Wet n Wild Petal Pusher Palette + Mini Blog Sale

The Petal Pusher is a well sort after palette, especially by beauty addicts that find it hard to hold of Wet N Wild. The selection of 8 shadows are all gorgeous hues of purples ranging for very slightly tinted lilac white right up to a dark charcoal with purple shimmers running through it. 




Each shadow is labelled with a position on the eye, although I would use them in other places as well as what Wet N Wild have dictated.  The labels make this palette ideal for beginners who aren't used to creating eye looks, and the price makes it even better for those just starting out. 





The first is white shadow base with really subtle lilac shimmer. It's not the most pigmented of the bunch but is a gorgeous brow bone highlight. 

The lighter eyelid shade is a nice lavender shade with a golden shimmer. 

The crease shade on the left is the lighter of the two but are nice and deep. It's not matte but it's probably one of the most matte shades in the palette. Some might call it satin. There aren't any obvious shimmers or glitter and it works to subtly add colour to the eye. 

The lighter definer shade is an amazing blue purple with sliver glitters. I wouldn't use it to define anything but it looks lovely over the lid. The silver shimmers really pop when you load it up on the lid. 

 



Next up you have a pink/lilac shade, swatched it gives a shimmer to the skin that hints at the purple hue when it hits certain lights.  

The darker of the lid shades is a medium purple with tonnes of golden shimmer specks. The best part about the shade is that the glitter doesn't fall out all over your face and you can still see on the eye.

The darker of the crease shades is an almost exact dupe for MAC beauty marked. the black base is loaded up with pinky purple glitters that just give it a little something special.

The last shade is a black, with a similar depth to the beautymarked dupe. It has some subtle shimmers running through it but when you blend the shade you cannot really see them.  

All of the shades have a nice texture to them, with only one complaint. The white shade is a little chalky but still useable. If you really want to pack on the colour, you can get fall out but if you use a little and build it up it is easy to avoid. 

If you love purple shades, and want to grab a bargain I would highly recommend this. I know it's hard to get hold of here in the UK, but if you can get it  I would grab it. 

With this great review in mind, I'm not one for the purple shades. I tend to stick with greens, browns and charcoal colours so if anyone wants this palette (it's been used about x5) it is yours for £5.50 including postage (within the UK). 

Just email me: sparkleandshineblog@gmail.com if you fancy snapping this up! Thanks for reading

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M&S Autograph Eyeshadow Palette: A Naked Palette Dupe?

Like my last review, I am a little late posting this one. It's been sitting in my drafts since July, and I am finally getting around to posting this bad boy. 

The M&S Autograph Eyeshadow palette is a gorgeous 12 shade collection of neutral shades that can be used to create a wide variety of looks. Mine comes encased in gorgeous gold and very reflective (excuse the lamp shade in the picture) packaging but it is currently on sale in even more gorgeous black packaging (here). 

The selection of neutral shades are automatically going to remind any beauty lover of the infamous Naked or Naked 2 palettes from Urban Decay but the M&S offering is considerably cheaper than those. I also think it is more compact and slightly more sturdy that the Naked1 palette packaging. The large mirror inside is great for on to go touch ups and makes it a great palette to travel with. The brush that came with it (which I lost pretty much as soon as I got this) was actually pretty decent  but I still prefer my RT and other brushes. 

All of the shades are gorgeously pigmented, with one slight exception. The shade Taupe, while still pigmented, is the weakest of the bunch with Chrome being the best.  I find all of the shades to be blendable and long lasting, though I would still put a primer underneath to give them an extra "oomph" on the eyes. 

The shades, in the images, marked with a "*" and my favourite off the bunch, and ones that I use nearly everyday. That isn't to say the others aren't great though, because they are. 

