Make Up For Ever Artist Palette (Volume 2) Review & Swatches!!

Make Up For Ever Artist Palette (Volume 2) - Packaging

First and foremost a disclaimer that I have not tried any of the individual Make Up For Ever (MUFE) Artist Eyeshadows before this review so it will also include my first impressions on the overall formula. 

This new palette from MUFE immediately caught my attention because of the bold colors inside and the beautiful artistic packaging. I have to add that even though the palette itself is made of a very finely constructed cardboard - it feels even more substantial than new Z-Palettes I purchased a few days ago. The price is $42, which is a steal considering each palette is 9 eyeshadows which are each 0.06g and the singles retail for $22 each for 0.08g of product (only a quarter of the quantity more per color). You can essentially buy this palette for less than the price of 2 Artist Shadow singles. 

This palette is Limited Edition and Sephora-exclusive so get it while you can if you're interested! It is available both online and in stores.

Make Up For Ever Artist Palette (Volume 2) - Colors

The texture of the eyeshadows is described as a gel-powder formula blended with ultrafine pigments. The eyeshadows in general are all extremely smooth and creamy. 

They feel a little bit like the L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows when they are pressed and packed really tightly in their container but they do not crumble the same way. The powder is very finely milled and each finish 

The shadows do not pop out of the palette since I know this is a feature MUFE has included in past, bulkier palettes - this palette fits in my hand.

Make Up For Ever Artist Palette (Volume 2) - Color Names & Close-Up

I made a quick chart to show you which color each name corresponds to. Each name is indicative of a specific finish since these shadows have a wide variety of finishes in the complete line:

I = Iridescent
M = Matte - there are no Matte shades in the palette
ME = Metal
S = Satin
D = Diamond

This palette even includes a little look book which orders the shades in columns from left to right, with the looks called "Playful", "Bold" and "Sultry" respectively with step-by-step instructions to achieve the look.

Playful Look: I-872 Pearly Pink, ME-910 Electric Magenta, S-924 Purple
Bold Look: D-552 Crystalline Gray Beige, ME-232 Turquoise Blue, ME-302 Peacock
Sultry Look: ME-512 Golden Beige, ME-700 Amber, ME-930 Black Purple

Make Up For Ever Artist Palette (Volume 2) - Trio Swatches

My swatches revealed that the pigments travel quite far - which means that the shadows are strongly pigmented. The shadows are smooth and creamy, after wearing them I find that you can achieve better color pick-up using a more dense, coarse brush than a soft and fluffy one or alternatively the best way I found was to use my fingers and swipe the color where desired.

I also had some trouble when I was wiping off the pink and purple shades, it took quite a bit of scrubbing to get the staining off - an important note is that these two shades are considered "blush" and not designated eyeshadows. Obviously you can use these shades at your own discretion but they may be harder to remove on the sensitive skin of your eyes and usually red pigments are not approved for the eye area by the FDA. To avoid any problems I suggest just wearing them in the crease or as a blush and avoiding the lash line or eyelid area.

All of the colors are impressively pigmented, with the best performers being I-872 (Pearly Pink), D-552 (Crystalline Gray Beige), ME-302 (Peacock), ME-700 (Amber) and ME-930 (Black Purple). I was least impressed with ME-910 (Electric Magenta) and S-924 (Purple) as they were chalkier and even skipped on the skin a little at the bottom of my swatch (this could be remedied by blending though).

Make Up For Ever Artist Palette (Volume 2) - From Left to Right Highlight Comparison: I-872, D-552, ME-512 

For a close-up look at the highlight shades (or the lightest color in each trio) I swatched I-872 (Pearly Pink), D-552 (Crystalline Gray Beige), and ME-512 (Golden Beige).

I-872 on the left is an icy pink tone, followed by D-552 which is a cool-toned beige and then ME-512 is a light warm golden tone.

As soon as I get a chance, I will create some looks with this palette and post them for reference!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, everybody! Let me know what your thoughts on this palette are.

