“We’re all mad here”, Urban Decay: Alice into the Looking Glass Palette

“I know who I was when I got up this morning? But I must have changed several times since then.”

Hi guys,

Hope this blog post finds you well- this is a very short and sweet post just to show you the latest offering from Urban Decay, the Alice in Wonderland Palette and swatches.  Inspired by the new Disney film ‘Alice into the Looking Glass’ which releases soon, this Limited Edition palette has been long awaited. Let’s face it, I am a sucker for all things Disney, so when this collection released last week in at the Urban Decay Flagship store I had to fly down there and pick up a few for myself and a few of my make up addict friends. The palette also released alongside 5 lipsticks of a variety of interesting  and quirky shades.

“I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yourself.”

The palette itself is in stunning packaging. When you slide it out of the outer box you find it opens like this, it’s mirrored and has a magical little door with a message on it for us as you can see below.

When you open the door it has the most stunning butterfly which flaps its wings as you open. It’s actually the best packaging for a makeup palette I’ve ever seen! It’s so true to the film itself; It’s weird and wonderful, creative and colourful, delicate and quirky.

Looking at the eyeshadows themselves, the palette contains 20 pans of new and never-seen-before shades. Each line vertically is actually a tribute to a character from the film. (The back of the box contains guidance on each look) but there is a line of colours for Alice, The Mad Hatter, Mirana, Iracebeth and Time.  Cute hey?

The colours are named after some of the characters and important references to the film as Well. I have swatched the shades with 2/3 layers of colour each so you can see what they look like on my  NC45 skin tone, and they are a lovely consistency and texture to work with. They are all fairly well pigmented. I was concerned about some of the greens in the palette thinking they would be wishy washy but they actually aren’t, they are really well pigmented. There is also a great mix of matte and shimmery/metallic shades and even some two tone shades. Seriously guys, the amount of looks one could create with this palette is huge. In true Urban Decay style, this palette also provides us with a two sided brush to apply these gorgeous colours with; A more dense side for packing colour on to the eye and a fluffier, softer side for that magic thing we all need to do called blending!

Swatches

I have swatched in groups according to the look of the character.

Alice

Mad Hatter

Mirana

Iracebeth

Time

I haven’t yet used this palette to create look on myself (it’s almost too beautiful to use), but I can already tell what shades I want to use more of- Lily, Paradox, Duchess, Hatter and Metamorphosis apply brilliantly and are gorgeous colours.  Easily for me, the best colour so far is ‘Lily’ which is two tone or duo-chrome creamy nude colour with a hint of pink when you look at it from different angle.

Being honest there were two colours I didn’t much like the consistency of, and those are from the last row and are called ‘Dream On’ and ‘Mirror’. They are slightly shimmery pigments but they didn’t spread easily and felt a bit thick and heavy even just to swatch. You can see what I mean in the picture above, however the other 18 are gorgeous.

This palette is available for £43 NOW at Selfridges.com and also in the Urban Decay Boutique at Covent Garden, London. It also releases in all other Urban Decay concessions and stores on 5th May 2016 but be quick as its limited edition and is likely to sell out pretty fast! You can always call your local store and reserve one to collect as soon as they are released- trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

What do you think? Have you got this palette? What do you think of it? Will you be buying it after seeing some of the colours? Let me know as I would love to hear your thoughts?

Mwah xxxx

Dose Of Colors: Hidden Treasure Palette Review

Hello all,

I hope this blog post finds you well, I have been uber excited about posting this one, as I was able to get hold of the Dose Of Colors, Hidden Treasure palette this week! I had been waiting for a few weeks for it to make its way to me from the U.S. and finally it arrived!!! I’ve been raving about it on my Instagram for the past couple of days- you may have seen. It’s beautiful! Dose Of Colors aren’t that well known over here- but they have a lot to offer and they are mostly known among make up addicts for their lip glosses so I was excited to try a palette from them. (I will link you to where you can buy this palette and other DOC products at the end)

It’s a Limited Edition, 10 shade palette, and all the shades are gorgeous rich. coppery, bronzey orangey colours. Its cruelty free, 4 free and the pans are medium sized, fairly deep and densely packed thus holding quite a lot of product.  Personally I love the layout of the palette, however the OCD tendencies in some of you may find the layout of the pans irritating to be fair. It comes in lovely very well designed, mirrored packaging.

The colours are as follows:

5 foiled metallic shadows called-Coin, Crown, Ruby, Gemstone and Diamond. They are extremely heavily pigmented and really shine on the skin. They can also be used wet or dry so I would recommend dampening your brush and then applying them if you want a really popping colour. Coin is the holy grail of gold foiled eyeshadows and I reach for it time and time again when doing clients.

4 matte eyeshadows called -Key, Map, Onyx and Locket. These shades are very well pigmented in fact the black (Onyx) reminds me of the black in the naked 2 palette, in that it is very very black, has very little fall out and is perfect for smokey eye looks or deepening and intensifying any eyeshadow look. Key, Map and Locket are brilliant transition shades as well as great for soft smokey eyes.

Pearl is a very light shimmery eyeshadow designed with the inner eye or brow bone highlight in mind.

It’s gorgeous right? Here are the swatches on my arm- each swatch is 2-3 applications of colour and not really blended so you can see their true colouring.

 

So how do they apply?

That is the question! I very quickly used them to test on eye yesterday and my feeling is they are lovely to work with. They are very smooth, creamy and blend well, the matte shadows are really matte and great transition shades. There was very little fall out from the matte shades, however the foiled shades did have some fall out- which is to be expected from foiled shadows in my opinion. If a little care is taken when applying, ultimately the fall out is minimal. The shadows have a high quality feel to them, and although the palette has quite a high price point it’s definitely a case of you get what you pay for when it comes to this palette.

Disclaimer: In the below pictures, I have awful and ungroomed brows at the moment so please excuse them- I know, I know- it’s not good enough, but in my defence I have been stuck at home all week with an ill kid. I used Key as a transition shade, Onyx- to deepen the corners, the beautiful stunning Ruby in the middle and Coin in the inner corner.

Where can you get it?

Unfortunately its not available in the U.K. (Some Dose of Colors stock is carried at Beauty Bay although this palette isn’t currently).  I had to order this directly from Dose of Colors directly (and pay the damn customs charges) to get it. It retails at $50.00 which was about £35 but then the customs charges were £7 (plus the annoying Royal Mail £8 handling fee) so this actually works out to be quite expensive. It is worth it in my opinion, however because your getting 10 really unique shades I haven’t found anything quite like Ruby for instance and coin is my go to for clients wanting gold smokey eyes- I’ve never found anything like it anywhere! It’s actually the best foiled gold ever and totally unique. I can see how some people may not want to pay such a high price for this though… I guess it all depends how much of a make up addict you are I suppose, also remember its limited edition, and may well sell out very soon although Dose of Colors may bring it back we just don’t know ey?

Let me know what your thoughts are? Will you be getting it? Or do you have it already? Let me know make up lovers.
Mwah 

Xxxx