Saturday 29 October 2011

Review and FOTD- MUA Glitter Ball Eyeshadow palette

Something has been playing on my mind for a while now. At the risk of being ostracised from the makeup blogger community, I’ve got to admit it. I’m not a huge fan of the MUA palettes. I love a lot of the singles and I agree that the palettes are cheap as chips but while everyone else was gushing about how marvellous these were, I was decidedly less impressed.  I bought Glitter Ball a few months ago, so I’ve given it a good go.

I can see lots of good with the Glitter Ball palette, apart from the low price of £4 for 12 shadows. The colour family is good; all the shades can be worn together and they are all very wearable. It’s a great mix of neutral with bright. The packaging is not bad; it’s nicely compact and sturdy enough to carry around. I love the concept of the mix of glittery shades. There are a few colours that I think are amazing. However, there are more than a few negatives.

First thing is the texture of the shadows. Some of them are too soft and leads to my brushes either picking up too much product or to the shadow being whisked around the room.  There are others that are quite dry and unpigmented, making them almost impossible to apply and blend. Not all of the shadows are poorly textured but it frustrates me that so few companies are able to make a decent black. Learn lessons from Sleek, MUA! There is also an awful lot of fallout; this is one where you MUST do your eyes, then your foundation or it will look like Christmas has come early for your cheeks, even with primer.


1)Black- minor amount of glitter. Very dry and unpigmented. Greys out.
2)Peach Pink- shimmer with very little glitter. Quite a warm mid-toned peach. Good texture.
3)Dark Green- Shimmer with heavy glitter. Unless used with a dark base, it blends out to look almost the same as the paler green. Greys out.
4)Blue- bright, easy to blend, well pigmented.
5)Pale green- easy to blend, ultra shimmer and glitter. Greys out.
6)Golden white- heavy shimmer and glitter. Quite dry. Blends poorly. I never use this anymore.
7)Pale pink- very shimmery, pigmented but dry and hard to blend. Reminds me of Barry M Ice Pink. Greys out.
8)Golden Copper- one of my favs. Quite soft, easy to blend, less glitter than other shades.
9)Plum/Silver/taupe- another of my favs. Perfectly textured, keeps its colour all day. Very unusual multi-faceted colour that looks much nicer than the swatch indicates..
10) Dark Golden Brown- very soft and messy to use. