Matte black eyeshadows

As someone who loves dramatic smokey grey eyeshadow I rarely venture into other colours, sometimes taupe shades and occasionally black which brings me to this post.

So many eyeshadow palettes come with matte black shades, I own six palettes (two sleek and four Urban Decay) though i usually prefer single shadows because i can choose my colours - hello new pick your own shades Urban decay palettes.

Out of these six, four have matte blacks and one has a black with a little glitter and the only one that doesn't is the original Naked palette.

Left to right - MAC Carbon, Sleek Noir (Storm palette),
Urban Decay Black Dog (The black palette) and Urban Decay Blackout (Naked2)

I've only once brought a matte black on purpose and thats MAC Carbon, looking at the swatches you can see its a matte black but its not overly pigmented which means you can build up the colour and not worry about looking too much like a panda.

Sleek seems to have a black in so many of their palettes this ones got a more satin like finish than the others (with a hint of grey). I have two of theirs (Storm and Bad Girl) but the pigmentation is nice so I plan to pick up a few more. If your after a highly pigmented black then its cheaper to buy one of their palettes just for the black then one MAC shadow, infact the palettes are very reasonably priced.

I know including two Urban Decay ones doesn't make a great deal of sense but they've different names so theres clearly meant to be some difference. Black dog has a very very slight hint of grey where as Blackout is more of a true black and is much softer.

I like dark grey matte shadows, but i love greys in general but rarely use my blacks.

My main reason of this post was wondering if anyone actually uses matte black shadow, any one?

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Nars Orgasm dupes - swatches

For some reason this blush is a highly well known cult product. 

I dont know if its the hype or what but I dont see what all the fuss is about. Sure its pretty but i much prefer MAC blushes their just much softer and more pigmented.
One thing is like about it is the colour, its a lovely golden apricot colour.

Left to right; MAC Peachykeen, MAC Springsheen, Nars Orgasm, Benefit Bella Bamba and Benefit Coralista. 

Top to bottom; MAC Peachykeen, Nars Orgasm and MAC Springsheen

I love these shades of blushes, rose coloured with a gold sheen to them and no chunky glitter.

I think the MAC blushes are closest to Orgasm. Spring sheen is just that bit darker and Peachykeen is a bit too red.
Bella bamba has too much dark pink to it and Coralista is too orange.
Its hard to find an exact dupe of blushers but these are always compared to Orgasm.

Personally I love MAC Springsheen, it was my first MAC blush and i still adore it.

I do think Nars Orgasm is over rated and although I've used it a few times i just don't seem to be able to get into using it.

MAC - Mineralize skinfinish Swatches

I own three MAC mineralize skinfinishes (well four but the others a natural one). Their fairly standard colours that most people seem to have. 

Top to bottom; Petticoat, Blonde and Soft and gentle.

In bright natural light 

Duller natural light

Petticoat is hard to describe. All i can think of is a plum-copper colour with a golden shine. Its lovely though. 

Blonde looks really natural on me, its nice golden pink colour.
Soft and gentle i've only ever used one or twice because its just far too bronzer-ish for my pale skin. I'd use it as a contour but its got too much shimmer for that.

One thing with Mineralize skinfinishes (the non-natural ones) is that their vained which means there is some variety in the colour.

Rose-copper veining in Petticoat
(taken in rather bad energy saving light bub light).

These are really lovely colours, they make nice blushes (or bronzers or highlighters depending on the colour).
Nicely pigmented, soft and long lasting.

With blushes i like them to be soft and with medium pigmentation. Its not easy easy to be light handed so i'd rather need two swipes than do one and look like a clown. 

 I love these and plan to get more. I'm really wanting to find MAC Stero rose, it looks lovely.

MAC - Tilt eyeshadow

I love blue eyeshadows, sadly i also love it when my eyes look grey and blue eyeshadow makes them look green.

MAC's Tilt looks so unique.

In the pan it looks like a gunmetal colour with a hint of navy, when swatched it looks like a navy-lavender and where ever it catches the light it goes green. I really tried to get it to show in the photos but i'm not sure it went well.

Tilt in natural light (dry, no primer)

Tilt with a flash (dry, no primer)

Its a lovely frost finish :)

MAC and Urban Decay make the best eyeshadows, as lovely as Sleek palettes are they just don't compare.

RRP - £12 or £10 pro pan.

I brought mine for £6.50 (+£1 shipping) from Buyapowa.com

If you've not heard of buyapowa then head over and check them out.

They've so many amazing products on their coming soon list, from MAC blushes to handbags, Volkswagen Polo's and Samsung laptops.

I'm in no way affiliated with them, i'm just obsessed by the savings they have.

I've got a few more MAC swatches coming up, since their amazing :)

Topshop cream blushes

Top to bottom; Flush, Neon rose and Head over heels

Flush is hot pink sort of colour and probably the most tricky to wear unless its applied very lightly and carefully.

Neon rose is a lovely coral colour, its a very 'all skin tone' colour. I'm really pale and this suits me perfectly, i can see this suiting every one.

Head over heels is orange-coral and my favorite of these, it looks so natural on me.

Left to right; Head over heels, Neon Rose and Flush.

I love these blushes.

Their cream to power so you don't get the glow that usually comes with cream blushes. Their not drying, as some powers can be. They have a matt/satin finish with no glitter, great for people who dislike the glitterball effect.

I recently developed a blush obsession, loads of swatches coming soon

New blog/about me

I'm starting off my new makeup blog with a post about myself, more as an introduction than out vanity.

I'm a teenage, makeup obsessed girl from England.

I'm pale, so pale infact that the lightest shades of most brands are too dark for me (Rimmel, Borjous and Benefit as examples).
I have blue-grey eyes and blonde brown hair (some people say its blonde, some say brown).

I have a few products i only ever use, because i've tried multiple different products of these types before and not found anything better.

Heres a quick run through of the products i always use;
Foundation - L'Oreal Infallible Lasting perfecting foundation (in Porcelain)
Mascara - Benefit Bad Gal Lash
Foundation Primer - Benefit Porefessional or GOSH Classic foundation primer

Lipstick - MAC See Sheer
Lipbalm - EOS lip sphere in Sweet mint

My standard makeup styles include; 

Red lips (bold red and more natural reds)

Smokey grey eyes
Smokey taupe eyes
Shimmery rose coloured blushes (Mac's Springsheen is a favorite)

This isn't my first makeup blog. I had my previous one about a year and had about 30 followers by the time I deleted it a few weeks ago. I deleted it because I had a giveaway on it which only got one entry and i felt a bit like a failure so i gave up on the blog. I've missed blogging and swatching so decided to start again.

As well as makeup i love photography. Below are three photos i took yesterday, I personally love the second one.

So thank you read reading and i hope you'll like my blog.
I've got Topshop blush swatches coming up today and MAC lipstick swatches tomorrow.