No Money March: The Budget Contouring Palette

I know "strobing" is the latest makeup trend but I still think contouring is the most effective way to chisel out some cheek bones and add dimension to the face. I've seen the more high-end contouring palettes and while they look pretty I just couldn't justify dropping the cash on them since I wasn't sure how much use I'd get out of them. Then I found out NYX had one so I figured I'd have a look at it, and here's what I think.

So the palette is £18 in the UK and it's made up of 8 shades. My breakdown of the functions of those shades breaks down to 3 contouring colours, 1 bronzer, 1 banana-powder type shade, 2 shimmer highlights and 1 matte highlight/light face powder. This is currently available in the UK from Boots, Selfridges, Very.com and FeelUnique.com.

I'm really pale and I find most of these shades workable for my skin. Both of the shimmer highlights are lovely on me, the top left corner "Ice Queen" is a lovely pale pinky shimmer that looks lovely on the cheek bones and "Nectar" (top right) is an orangey peach shimmer that I use as a blush topper but I can see this working well on deeper skin tones as well. The formula on the shimmer highlights is the best in the palette, these are really soft and buttery.

The matte highlight "Soft Light" (second from the left) is slightly more powdery feeling. I use this as an all over face powder but it could work as a highlight on darker skins. "Cream" (the yellow shade) is really interesting because I though it would be too dark to work on my skin but I find it blends out great and really brightens the centre of the face. With it being another matter powder it's not as creamy as the shimmers but it's definitely not what I'd call chalky either.

For the bronze-y shades I find I can only really use the two centre shades. "Tan" (bottom left) is too dark to bronze with and too warm to use as a contour and "Hollow" (bottom right) is just way too dark but the formula is pigmented and blendable on both. "Sculpt" (centre right) is my perfect contour shade and "Toffee" makes a nice pale bronzer.

The packaging isn't the most glam looking and it feels a bit cheap, but it's really functional. It seems to be marketed as a pro product so the clear lid makes sense and the hard plastic is durable so I can see this traveling well. I also like that the pans are removable so if you just wanted to travel with one of two shades you could easily pop them out and put them in another palette.

In terms of bang for your buck, it works out at £2.25 per pan and each of the pans is 2.7g. For value it works out similar to their other bronzing products which run for £8 for 9g. I think these are really reasonably priced for what you get.

I also wanted to make an honourable mention to the Spectrum Collection Tapered Finishing Brush, for budget contouring, this brush is amazing. The pink handle and blue bristles is fun and the tapered cut makes it really easy to apply contour where you want it. It's a lovely soft brush that picks up product well and blends it seamlessly and it's a synthetic brush so its cruelty free.

The Perfect Smokey Eye With Tom Ford

I've mentioned owning the Tom Ford Eye Shadow Quad in "Sahara Haze" before on the blog but I wanted to give it a good testing before I did a full post on it. I was going to pick up a few of the palettes and do a review on the line as a whole but I figured that really, the palettes are so different that stand alone reviews made sense. So this is on the "Sahara Haze" colour collections but if you're wanting to hear about the others, I'm up for doing those posts for you too.

So I guess the first thing we need to address with this product is the price. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, it's only four shades. Yes, it's a little bit outrageous, but it's Tom Ford. While I do think his products are pricey, lets not forget that there's some other fashion designers that have released cosmetics recently that are also earth-shatteringly expensive (I'm looking at you Mr Louboutin). Aside from the ingredient and the 10g of product, you're paying for the name and the packaging with a product like this.

I think the packaging is nicely done, it feels really luxe with the little velvet pouch (that yes, I do keep) and the mirrored brown and gold palette casing is nicely weighted and feels sturdy and substantial. When you open the palette, inside the lid there's a really nicely sized mirror and a small well that contains two mini applicators.

The applicators included are usable if a little cheaply done - two double ended applicators, both have one end that is a standard sponge tip and then the others ends are a tapered sponge tip on one and a thin tapered brush which is actually quite soft. Your eyeshadow will look fine if you use these but for the price it would have been nice to see some actual brushes included. Although I should mention that the sponge used on the sponge tips is softer than the ones you'd fine in an NYC quad, so they are "high-end" sponge tips, if those exist.