NYX Wonder Stick - Review & Swatches (New Product Alert)

If you haven't checked out the new NYX displays at your local CVS, Beauty Supply Store or ULTA Beauty, you'll be surprised to find the vast array of new Spring 2015 items from the line. There are many additions to the permanent line-up of products and one of those is their 2-in-1 Contouring Stick aptly named the NYX Wonder Stick.  

Since contouring is all the rage in the beauty community right now and I have begun incorporating it into my daily makeup routine for the past few months, I figured this would be a fun product to try out and review for you all.

My NYX Wonder Stick is in the shade Light and you can tell straight out of the tube that the highlight is very light and the contour shade is a rather warm reddish brown shade.

The product is extremely creamy and I have found that they perform better when they are set with a powder, especially if you're going to be somewhere warm. I also do not suspect that this would be a great product for oily or combo skinned girls, but I have dry skin so it worked out quite well. If you live in a warm climate, I would be hesitant to order this because it might melt on you, as with most cream-stick products (stick to potted creams if you want them to stay in place!).

The highlight shade leans yellow and not pink, which is perfect for me because I have a neutral to yellow undertone to my skin, but I have heard complaints from others that this appears "shimmery" on them. I have not experienced any excess shine from this product.

The contour shade swatches much more taupe-leaning than I was expecting so I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't appear reddish or orange on my skin, it looks like a very natural shadow.

If you want to create the illusion of a stronger jawline, more chiseled cheeks or even a slimmer nose, or just to add depth and dimension to facial features, read more below for some contouring basics (as well as photos included with this product for a demonstration).

 The basic rules are the same for all skin tones but you can change up where you apply the shadows or highlights depending on what you want to recede (push back) or make more prominent (bring out), respectively.

Colors lighter than skin tone will bring out a feature closer to the fore-front of your face.

Colors darker than skin tone will push back a feature to the back plane of your face.

After applying your foundation and concealer, use the highlight side of the stick on your cheekbones, the middle of your forehead, down the center of your nose, your cupid's beau (between the middle of your upper lip and under the tip of your nose) and slightly above the jawline.

Use the contour side of the stick along your hairline to frame the face, under the cheekbones and down both sides of your nose (for a slimming effect, if desired) and under the jawline and chin.

The NYX Wonder Stick comes in 4 shades, including one Universal shade which the company claims is suitable for all skin tones (I can't verify this claim since I did not purchase this shade).

Verdict

I think this is a very useful tool if you are new to contouring or you're in a hurry to do your makeup quickly since it's a no-brainer. The staying power of the product is decent but can be improved to last all day if it is set with a similarly colored powder. I found that the lighter shade can accentuate pores, specifically because it is a slightly greasy formula so using a banana-colored powder or mattifying powder to set it is ideal.

The NYX Wonder Stick is $12 (which is on the higher-end for NYX Cosmetics) and depending on daily usage, could probably be used up rather quickly. If I used this product exclusively for my highlighting/contouring routine, I could use it up in a month. I would prefer if this was priced at $9, but you can always get it on sale at ULTA Beauty.

I give this product a 7.5/10 since it is very easy to use, the colors are rather nice and easy to use but given the caveat that you set them with a powder for longer wear-time. It's worth your buy if you don't already have cream contouring products.

Urban Decay Vice LTD Palette: In Depth Review & Swatches

I picked up the Vice LTD palette from Urban Decay awhile back but I didn't think I would keep it until I saw the fabulous reviews from other bloggers. So I decided to take the plunge and review it for you guys even though there was some insane controversy over the release of this product. 

Urban Decay says this is an extremely limited palette and I do not own any of the previous VICE palettes so this one looked like it would be my favorite curation of colors (the neon packaging helped, too).

The Urban Decay Vice LTD palette retails for $58 at ULTA only and contains 20 shades of eyeshadows, of which 9 are exclusively in this palette. 11 other shadows can be found in other palettes, so I'm listing them all below for you:

Crystal (Book of Shadows IV), Junkshow (15th Anniversary Palette), Backdoor (Smoked Palette), Deeper (15th Anniversary Palette), Nameless (Shattered Palette), Vaporize (Anarchy palette - reformulated) and Perversion (Book of Shadows II), Freakshow (Fun Palette), Blitz (VICE Palette), Last Sin (VICE 3 Palette), Anonymous (VICE Palette)

I'm lucky that I don't have that many duplicates, I only have the Book of Shadows and I didn't bother buying UD smaller palettes or the other VICE's, but if you have been collecting, you're definitely going to have repeats.

