with darker neutrals - this one is for you. It's been designed as a dupe for Too Faved Semi Sweet Palette so if you don't fancy spending £40.00 on the original, MUR dupe is available for fifth of the price. (Click here for REVIEW WITH SWATCHES)

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Another warm toned gem is the amazing New-Trals VS Neutrals palette. With plenty of cool to neutral crease shades and lots of peach and reds, it's a perfect palette! If you'd like to make those grey/blue eyes pop, look no further. From semi-mattes, through satins and eye popping shimmers, it's a gorgeous choice all year round, especially summer and autumn, when we tend to stick to warmer colours in our makeup routines. I'm in love with the top row shades - they're original and pigmentation is spot on. Bottom row reminds me of Naked 3 shades and it compliments the warm shades of the top row perfectly. (click here for REVIEW WITH SWATCHES)

Last but certainly not least is the Redemption Matte Brights Palette which has been my absolute favourite colour palette of the whole last year. The crazy colours are intense and pigmented, when applied over white base you can really make them pop. Perfect add on to any collection, if you'd like to start experimenting with colour in your looks. Side note: for pastel shades just mix any colour with the White shade in the palette. It's a great all rounder and perfect for anyone who's just starting with colourful looks! 

Thank You For Reading,

Love

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PENCIL, POWDER, MASCARA OR POMADE? BEST BROW PRODUCTS FOR BLONDES & BROW CARE

Happy Monday my beauties :) I have been meaning to talk to you about brows for quite some time. Brows are super important, they define your features and add the finishing touch to your makeup. In the last few years they became a thing. We now have countless of products on the market, but the question I get asked the most is: which one to choose?

My brows and how I care for them.

Let's start with my brows. I have plenty of brow hair to play with. Jealous much? Well, let me tell you, it's not all fun and games! With plenty of hair there are certain cons to keep in mind. First of all: how unruly they are!!! My brows live their own life and if there's one thing I can count on, it's that. Long hair need trimming quite often. I tend to do it once a month but I know I should probably do it more often. 

I don't over pluck. In fact I pluck very little. I don't go to a beautician and wax them either. I prefer to care for my own brows. Why? It saves me a lot of money, as it can be as pricey as £35.00 per appointment. Most importantly I avoid it simply because I always end up with either "Instagram Brow" or over plucked with an enormous arch. 

I keep my brows simple and quite straight. Yes, there's a natural arch to them and I tend to keep it that way. I only pluck the hair below and keep my brow line as natural as possible. They will never look like twins and why should they? Brows are sisters, not twins and I'm happy with my natural brows. 

I tend to pluck once a week and care for my brows every night with a brush of castor oil. I find it's as good as any brow serums on the market and it's cost effective. 

Pencil, powder, mascara or pomade? Types of brow products.

I get asked a lot, what brow product I prefer. It's a hard question as I really like to use all of the above. For work I normally just use a pencil, quickly filling in the arch and finishing up with some brow mascara. For days, where I can spend an extra minute or two on my brows, or when I go out, I opt for pomade. The least used product would be the brow powder. I have full brows so there's not that much sparse areas that need filling in, so brow powder is never my first choice. 

When shopping for brow products there's one factor that's important whatever the product. Remember to choose the shade as cool in tone as possible. There are rarely any people with naturally warm toned brows so cool tone shade will suit you better.

When choosing brow pencil it's important to get few details right. There's so many different options out there. I personally prefer the thin pencil like Soap & Glory Archery, which makes drawing individual hair super easy. It's also important to choose the right formula. The harder the pencil, the most precise it will be. Soft pencils will be much harder to use when looking for precision.

When choosing brow powder, it's all about pigmentation. Highly pigmented powder will make your work fast and easy. Try to choose powder which is fully matte as it will look the most natural on the brow.

Brow mascaras are everywhere these days. Choose one with fibres to give your brows fuller effect. The main factor to consider is the size of the brush. The smaller the brush, the easier it is to use. You want your brow mascara to dry to matte and have a pretty strong hold to keep your brows in place.

When looking for brow pomades, there's few factors to consider. The formula should be creamy and pigmented. It makes the application super easy. You should look for formula that dries pretty fast and to full matte. Waterproof is the one to go for, especially on hot summer days. Brow pomades tend to dry up pretty quickly in the pans. Storing them upside down helps a little, but your best friend would be a product such as Inglot Duraline. One drop every month or so will refresh the pomade.

