Urban Decay Matte Revolution Lipstick in “After Dark” ::: Review & Switches

I have been bitten by some kind of lipstick bug! I did not buy a single piece of lipstick for the first half of the year (free gifts with purchase do not count :-)) and come August, I have been hoarding lipsticks like there’s no tomorrow. Purple, Red, Pink, Nudes – I cannot seem to stop buying lipsticks! After more than a year of dedicated beauty blogging, I have realized that the line between being a beauty blogger and a makeup hoarder is dangerously blurry :-) But I guess, personally lipstick is one of the better products to hoard for me considering it is a product that I almost never leave my home without wearing!

Now that my rant is over, let’s talk about this gorgeous shade from Urban Decay (UD). UD Naked Original was my very first high end purchase, which I still cherish very much. A while back they launched their new Matte Revolution lipstick line which is supposed to be non-drying creamy formula with matte finish. You know I love my bold bright colors and this shade just spoke to me! I checked a few online swatches and bought it immediately without even swatching or trying it in store :-). But I am so grateful that this shade is very flattering on me otherwise I have been having a bit of bad luck with my online lipstick purchases recently. 

UD always does a good job with their packaging (well, I am ignoring the packaging of Vice palettes :-) ha ha). It comes in black sleek lipstick tube with magnetic closure and at the bottom the color shade is written in color coordinated sticker. The packaging of the tube is per UD standard; strongly built and is definitely edgy in appearance. I am, however, not a very big fan of the shape and style of the actual lipstick bullet. It works perfectly on my upper lips but it is very annoying to get a good sharp outer line on my lower lips! That might not be a problem for you though.

“After Dark” is a very deep berry-ish fuchsia color with a strong blue undertone to it and just a hint of metallic finish to it. It may not sound the most appealing but I absolutely love the shade. This is not your overly “in-your-face” fuchsia, I feel like I can wear it on a Friday to a traditional workplace setup like mine. . Now these are marketed as matte but in my experience they are not but in a good way. I truly adore the tiny hint of metallic sheen to the finish, especially on my lower lips! Bite Beauty High Pigment Pencil in “Quince” is my staple fuchsia but “After Dark” is definitely my new obsession.

The formula is beautiful. It’s pigmented, creamy and comfortable. I typically don’t face bleeding problems with lipsticks but I don’t think this will create that problem. It is very easy to get an even opaque layer in just one swipe. It does not dry out my lips for good 4-5 hrs. of wear but I do feel better if I use a lip balm over it at that point. This is a very common problem for me with matte lipsticks. It has around 7-8 hrs. of wear time on me. I would definitely be happy to purchase more but the other shades in this line have not interested me yet.

It retails at $22 for 0.09 oz./0.2.8 g of product. So the price is very typical/at par/normal for high end lipsticks. If I compare this lipstick with the new Buxom Big & Bold Sexy lipsticks that are exactly the same price (I have reviewed 6 of these a while back, click here for the review), I will prefer this! You can find UD in Sephora, Ulta and as well as on UD website. I have been alternatively wearing “After Dark” and Bite Beauty Barberry (reviewed here) every chance I get this Fall. I am sure this trend will continue for Winter as well.

What’s your most worn shade for Fall?

Love,

~Arrru

Colourpop Cosmetics Fall 2015 "Forever Freshman" ::: Review and Swatches!!!

I have 3 excuses for this “totally unnecessary” purchase

• I love blue eyeshadow and I am forever in search of a Deep Dark Midnight Blue. This collection had one of those.
• I have never tried this brand before. I thought this is the perfect opportunity.
• It was on “sale” (#beautyAddictProblem; I can never pass up on a good sale). 

Colourpop is a fairly young cruelty-free brand. It was established in 2014 in L.A. and since its inception it has not stopped surprising beauty lovers. They started with their “Super Shock Shadow”s at $5 apiece! Incredible range of shades, collaboration with popular YouTubers, unbelievably low price point, international shipping to a few different countries, frequent new releases has made this company instantly popular. Some of their eyeshadow swatches have tempted me for a while now and it took a great deal of restraint not to purchase anything. Their eyeshadows are of mousse texture and once opened have a shelf life of only a year. That was the main reason for me to avoid buying, as I know for sure that I can’t finish it in one year. But, I couldn’t resist the sale and “Baby T” anymore!  