Sand is a gorgeous shimmery ivory colour. Peach is (strangely enough) a light, shimmery peach shade that is great all over the lid. Latte is a nice champagne/gold colour with a fine glitter running through it. Taupe is the first matte offering and is a grey, taupe colour. Brown Velvet is the second (and last) matte offering and is a very warm medium brown. Brown Suede is a slightly shimmery taupe, brown colour. 

Champagne Shimmer is a slightly chunky, shimmery light brown. Burnished Copper isn't really a copper shade but more like a shimmery warm brown with a hint of bronze. Cocoa is a slightly green based brown with shimmer. Gunmetal is a deep, shimmery grey toned brown shade. Carbon is the black of the bunch, and a silver shimmer running through it. Finally, Chrome is a brown/black with a heavy gold shimmer. 

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*This was a lovely gift from my wonderful auntie.

My Fashionista 6 Pan Palette: Eyeshadow, Blush, Highlight and More

I am so late with this Fashionista Custom Palette review. I picked this 6 pan palette and the refills up when MUA started selling the Fashionsita brand on their website, which I think was about (or over) 6 months ago). 

The palette is really good quality, and the pans fit into the slots nice and securely. The closure is very secure, which means I am totally comfortable throwing this in my bag if I want something for on the go touch ups or taking it traveling with me without fear that it will open or break.   The huge mirror within the palette also makes this great for on the go because you can see everything without any struggles.  

I opted for the white, 6 pan palette and decided to fill it with 2 blushes, a bronzer, highlight and two eyeshadows. Not having tried the brand before, I wanted to give the whole range a good go so I have a mixture of the regular formula and the "baked" or "merged" blushes/bronzer/eyeshadows. 

Juicy Apricot is an orange/coral blush with gold glitter running through it. I adore  this blush and find it great for everyday wear. I must admit the glitter did put me off a little but on the cheeks it gives the skin a glowy look rather than the disco ball look.  You can notice the glitter on closer inspection though, so if you don't like glitter I would say try "Lolly" from MUA which is similar in colour but matte (review here). 

New York is a blusher from the baked line that Fashionista offer. It's a gorgeous medium pink with a cool toned shimmer running through it. Whilst it does have shimmer, it is free of glitter. It has a nice pigment to it but the great thing about this blush is that it can be sheered out easily for a subtle look or built up for something a little more intense. For me, it's one of those blushes that is near impossible to mess up. 

Paris is a deep, matte bronzer. It's not to orange or anything, but because it is so highly pigmented it can be hard to blend leaving it looking a little muddy. Used with a duo fiber of stippling brush, it works really well because the brush applies the colour lightly. I think it would be better suited to a tanned skin tone, rather than my ghostly pale complexion but I can make it work.  It is great to find something that can work and isn't tango orange. 

Barcelona is another bronzer, but it is in fact a highlighter shade. This is one of a baked option, like New York and is free of chunky glitter. It does have a shimmer running through it making it great for highlighting the eyes or cheeks. The light, golden colour is for pale to medium skin tones depending on how heavily you apply it. It is nicely pigmented, like the other products and the lasting time totally depends on what foundation I'm wearing. 

Bliss is my miss of this little palette. It has nothing to do with the quality of the product because it's really great quality but it is more to do with my stupidity in choosing a colour. Bliss is a barbie, pearly pink shade that is BRILLIANTLY pigmented. It is very similar, in formula, to the MUA  singles but I find it slightly more buttery with less fall out. I would use this so much more if the colour wasn't quite so pink, so I think I'll check out the other shades in this line. 

Finally, we have Double Take which is a baked eyeshadow. It is shimmery with gold glitter as well. It's a gorgeous golden, bronze brown shade that, like bliss, is gorgeously pigmented. My only issue with this is that the glitter falls out like crazy. You can get around the issue but putting your foundation or concealer on later, but I just cannot get used to doing my face after my eyes. I do need a primer underneath this, and the other shadow, to make it last all day without creasing but they don't fade without a primer it's just the creasing I have an issue with.