The eyeshadow pans are nice and big so you'll have no trouble dipping whatever brush you want into them and in the "Sahara Haze" collection, it's a variety of smokey looking shades. The lightest shade is a creamy off-white with yellow-gold undertones and for me it's like a satin with a bit more glow to it, very pretty everyday shade. The next shade working clockwise is a medium cool grey, standard satin finish and possibly a little on the sheer side - for me this is the weakest shade in the palette. The darkest shade comes off black but definitely has a hint of greenish tones in there and is laced with super-fine gold glitter. And then the final shade is one of the much-hyped "Glitter Top Coat" shades, in a swatch it comes off as a very light green with lots of gold glitter but when applied to the eyes it gives a similar effect as a super-fine micro-glitter pigment would.

All in all, the shades are all really pretty and work perfectly together to create a really glam smokey eye for an evening out. They're also all really unique, even the light creamy colour is unlike anything else in my collection. My main disappointment is that despite there being four shades to play with, I feel like there's only really one look I can achieve with it because of the colour selection. If the grey had been swapped out for a more brown-ish medium shade then you'd have had a day time look with the lightest and medium shades and you could work in the deeper colour and the glitter for an evening look but the grey confines it to a lid shade for me.

For quality the shadows are soft and creamy and they are really easy to apply and blend on the eyes. I feel like when I've done my eyeshadow using these products everything on the eyes looks nice and seamlessly glam. I will mention that because the shades are so creamy they can fall down a little when you're applying so you might want to be careful in that respect but they are really nice shadows that I do really enjoy using. I just think this colour selection is a little limiting in terms of the looks you can achieve with them.

Some Bits From The Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Collection

So when I heard that Gwen Stefani was collaborating with Urban Decay to bring out a whole collection of products, I got a little giddy. I have a whole review on the Eyeshadow Palette from the collection here and while I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it just looking at the shades, it’s landed straight in my favourites list. So here’s my thought on the rest of the bits I picked up from the collection.

The Gwen Stefani Lipsticks were just one of those things that I had to have. There wasn’t a singe shade in the lineup that I wasn’t interested in so narrowing it down to a non-outrageous number was difficult and after trying the two I picked up I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back for more. In the end I picked up shades “714” (the Mega-Matte red) and “Firebird” (the vibrant blue toned pink). I love both of the shades and they’re colours I’ll get a lot of wear out of.

Out of the two I’d say the “Firebird” is my favourite, the texture is really comfortable with it being a creamy finish and the micro-shimmer is really pretty without being OTT or at all garish. I love the shade of “714” and the mega-matte finish is lovely and long-lasting but the comfort factor lets it down a little bit. I really like both though and I think I need to go back for “Rock Steady” and “Wonderland” in particular. The other stand-out quality to these is the packaging. While it can feel a little bit flimsy as it’s just plastic, the black and gold graphic print is really lovely.

When I picked up my first pieces from the collection I didn’t think I needed the Gwen Stefani 24.7 Glide On Lip Pencils and that I’d have stuff in my collection that would work. For some of the shades in the collection that’s definitely the case but there some do seem to be a bit more unique. I have MAC’s Lip Pencil in “Redd” and that’s a near dead-on match for “714” but “Firebird” is a bit more unique and I'm considering picking up the matching lip liner. The packaging is beautiful. You can really tell that Gwen had an input into every aspect of these products.

Finally we have the Gwen Stefani Blush Palette. XSparkage’s review on this piece sparked my interest in this (no pun intended - honest). The rest of collection came out in America before it hit the UK so when she said it was perfect for pale skin tones I figured I needed to at least give it a go and it IS pretty. After having actually used it, I’m not sure it’s exactly what I wanted it to be. The matte-bronzer shade is really warm so it’s no good for contouring, you’d need a separate contouring product. Then there's a shimmery bronze-y shade that’s really pretty to add a sun-lit glow. The highlight shade is really lovely too, a very intense highlight that’s great for pale-ys, and the 3 blush shades are really great but you need to be so carful with them because they’re really pigmented. Really I just wanted to see something that would work as a contour in here, that’s the thing that really lets it down because for me it’s not an “all you need for cheeks” palette without one. That being said, if you’re pale and not fussed with contouring, I can imagine you’d think this was pretty perfect.

January Favourites

First month of 2016 is over and I've never been so glad to see the back of a month in my life. January this year brought me some big challenges but there's been some great product discoveries this month that have helped me along the way. We've also got one rediscovery in here too that I'm equally excited about. So let get into it.