Brow Pencils for blondes/ dark blondes:

Soap & Glory Archery in Blondshell - £8.00

Light to medium taupe shade will suit all blondes. The pencil is super thin and quite hard, making the application easy and precise. The brush on the other end completes this pencil perfectly as you can quickly brush off the excess product. My absolute fave !!!

Studio 10 Brow Lift Perfecting Liner - £22.00

Another duo, this time with dark beige liner, which is meant for cleaning up the brows after application. It's too dark for me so I only ever use the brow pencil side. The shade is perfect for blondes. It's medium to dark taupe with cool tones. It's not as precise as Archery but it does a good job. 2nd place in my book.

Maybelline Brow Satin in Dark Blonde - £5.99

This duo features fairly thin brow pencil and brow powder on a sponge applicator. I quite like the brow pencil, although the colour is definitely more blonde than taupe and slightly warmer than brow pencils mentioned above. I don't like the sponge applicator dispensing the powder though. This is my least used out of the three. 

Brow Powders for blondes/ dark blondes:

HD Brows Eye & Brow Palette in 02 Foxy - £25.00

My newest addition to the brow family and I really enjoy using it. I mostly use the middle shade, which is a medium to dark taupe. I sometimes use the blonde shade to fill in the front, if I fancy dual tone brows. The shades are al pigmented and the add on of wax makes it a perfect palette. 

Freedom Makeup Pro HD Brow Palette in Fair/Medium - £10.00

Meant as a dupe for ABH Brow Book and it's a pretty decent dupe. The shades are pigmented and there's a variety that will suit anyone from lightest blonde to medium brown hair. There's plenty of cool toned taupes and browns and even slightly warm toned browns. I don't use it as much because of the size of the palette. I'm not a MUA so I don't need as many shades and tend to stick to other methods of filling in brows. FULL REVIEW & SWATCHES HERE.

Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set in 02 Natural Blonde Style - £2.50

Great little duo. Two shades: blonde and taupe will suit most blondes. The pigmentation is ok and it's a perfectly nice product to use. It's quite small which makes it easy for travel.

Brow Mascaras for blondes/ dark blondes:

ModelCo More Brows in Light/Medium and Medium/Dark - £13.00 each

My absolute fave brow mascaras. The formula have a lot of fibres making my brows appear fuller and it's quite good at keeping them in place. I use Light/Medium to brush up the front of my brows and Medium/Dark to keep the arch at place. Both shades are very cool toned and the mascara wand is small and makes the application easy and precise.

Makeup Revolution I Tint My Brows in Fairest and Light/Medium - £1.99 each

The formula differs here from the ModelCo mentioned above. It has a super strong hold, the strongest I've seen in brow mascaras to date so it's perfect for unruly hair. The Fairest shade is my favourite as it's very light and ashy. I'm not the biggest fan of Light/Medium as it's just too warm for my taste. 

Brow Pomades for blondes/ dark blondes:

Freedom Eyebrow Pomade in Taupe and Blonde - £5.00 each

To date my favourite eyebrow pomades. Meant to be dupes for ABH Brow Pomade and in many aspects they are. I find the taupe shade truly taupe and better than taupe shade from Anastasia. After 3-5 months you will need to refresh the formula once a month with a single drop of Inglot Duraline. The formula is waterproof and it will stay on for 24 hours in high humidity if needs be. FULL REVIEW HERE.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Taupe - £15.00

I bought this only recently to compare with my Freedom ones and I really love the formula. It's super creamy, dries matte and it stays put for good 12 hours or so. However when compared with Freedom Taupe, the shade is lighter and has more blonde tones to it. It works great and I'm glad I've tried it but there's really no difference in formula (except for slight colour difference) to justify spending 3 times as much on the product.

Inglot AMC Brow Liner Gel in 12 - £11.00

The smallest and most travel friendly option. Again this is a very high pigmented product, as with both Freedom and ABH. The shade is also taupe, something in between of Freedom Taupe and ABH Taupe. It's got a nice hold to it, keeping your hair in place and will stay put for up to 12 hours.