Enough of explanation for now; let’s get started with the review!

“Forever Freshman” is their eyeshadow set for Fall, 2015. It has 6 full-size (0.05 oz./2.1 g) limited edition shades in different finishes. These are not available individually so even if you like just one color, you have to buy the set in its entirety. Also considering the regular price for a single eyeshadow is 5$, a price of $30 for 6 shadows does not offer any savings. But with the 20% off, it cost me $24. I also added a few other items to my cart and used a 5$ off coupon. They offer free shipping within USA in just 30$ which I very much appreciate. They also take great care in packing your shipment; everything was very neatly and safely packed. The eyeliner I ordered did break, but they happily sent me a new one free of cost. All these have definitely made me like the brand. By the way, you can buy this from Colourpop website (click here).

All of Colourpop’s products come in distinctive white plastic jar packaging with plastic part-clear lid! You can see the shade with the lid which is always good. They are actually quite photogenic in their jars; I just wanted to keep photographing them and never ruin the beautiful embossing on the eyeshadow itself :-) They are however a bit bulky and challenging to store. Also, the “Colourpop” printing on the lid has already started to fade; I don’t like that. The formula of these is very unique as well. They have a creamy cushiony feeling to it; it almost feels fluffy! That’s why even though they are lesser in amount than Make Up For Ever eyeshadow pans, they need more space. Irrespective of whether it’s matte, metallic or satin, they all have the same cushiony formula! Because of that, for some of you it might be a little unfamiliar and it may take some practice getting used to.

Here are the colors-

KOOSH: This is “Ultra-Metallic” in finish. As the name suggests its super metallic :-) VERY pigmented, extra opaque and glides on like butter. It’s a silvery-taupe but I can see a lot of baby pink in it; quite exquisite shade! If you have lighter skin tone than mine, you will definitely enjoy “Koosh” a lot. I hoped this to be a glamorous “one-shade-and-done” lid color to wear to work from time to time. But on me it’s too sharp and tends to look ashy if I use it overall on my lid. :-) But I still love it and use it for “halo” eye looks or on the inner part!

CRIMPER: It is described as “Metallic” but has a sheer base and I really enjoy that. Basically, “Crimper” is a lots of gold micro glitter on a sheer gold base. It’s a shade that I can layer over on other shades to create a quick glam look :-) and looks beautiful alone too!

90210: This is a “Satin Luxe” but I find it similar to “Crimper” in finish. It’s a very cool-tone brownish grey with gold micro glitter. Not a big fan of the shade but definitely more wearable for a quick smokey-glittery eye look. I believe I can wear to work from time to time, especially around the holidays!

These following shades are “Matte” in finish. I have heard many people complaining about these mattes but I personally like them. They are definitely matte in appearance but very soft to touch and to apply. I use my fingertips to place the color on the lids and use a fluffy brush to blend; it works fine!

MELROSE: This shade is an instant favorite for me. I love warm orangey earth toned shades! “Melrose” is a beautiful rusty maroon with lots of warmth to it. It’s perfect for Fall! SUPER pigmented; I need just a little to get nice, even pigmentation. I LOVE this shade.

BABY T: Aaah! Blue eyeshadow is my weakness! As I mentioned, I bought this entire kit for this shade only. Its matte in finish but appears a little satin-y to me. Gorgeous deep midnight blue! It’s still not my most favorite blue though but the shade appears true to the pan on the lids. It can definitely get messy more so because I mainly use my fingertips. I have to clean up around my eye before I apply with my foundation!

AS IF:  This is the least favorite shade of mine. Mainly because I think cool tone shades don’t look flattering on me. “As If” is a cool deep grey brown. It is pigmented but still took a few layers to get the shade show up on my lids. However formula wise it performs very fine.

