Palettes ~ Revisited

I've bought several new budget eyeshadow palettes recently and they were starting to topple rather dangerously on my growing stack of palettes kept on the side. I already have a box of eyeshadow palettes, so I thought I'd go through that box to see if I could get rid of any (I did - a couple of old MUA palettes and a Primark palette) and to remove some of the lesser-used palettes from the stack on the side into the box.

A couple of palettes from the old box caught my eye so I wanted to play with them for a few days to see why they caught my eye in the first place, and why they had been shoved in a box and forgotten about for several months...

I can see why I chose both of them colour-wise. The MUA Winter Forest palette (bought last winter but is still in the shops now) has some great wintry colours (mostly the teal and the navy). And the Freedom 'Pro 12 Secret Rose' palette has some of my favourite every-day nudes and rosy-brown tones.

Most of my beauty budget buys come from TAM Beauty - particularly I Heart Make Up and Makeup Revolution - considering the price range, they offer some fabulous and fun products which are generally pretty good quality for the cost.

MUA (Make Up Academy) is another budget brand that I used to have a lot of love for, but I think their quality doesn't quite match up to that of the TAM Beauty brands. However, to be able to buy a 10 shade eyeshadow palette for just £4 is quite bananas really. You're certainly not going to begrudge a mis-spent £4.00 if a palette doesn't work out for you. I would have loved a range like this when I was a teenager - they currently have a whopping 38 palettes listed on their site, ranging from £3.50 to £8.00 (for a 25 pan palette!).

So, are these two palettes going back in the box or into the bin?

Let's look at the MUA Winter Forest palette.

 

All the colours are eminently usable (apart from the pale sky blue - I don't really fancy that much). My favourites being the navy, teal, top right sand colour and the light and dark browns on the bottom row. However, I'm finding that I still want to reach for another palette when using this as the sand colour isn't quite strong enough and, because they are all mattes, I feel like I want to add a bit of depth or shimmer to my lid after the mattes have been applied.

 

Application - Wear- Longevity

Firstly, there's a lot of fall out. You definitely need to tap your brush before applying, but having said that, you need to keep going back to build up your colours as the pigmentation isn't terribly strong. They do blend reasonably well though and don't really 'muddy up' like some of the budget beauty colours can.

Despite the fallout, I didn't really find that these were too chalky, which is another thing you can often expect with budget palettes. But neither were they at all buttery or rich - either in texture or pigmentation.

Considering I didn't use an eye primer, the colours lasted pretty well without creasing or fading too much throughout the day.

 

 

 

Box or bin?

I think I'll keep this one - but I imagine it will probably end up languishing at the bottom of the box again. Unlike some of my other palettes, I don't feel this one is varied enough to get too many looks from and as I previously mentioned, I always want to reach for another palette to finish the look - which kind of defeats the object of having a palette.

 

 

Freedom - Pro 12 Secret Rose

 

I only bought this earlier in the year and it ended up buried in 'the box' for several months without hardly being touched. I think the main reason for that was that my make up consumption trebled this year. Previously, I owned about three small palettes (generally featuring the same brown tones) that I would use day after day after day after day....

The colours in this palette are right up my street for my favoured everyday wear look. And it does look like one of those comprehensive and wearable palettes that, in theory, should have me reaching for it quite often. So, how did it end up languishing in the bottom of the box?

 

 

Application - Wear - Longevity

 

Colour-wise, the choice is great. I think it's the quality of the product that lets this palette down.

Again, like the MUA, there is an awful lot of fall-out. And again, you do have to keep going back to the pan to get any strength in product and pigmentation going. The pigmentation, compared to other palettes (and even other budget palettes such as I Heart Makeup and Makeup Revolution) is quite weak, so you do feel like you have to work quite hard to get your desired look. The product is quite chalky and streaky too but luckily blends quite well - but as I said, there's a bit of work involved.

Although there are several complete looks in this palette - I would have preferred that there was at least one strong, dark colour for the outer edges of the lid for a bit more drama. I did have to reach for another palette for a darker colour (this week though - I used the darker colours from the MUA Winter Forest palette since it was lying around).

The longevity of the product was pretty impressive - they lasted throughout the day without creasing or fading.

 

Box or bin?

 

Again, I think I'll keep hold of this one for the time being. I think the lesson I've learned is that, despite my love of budget palettes, some are better quality than others. So, despite the great prices of both these palettes, for a couple of quid more, I'll probably choose Makeup Revolution or I Heart Makeup over Freedom or MUA (saying that - I do have my eye on some of the new MUA Prism range!!).