Urban Decay to Launch New 'Naked Smoky' Palette on 30th July!

Urban Decay’s original ‘Naked’ palette set off what appears to be a huge wave of similar, neutral-hued palettes being released by many other brands that then saw the niche in the market for dedicated palettes for such easily wearable shades. The Naked arm of the Urban Decay empire has since evolved into its own series, with multiple palettes containing a plethora of neutral, easy to wear shades.

The newest kid on the block is the ‘Naked Smoky’ palette, which is described as being “Packed with a dozen sultry, smoky neutrals — nine never-before-seen shades and three exclusives” and “loaded with ALL the essentials for the perfect neutral smoky eye”.

I’m a bit of a fan of a smoky eye, so this totally appeals to me… and I’m already making notes about which colour combinations I might like to try. I’ll be getting the palette shortly, so I’ll be sure to swatch them for you as soon as it gets here.

Naked Smoky (RRP £38) is available online at urbandecay.co.uk from 30th July.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Urban Decay Naked Palette 3 Now In Stock at House of Fraser Online!

Ok, so I've yet to get my mitts on one of these palettes, but just to let you know that House of Fraser now have it in stock, online for £37.00.

Will you be getting one for yourself/a loved one, or asking for this from Santa? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Fearne Cotton Eyeshadow Competiton Extension!

Just to let you know, I've extended this competition for another week due to people having problems entering via the widget. Hopefully this extra time will allow for everybody who wants to enter, to do so without issues now. :-)

Good luck. x

Enter here!

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Competition: WIN a Fearne Cotton 'From Dusk 'Til Dawn Eyes' Set.

No Flash.

Flash.

I've been ill this week with flu like symptoms, and have also had internet issues, so haven't been able to post anything up for you to read. So, to make it up to you, and as a quick post that I can get live before my net drops again, I thought it would be nice to run another little competition.

This time the prize is a 'From Dusk Til Dawn Eyes' eyeshadow set from the Fearne Cotton makeup range. The set consists of 3 lovely shades, that appear to be shimmery in finish - I've photographed very quickly, both with flash and without. I thought this would be a nice thing to give away since it's getting close to Christmas and this would either make a lovely gift, or be a lovely set to use over the festive period, with the shimmer finish.

All you have to do to enter is fill in, and do at least one activity from the competition form below AND be a follower of the blog via GFC or Bloglovin, simple eh.

Competition ends on Wednesday 4th December at midnight (so that's basically late Tuesday night, just for clarification). I've extended it as I've had a few people email me telling me they're having problems with the widget and entering.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

EOTD with Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara!

I love long, full looking lashes, but I'm totally rubbish with false ones. I either fail to get them on, looking good and then staying put, or, I run out of time to faff around with them for long enough to get them on etc, so a good mascara is always high on my list of beauty must-haves.

A good mascara can make your lashes look amazing, but I've never come across one that has truly made my lashes look like I'm wearing falsies (in a good way), until now. 

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara has very quickly become one of my favourite mascaras, since it pretty much does exactly what it says on the tube, which can be a a rarity in these days of lash inserts and photographic 'enhancement' via Photoshop. 

Just look at the pictures, every one of these, apart from the first one below has 2 (light-ish) coats of the mascara and was taken at the end of the day, so you can see how well it lasts too.

One light coat, no lash curling or other make-up!

I am very impressed with this stuff, I had at least 3 people in one day asking me if I was wearing false lashes, something I've rarely encountered before bu found to be reassuring that other people also thought my lashes looked as good as I did. 

It's also effortless to use, the wand works brilliantly and seems to do most of the work for you, which is always welcome with me. It's hard to believe that this mascara only costs around £11 as if I'd done a blind test, I'd have easily believed it if I was told it was a £20+ mascara.

My 'extra' eye make-up in the pictures below consists of 3 shades from the Urban Decay Naked palette (the original one): Virgin and Sin in the inner corner and over the lid, and Darkhorse in the socket. It's a very simple look, but one I find myself wearing quite a lot during the day.

Excuse the hair and robe, it was pyjama o'clock when I took this photograph.

You can see the 'stain' left on my lips from my Rouge Volupte lipstick, shade 10, Provocative Pink - another long lasting and impressive product.

 

False Lash Effect Mascara was a PR sample (views are unchanged by this), the rest of the make-up mentioned/worn in this post was purchased by myself.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

FashionistA Eyeshadow - Shade 4, Gold Rush!

