NEW: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

On the same day that Kourtney Kardashian announced that she was expecting a baby, I heard that Urban Decay were also expecting a sibling for their famous Naked palette.  Kourtney's baby will be welcomed in the new year whereas Urban Decay's child is expected much quicker.  In fact, if you sign up to their mailing list, you'll be emailed details about it tomorrow.

As I don't live in America, I assume the UK will have to wait a few months longer than our American counterparts..

When Urban Decay came out with their Naked palette last year, us makeup addicts went mad.  I missed out on it three times and have only recently picked it up.  I tend to tell people that I'm over it and that I don't use it that much but I realised over the last week that I am nearly always reaching for it in some way or another..

I'm also glad I bought it because it's a great all in one palette.  I can get a smokey eye, three or four neutral eyes, an eye suitable for Indian functions and then some from one palette.  It's the only palette I will be taking to America with me.

These are the shots I've found of the new palette..

Shades from L-R:

Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper (I have this as a single and I LOVE it), Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout.

Some rudimentary swatches:

The photographs in this post are from the Urban Decay Facebook and Twitter pages so it's official!


Will this palette be a big a hit as the original Naked?  Will Kourtney's baby be cuter than Mason?  Will anyone be buying this when it comes out?

The Swatch Files: Revlon Silver Fox Quad

It's not very often that I find a quad which not only has the desired amount of pigmentation but also has a decent enough variety of colour so that you're able to switch your look up from day to night by just adding another colour.

This palette is one of the good ones...

The grey and minty green shade are matte, the white and purple have a slight (very slight) shimmer to them..

I'm pretty impressed that the mint actually came out mint on my skin as usually they come out white.  They're all very soft and easy to blend..not so soft that they crumble..

The white looks a bit chalky but it's easy to blend out with a brush.  As for the sparkle..

It looks a bit gritty but that is due to my camera playing up, in reality, it catches the light really well without making you look like a glitterball.

The Swatch Files: Stila Noire palette

This is another palette that I tend to use a fair bit.  Stila isn't available "in the flesh" in the UK anymore but you can buy it from many discount makeup stores online.  Just Google Stila and they will come up.

The colours are pigmented and they're easy to blend.  I know the swatches do not show a great deal of pigment but they come up very nicely on my eyelids and can be worn for about three hours sans primer.

They're not chalky and they're not crumbly either.

The packaging is what I like about this, it's very travel friendly.  There is a magnet in the cover which makes sure that when you close it, it stays closed.  I just chuck it into my makeup bag and I'm off.

The Swatch Files: Smashbox Quad in Electric

I only realised this when I started blogging but I seem to have only eyeshadow palettes.  I think I have four single eyeshadows..

And..there's extra rambling here as I feel this is a gem of a product which is not too well known..

This is another quad which I use a lot, something you wouldn't know unless you saw how grubby the packaging has become.

It looks like quite an odd/unassuming colour combo but the next photo illustrates why it gets so much use.

It was really difficult to photograph how sparkly the green shadow is and how flat the brown shadow is.  The brown is the flattest, mattest shadow I have ever come across..but it's still a very rich brown, if you can get something like that?  It reminds me of cocoa powder.

Look how sparkly number 2 is!

Ain't it handsome?

It's not often that I personally find so many different eyeshadow finishes in one premade palette.

Here's what I use the shadows for:

• Shade 1: I use this as a higlight or as a base for goldeny shadows as it has a very minute sparkle which comes through perfectly.
• Shade 2: This is a shadow and a powder liner.  That's the official Smashbox line, it's not something I decided to do myself.  It works brilliantly as both.  My eyes are brown so I use this as an eyelid shadow, a crease colour and a liner (both on my waterline and my upper lashline).  It's the perfect shade of green to bring out dark brown eyes.
• Shade 3: This too, is a shadow and a liner.  I've only used it as a liner though and it, too, brings out brown eyes.
• Shade 4: Alright (she types with a pained expression on her face) if used with a light hand.  I'm not the biggest fan of the shadow known as number 4 as it makes me look like this guy, which ain't a good look.