Just A Note: The compacts that the refills come in are actually quite poor quality, so I would recommend picking up a palette if you are going to invest in something from this Custom line. 

You can check out the palettes and refills here and they start from just £1.65 a piece.

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Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells

The Wet n Wild Colour Icon Shadows are wildly popular amongst bloggers, especially those from America where you can get your hands on them easily. In the UK they are coveted palette and trios because of the cheap price and great quality.

I managed to snap up the famous "Walking on Eggshells" trio from a blog sale and I couldn't be more please with it.  I know from rave reviews that the quality of these shadows were good, but they were better than I expected. 

 

I think the MUA Single Eyeshadows are the best UK drugstore equivalent, but you do experience a little more fall out with the MUA option. They are buttery, pigmented and long wearing. They do crease on me, without a primer, after about 6 hours, but MAC shadows do that as well so that's not a negative for me. 

 

The three shades in this palette are shimmery which leads to my only negative. I wish one of the shades was matte just to give my eye look some depth and to have some contrasting finishes.  

I like that each shade is labelled for placement on the eye. It's great for beginners, but don't let those labels stop you putting what you want where you want. I love using the "brow bone" shade all over my lid and found the crease colour great all over the lid for a darker, smokey nighttime look. 

Overall I am really impressed with this palette, I just wish it had a matte shade. It has great everyday shades that I think just about anyone could pull off. If you do want to try and get your hands on these, make an American friend, go on holiday or check the bay of e here.

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Sleek Makeup Candy Collection Blush By Three Sweet Cheeks | Review and Swatches

Limited Edition Sleek Blush By Three Palette in Sweet Cheeks from The Candy Collection. £10.00. link

After finally getting my hands on the Blush By 3 Palette called Sweet Cheeks from the Sleek Candy Collection, I went a bit mental. I'm not entirely sure why this palette appealed to me so much but I went bonkers over it. 

 I photographed it the minute I got home, just so I could have a play around with the three blushes. In the palette you get a selection of three blush, one of which is cream and the other two being powder.  
 

Cupcake is the cream blusher in this palette, and is your blue toned offering the this pink filled palette. It's nice and bright, but blends to a nice flush on the cheek. 

 

Dolly Mix is the matte powder in the trio. It's a light, lilac pink colour and offers a colour perfect for lighter skin tones. The lilac tone doesn't show up to much on the skin, so it's not hard to pull off at all. 

Candy Floss is a bright more yellow toned pink blusher, with shimmer running through it. It is the shimmering offering in this palette, but it's not full of glitter so fear not you will not be looking like a Cullen! 


I've never seen a cream blusher from Sleek before, but after trying this on I sincerely hope they bring out more with this formulation. I found it to be incredibly pigmented, easy to work with and probably most importantly long lasting. 




The powder blushes live up to the hype of the other Sleek blushes. I found these two, along with the other Sleek blushes I've tried, to be highly pigmented and really blendable. They don't kick off to much powder when you touch your brush to them, and a simple touch of the brush to the powder gives you enough for both cheeks. 

Overall, I would highly recommend picking this up if you can get your hands on it. It took me a while to find it, but if you can it's great for anyone who loves a pink cheek. 

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MUA Brand Review: Eyes, Face, Complexion and Lips

 MUA, or Makeup Academy, are a brand that are exclusive to Superdrug or online. They are a British based bargain brand that offer high quality products at a super cheap price. They have two lines (like ELF) where the basics are only £1 each and the professional line is priced up to about £8. 

Lipstick

The MUA lipsticks are one of my favourite things from the brand. They are only £1 a pop, they don’t dry out my lips, they have a nice selections of colours and they are quite long lasting. The lighter colours, as with most brands, don’t last as long as the reds but for the price they are brilliant. 

Power Pout (full review here)

The Power Pouts are MUA’s answer to the lip crayon bandwagon that everyone is jumping on at the moment. They are soft, slightly blamy crayons that give you a pop of colour on the lips .They are a little too soft (and therefore messy for me) but they are a bargain at £3 a tube. 