The packaging does mark fairly easily, but it's of no detriment to the product.

Another FashionistA eyeshadow today, this time it's Shade 4, Gold Rush, a gorgeous golden shade with just a hint of bronze in there too. The finish to this eyeshadow in the pan is different to the ones I've already shown you, in that it has more of a marbled finish, with different shades running through it - and quite honestly, it's partly why I chose to buy it, as I was very interested to see how this would affect the colour.

As you can see below, it's a gorgeous colour and in my opinion you can see both the bronze-y and gold shades coming through in the swatches, and indeed on the eyes.

As usual, with any colour that appears to have different dimensions to it, I have shot the swatch in different lights and without flash too (bottom photograph), just to show how the light affects the hue.

Application is great with little to no fall out, and the pigmentation is good too, although you can build this colour a little more than some of the others in the range, which is great if you're just looking for a light wash of colour over your lids.

Daylight, no flash.

These FashionistA shadows all retail at around the £4 mark and there appears to be offers on the range quite often, meaning that you can often purchase a number of shadows for a lesser cost, or you can buy the shadows and get a free palette etc. I bought mine when there was a 5 for the price of 3 offer on but I know there have been different offers available since the release of the range.

In all fairness though, they're not expensive shadows without an offer, and the quality for the price paid is exceptional. :-)

Visit Superdrug!

FashionistA Eyeshadow - Shade 39, Bronze!

Another beautiful eyeshadow from the FashionistA range here today, this time is's a gorgeous coppery shade (with the shade name of Bronze?!). Just look...

The pigmentation in this one is good, but I did the same amount of swipage (ha) as I did with my FashionistA Brunette Bombshell shadow and it does appear to be a little less pigmented, but not to a degree where I'd advise against buying, because as you can see, it still shows up brilliantly on the skin.

Daylight, no flash.

Application is good, the shadow is easily blended and there was less fall out when using this shade than there was with Brunette Bombshell (unless I missed it as it is lighter), yet it still maintains a shimmery finish that I absolutely adore, and even without flash, it shimmers. Lovely.

These FashionistA shadows all retail at around the £4 mark and there appears to be offers on the range quite often, meaning that you can often purchase a number of shadows for a lesser cost, or you can buy the shadows and get a free palette etc. I bought mine when there was a 5 for the price of 3 offer on but I know there have been different offers available since the release of the range.

In all fairness though, they're not expensive shadows without an offer, and the quality for the price paid is exceptional. :-)

Visit Superdrug!

FashionistA Eyeshadow - Shade 24, Brunette Bombshell!

I recently purchased a bunch of FashionistA eyeshadows after becoming intrigued by the brand and their magnetic nail polishes (will post about these soon)... I say a bunch, but iwas actually about 26(!) of them, which shows just how extensive their range is, as this wasn't even the whole collection!!

I'll be reviewing/swatching them individually as it's easier for me that way, especially where the photographs are concerned as some of the shades I have chosen are *fairly* similar and there's a possibility they would get muddled up if I was to photograph them in large quantities.

Brunette Bombshell is a rich, chocolaty brown that has a metallic sheen to it that looks ever so slightly different whenever a different light catches it. I absolutely love the colour, it's neutral without being boring and I am a complete sucker for glitz, shimmer and all things that shine.

The shadow has quite a soft, almost buttery texture to it and it blends beautifully... although there is a little fallout when applying it (you can see it a little on the swatches), nothing too major though and certainly not enough make it unusable.

These FashionistA shadows all retail at around the £4 mark and there appears to be offers on the range quite often, meaning that you can often purchase a number of shadows for a lesser cost, or you can buy the shadows and get a free palette etc. I bought mine when there was a 5 for the price of 3 offer on but I know there have been different offers available since the release of the range.

In all fairness though, they're not expensive shadows without an offer, and the quality for the price paid is exceptional. :-)

Visit Superdrug!

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) 'Noir Terriblement' 5 Shadow Palette!

YSL have done it again with another palette that I adore, their Noir Terriblement Palette is inspired the the classic tuxedo and even comes with it's own little 'tux' jacket - very cute.

You might think that a palette of blacks would be a bit, well, boring... but there's enough difference in both the the shade, texture and finish of the shadows to make it a worthwhile purchase for me. I actually find that one leads towards more of a brown-y tones black and one more grey-black too.