Inside some typical psychadelic cardboard packaging you will find this hard-plastic neon-green case with a push-button. This palette is great because you press the button gently and the top raises up on its own, which means you don't have to pry at it with your fingernails to get it open or worry about magnets not sticking closed during travel.

I love the bejeweled "UD" decal on the front, it adds some glitzy feeling to the otherwise Nickelodeon slime green color selection (I'm not even knocking it, I love it!).

Upon opening the palette, an over-sized mirror greets you, which is upright and ready for makeup application (perfect for on-the-go if you don't mind lugging this rather large and bulky palette around).

There's a nice variety of candy-colored shades in here, ranging from hot fuchsia, muted neutrals, to pops of glittery and metallic orange, yellow, golds, and some gem-toned shades such as sapphire and emerald.

If you're a fan of mattes, this palette is not for you. Urban Decay does a lot of things right, but mattes are rarely among those - there are only 4 matte shades: Backdoor (cool dark brown), Perversion (soft black), Anonymous (peachy cream) and Laced (soft pink-nude taupe).

The mattes, especially the darker shades, are rather patchy and more difficult to blend than the satins, metallics, shimmers and glitters. If you love glitz and pops of color in your eye looks, you will love the VICE LTD palette.

There is also an exclusive double-ended brush in this palette but it's smaller than others I have received in my Naked 2 and Naked 3 palettes. There's an all-over shadow brush (right side) and a crease brush (left side). 

The bristles are a tad stiff on the all-over shadow brush but it has a nice density. The blending brush seems to have a rather small point so I don't think it would be too useful for creating a blown-out effect, but rather applying more concentrated color to the crease.

I didn't find myself reaching for this brush because it was a little bit small for the purposes I would use it for.

As you can see from my swatches above (if you want to see the photos larger, click to enlarge), there is good news and there is bad news.

The poorest performing shades were definitely Backdoor (patchy and dry), Perversion (just not black enough, patchy - has to be layered a lot), Junkshow (powdery, needs building up for full opacity), and Laced (dry, hard to get any color payoff from this one).

The good news is great, out of the entire palette I was only disappointed by 4 shades. Roadstripe is sheer but has a beautiful duo-chrome pink to blue shift, so it makes a wonderful highlight. Crystal and Provocateur are to die for light blue and mauve shades with plenty of shimmer that will make any eye look pop. Deeper, Heat and Vaporize are buttery smooth to-die-for shades that will enhance any look. 

Goddess and Floss were okay, but that might be just because I'm not a huge fan of chunky glitter fallout - I suspect these are great over a black base and Floss is definitely superior to Goddess in consistency and shadow quality. Although Disco is also a glitter it seems to have the particles embedded in the formula better, making it easier to blend out. 

Any shade I didn't particularly mention performs as I expect from the Urban Decay brand (since reformulation of their eyeshadows) - can blend easily, has a smooth consistency and good color payoff.

For my look, I used the following colors and created a look exclusively from the Urban Decay VICE LTD palette:

• Crystal - all over the eyelid
• Anonymous - brow-bone highlight shade, underneath eyebrow
• Laced - as a transition shade in the crease
• Deeper - to define the crease
• Blitz - inner under-eye corner
• Hoodoo - outer under-eye

Verdict

This palette is worth your time if you're an avid Urban Decay collector or you don't own too many palettes from them (to avoid repeat shades). I do appreciate that all of the shadows are their new pigment-infused formulation so you're getting tons of color payoff with most shades. 

If you like fun shades and like to experiment with color, this palette is definitely for you (specifically if you didn't purchase an Electric Palette). 

For the bold, adventurous and wild at heart, I give it two thumbs up and a very respectable score of 9/10.