 

Eyeshadow (reviews here, here , here and here)

The £1 single eyeshadows from MUA are my favourite thing from the brand. They have a huge selection of colours (quite a few MAC dupes in there too) and they are really nice quality. I prefer these over most of my eyeshadows, high end or not! They offer a range of matte and pearl finishes, all of which go on to the eye in a buttery like formula, and blend to a nice finish. 

Eyeshadow Palette (review here , here,  , here and here)

MUA offer a nice range of eyeshadow palettes which feature about 12 eyeshadows. The quality of the shadows is slightly less impressive than the singles, which I find strange considering how many of the colours can be brought in single form. They offer a bight palette for those loving colour (review here) and they offer a nice range of neutrals too including dupes for the Naked and Naked 2 palettes from the ever popular Urban Decay. They palettes are only £4 a go.

Eyeshadow Trio (review here)

The eyeshadow trios offered by the brand are similar to those offered by Bourjois but at much cheaper price of only £2.50.The trios come with three complementary colours that work well to create one look. You generally get a lid, crease and highlight colour, along with a sponge applicator for those without brushes. They can be used wet or dry for subtle or bold looks, and they have a collection for almost anyone’s eyeshadow preference.

Liquid Eyeliner (mentioned here)

The MUA liquid eyeliners are one of my favourites, ever. They come with a felt tip like brush meaning they are great for beginners (*cough* me *cough*) and they last all day. They are only £1 a go, come in a nice range of colours and can be used to create any kind of liner effect. You can go thick or thin, with a flick or without and these will work for you. They do take a few seconds to set/dry, which can be a bummer if you blink a lot but once they set they are there to stay! 

Pencil Eyeliner (full review here)

The pencil eyeliners, again only £1, are great. They aren’t the softest pencils your will find but they are softer than some that cost a lot more. They come in a huge array of colours, come with a sharpener on the lid and lash a decent amount of time. They have some matte colours, and some with shimmer/glitter. The colours are nicely pigmented, and blendable/smudgeable if you fancy something smokier.

Mascara (mentioned here and here)

MUA offer a range of mascaras from lengthening ones that only cost £1 to volumising goodies that cost about £3. My favourite from the brand are the £1 mascaras that come in a nice range of colour from black to pink and the Every Lash mascara which is £3 and is a dupe for Benefit They’re Real (full post here).

The basic £1 MUA mascaras are great if you want length for you lashes.  They are actually fibre mascaras meaning they actually make your lashes longer. The fibres can be a bit of a bitch if you fall into your eye but if your careful you can achieve nice fluttery lashes. 

The Every Lash Mascara is £3 a tube, and a total dupe for Benefit They’re Real, right down to the fight you have to have to get the darn thing off. It lifts, volumises and lengthens, and it lasts all day. It’s only £3 a tube, so it worth a try if you haven’t used it yet. 

The other offerings they have including a curling mascara (not a fan) and volume extreme and one other (it comes in a pink tube) which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. They are all around £3 so it’s no great loss if you aren’t a fan! 

Blush

I adore the MUA blushes, and I seldom reach for other blushes in my collection anymore. They are pigmented, easy to blend and come in just about any colour I could want. I have bright bubblegum pinks, subtle pink flushes right the way through to simple coral/orange tone blushes. They are only £1 a go, and I think they are right up there with MAC and Sleek. 

Powder

The £1 powder from MUA is a great deal if you have a skin tone that could suit it. I found that even the lightest shade is too dark for me so I haven’t been able to really test them out! Maybe sometime soon they will over and ivory toned powder or something translucent in the pressed form for me to really try.