I am very pleased with the staying power of these. I tried without and with primer underneath and I am quite surprised to see that they perform equally well both ways. The intensity of the shadows stays put towards the end of the day. That is very satisfying to me. Also these are great for quick, easy and yet glamorous look.

Cons: Okay, I do have a few points to criticize

• They are very space consuming to store because they are huge pots.
• Because of their texture these are best applied with your fingertips! So it’s kind of messy to clean up my fingers to go back and use a different shade. There is not enough time for me in the morning for that! Also, I struggle to create a complex detail oriented look because it is difficult to place a color on a precise part of the eye using fingertips. I am still experimenting with brushes though.
• The shelf life of the shadows once open is just 1 yr. that bothers me.  

But I do agree that my first experiment with Colourpop went really well. “Baby T”, “Melrose” and “Crimper”-to an extent are my favorite. I would not have individually chosen the other shades for me but again, I am absolutely satisfied with the quality, performance and the price. I will certainly be interested in trying out more. I am also thinking these will make cute little gifts for my cousins whenever I go home to India!

Are you a Colourpop fan? What’s your favorite shade?

Love,

~Arrru

Urban Decay Urban Vices ::: Loving the current 500 point perk from Sephora

Today I have a quick little post for you guys. You may already notice that 80% of the products that I review here are purchased from Sephora. Naturally I accumulate a lot of Beauty Insider points. If you are not already aware, the reward membership program for Sephora is called "Beauty Insider". For every 1$ you spend, you earn 1 point and depending on how much you spend on annually you reach different levels of membership namely Beauty Insider, Very Important Beauty Insider (VIB) and VIB Rouge.

They always have reward products mostly deluxe sizes that can be purchased against these points. Often these come at the expense of 100, 250 and 500 points and very rarely there are mega rewards worth 1000s of points! I typically tend to pick up 100 point perks; I believe they are perfect for travelling. I also collect all the adorable deluxe size perfume bottles that are generally 250 points. I don't recall getting a 500 reward ever, mainly because most of the time it’s just a bunch of deluxe-size products thrown into a kit; these deluxe sizes you can easily get in anywhere else. And I genuinely don't think they are worth 500 points. But lately, I can see that Sephora is taking a little bit of time and effort in curating these rewards! I want to share with you my very first 500 picks perk- the Urban Decay Urban Vices.

I love the name :-) Anyway, this is one of the 500 point perks that are currently available. If you have 500 points to spend and wanting to try Urban Decay (UD) or expand your UD collection, go grab it.

This reward caught my attention because it’s very unique and adorable. Basically, you get a very well made eyeshadow palette with 4 deluxe eyeshadows that are taken from their popular Vice pallettes, 1 deluxe 24/7 glide-on eye pencil and a foil packet of their cult favorite primer potion for the eyes. The foil packet was missing from my kit though. The eyeshadows are 0.02 oz. each compared to their regular eyeshadow pan at $19 for 0.05 oz.) and the pencil is 0.03 oz. compared to $20 for 0.04 oz. Valuewise, I still think it needed a bit more product to be worth 500 points. But like I said, it’s unique as far as rewards are considered. And it’s specific to Sephora Rewards so you cannot find this product anywhere. You cannot even buy it in Sephora unless you have 500 points :-) The palette is very strongly built. The look and appearance of the palette is quite catchy which is very peculiar to UD. I am very pleased with the fact that Sephora and Urban Decay team created this palette with equal sincerity and care that they take with any permanent item. That care shows through the product.

UD shadows are definitely one of the best in the market. Their shimmery, metallic and glittery shades definitely stands out. The shades in this palette are very well put together. Dope is satin peachy cream shade and Hoodoo is a shimmery gorgeous light violet; I am very excited about this shade. It reminds me of MUG Bewitched pigment but in a muted and pressed form. Derailed is a bronzey taupe; very beautiful, very shimmery and extremely pigmented. Smokeout is another gorgeous multicolor shade, I mostly see a very deep blackened plum but I see gold, purple, pink micro glitters shining! I simply love all these shades! These two shades are perfect for a smokey look, as well as perfect to use as an all-over-lid shade. You can surely create a complete look if you use a crease colors. Here is a quick look on the EOTD (eyelook of the day) I wore work today… sorry for a not-so-planned click :-)

I have always wanted to try the 24/7 glide-on eye pencil! Finally! Smokeout is a simple very blackened brown, very creamy and it literally glides on! Basically first impression with this palette has been good. 