My rediscovery this month was the Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation. I absolutely love this. The shade match it great, the formula is comfortable and it lasts well on the skin and the packaging is practical for travel. For a high-end foundation it's not too up there in price £32.50 for 30ml (although it was definitely more around the £26 mark when I first started wearing it so the price has crept up over the years). I use shade "03" and the shade range is really impressive. The lightest shade is white and the darkest is very dark, and the shade selection caters to everyone from the fairest of the fair to those with the absolute deepest of skin tones which is great.

I finally picked up one of the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfectors, these have to be one of the most hyped lip product ever and for good reason. I have shade "02" which is a natural pink and theres a really nice amount of shine to these. They're a relatively sheer lipgloss/balm hybrid product that are super comfortable on the lips without being sticky at all. Also - the scent/taste on these, they're lovely and sweet without being overpowering at all. Best of all? They've just introduced a berry shade into the line and I will definitely picking it up shortly.

This one won't come as a surprise to those who read my review/rave on the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette (here - spoiler, it's a positive one). The packaging is amazing, the selection of shades is the perfect balance between wearable and fun colours and it really caters to my "fairest of them all" skin tone. My favourite shades have been "Punk", "Zone", "Steady" and "Danger". The formulas are amazing and most of these are shades I can see myself reaching for a lot. I've picked up a few more bits from the collection so check back on Friday this week to hear more about that.

So the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel has finally been knocked off the top spot. I have a review on the whole set coming up soon but the Tata Harper Purifying Cleanser has just jumped to the top spot in my skincare stash this month. The citrus-y scent is nice and refreshing for an AM cleanse and the formula is creamy and cooling on the skin. I saw a noticeable difference in my skin after using this cleanser which always puts a product on my radar. Obviously I take pretty good care of my skin so when something makes a really visible difference for me it's always impressive.

My last pick is also a skincare product and again it's one that been featured in a post recently: the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream. I only have the travel size for now and I'm rationing it until payday when I can go and treat myself to a full size. This is just such a lovely day cream, super moisturising, makes a nice base for makeup, smells amazing. What's not to love?

The Friday Review: The Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Palette

I've been eyeing this product up for a while but I wasn't sure whether I could commit to the purchase because, to be honest, it didn't look all that unique to me. After spending weeks wandering into Debenhams to just look at it and swatch it, I decided I needed to just bite the bullet and make the purchase, so I figured I'd post a review to help you if you're another one who's been sat on the fence with this one.

So firstly, the packaging is amazing. Apparently, Gwen helped design every part of this product, from the packaging to the box it comes in and the shades included, and the packaging for the palette is beautiful. Gold casing and a dimensional monochrome circle design, the metal plate with "UD Gwen Stefani" is a lovely touch too. The weighting to the product is lovely and there's a nice big mirror inside the lid when you open it with "Magic's in the makeup" written on it in the corner. It's a generally nicely though out casing.

As for the shades, I'm in love. In the couple of weeks I've had this, I've used it a lot and I really believe that for a fairer skin-tone, this palette is such a winner. A lot of reviews around this have said the palette was designed "By Gwen, for Gwen" and I 100%. It's full of light to mid-tone neutrals, and the few pops of colour that are included are very well suited to a fair skin-tone.

For an Urban Decay palette, the number of mattes in this one is amazing, 5 mattes, 3 satin-type finishes and 7 shimmers. As for the individual shades on the top row we have "Blonde" which is a satin finish, very light, cool-toned cream. "Bathwater" is a shimmery light, yellow-y cream, "Skimp" is a satin finish light beige. "Steady" is a mid-tone rose-gold shimmer and "Punk" is a dark reddish-brown matte.

On the second row of the palette we have "Baby", a shimmery pinkish taupe and "Anaheim" a cool, mid-tone brown matte. "Stark" is a mid-tone beige matte and "Zone" is a mid-tone warm brown matte. Finally on the second row we have "Serious" which is a charcoal grey satin.

The third row of the palette brings us out of the neutral zone. On this row we have "Pop" a shimmery peachy-coral and "Harajuku" a medium cool-toned blue shimmer. "Danger" is one of my favourite shades, a lot of people have called this a navy but to me it's more of a deep electric-blue shimmer. "1987" is a yellow-gold shimmer and finally we have "Blackout", a matte black.