The Swatch Files: L'oreal Paris Star Secrets Kit Penélope Cruz

I use this one a lot, it's my day to night palette, I whack the shadows on in the morning and if I'm going out I whack the blush and lipstick on.

I've labelled the eyeshadows incorrectly, in the palette 1 is the colour at the bottom and 3 is the colour at the top.

The Swatch Files: Bobbi Brown Basic Eye Palette

I love this palette and have used it a fair bit despite it looking like it's just been swatched.  The shimmery shade has been used by me in a FOTD before (click here to see) and the photograph doesn't show up the shimmer but the swatch does. 

Flash off:

L-R: Navajo, Cement, Heather Mauve, Mahogany

Flash on:

L-R: Navajo, Cement, Heather Mauve, Mahogany

Swatch with flash off (no base):

L-R: Navajo, Cement, Heather Mauve, Mahogany

Swatch with flash on (no base):

L-R: Navajo, Cement, Heather Mauve, Mahogany

I personally use Navajo as a highlighter, Cement as a base or all over the lid shade, Heather Mauve as an all over lid shade and Mahogany either in the crease or as a liner when used with a wet brush.  It will not budge if used in this way, much like the Bobbi Brown gel liners don't.

Vintage is so in these days, daaaahling

I'm still on my never ending quest to trim down my stash but it's not going as well as I had hoped. As my top drawer of goods gets smaller, my bottom drawer of spares gets fuller and fuller.


Observe:


For those of you who say "it doesn't look that bad", the photo is deceptive as the cleansing wipes are piled up four high, I have six bottles of that shampoo, two bottles of the Botanics hair spray and there are many more items under the stuff on the left but I don't feel bad because this is stuff I actually like and will use. My hoarding days are well behind me.
I was reading this post the other day by my fellow Middlesex girl (woo woo) Marcia and it got me thinking (it doesn’t take much). Whenever someone in the blogosphere buys something new, they blog about it. With this in mind, I decided to show off “my” oldest makeup. Older makeup, like the oldest child doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves so I feel it about time it did!

This makeup dates back to 1980 (when my darling mum got married). This leads me on to my next point, how comes stuff which is this old still works and doesn't make me react yet I buy things which cause me to react a few months down the line? It's experiences like these which make me think that some beauty mags don't know what they're on about.

The goods:


Top to bottom:

• The bitchin'est greeny blue pencil ever, it's avocado in name but comes out much nicer. I think the closest dupe would be a UD liner.
• Rimmel gold pencil, my dupe for the Benefit Gilded pencil
• Almay duo with pink and blue eye shadow
• Almay blusher/bronzer in a goldeny shade

I have never ever ever been able to find a green pencil which matches this colour exactly. It looks like a standard blue here but IRL it’s a lovely amazon-like green.
I was looking to buy the gold pencil that Benefit sell when I found the golden pencil, which, I only found out yesterday was by Rimmel. This pencil is the softest mofo in all the land, glides on a treat, easy to blend if needs be and doesn't gloop! Looks like Rimmel had the pencil formula down back then..
The Almay duo is my profile pic here, on Specktra and on Twitter, I took it back in the day when I hadn't even heard of macro. The colours in it are Godsend, especially for Indian weddings/functions. The two colours go well together so you can just take this palette with you and make up a million looks.
Moving on to my OWN range..The quest to finish all products has gone as far as lipbalm and I am proud to say that my stash has been trimmed down from 10 to two and that I've bought balms in between and have finished all those off as well (please, hold your applause).