UD shadows are not the longest lasting shadows on me, but nonetheless I do enjoy them. Overall, this palette will be great to take with you for travelling especially if and when you know that you are not going to put on a whole lot of makeup! I am glad that I picked up this adorable mini palette.

What about you, do you like to hoard your reward points or spend them regularly? 

Love,

~Arrru

Sephora VIB Rouge Sale 2015 : Skincare Haul!!!

In light of ongoing Sephora VIB sale, I posted my thoughts on some of the holiday goodies a few days back (check the post here). This weekend 20% sale is active for VIB members. I am a VIB Rouge member, and previously Rouge members could use the coupon throughout the entire sale period, but this year it’s on different weekends depending on the tier of your membership. So, sadly the code is not working for Rouge members online for this weekend. However, the awesome associates at my local Sephora store did give me 20% off today as well :-)

Anyway, like I shared in my previous post, I restrained myself from buying a TON of makeup but I certainly went crazy on the skincare front. In my defense ,- I know that I will use up these products. Besides some of these are going to be gifts. Here is what I picked up -

All these are for gifting :-) :-)

L'Occitane Shea Butter Festive Ornament: This is the cutest little ornament! I originally bought it as a gift but now I am totally tempted. It comes in a beautiful festive globe that is very delicately packaged. The products here are very small in size but the overall presentation makes it a very adorable gift. I stock these types of small luxury gift able items for my home visits every one or two years! They are friendly to my wallet, easy to pack in my suitcase and my friends & family love them. Even though they are small in size, quality wise they are just fantastic.

Bvlgari Eau Parfumée White Tea Gift Set: This is another tiny little delightful set. Again, the items are not big in size, but are packaged very beautifully. I know this will make a wonderful gift for some I gift these to. I am even tempted to pick another set. It will also make a great stocking stuffer! I usually prefer to bundle up 2-3 small gifts like this; instead of a large gift because I think this way the recipient has a better chance of liking something :-)

Jack Black The Power Pack: These two sets are named the same, the red set has a beard lube and the blue one has a body shower in place of that. I have not used any of Jack Black’s products myself but I have gifted a few of my friends and they all liked it. I typically buy smaller set that are just $25 but very substantially sized! This year I picked up this bigger pack for my father. He actually used up the entire set I gave him last year and my sister tells me that he quite liked it. The other set I bought is for a dear friend who, I know for sure, loves these products. If you are looking for gift ideas for your male cousins, friends or family members, Jack Black has a few interesting sets.

Bliss Lemony Trinkets: I got 2 of this. It is going to be another mix-and-match gift. Originally priced at $10 but brought down to $7.50! Even though the products are just 1 oz. each, this kit is so simple and yet comes in a very festive holiday type of packaging! Definitely a very good stocking stuffer as well.

Tocca Beauty Crema Veloce Gift Set: Tocca Beauty is one of those brands that I always keep browsing but never gather the courage to indulge in any full size products. I just try to test out as many cute little sets as I can! :-) Last year, I gave a similar set to my sister and she absolutely loved it. So I figured I will try their hand cream myself. It may as well be added as gift I don’t know lol! It is a very nice single item gift too! They have a set with 5 hand creams, but I think the value on this one is much better.

This is what I got for myself and my sister :-)

Origins Let Us Glow: This is a set that I am very excited about. During the VIB sale last Spring, I scored a similar set that had a big-size “GinZing Energy-Boosting Moisturizer “! I have been using it for last 2-3 weeks and I have absolutely fallen in love. It’s a very light moisturizer with gel like creamy consistency. The invigorating, mildly zesty smell immediately awakens me in the morning! Works excellent under makeup as well. I have tried a sample of the Original Skin Mask, the first trial has not been as amazing as some of their other mask but I am sure it is a good product. Also, I am getting low on my current scrub; hence I am excited to try this Ginzing scrub as well. And I know that the eye cream will last a long time.