And just in case that wasn't enough to reel you in, while a lot of Urban Decay palettes seem to come with some sort of sample of the Urban Decay Primer Potion, this comes with four testers of the soon-to-be-released Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Lipsticks. The back of the packaging for these seems to indicate that there will be eight shades with the release. I'm not sure if all of the palettes came with the same sample shades but mine had "Rock Steady" a cream finish red, "714" a mega matte mid-tone pink, "Ex-Girlfriend" a sheer nude and "Firebird" a cream pinky purple shade.

The Friday Review: Nars One Shocking Moment Blush Palette

For the last few years Nars has released a limited edition blush palette as part of one of their autumn collections, and or the past few years, it sold out before I managed to get my hand on it. This year I signed up to the mailing list and I ordered it the second I got the email and I couldn't have been more pleased when it turned up on my doorstep last week. It's my first experience with Nars' base products and the palette contains a lot of permanent shades so I figured I'd give you the run down.

The packaging for the palette is lovely, nice and sturdy feeling and it has one of those "good click" closes that seems to be all important in the beauty blogging world. The lid of the palette is nicely decorated with a photograph (pictured above) with a text overlay. When you open the palette the lid is a big mirror and there's 7 products inside, four of which are Blush in: "Robotic" (limited edition), "Blasphemy" (limited edition), "Luster" (permanent) and "Dolce Vita" (permanent), there's also the "Paloma" Contour Blush Duo, and a Bronzing Powder in "Laguna" which is twice the size of the other powders in the palette.

In terms of value, I paid £49 for the palette and can't find any information on the value in pounds but Sephora are advertising this at $69 with a $169 value and looking at the amount of product you get in here, I can see that being about right. The blushes are all 3.5g of product (full size are 4.5g so slightly down sized), the contour blush duo is 3.5g each (full size is 2.7g and 5.5g so slightly more highlight and slightly less contour) and the bronzer is 8.5g (full size is 8g so slightly smaller than the palette size)

The two limited edition blush shades "Robotic" and "Blasphemy" are pinky shades with shimmer. "Robotic" is quite a subtle hint of blush that will play nice with a bolder lip look while "Blasphemy" is a slightly bolder blush, it's a mid-tone pink that will give more of a blushed look to the cheeks but it's still very wearable.

The permanent blush shades are nice as well. "Luster" looked like a shade I didn't think I'd get much use out of but after actually wearing it I can safely say it's my favourite out of all the products in the palette, it's a nice peachy bronze-y shade on the cheeks and is good to warm up a lighter skin tone. "Dolce Vita" is the boldest blush in the palette and will give the cheeks that winter-y "I've just been out in the cold" type flush and used lightly on the skin it's really pretty.

Looking at the shades in the palette to me there's something for every season, "Robotic" will be a spring-time staple, "Luster" will give you that summer time golden goddess look, "Blasphemy" will work well for autumn and then "Dolce Vita" is a nice winter blush pick. My only complaint with the blush shades is that everything's a bit shimmery, if they'd thrown in at least one matte shade I think that would have balanced things out a bit better.

Out of all the products in the palette, the Contour Blush Duo was my least favourite. On me the highlight shade looks like a normal setting powder, but if you're of a medium skin tone the highlight might actually show up on you. The contour shade was also a little out, it's just a bit too warm, even the bronzing shade looks cool toned beside it. I'd rather use "Laguna" lightly to contour and use the contouring shade in place of bronzer. I was a littler worried that "Laguna" would be way too dark on me at first but providing I use a light hand with it I can just about get away with it.

The palette is available now on narscosmetics.com and sephora.com and is also available for pre-order from Space NK.

Skint-tember Begins! Top 10 Under £10 - Eyes

So in light of many of you that are jetting off to begin (or continue) your university adventures this month (and because I love a good pun), I thought I'd dedicate this month to budget beauty buys, and what better way to kick things off than a top 10 under £10? This is the first instalment and we'll be focusing on eye products.

I've been loving cream eyeshadows in stick form lately and I've got two to mention today that won't break the bank, firstly theres the Bourjois ColourBand Eyeshadow Sticks. These are lovely, pigmented, long-lasting eyeshadow sticks that are easy to blend and come in a small but carefully selected colour range and you can pick these up in Boots. If a large colour selection is something you're after, the KIKO Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks are a little bit harder to find (I'd try the website if you're no where near a store) but the colour selection is insane and they're very comparable to much more expensive formulas.

