yet another haul post~

I am ridiculous, I bought plenty of makeupy treats last week, and yet today when I was about town, I just couldn't help myself! Oh dear, maybe I'll stop after this haul! (We all know I won't...)

Anyway, I got a few treats that I've been wanting for ages, Urban Decay's Smoked Palette, Gosh's infamous Holographic nail polish, and then I got L'oreal Feria's Extreme Platinum Power and Pastel Pink Panther, and a teal Miss Sporty polish!

I was on the search for the perfect teal nail polish that had a more blue than green tone and I just came across this in the most unlikely place! I've never really paid any attention to Miss Sporty, but this is such a lovely colour. Unfortunately, it doesn't say what shade it is on the bottle, and I can't remember, but I'm sure it's easy enough to find in store :)

(Miss Sporty nail polishes retail in Superdrug and Boots for £1.99)

Gosh's wonderful Holographic polish! I've wanted this forever, but I never got round to actually buying it, but I'm so happy I did! I don't think this picture gives it justice, but it is such a lovely polish, properly holographic (so cool :D). However, it is really quite streaky, even with 3 layers, so it might be an idea to layer it over a silvery polish to get a better coverage? Also, it dries to a semi-matte finish, which I was surprised at. Overall, the formula isn't the greatest, but it's forgivable considering how wonderful the actual colour is :)

(Gosh nail polishes retail in Superdrug for £4.99)

I bleach my naturally dark blonde hair, and I ususally use Jerome Russel, but I didn't feel like it gave me the lift I require (I like my hair to be white blonde as a clean slate to put pastel toned colour in!) and I noticed that L'oreal Feria's Extreme Platinum Power claims to lighten hair up to 8 levels, which, if true, would definitely bring my hair up to white, so hopefully it works! What I like about the colourant is that it comes with a purple toning conditioner, which bleach/blonde hair kits really lack. 

The Pastel Pink Panther toner is, well, a pastel pink toner! I can imagine it is just like a pink hair dye mixed down to a light pink, and I've heard good things about it, so I thought I'd check it up. Once I get round to trying these out, I'll try and show you the results! 

(L'oreal Feria colourants retail in Boots and Superdrug at £5.79)

Last, but definitely not least, is Urban Decay's Smoked Palette. I had wanted this palette for ages, for two reasons, UD's eyeshadow primer, and a beautiful eyeshadow; Mushroom. I've been admiring Mushroom for months, but it took me until today to actually buy the palette! Smoked has ten eyeshadows, five of which are exclusive to the palette, a travel sized eyeshadow primer, and a full sized 24/7 eye pencil in Perversion, pretty good for £35! 

(Urban Decay products retail in Debenhams!)

Urban Decay V MUA: Eyeshadow Primers

I've seen a lot of comparison between Urban Decay's Naked palettes and MUA's Undressed and Heaven and Earth palettes, and as I've heard rave reviews about MUAs palettes, I thought I'd compare my favourite Urban Decay product, their Primer Potion, with MUAs version. 

Urban Decay's Primer Potion retails at £14.50 for 11ml of product, whereas MUAs Eye Primer retails at £2.50 for 7.5 ml. 

A comparison between packaging is pretty redundant here as I have the old style potion pot, which I always thought was terribly flawed. Now UDs primer comes in a squeesy tube. I do think that MUAs packaging looks more professional and, in comparison to the old style bottle, it is a lot easier to actually get the primer out of the bottle

They also both have doe-foot applicators, and this would be my preference over the new UD style as well, as this applicator is effective in spreading out the primer over the lid.

On the left, which you can barely see, is UDs primer potion, it has barely any pigmentation at all, and only leaves a slight sheen. It also dries quickly and so it isn't the easiest to blend it over the eyelid. MUAs primer is a lot more pigmented, and is so much easier to blend and spread, as it takes quite a while to dry in. 

Here I have a comparison of eyeshadow over no primer (at the top), UDs primer potion (on the left), and MUAs eye primer (on the right). It's obvious that MUAs primer gives a much more intense pay off as opposed to UDs primer potion and bare skin. 

I tested the two primers out under eyeshadow for a day (about 6 hours of wear) and MUAs primer came out on top, it kept my eyeshadow intense and vibrant all day, without creasing or fading away, and while my UD primer potion did this too, the colour intensity wasn't the same as with MUAs primer. 

MUAs primer surprised me with how good it was, easily more effective than Urban Decays, and although you get 3.5ml less product than in UDs, but, being £12 cheaper, I don't think that matters too much.

<3