No flash (dull day, sorry).

I love a smoky eye, which is another classic look, and this palette is perfect for creating one; especially with the white highlighting shade that you can use both to highlight and also to further change the shades of black on your eye, making them more grey if you desire.

On the left I have swatched the shadow with no base, and to the right I have used Urban Decay Primer Potion (a staple in my beauty bag) and onthe white shade, the UDPP is at the top.

As you can see, the depth and shimmer/glitter are both more intense when using the primer, but I quite like that the shadows have a buildable quality to them when using them with no base, as this to me makes them a lot more suitable for daywear, where a full on black smoky eye may not be as appropriate! This also means that you would get a lot more use out of your palette and that can only be a good thing.

I hope you can see the differences in the shades in these photographs, I tried to capture the images in varying shades of light to show that there were slight differences to the shades.

Available for £39 from House of Fraser and other YSL stocking department stores. x

Yves Saint Laurent Autumn 2011 - YSL 5 Ombres Lumiéres, 11, Midnight Garden Eyeshadow!

By now, you may already know of my love for Yves Saint Laurent make-up (and basically every other luxury beauty brand too, for I am a girl with expensive taste and a big beauty shopping addiction, but the less said about that in black and white the better as I never know if Mr Beauty Scoop sees any of these posts), so when I got sent some of the new autumn collection to try, I was very excited indeed.

First up from the collection is quite possibly my favourite from the collection, the Ombres 5 Lumiéres in 11, Midnight Garden. This palette is made up of shades of purple and green that are very pretty to look at in the pan, and yes, I did find myself making it twinkle in the light before swatching them.

Which brings me to my next point, that is if you don’t like shimmer or glitter, then this palette is not for you at all as it is loaded with shimmery and glittery particles galore... but this makes the magpie in me very happy indeed!

Back to the colours though, I really like the selection in this compact and I think that they work together surprisingly well. There’s a deep, forest green with teal shimmer running through it that I cannot, for the life of me get my camera to catch – it is stunning though and a very pale mint green with teal shimmer running through – although I think this is touted more as a highlighter than a shadow, but it is pigmented and colourful enough to use as a shadow too, in my opinion.

There’s also a lilac in there that looks to have sky blue shimmer running through it, a more aubergine-y (eggplant) shade of purple with what looks like a very fine red/magenta shimmer and an almost electric purple with blue shimmer running through it. The contrasting shimmer running through these shadows, really make them pop, it gives them more depth and a multi-faceted appearance too!The lighter shades are almost iridescent in some lights too - totally stunning!

The darker shades in this compact are a LOT more pigmented than the lighter ones (especially the lilac), but can still be used as a light wash of colour if you wanted as they are still very buildable when used dry/alone... they all apply a lot better over Urban Decay’s Primer Potion though, as you can see on the swatches – which is how I’d use them anyway, personally.

The swatches were done using the sponge applicators included in the compact, on the left is a dry swatch and on the right is applied over UDPP - which makes a huge difference in depth with less effort needed! However, I quite like that you can use the colours a bit more subtley if you desire, it makes this palette much more universally wearable!

Showing the highlighter blended out, I thought it looked quite nice.

The lighter shades are still lovely, but just need a bit more time spent applying to get the desired effect, I find this is the case a lot of the time with lighter shades so it’s not really of too much detriment to the palette... and it also allows you to use both as a highlighter, due to them not being too heavy in application.

All the shadows had great staying power on my lids too – even the lighter ones, I was very impressed... although not quite so impressed when I was trying to remove them from my hand after swatching, ha!

The packaging is gorgeous, as always – but also as always, is a total fingerprint magnet and I do find myself buffing these cases quite a lot to try to hide that, is that a bit OCD?

Anyway moving swiftly away from my OCD tendencies, I really recommend this palette to those of you like me that have magpie tendencies and a penchant for colour. It is £40, but then you get 5 products in there totalling 8.5g... which effectively makes each shadow £8.

I really don’t think that this all that bad to be honest, especially if you consider that a No7 Stay Perfect Eyeshadow will set you back £8 for 1.5g of product - which, if multiplied by 5 would equal 7.5g... which is 1 whole gram LESS than YSL give, therefore making YSL surprisingly better value, financially, than No7!!