I present my oldest piece of "makeup": Superdrug's Tropical LipBalm in Strawberry Delight:



This tub is circa 1997, I was in year 9 at school which would indeed make me 25. God, that makes me feel so old. The fact that I still have it and that I have so much left of it makes me feel even worse..I'm nowhere near touching pan with it! I've been using it over the past few days and sadly it dries my lips out so it may be for the chuck. It moisturises intensely during the day but when I wake up in the morning my lips are drier than they were when I put it on.
If you’ve stuck it out this long, firstly, congrats and secondly, you might as well answer these questions. So, if I could have a minute of your time sir/madam: what is the oldest item of makeup you lovely people own? Do you stick to the rules and chuck things away when the beauty mags suggest? I personally think that throwing mascara away every three months is a bit overly keen, I wear mascara every single day and even then my tubs don't finish. If a mascara causes me to react then it goes in the bin ASAP but as long as it does the job, I keep it.

Copycat

I saw Yinka's blog and Sara's blog about how many lipsticks/lipglosses they had so I've decided jump on the bandwagon.

I cannot stress enough what a noob to makeup I am and I thought I had quite a few lip products but laying them out and seeing how many I have I realised that I'm not really as bad on lip products as I thought I would be..oh, and I found my TWO HG lip colours, Rimmel's Lip Vinyl in Velocity mixed with clear gloss from 17 and a Smashbox berry shade which is in their palette only so semi yay!

Anywho..here's my collection of glosses/pencils/sticks:

Top Row: Rimmel Vinyl Lip in Velocity (a bit lighter IRL and much nicer on lips), Maybelline Watershine Diamonds in Chocolate Sparkles, Maybelline Fruity Jelly in Raspberry, Maybelline Fruity Jelly in Satsuma, Smashbox lippy in Encore, Smashbox lippy in Toffee, 17 lippy in Chocolate Suede, Natural Collection lipgloss in Strawberry

Row 2: Wet n Wild gloss in Tangerine, Opia lipgloss in clear, Maybelline Fruity Jelly (can't remember flavour), YSL gloss in 3, Boots No7 in Lollipop, Boots No7 in Sherbert

Row 3: Smashbox lipliner

Row 4: Smashbox lip palette 5, Stila Plumping Glaze in Melon Mint, Stila Lip Glaze in Mocha

Row 5: Natural Collection lipliner in Rose

Row 6: Wet n Wild gloss (I forget the flavour), Lancome Juicy Tube in a pinky shade, Boots No7 in Lollipop, Lancome Juicy Tube in Fraise, Natural Collection in Watermelon x 2.

And there we have my collection of lip paints.

The ones I use the most often are:

• Rimmel Vinyl Lip
• Opia clear gloss
• YSL gloss in shade 3 (must remember proper name)
• Smashbox palette in the plummy shade on the bottom left hand corner

Also, I'm looking to sell some of those glosses so if you see anything you like, do let me know and I will see what I can do :)

My Stila "haul"

I went to the Stila sample sale the other day and it was great, stuff was greatly reduced and I cam away with a few bargains. The only thing I'm a bit sad about is the fact that I should have taken more money with me :( I could have gotten so much more but I think I did OK considering the fact that I only spent £37.

So, here's what I got:

• Lip glaze in mocha
• Plumping lip glaze in melon mint
• Smudge pot in black
• Smudge pot in jade
• Smudge pot in purple
• Eyeliner in topaz
• Eyeliner in purple
  
• Pigment in the most perfect copper colour
  
• Highlighter in white

If I had taken more money I would have bought some brushes but my current Ruby and Millie brushes do me ok and I think it's time I bought a MAC brush and so will be picking one up really soon :)

I really wanted to pick up a convertible colour but they only had gladiola and poppy, one which was too orange and one which was too red for desi skin. They had peony but it had been swatched like mad and the case was scratched, plus it was boxless. If it wasn't swatched I would have bought it. I also regret not buying a smudge pot in bronze but oh well, I can always pick it up when I go to America.

So..here's my haul in photo format:
Row 1: Smudgepot in purple, copper pigment, highlighter
Row 2: Lipglaze in mocha
Row 3: Plumping lipglaze in melon mint
Row 4: Eye pencil in topaz
Row 5: Eye pencil in purple (can't remember exact name and am too lazy to check)
Row 6: Palette in noir, smudgepot in black, smudgepot in jade

The highlighter, pigment and smudgepot:
The smudgepot in purple was my steal of the day, it was unboxed and so was only £1.50 (as were the pigment and the highlighter).