I've picked out quite a few neutral palettes in a variety of sizes so there should be something for everyone here. If quads are your thing I have two that I like, Soap & Glory Lid Stuff is the most expensive product in this line-up at dead-on £10 but it's lovely and the shade selection in the neutral version is well thought out and comprehensive. If that's a little too indulgent I'd also recommend the NYC HD Quattro Eye Shadow quads, I have the shade "Best of Broadway" and it's lovely but their selection of these is really nice and they're well within the £10 budget.

If you're looking for a slightly bigger eyeshadow palette, again, I have two that I'd recommend. Firstly the Maybelline The Nudes Palette is a great pick, the 12 shades are laid out in the palette to be used as duos, trios or quads or of course you can mix and match the whole palette to create your looks, and the shadows are buttery smooth to apply. Alternatively, you can pick up the Revolution Redemption Palette Iconic 1 (which you'll hear more about later this month) for a mere £4 in super drug. The quality isn't quite as nice as the Maybelline but you're still getting 12 shadows and the price point on this is amazing.

If you're sat there thinking "just give me a loose pigment eyeshadow" you need look no further than the Barry M Dazzle Dusts, they're an old classic but they're brilliant and they're still available in a really good selection of shades (and if you ever manage to finish one, well done to you).

My favourite budget eyeliners are the Rimmel Scandleyes Eyeliners, the shade selection is nice for a high-street liner and the formula is up there with the Urban Decay 24/7 Liners. It was very difficult not to pick up every colour when they first launched.

The brow product I decided to include is the No7 Beautiful Brow Sculpting Pencil, mainly because it's the fuss-free high-street option. The pencil is nice and chunky which makes for a speedy brow application. The shade selection is great and the spool-y brush on the end is brilliant.

And finally, my high-street mascara pick is obviously the MaxFactor 2000 Calorie Curved Brush Mascara and I will continue to repurchase this until death or discontinuation (although the thought of it finding a way off the shelves of Boots makes me want to run out and buy 20 right now). It's a brilliant mascara that makes even my worst-of-the-wort lashes look somewhat acceptable.

So there we have it, a round-up of all of my high-street eye favourites, I hope you enjoy Skint-tember!

My MAC Palette So Far

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I'm not the biggest fan of MAC's eyeshadows. That being said, their colour selection is pretty much unrivalled and their build-your-own palettes are beautifully simplistic and even though other brands have come out with their own DIY palettes, I still think that MAC have the monopoly on them due to the design of their packing. So lets have a tour around my (not even half full) 15-pan-palette.

The first shade I picked up from MAC was Brulé, a basic. It's a matte skin-tone shade (on me it is anyway) that I can use all over the lid or to blend out a one-colour look. I have tonnes of shades like this but I decided that if I was making up any kind of palette, I probably wouldn't reach for it as much if it didn't have a basic shade like this in it.

Another neutral shade that doesn't seem to exciting it Petina, this is a more recent purchase for me. At first glance it's a bit of a plain jane eyeshadow colour but it's great for those days where you want something on the lid but don't want to spend ages blending or applying multiple colours. It's also great for toning down more interesting colours. My favourite shade to mix with Petina is Greensmoke, another newbie to my collection. It's as close to a neutral as you can get whilst still bringing a tiny pop of colour to the table.

I picked up Gleam after being drawn in by it's neutrally sparkle. To me it looked like a slightly more interesting All The Glitters and in hindsight, I probably should have picked up that instead. Gleam swatched well in the store, but doesn't really work with a brush and creates a tonne of fallout, it's also quite sheer so you have to use a lot of product to get the colour that's in the pan. generally not a shade I use very often and I can see myself switching it out once my palette fills up.

Another sheer shade is Shale, however it doesn't have the massive fallout problem that Gleam has, so it can be worth the extra bit of effort since it looks really pretty if you take the time to build it up. It's a mid-tone purple with a satin-y finish that works well blended all over the lid on it's own or wth other colours. I like to use it with a tiny bit of Sketch blended either into the crease or along the upper lash line to add a little bit of smokiness to the look. Sketch is a deeper purple-y colour with some shimmer.

And there we have it. short and sweet as it's only 6 shades but I'll keep updating as the palette starts to come together.

