This has been a much
procrastinated post. I have been using Marlena's brushes since late last year
and eyeshadows since February; so I believe this is a good time to share my very
humble and honest "user-experience" with Makeup Geek (MUG) products!
Marlena was
the first YouTube Vlogger I stumbled upon when I desperately needed to
"learn" some basic makeup techniques before an epic Vegas trip with my
friends. She has some super easy basic tutorials. Those really helped me to get the first grip into whole world of
makeup without intimidating me. If you are just starting out, I highly
recommend her tutorials on basic makeup. Apart from that, I just love the brand
name! For most of my life, I have been more familiar as a Geek rather than one
who follows trends and fashion; hence my inner self almost
immediately responded to the word "geek" B-) B-) (Nerdy smile!!!)
Anyway, I have a lot of
neutral eyeshadows which was making my collection rather boring. So I mostly
wanted to get some "colorful" shades like green, purple and blue!
MUG also has some very gorgeous neutral shades suitable for almost every skin
tone. I have always ordered them in the "pan" form, so I cannot be a
judge on the quality of their “compacts”. I love the pan packaging though. They arrive in
a very colorful yet sophisticated pink and black thin packet. Love it; it's
very cheerful! :-) They are robust as well; you can safely store the pan-packets in your
stash while you find a permanent storage solution like Z-palette! On the other hand, the pigments are a bit messy! MUG now offers 5 shifters at 0.75 USD, but I am not able to use them properly on my jars yet! I don't use the pigments that often; but I can definitely see how a frequent user will have trouble dealing with pigments flying everywhere while using :-)
One of the very best things
about MUG line is the price range. These shadows are 5.99 USD/pan for a total product
of 1.8 g (0.064 oz.) and 7.99 USD for the compact version (They are unavailable
in this form as of now; but as I have found out that they are working on some new compacts for coming months). Everybody compares MUG with MAC eyeshadows but I only own "Carbon" from MAC! Price wise MUG is just a little more
than half of MAC shadows! Another thing I appreciate HUGELY is their shipping
charges. I have never paid more than 4 USD for shipping (inside USA)! In fact,
my last order (of 80.80 USD) cost me just 2.17 USD. That was awesome! They also
offer international shipping; I have heard they are pretty fast as well.
Definitely a huge plus, if you happen to live in places where some international
brands are a bit hard to access. The online MUG store also offers some selective products
from brands like NYX, Sugarpill, LA SPlash, Z-palette etc. I like this feature
because - this way you can order products from different brands at the same time.
I already blabbered so much without even talking about the quality :-) :-) These are some of the best eyeshadows in the market. They are heavily pigmented, very easy-to-blend and VERY long-wearing. Some shadows look vibrant in the pan, but proves disappointing when you start applying. But these shadows appear very true to the color in the pan! The mattes that I have tried are also very smooth and easy to use. I give those 9.5 out 10 in terms of quality! Oh wait extra 0.5 points for the price :-) The pigments are also to die for! They have some very gorgeous everyday as well as some over-the-top pigment shades. I don’t do makeup as a professional, so I have not had a chance to test a lot of the pigments. But the ones I got are simply MIND-BLOWING!!
Let’s discuss the colors
SHIMMERS:
Burlesque: Gorgeous
Copper and an evenly distributed gold with a red undertone. Very smooth! I
don't know why I expected it to be a little more vibrant than it turned out!
But still a gorgeous color!
Drama Queen: Extremely deep
purple with minuscule speckles of gold. Almost appears black-ish with a hint
of purple peeping through. It makes a gorgeous smokey eye. I also love using it
in the outer-v to create a subdued glam eye!
Nautica: I love blue
eyeshadows; specially this kind! Nautica is a very smooth gorgeous royal blue
color. Sometimes it also appears as a dual tone to my eyes- royal blue with dark grey.
But when applied it shows as very vibrant blue. This is definitely one of my favorites.
Ocean Breeze: It’s a
very subdued blue. Actually more teal than blue. If a little bit of silver is
mixed with Nautica, this is how it will turn up. If you want to try blue shades
and "in-your-face" blues scares you off, you might like this this shade.