Highlighter

The MUA Undress Your Skin Highlight is a totally rip off of MAC products (much like the Nail Polishes are a rip off of Essie) but it really is great. The colour is similar to that which can be achieved by using MAC MSF in Lightscapde but it’s slightly more pink toned. The packaging is simple, and the shape of the power is very similar (read the same) at the MAC Extra Dimension collection powders that they offer on occasion. It’s only £3 thought, so a big saving on MAC but I do get slightly annoyed at how much they copy other brands.

Bronzer

The basic bronzers are bit to orange for my pink toned pale skin but if you have a slightly deeper skintone I would recommend trying thee £1 bronzers. They are cheap, last all day on your skin and blend quite well. The big boy of bronzers that MUA offer is something I’ve yet to try but if you want a huge, shimmery bronzer MUA have one at the super cheap price of £3. 

Foundation

The MUA basics line don’t offer foundation but the Professional line (just a tad more expensive than £1) do have a couple to offer. I have dry skin so I haven’t grabbed the Matte one yet but if you want something mattifying it might be worth a try for £2. The one I have tried, tested and adored is the MUA Undress Your Skin illuminating foundation. It’s a nice, lightweight foundation that is actually pale enough for Casper over here and it really does illuminate. It covers redness okay, but you might need a concealer for spots and the like because the coverage isn’t that amazing. It’s still a bargain at £5 for 35ml and I would repurchase it.

Concealer (full review here)

I was so happy when they released a liquid concealer. The brand have offered a stick concealer since the beginning but I hate stick concealers so never tried it. If you like sticks/lipstick like concealer then give them a try because they are only £1, but if you prefer liquid/wand concealer try the Cover and Concealer wand concealer for just £1.50. They have a really light shade, but sadly don’t go that dark You can read my full review here.

There are more things that MUA offer, like cream blushes, brushes and nail polish but I’ve yet to be able to try those. I would love to, so hopefully in the future I will pick up a few more bits from the brilliant bargain brand. 

Here are a few more reviews on things from the brand if you fancy taking a look at them! 

Pro-Base Eyelid Primer Review

MUA Primer

Check out MUA online here, or head into your local Superdrug to see what they have to offer you!

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Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet and Eye Liner Palette

The Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet and Eyeliner Palette is a set of 4 eyeshadows concentrated in mineral pigments that claim to be long lasting effect that illuminate the eye and add warmth and intensity to any look. 





There are three golden colours which can be used all over the lids or as a highlight. They have shimmer running through them to bring out the eye.The last eyeshadow is a more satin finish as is a gorgeous warm brown which is great for running through the crease and adding warmth and definition to the eye. 



The liner in the palette is almost a combination between gel and powder. It's not quite powder but it's not quite liquidy enough to be gel. It goes on to they eye easily and gives a subtle smokey/smudged effect along the lash line. The plum/grey tone to the liner makes it less intense than having something jet black along the lash line, meaning the shadows pop that little bit more. 

I found the shadows to last all day without fading or creasing. These are some of the only shadows at the moment that won't crease on me for some reason so I've been reaching for them on a daily basis. The shadows stay the same intensity through out the day and the liner is just as good. It stays in place and remains just as intense as the moment I applied it. 



The packaging is gorgeous. I can't say I love it quite as much as the normal Clarins packaging but it still carries a luxurious feel and the red casing makes it stand out as something a little more exclusive/limited edition. It feels very secure, and waiting which adds to the luxurious feel and the free little applicators aren't as terrible as they could be. 




The little pouch that it comes it makes it feel more luxurious. Normally I don't care what the packaging is like if the product is good but the lovely casing for this just makes me love it more!

You get two applicators, one of which is double ended. The sponge tip ends aren't amazing but you can use them to smudge out some liner or darker shadow and the angled brush is great for applying the liner. 

This is pricey, at £31 for the palette, but I think if you want to treat yourself then this is something worth looking at. You can create so many looks with the combination of colours and the liner. 

This is limited edition but you can still grab the Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet and Eye Liner Palette here for £31 and I'm sure that Clarins counters still have this in stock. 

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