If you'd like to further your brow knowledge I recommend a quick read/watch of a great article on Into The Gloss. You won't be disappointed :)

Thank You For Reading,

Love

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ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS MODERN RENAISSANCE REVIEW WITH SWATCHES

Any palette launch from Anastasia Beverly Hills gathers a lot oh hype months before it hits the market. Having had a very mixed feelings about the previous launch of Anastasia Beverly Hills Self Made Palette (REVIEW HERE) I'll set the tone of today, saying it as it is. I love this palette. I have developed quite a critique mind when it comes to makeup, so I tend to find both positives and negatives of any product I review. I'm super pleased with Modern Renaissance. Why? Let me tell you now. 

The packaging. 

I'm not the one to usually love anything that feels like velvet, however I must admit to be a teensy bit in love with it. It's a hardened carboard covered with velvet like material with Anastasia Beverly Hills logo in rose gold & name of the palette in white embellished on the front. It gives it both luxurious and modern feel. 

Inside you'll find medium sized clear mirror. It's not as luxurious as the mirror in Charlotte Tilbury The Dolce Vita quad I recently reviewed, but it's clear and great size for applying makeup on the go. 

The packaging hosts 14 shadows which are quite small, if I have to be honest. They're weight only 0.7g each. 

You'll also get the double ended brush, which I personally don't like. I rarely think the brushes added to any palettes, so it's not a huge minus in my eyes. I use my own brushes, although I can see it being a problem to someone, who's maybe not as obsessed addict as me ;) 

There's also rose gold ABH logo just below the mirror and all the shade names are written in rose gold below the shadows themselves. 

The formula.

I found most shadows super buttery with only two mattes swatching a little too much of product and looking chalky when swatched. It does not take away from the amazing pigmentation of both, so it's really not even worth mentioning. All the shadows are incredibly soft and with that, there's a certain amount of product fallout when using the brush, however this doesn't transfer in to a product fallout when actually using the shadows. The only shade I experienced a tiny amount of fallout was Cyprus Umber (the darkest chocolate brown matte). 

no flash

with flash

Shades. 

Tempera - light beige with peachy tones, satin finish & great pigmentation. 

Golden Ochre - medium dirty yellow with olive tones, semi matte finish & great pigmentation. 

Vermeer - light peach with frosted shimmer finish highlight shade & super pigmented. 

Buon Fresco - muted light to medium purple mauve, matte finish & nicely pigmented. 

Antique Bronze - medium to dark brown with warm tones and a shimmery finish. Great pigmentation. 

Love Letter - dark berry with pink tones, slightly muted of a matte finish & great pigmentation. 

Cyprus Amber - dark brown with warm tones, matte finish & great pigmentation. 

Raw Sienna - light to medium brown with warm golden orange tones, matte finish and great pigmentation.

Burnt Orange - medium orange brown with warm tones and matte finish, great pigmentation. 

Primavera - second highlight shade, light to medium peachy gold with frosted finish, almost metallic, great pigmentation. 

Red Ochre - muted burnt red brown with warm tones and matte finish, great pigmentation. 

Venetian Red - medium to dark red with warm tones and satin finish, great pigmentation.

Warm Taupe - medium taupe brown with warm tones and matte finish, great pigmentation. 

Realgar - medium to dark burnt orange brown with warm tones and matte finish, great pigmentation. 

The Overview. 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance is a great blend of neutral colours with some reds and pinks. It's mostly matte with some Darin's and gorgeous highlight shades added in for good measure. It's a very well thought palette. All the shades are of warm tones and work together nicely. These shades will bring out any eye colour, however those with blue and grey eyes should experience it the most. 

It's a truly unbelievable experience to work with this palette, as all the shades are just so super pigmented and they transfer beautifully to the skin. They lasted 8 hours on my eyes without creasing on no primer! When applied over MAC Painterly they lasted full 16 hours without creasing. 

I took my time when testing this palette and I honestly can't fault it. Yes you may experience some sustained of the shadows in the pan but that doesn't transfer to massive product fallout on the eyes. And I wonder how long will the packaging last to be this gorgeous given it's pastel purple colour and velvet material, so I decided to store it in the original carboard box to be safe ;) 

The main con here would be the price as it's way more expensive to get here in UK than in US. You'll have to pay a hefty £41 for this palette. Is it worth it? In my opinion it is worth every penny! There are rarely any hyped up products that are truly incredible and Anstasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance is the one! 

It's available now on Beauty Bay for £41.00.

Thank You For Reading,

Love

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