Pigment wise, it seems just a tiny bit "weaker" than Nautica.
Envy: Gorgeous name :-)
and gorgeous shade! Very dark Emerald Green with gold mixed with it. Looks
absolutely beautiful when paired with gold shadows. And it makes me very giddy
to realize that I got it way before Cult favorite YouTube Vlogger Jaclyn Hill mentioned it as one of her favorite MUG shadows! It assures me that I have
quotation mark*good taste*quotation mark.
MATTES:
Cupcake: Warm toned
light pink shade. I am not a fan of pink shade. My sister actually chose this
for her. But when I finally got it and used it, I realized that it’s a lovely shade.
Can be used to replace the otherwise *boring* brown crease colors.
Cocoa Bear: Very warm
Brown. This is what I visualize when I imagine the color "brown" :-) VERY
useful on my skin tone. One of the very very smooth matte colors that I own.
Very easy to use as well. LOVE it.
Corrupt: Claimed to the
blackest black in the market. :-) I don't know about that but it's definitely
way dark and pigmented that MAC Carbon. See for yourself here. Both after 3
swipes without any primer. :-) Matte, smooth and easy, but you need to be
careful because of its crazy pigmentation.
PIGMENTS:
Bewitched: Such an appropriate name!! Purple is one of my favorite color and it really compliments brown eyes. This is a very bright light purple (not lilac though) and also has tiny gold speckles mixed within. Even though it’s a pigment it’s much easier to work with than "Utopia". I applied it with a primer and elf glitter glue and it stayed from 5 pm to 2 am without losing any vibrancy!
Utopia: Ooh-la-la! Need I say more? This is one of MUG products that you have to hunt down as it almost always is out of stock!! It looks VERY gold in my swatch but it does have a blackish brown base. It's a very glamorous shade; definitely not for the faint-hearted! But JUST the color to glam up with for New Year’s Eve, any party or even for the over-the-top Indian wedding makeups :-) I don't get a lot of chance to wear it, still love the shade.
Utopia: Ooh-la-la! Need I say more? This is one of MUG products that you have to hunt down as it almost always is out of stock!! It looks VERY gold in my swatch but it does have a blackish brown base. It's a very glamorous shade; definitely not for the faint-hearted! But JUST the color to glam up with for New Year’s Eve, any party or even for the over-the-top Indian wedding makeups :-) I don't get a lot of chance to wear it, still love the shade.
Pros:
- Very pigmented, smooth, long-wearing high quality
products. Easy to blend as well.
- EXTREMELY reasonable price.
- Huge range of shades (I will still love to see some
more blues)
- Very very beautiful range of pigments.
- They offer a very low shipping charge inside USA. I
highly APPRECIATE that.
- International shipping is also available.
- I have never had a problem ordering online and have
received my packages within a week of ordering.
Cons:
- Accessibility is a problem. As of now, you can only
order online or in some of the makeup shows like IMATS. (I, however, don't
see this as a problem. I respect the founder as a person! The
brand is growing and it has been providing good products till now. So
I am willing to deal with the accessibility issue for now.).
- In the same line, because the demand is so high, most
of the shades remains out of stock and when get restocked they sell out immediately. You have to literally stalk some particular shade which may
also mean that all the shades you want may not available at the same time :-)
Again, I understand.
- I, however, will really appreciate if they offer free
shipping beyond a certain dollar's order.
Last but not the least,
I always very eagerly wait for the colorful "thank-you notes" (you
know as seen in Instagram and other social media ;-)). Apart from the simple thank-yous in my order details I have not have the luck to get those colorful ones!! :-) May be some day :-)
I love MUG as a brand
and I have been enjoying their products. I will definitely
continue to explore more of their products. Once I can finish at least 1/3 of
my current stash of eyeshadows, I will definitely get some more colors.
Thank you for being a
patient reader and staying till this point. I hope you all like the few of the looks I did using MUG shades as the main focus! If you have tried MUG or thinking
of getting some shades, please do share your thoughts! I will love to help in any
way I can! :-)
Love,
~Arrru
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