The Perfect Palette Tag

Best Packaging - Urban Decay Vice 2

When I think "best packaging" I'm really thinking "prettiest packaging" and the Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette is definitely the palette in my collection that comes to mind for this category. It has the mixed purple plastic and the gem stone UD logo in the middle which is beautiful. However It's also quite practical. I'd never need 20 shadows when I'm traveling so it doesn't need to be thin in my opinion, but it has a lovely big mirror that you could do your whole face in and a button-press closure so it won't open randomly. I also love how spaced out the shadows in this palette are, it really helps to limit pigment-transfer. Unfortunately, it was also limited edition (sorry, my bad!).

Best Colour Payoff - Urban Decay

In general, the majority of my eyeshadow collection is Urban Decay just because their formula is lovely and their products are reasonably priced for a higher-end brand. Urban Decay offer lots of eyeshadow palettes with 10-20 shades for £30-£40 and their single shadows are around £14 which is cheaper than many other brands and their shadows are consistently pigmented and easy to blend.

Most Versatile - Urban Decay Smoked

I'll admit, I don't use this palette as much as I should, but it's a real gem. Two rows with five shadows a piece, a row of neutrals, a row of smokey colours. What more could you want? You can use the lighter neutral shades to create a day look, the black and the liner to create a cat-eye or smudge-y liner look, or add in some of the colours to really mix things up. Also, this palette contains the shade Mushroom, my favourite ever eyeshadow shade!

Best for Travel - The Balm, Balm Jovi

If there is a palette better suited to travel than the Balm Jovi Palette from The Balm, I need to hear about it, because I don't think it exists. This palette contains 12 shadows, a powder blush, a powder highlight and two creamy lip-and-cheek products and is insanely compact. The palette contains a mirror in which you could do your whole face and aside from foundation, concealer, mascara and brows, it has all the bases covered. The mix of eyeshadows is perfect, theres 4 matte fairly neutral shades, and 8 wearable colour options that range from shimmers to metallics to satins. This is the only palette I took with me for my month-long trip around Europe last year and it saw me through the whole trip for eyes and cheeks (although I did cheat a little and bring along 2 lipsticks).

Biggest Regret - MAC Quad - Brule, Gleam, Shale and Sketch

This was a really had question for me, because even things in my collection that I don't use often now have had their days of being my most reached for make-up product. The only one I can say I felt even mildly disappointed with was my build-it-yourself MAC quad, and that's mainly because I could see the sales assistant was getting annoyed at my indecisiveness and didn't give myself enough time to think it through. While the shades I picked are nice, Gleam is a neutral shimmery shade with straight-up glitter in that falls down as soon as you apply it, and Shale is so sheer and hard to work with that it looks like I use it all the time despite me having used it very little in the year that I've owned it. Sketch and Brule are nice shades and are pigmented and easy to work with, but I barely reach for the quad as I'm always having to bring in shades from other palettes to complete a look as the other two just don't work for me.

Best Colour Names - The Balm, Balm Jovi (again)

This is the only palette I have that has themed names that seem thought about to me, so I had to double up a palette and award Best Colour Names to the Balm Jovi Palette. Most of the shades in the palette are named after things that are music related, and as a Music BA Hons graduate I really love the theme for this palette.

Least Used - Urban Decay Book of Shadows NYC

Where do I even begin to explain why I don't use this palette anymore? Firstly, this was the first big eyeshadow palette I ever bought, so this is the old Urban Decay eyeshadow formula, which is no where near the formula they're putting out recently. The palette contains four shades that (Like Gleam from my MAC palette) have big chunks of glitter in that fall down your face either on application or throughout the day, leaving you looking like a glitter bomb exploded on your face by the end of the day. Additionally, the packaging on this palette is so huge that I can't store it with the bulk of my makeup, and so even the shades that are nice barely get touched as I don't think to reach into the depths of my drawers looking for it.

Most Used - Soap & Glory Lid Stuff

This is the palette that goes in my daily (work) make-up bag along with a single of Urban Decay's Mushroom eyeshadow single (my aforementioned favourite) and a few coloured eyeliners and serves as my daily eyeshadow pick. It's small and compact and has all the shades I reach for on a regular basis, three mattes and one shimmery shade, it's all I need to go from the office to the bar and can deliver no matter what eye look I'm feeling. Love.