Caudalie Favorites Winter Set: I believe I am a bit obsessed with Caudalie, and have already many of their products! I have already gone through 2 of their 2014 Favorites Set! The more I use them the more I enjoy! Caudalie is quite an expensive range, so I tend to get these kits to try more products! I love the elixir for winter, especially here in the Windy City. Also, absolutely adore the moisturizer for summer because it’s light and very moisturizing. The hand cream is another favorite! I may be addicted to its fragrance. Also over the past few weeks my eyes have been little sensitive, and I really enjoyed their very gentle micellar water makeup remover. I am pretty excited about the remover that comes in this. 

Caudalie Vine Body Luxury Set:  Another set from Caudalie. If you enjoy mild fragrance in your products but cannot tolerate a strong smell, you should check out Caudalie products. They have very refreshing and very mild fragrance which is not at all overwhelming. Their Lip Conditioner is without doubt the best I have tried (Yes, even better than the Sugar lip treatment). But I refuge to pay 12$ for a full-size. Also, I love body butters and I can never have enough! My dry skin and the harsh winter here definitely call for heavy moisturizer! I look forward to use the Vine Body Butter.

Caudalie Moisture Essentials Set: Yes, my room is looking like a mini Caudalie boutique! The price of the regular size moisturizer alone is $39 and this here is a full size. Basically you are getting the other 2 products free! I have already used all of these products before, so this set was a no brainer J

Boscia Japanese Favorites: I have been intrigued by Boscia for quite a while now! So I figured now is the time to try. It contains 1.7 oz. Thermal Black Cleanser, 0.44 oz. Tsubaki Beauty Oil, 1 oz. Luminizing Black Mask, 1.7 oz. Exfoliating Peel Gel. I will report back once I have used them enough to form an opinion.

Philosophy Purely New Beginnings Purity Cleansing Collection Trio: Another kickass sale item.16 oz. Cleanser with 4 oz. mask and 5.8 oz. cleansing oil for $30 after sale! :-) I have recently used up a big bottle of the Purity Made Simple Cleanser and I sure miss it in my routine. Also, I am always on a hunt for a good makeup remover so we shall see how this works out.

Murad Environmental Shield® Skin Brightening Set: I mainly wanted to try out the “Rapid Age Spot and Pigment Lightening Serum” on the scarring left behind from some nasty acnes! I love the size, I don’t know if I am going to use this right away so it might be awhile before I try and report back to you.

Sephora Favorites Beauty Sleep: I simply picked this set because it has a few luxury skincare products from brands that are very expensive and which I never buy at regular price! The sizes are not at all generous. But after discount, the set cost me 24$ which is alone the price for the much hyped Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night oil. We will see how it works :-)

The sale is on till 11/16 and I hope this will help you in choosing what to get if you are shopping this weekend! Even though you are not a VIB member, these are all value sets and you will anyway save some money. Do check out my thoughts on the makeup sets here.

I will post what makeup I actually picked up from the sale next. Stay tuned. :-)

Love,

~Arrru

Essie Fall Mini Collection 2015 ::: Swatches and Review

I am reviewing Essie Fall 2015 mini collection today. And yes, I am diving straight into the review without any story :-) ! Because there is no point in sharing how I decided not to buy another set of nail polishes but I ended up buying anyway because the colors were absolutely amazing! :-) :-) Especially “Leggy Legend” is an INSTANT favorite. This shade has been popping all over on Instagram lately and when I saw it in mini size, I grabbed the set without even calculating the savings which is very atypical of me! 

The cost of this set is $17. I got it for $13.6 before the taxes with 20% off coupon from Ulta. Apart from Ulta you can find it some drugstores. I saw it online in Ebay and from www.bonanza.com but I am not quite willing to recommend as I have not personally buy anything from them. The full sizes are available in beauty.com, check here. A full size regular Essie polish is $8.50 for 0.2 oz. There are 4 shades with 0.16 oz. of product each so basically you are paying $4.25 for each. I have never gone through a bottle of nail polish so minis are the best way to go for me. Also, it turned out all these colors are unique to my collection. These are the perfect shades for Fall but there is no reason why you could not wear these in any other season! They are very flattering irrespective of the season! 

Leggy Legend: This is such a happy color! To me it’s a recreation/replica of autumn foliage! It is filled with gold cupper micro glitters on a bronzy golden base. Very foiled, very metallic! I LOVE THIS SHADE! It’s a thick polish, but very smooth to apply. It was very easy to get an even application with one coat, as shown in the swatch here. The initial brightness and foiled look lost its intensity by the 4^th day but wore nicely for 5-6 days before chipping heavily,! Did I mention that I love this shade? :-)

With the Band: Very rich creamy classic deep burgundy red. It appears a bit muted in the bottle but transfers quite vivid on the nails. It’s an inviting red and I can confidently wear this to work! Please keep in mind that I am an Electrical Design Engineer and I need to work on a lot of engineering drawings. I don't like to wear bright shades because bright glittery shades on my nails appears very obvious and makes me quite conscious about wearing them :-) But these color  is so strong and elegant, it feels very empowering when I wear  it. Very opaque pigmentation, flawless application in one coat and lasted for 1 week without heavy chipping. I am in love! By the way, it does stain even with a strong base underneath if that’s something that bothers you.

Apart from "in the lobby" all swatches here are single coat!!

In the Lobby: another creme finish in berry with greyish purple undertone. I love this color. It is not a flat creme, there is some dimensions to it. Looks equally appealing on the toes and on fingers. But formula wise, it was the weakest among the 4 shades. The formula itself was smooth, but it was streaky to apply. I had to use at least 2 coats to get an even layer. But on some areas it was still not very even. I love the color, but it may not be the best idea to pick up the full size bottle. I am not unhappy with the small bottle though :-)

Frock ‘n Roll: Definitely the most complex shade in this set. I am not very attracted to vampy nail polishes in general. But this has started to change that! It’s a deep purple grey with a subtle speckles of gold. Very intricate, very beautiful! The complexity is not obvious in indoors or in simple lighting, but in sunlight it’s just beautiful. I have not worn it on my nails yet, but on the toes it lasts forever. 

These are my first ever Essie Polishes and I am VERY happy. I hope I don’t get addicted though; I am not sure how many new beauty addiction my poor wallet can take! :-)

What is your favorite polish?

Love

~Arrru

Makeup Geek New Matte Eyeshadows : Review and Swatches!!!

I have been waiting forever for Makeup Geek (MUG) to come out with some new dark colorful matte shades! Take a look at my Instagram feed and you will see how much I love to integrate colors in my eye looks; I am not overly experimental or adventurous but I do love to wear shades like midnight blue, purple and emerald green! I have been feeling a lack of some deep and rich colorful mattes in my collection that would be perfect on the crease and for blending with my more vivid shimmery-glittery shades! I looked into MUG website but none interested me a lot! Currently my heart is set on the fancy Viseart Dark Matte Palette! But that’s too big of a cost for me at this moment. So I was very elated when I saw sneak peaks of these shades!

There are a total of 20 new and reformulated mattes in this launch! MUG already had a very impressive range of eyeshadows and these definitely have broadened the range. They also came out with some new finishes this year– I will be reviewing “Steampunk” duo chrome eyeshadow and “Flame Thrower” foiled eyeshadow very soon! Anyway, check out swatches of all these new shades from MUG on their Website here. There are some really cool colors like Dragon Fly- I wish I could be brave enough to wear those colors! Anyway, I bought Motown, Curfew, Booberry, Enchanted Forest and Morocco. You can buy these from here; individual links are attached with each shade. The price for these shadows is now $6.00/pan for 0.064 oz. (1.8 g). I know MUG gained popularity because of its incredible quality at much affordable price. However, if you get 10 shadows, that price easily exceeds 60$ whereas some palettes from few good higher end brands will cost you much less (think Lorac Pro, Too Faced Chocolate Bar etc.). But then again, a palette might not have every color you want or every shade may not be to your liking. And for all these reason I tend to prefer MUG only when I am looking for particular shades!

