Make-Up Academy haul - finally!

Well, it's been a while! Such is the hectic and giddy life of someone that teaches other people how to be accountants. Anyway, I have finally managed to have a little play with the Make-Up Academy haul that arrived a couple of weeks ago....... thank you MUA, for allowing me to haul so many shiny, pretty things while only requesting the paltry sum of £18 from my bank account.

Anyway, let's have a look at what we've got.....

Firstly, the Glamour Days eyeshadow palette. Had my eye on this one for a while - after having had a brilliant experience with the buttery, shimmery goodness that was the Heaven and Earth palette, I was looking forward to trying some slightly more "outre" shades but not so much that I was stepping too far out of my comfort zone.....! The pretty purples and blues in this palette seemed ideal, and to top it off there are a couple of nice neutrals in there too. A good one for travelling, methinks.

Top row

Bottom row - there is a sixth shade on there, I promise...... it's just coincidentally the same colour as my arm!

Amongst the haul I also got some liners, a mixture both for lips and eyes. Again, wasn't expecting much from these, but the Intense Colour liners were creamy, pigmented and quite a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, the Intense Glitter ones were a bit hit and miss, but for 75p each (as it worked out after the discount) one cannot really complain, can one? I also got a liquid liner, which so far seems easy to apply and has a fabulous thin brush, but the pigmentation just feels a bit lacking and can apply a little patchy unless you do a couple of coats. Workable though, definitely.

L-R: Intense Colour - Red Drama, Royal Blue; Intense Glitter - Gold Nugget, Silver Glitter, Pink Glitter

Liquid Liner - shade 5

In a slightly different order in this pic, not sure why!!! L-R: Red Drama, Royal Blue, Silver Glitter, Pink Glitter, Gold Nugget, Liquid Liner in Shade 5 (Black)

Next, some single eyeshadows. Unfortunately, buying sight-unseen has been a bit of a gamble in this case, but I seem to have ended up with some decent colours that will make for some fabulous smoke eye looks. The only one that seems to let them down slightly is the black one, as it is more matte than the others is has a slightly chalkier texture and a less potent finish than the others. It'll do nicely for setting the liquid liner, though!

L-R: Shades 3, 11, 12, 15, 30

Same order as above, this time!  :)

Lastly, a bit of a hodge-podge of other random bits and bobs that fell into the online basket - I have this fantastic ability to justify additional purchases if I know I will be getting a discount on the items; and in this case it really made little to no difference seeing as everything is so inexpensive anyway!!!

Top: Lovehearts lip tints; Bottom: Lipsticks in shades 5 and 6, blush in shade 4

L-R: Lipsticks - Shade 5, shade 6; Blush - Shade 4; Lip Tints - Great Lips, Sweet Kiss, Hot Lips

The surprise in this bunch was the blush. Shade 4 looked almost overwhelmingly dark in the pan (in fact, almost the same as Shade 3 which I have already dismissed as making me look too "David Dickinson"), however when swatched, as you can see, it is a lovely gentle shade of subtle coral. It reminds me enormously of NARS Gilda (if anything, the MUA shade lacks the orange intensity of the NARS which, for cack-hands such as myself, is a Very Good Thing), but for a fraction of the price.

I am ever more wowed with the MUA offerings. Although initially I may have been a bit dismissive of the whole "cheapo makeup" thing, thinking it would only appeal to (and benefit) the lowest common denominators of society (snob? Moi?), consider me suitably chastised - I am genuinely impressed with pretty much everything I have come across so far. For the prices, I don't think you can go far wrong and to be honest, even if you do, what's a pound between friends?

MUA is available in various Superdrug stores, and also on their wesbite.

Did anyone else avail themselves of the superb discount.....?

Jen
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NYX lipstick haul and swatches

Following my post about how stupendously “pillowy” my lips now are after having used Lanolips ointment for a few weeks (reviewed here), I went a tiny bit mad on the NYX website. In my defence, this is only because they sent me an email about half-price lippies – when this sort of thing happens, my brain sort of shuts down, my eyes glaze over, and my hands automatically reach for the laptop to place orders for many shiny pretty things. In this instance, I think I am to be excused as the promotion meant that the lipsticks were a mere £1.75 each – and at those prices it would be frankly rude not to pick up a couple. Or seven.

In my sale-induced state of semi-consciousness, I must have also put some lipliners and retractable lip-liners into the basket as well, because they were in the package when it arrived last week. Nuffin’ to do wiv me, guvnor.

Anyway, unfortunately NYX made a boo-boo and sent me “Rea” when I blatantly ordered “Frappucino” – I’ve emailed them, so hopefully they will sort it out, but I’m not holding out much hope (although for £1.75 I guess it’s a mistake I could suffer). In any case, there’s no chance I could wear Rea – it’s a satin-matte concealer-lips nude, which would make me look like a corpse. 

** UPDATE ** After only one day, NYX have responded to my email with their full apologies, and will be sending the right one out to me toute suite. Fair play to them. 

Swatch-a-mundo!

L-R: Snow White, Heredes, B52, Celebrate, Apollo, Mars, Rea

L-R: Snow White, Heredes, B52, Celebrate, Apollo, Mars, Rea

L-R: Lipliners - Nude Pink, Peekaboo Neutral, Ever; Retractable eyeliners - Black, Deep Purple

I must admit, you kind of take a leap of faith when buying NYX round lipsticks. Not only because the online swatches might as well just be pictures of someone’s Auntie Jean, for all the good they do – but also, the formula is inconsistent. Not just between finishes, but within the same finish, which is a bit weird. So some of the crèmes are fine, others are rubbish – and some of the lustres are great while others are frankly pish.

The retractable eyeliner in Black is a re-purchase – in fact, this is my third one! – and as I had great experiences with this formula, I picked up the Deep Purple, too – only to be bitterly disappointed. I haven’t tried it on the eye yet, but based on this hand-swatch it looks like it’s going to be one of those patchy and sheer jobs that take a lot of work, which I just cannot be bothered with.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with my “pick-random-colours-off-the-website” session, so the only lippie I knew I definitely wanted was Snow White, while the others were a bit of a gamble. Seems to have paid off, in the main – I know I’ll get some wear out of these (especially Mars, which seems to be the perfect pinky-nude for me), but I will even try out some of the darker ones, so all in all, GOOD HAULAGE. 

NYX products can be bought directly from NYX in the UK here.

Jen

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