Urban Decay primer dried out? I've got the solution!

Back when I was a total makeup noob, I saw an article on Clumps of Mascara which taught you how to depot your UDPP.

Being the over zealous thing that I am, I decided to depot mine.  This was despite the fact that I hadn't even hit "pan" on it.

I only realised recently that mine had dried out and I was very reluctant to chuck it.

I bought this brush from Boots with my £5 off voucher (it cost me £1.50) and was quite let down by how well it worked on my eyeshadows.

I decided to use it on my UDPP and it worked a charm.  You just stroke the primer with it and apply it to your lids, it works really well.  You don't need to blend it or anything..and you don't get that chalky rubby bit either.  It doesn't work on the primer if it isn't dried out (I tried it on my cousin's one), you get too much on the brush but if it has dried out then it works perfectly.

Try it, it really works! If you've got the £5 off voucher, have a dried up pot of UDPP and can't decide what to buy from Boots, get this brush and kill a million birds with one stone.  You won't be sorry!

What the hell is that?!

Has anyone ever thought about why certain products are packaged in certain ways? Especially those which you find hard to use in their current state?  Ever wondered why some companies are hit and miss with their packaging?

I'm talking mainly about three products.

The first product is mascara.  I never know when my mascara is finished, no matter how much I use it, it never finishes.  I used a Rimmel mascara for a year and it was still going strong.  Now, seeing as you're meant to chuck your mascaras away every three months and you get a lot of product in each tube, I think that "someone" should come up with a way to make the shelf life of mascara longer.  Obviously that's not top of the agenda for many scientists out there who are trying to find cures for far more pressing issues but maybe some cosmetologists should look into that?

I think mascara tubes should be clear so that you can see how much you're using and how much you have left so you're not caught short.  I can't see how having a clear mascara tube can be more expensive than having one which is plastic, coated in colour and then coated with text? Is it because manufacturers are scared that we won't like what mascara looks like? I think we're adult enough to realise it's just black stuff.  Lipglosses and clear mascara comes in clear tubes so I don't know why mascara gets special treatment? You could still print all the needed info onto the casing of the mascara so all laws would be complied with.

My second gripe is UDPP.  EVERYONE hates the packaging on this and those who don't are lying.  I don't know why UD haven't taken more notice of customers who dislike the packaging.  They took a slight bit of notice and changed the shape of the wand which doesn't really help matters because what do you do when you come into the bottleneck? I assume it gets stuck.

The shape of the bottle would mean (in my mind) that it can't be the easiest shape in the world to produce and that you'd need some nifty machine to carve out the exact same shape.  I'm sure it would be cheaper to just put the product into a squeezy tube a la Too Faced Shadow Insurance. I know UDPP goes off quickly when exposed to air but TFSI comes with a screw on lid which UDPP could mimic.

It kinda seems to me that UD KNOW how good their product is and can rely on the fact that people keep buying it and depotting it themselves so that THEY don't have to change the design of the product themselves.  Surely there are cheaper ways for them to make the packaging which would result in lowered costs of production for them and ease of use for the customer.  I personally wouldn't mind paying the same price for it if they changed to cheaper packaging as it is a really good product.

My last product is the Barry M blusher that everyone has been raving about recently.  Questions were asked as to why the Natural Dazzle packaging looked so nice whereas the blusher packaging made it look cheap.  Barry M's people stated that they made the choice to provide an affordable product over how the packaging looked.  That confused me a bit, if that truly was the reason then why did the Natural Dazzle come looking like the younger sister of NARS? Surely both would have been packaged the same?

At the end of that long rant, I ask you guys the following:

• Which products do you detest the packaging of?
• How would you improve packaging on certain products?
• How much of a role does packaging play when you're deciding to buy a product? e,g. are you put off by cheap looking products and more drawn in by expensive looking ones or is the actual performance the sole factor you judge a product by?
  

Review: MAC paint pot in Indianwood

I bought this from a seller on Specktra for the grand sum of £6 and I fell in love with it the day it came through the post. I was itching to try it on that very day but when your brows are growing out the last thing you want to do is bring attention to them.

I applied some UDPP and then the paintpot on top of it and I must say that the jury is still out. On one hand the colour is gorgeous and it looks really nice IRL but in the photographs I took it looks like it has settled into my eye creases. My current HG neutral shade is Heather Mauve Shimmer Wash by Bobbi Brown but with that you can still see my natural lid colour peaking through but I've only tried it without UDPP so it might be different with it.

Application is a bit tricky if you're a noob like me. Firstly, it's a solidy wet eyeshadow and so a normal eyeshadow brush won't do much. I was advised to use a stiff MAC brush but the only stiff brush I have is a Bobbi Brown eyeliner brush so I used that and it worked out pretty ok. The brush became really soft with the product on it so I may retry with the new brush and see if that holds up. I've been out and bought a stiff brush from Boots with my money off voucher and it works pretty well, it's a dupe for a Bobbi Brown brush so look out for a post on that soon.

The only issue I had was that it applied a bit unevenly but that's easy to fix, just swipe the colour more one way with the first bit of colour you put on and the other way with the second bit of colour.

Here's the picturey part:

Both eyes:
This is how my eyes look IRL if you were to see me.

Individuals:
As you can see I should have dragged out the application on both lids but I didn't' but at least they look uniform in that respect. The paint pot creased with UDPP under it but I think that can be solved by applying a bit more UDPP. As I said, IRL you can't tell the difference and the colour is a really nice subtle shimmer improvement on my lids.

Repurchase?
I would rebuy this but I think this pot will take ages to use up as it's not a powder and non powders take me longer to use, I've used to crap out of my Bobbi Brown gel liner and there's still tonnes left in it. The problem of creasing can be solved by using more UDPP and application will improve with the new brush I have.

On another note, there won't be as many blog updates coming from me in the future as I'm back at work now and I have two major cases to work on, both have been in the news recently and my line of work doesn't let me say the name of the companies but those of you who know what I do will soon be able to figure it out.

My next review will be on anatomicals, a range I've wanted to try for ages :)