Brand Focus: MUA

Today I thought I'd do a review on some products I have by MUA, a very cheap make up brand available in Superdrug and online at www.muastore.co.uk

First up are the single eyeshadows, which at only being £1 each offer a great range of colours, matte and shimmer, with some being incredibly highly pigmented.

I LOVE the first colour, Shade 01, it's a slightly yellow white colour that's awesome for highlighting, not only on the eyes but on the face as well. I use this every day on the inner corners of my eyes to brighten them up, and use the white (middle swatch, Shade 2) in the same way when I want a slightly more dramatic look. The bronze colour (Shade 30) is lovely and highly pigmented, and the dark colour (Shade 10) is a lovely black colour with a purple shimmer, great for smokey eyes. The colour on the far right (if you can even see it!) is shade 16, the only matte colour I have and it's a very pale pink colour, but as you can see isn't very pigmented but it's nice as a light wash over the eyelids.

Next up is their 12 Shade Heaven and Earth palette. I bought this when I couldn't afford Urban Decay's Naked palette, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the quality I got for £4! All the colours are highly pigmented, slight fallout but nothing major and a really nice selection of colours. All shimmer though, would have been nice to have a couple of matte colours but from what I've seen their matte eyesahdows aren't quite on par with their shimmers.

Now since I had tried the eyeshadows and been happy with them, I bought two lip products.

Firstly a red lipstick, shade 1, it has a really good creamy consistency and is a really lovely punchy blue toned red, once again highly pigmented, but because of the consistency it can get quite messy. It also has quite a strong smell which isn't overly pleasant. Overall though for £1, pretty good quality.

Secondly and most recently I bought this Lip Boom.

The Lip Boom is a collaboration with Alexandra Burke, MUA's first celeb collaboration I believe, which should bring a good amount of attention to the brand. So, the Lip Boom (£3) has a lipstick on one end, and a highlighting gloss on the other and is branded as a 4 in 1 lipstick and gloss. I bought shade OMG which is a bright coral colour. The lipstick is matte and very bright, but you have to layer it up to get a good even colour (swatch second from left). I find this colour a bit bright for me so I've been wearing it mixed with either MAC's Myth or Creme D'Nude (far right swatch), which creates a very wearable pale coral colour. Now the highlighter (middle swatch), I've used it a couple of times and the colour does compliment the lipstick, but it doesn't have a very smooth consistency, probably due to the glitter being quite chunky, if it had been a shimmery gloss it would have worked a lot better (swatch second from right showing highlighter over the lipstick).

So all round, MUA is a bit hit and miss, the eyeshadows coming out on top with their highly pigmented colours. I would definitely recommend picking up a few eye colours when you're next in Superdrug :) Excellent for those on a budget!

Also, check out Karla Powell's facebook page, she is the head of make up artistry for MUA and has created some amazing looks using their products.

xxx