All of these make excellent crease color, blending shades and you can surely apply them as lid shades or on the outer V to bring in some depth in a look! I tried to use these shades in the simplest application so that you get a better look!

Morocco: Ever since I tried “Morocco” from Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette (reviewed here), I have grown immense fondness for this type of very burnt orange/terracotta shades! But because that palette is going to be gift to my sister, I “really” needed a shade that could possibly replace “Morocco”! And luckily I got another “Morocco”. It’s a very warm burnt orange with red undertone; it’s a bit lighter than ABH Morocco. Very opaque, very intensely pigmented and has amazing color payoff! You need to just barely touch the pan with your brush; it packs on color and blends in without much effort. The formula is much better than all of these 5 shades; very much at par with some of MUG’s original shades like Cocoa Bear (my very favorite) which is also one of the best shadows from them. I truly LOVE “morocco”.

Enchanted Forest: Very appropriately named! It’s a dark deep forest green shade! Blendable, smooth and very densely packed with color. The color shows up on the lid as dark and as green on the pan. It’s the perfect crease color with “MUG Envy” or “MUFE ME-302” for a beautiful emerald green smokey look, I have been also loving it as a lid shade; applied as a lid shade this creates such a sultry and elegant look. Apart from Morocco, this is the non-patchiest shade among these.

Motown: Dark eggplant purple with grey undertone. It felt a little scratchy and powdery when I swatched with my finger. It is pigmented but can be a little patchy when I pat on the shade with the intent to wear it as an all-over-lid shade and it needs 2-3 layers to get an even opaque look! But as a crease color, it works and blends absolutely flawlessly. 

Curfew: This is a much brighter, vibrant purple! I am totally loving this shade. It is not as patchy as “Motown” when layered on the lid. Pigmented and blends beautifully.

Booberry: At the risk of being repetitive, I would like to mention that blue is my most favorite fun shade to wear on my eyes. “Booberry” is a very beautiful deep royal blue. It’s a reformulated shade. I did not own the original so I would not know if the formula has improved! I always tried to buy this shade whenever I ordered from MUG but it was always out of stock!! I was very excited to finally be able to get it. It’s not as bright as I thought it would be! Although it is exactly the same color on the eyes as seen on the pan. Brilliant as crease shade but it needs a bit of effort to use as a lid shade. Nonetheless I am just happy to have an intense blue matte shade to wear with my blue smokey eye looks!

I have been playing with these for more than 2 weeks now! Formula, texture and performance  wise “Morocco” is my most favorite and I would recommend it 100%. Enchanted Forest and Curfew are ok! I feel like formula of Booberry and Motown are not as buttery smooth and consistent with their incredible original shades. If you are not particularly looking for those shades, I would say skip Motown and Booberry. Again, they are very easy to blend on the crease though! As lid shade they need a bit effort. But, once they are on, they have great staying power. over eye primer. The wear times of these shades are around 10 hrs. which is very consistent with their original range of shades. One day I forgot to use a primer and the shades faded 2-3 hrs. earlier than with primer but I always wear primer :-).  

Overall, I am quite satisfied with my purchase. Formula on some of these should have been better, but I am not entirely disappointed to not to recommend this to you. Point is, you won’t regret it. Sorry for the conflicting review but I hope it helps :-)

In my very first order I had Envy, Nautica, Burlesque, Drama Queen, Ocean Breeze, Cocoa Bear, Corrupt, Cupcake and you can see the reviews here. Although I expected a tiny bit more smoothness in the formulas of Motown, Booberry I am absolutely enjoying all the shades. They are so pretty for Fall as well. I know that I am definitely going to get a lot of use out of these. 

Have you got anything from this launch? What’s your favorite MUG product?

Love,

~Arrru