Fave 5 MUA products

As if it wasn't bad enough to be a beauty junkie, I'm probably also a shopaholic (as you can tell I still haven't quite accepted or embraced my condition) which is a lethal combination for any bank balance and very difficult at this time of year when a lot of us are on a spending ban, to recover from the Christmas excesses. Fortunately there are makeup brands on the high street that seem to cater to people with my affliction and one of them is MUA (Makeup Academy). MUA's philosophy is that makeup shouldn't cost a fortune and that to get affordable products you shouldn't have to compromise on quality - no arguments here! I first discovered MUA a few years ago and I'm very pleased to see that since then the range of product has grown so much, and includes more or less everything that you could possibly want, all for under £5. I've certainly made the most of the purse friendly prices and tried quite a few things from the ever expanding range so today I'll show you my fave 5 MUA products starting with the famous Undressed palettes.

 

The MUA Undressed eyeshadow palette (£4) - the first MUA product I ever bought, is famous for being considered a dupe for Urban Decay's Naked palette. It combines twelve nude, neutral shimmering and matte eye shadows and it's a great starter kit for creating both everyday natural, and smokey smouldering eye looks which I'll try to describe since they don't have any color names:

Shade 1 - Matte vanilla, Shade 2 - Shimmering wheat, Shade 3 - Matte tan, Shade 4 - Shimmering dark ecru, Shade 5 - Matte camel, Shade 6 - Shimmering copper, Shade 7 - Shimmering russet, Shade 8 - Shimmering dark chocolate, Shade 9 - Shimmering mahogany, Shade 10 - Shimmering chestnut, Shade 11 - Shimmering charcoal, Shade 12 - Shimmering blue grey

All of the shimmering eye shadows have great, strong pigmentation and they are easy to work with to build up color with no fallout (I've only noticed that for Shade 11), and they wear well throughout the day - on me they last for about 5 hrs before they start to fade. In general I find it difficult to get affordable good matte eyeshadows on the high street, and while these are OK, the pigmentation isn't strong enough for me and they start to fade after only a few hrs. That doesn't mean that I like the palette any less, and because of the compact format it's easy to take it with you and retouch whenever needed. I love to combine shade 4 and 6, or 7 and 9 for variations on everyday looks, and in the evening 8, 10 and 12 make a dramatic smokey eye - all in all, it's a great buy!

From left to right:

Top row - Shade 1, Shade 2, Shade 3, Shade 4, Shade 5, Shade 6

Bottom row - Shade 7, Shade 8, Shade 9, Shade 10, Shade 11, Shade 12 

The other eye shadow palette is Undress Me Too (£4), again this is considered a dupe (for Urban Decay's Naked 2) and the eye shadows are lovely warm and golden in a mix of matte and shimmering textures, perfect for a paired down subtle eye with a statement lip: 

Naked - Matte blonde, Devotion - Shimmering bronze, Shy - Matte buff, Fiery - Shimmering golden brown, Lavish - Matte fallow, Dreamy - Shimmering sepia, Tranquil - Shimmering russet, Exposed - Shimmering taupe, Reveal - Shimmering ecru, Wink - Shimmering cinnamon, Obsessed - Shimmering coffee, Corrupt - Matte gunmetal

We have the same situation with pigmentation in this palette as with Undressed - all the stronger colors are excellent and gorgeous to work with, and I'd even say that the Undress Me Too shades last longer on me than the Undressed ones do, however the matte ones are weaker, but to have 10 excellent shades out of 12 certainly isn't bad. In all honesty it took me a little while to start appreciating this palette properly after I got it, but now I LOVE to use it and it's my go to box of tricks for a "no makeup" makeup look, and I much prefer the golden undertones of this palette to the colors in Undressed, it's a beautiful little bargain.

From left to right:

Top row - Naked, Devotion, Shy, Fiery, Lavish, Dreamy

Bottom row - Tranquil, Exposed, Reveal, Obsessed, Corrupt 

Moving on, we actually have some more eye shadows to look at since for me MUA is particularly strong in this area and I was so excited when I saw that MUA also jumped on the chubby stick wagon a while back with their version of the eye crayon, the Colour Blast Eyeshadow Tint (£3). The formula of the pencils is lovely and creamy, and you get a nice sheer coverage without having to be heavy handed or pull on the eyelids. The color is really long wearing and doesn't crease, which is super for any product, but especially one at this price point. There are six lovely shades in the range, but I'm showing you Diamonds, a subtle shimmering girly pink which is perfect as a base shade and Bring it back which is a golden rusty brown, also with a subtle shimmer and I love to wear this just on its own all over the lid, with some black eyeliner, lashings of black mascara and a red lip - classic and simple.

Out of all the products in this post, the next one is my absolute favorite - it's the Bronzer in Shade 1 (£1). The packaging is as basic as it can get, but if you can see past the uninspiring plastic packaging the pigmentation is amazing and it gives a gorgeous natural subtle apricot glow, without any hint of orange (never a good look, unless you're a clementine...). It's easy to apply, it feels lovely and light on the skin and wears well without getting cakey. This product is an absolute steal, and I've repurchased it three times already - says a lot about how well this product is working for me.

My favourite MUA lip product is the Intense Kisses Lipgloss in Kiss and Tell (£1). This formula is very similar to Rimmel's Apocalips and it offers excellent pigmentation, high gloss and long wear (up to about 4 hrs). It's perfect when you're looking for intense opaque coverage with a glossy, glamorous finish and you can't be bothered with adding a separate gloss to a lipstick (yep, that's me). Other selling points for me are that the gloss isn't sticky, it has a subtle candy like vanilla scent and the applicator seems to get just the right amount for nice and even coverage without any bleeding. I've really enjoyed wearing Kiss and Tell which is an intense, warm fuchsia pink and when it fades, it leaves a stain like look that you can easily re-apply the gloss over.

From top to bottom:

Colour Blast Eyeshadow Tints - Diamonds

Colour Blast Eyeshadow Tints -  Bring it back

Bronzer - Shade 1

Intense Kisses Lipgloss - Kiss and tell

As you know, I love my manicures and one of my most loved nail effects is the caviar look. Ever since I first saw Ciatés original caviar manicure, I've been collecting different colored bead mixes that I add every now and then to a standard mani for a more fun, frivolous and whimsical effect. As much as I love Ciaté (and I really REALLY do) and the caviar mani, even I have to say that the standard price (£20) for some micro beads is pretty hefty, and there are other more budget friendly options available. MUA was probably the first brand on the high street to come up with a more affordable alternative, the Nail Constellations (£3) and I have of course added some of them to my caviar collection:

Pisces - a fresh and sporty mix of silver and turquoise, great as an accent to a white nail

Scorpio - an interesting mix of warm gold, copper, forest green and lilac - lovely with a dark green or purple nail

Libra - a dark black and turquoise mix, and for me this works best with plain black

The MUA range continues to grow and fairly recently the MUA Luxe range was introduced with some lovely new products, that are still affordable with no item more expensive than £9. If you haven't already tried MUA you can get the products from your nearest Superdrug or directly from MUA online, so why not make your next makeup haul not only beauty friendly, but budget friendly too!