I picked up a gift box which I also regret putting back as it had two eyeshadows (including the infamous kitten), a lipglaze and some mascara but ho hum..such is life.

Outside of the palette (all nice and furry aka velvety) and two of the smudgepots:

Inside the palette:

Review: Sleek Palettes

Back when I was at TFL me and my friend Sophie were wandering around Superdrug one day and she decided to buy one of these palettes and for the next two weeks all she went on about was how great they were so I decided to buy some myself..We realised pretty quickly that they were for ladies with darker skin as models used were actually models of colour and not black and Indian women who had been photoshopped so they looked lighter than they actually were..yeah, you know the ads, company and women I'm talking about.

Then, come Xmas time they were on offer, 3 for 2 and I ummed and ahhed about it a lot and ended up buying none..I've been regretting that decision for ages and bought a palette the other day..then I went back and bought all the others they had in the store including the electric one..

Well, the colours are bloody gorgeous in all the palettes, one palette has shimmery colours, one has matte and the third has neutral..the electric palette has (as you would imagine) bright neon colours in it.

I've decided to use this palette tomorrow as we have a family get together for Father's Day and I've just used two of the colours on my lids and the colour pay off is great, this is the first time ever I've been able to coat an eyeshadow brush with a dark colour after only two weak strokes of the powder and have it turn out so bright on my eyelids.

I'm blabbing again but here we go..


The palette:

Quite sleek in itself, the writing is not this bright on the case, I had to fiddle with setting to get it to show but it's quite sturdy and yet sleek at the same time. One thing I did like was the insert which protects the eyeshadows, on most, it slips and slides away the second you open it. I get that with my Bobbi Brown palette and it really winds me up. The insert here is (I'm sure!) charged with something which makes it stick to the mirror so you don't lose it AND you can still see the mirror clearly behind it so that's all good so far.

The actual shadows:

Nice variety of colours and they actually come out that way on your skin, the ones I used are the second green in from the top row and the fourth browny/pinky colour in from the bottom row.

The browny colour:

As I'm sure you eagle eyed readers can see, the browny colour was more natural on me and it had a slight shimmer to it, I can see myself wearing it to work and out..I love double usage shadows like that..it looked really natural and was a doddle to apply, the only "issue" I had was that there was tonnes left on the brush when I finished but I assume that would have been used had I done something ridiculous like have two eyelids the same colour.

The brush after stroking the green colour lightly:

Look at the colour pay off there, the brush was fully coated and ready to go..

The green eye:

I'm not sure why it looks bluey/grey there, in real life the colour was a very nice green, kinda the colour you see on the right side of the eyelid near to the base of the lashes. Very very very easy to blend and look how good the colour payoff is for a light stroke of the eyeshadow..

My mascara dream team:

I reviewed the Stiletto last week and this is the first time I've ever used them together, the results were amazing!

Neutral eye with mascara:

I am so happy at how those lashes came out and the fact that I got nothing on my beautiful eyeshadow, I shall be combining these from now on..

Green eye with mascara:

I never actually believed that green makes blue eyes stand out as it has never worked with me before but with this lovely palette I can finally see it, in both pics I'm looking exactly the same way but the green make my eyes look a lot more browner :)!!

I got this look together in the space of 10 minutes and that was with my crappy blending, I can't wait to use this tomorrow with proper blending to see how well it comes out :)

Repurchase?
HELL TO THE YES. I would be a be a fool to not repurchase these:

• the colour payoff is great
• the colours are not chalky as some can be on darker skins
• the shadows are very soft and you get a tiny bit on the brush but they pack a lot of colour (hence the payoff)
• moneywise these palettes are a godsend, for less than a fiver you get 12 eyeshadows which will last you an age (I've gotten one use out of them and they still look untouched)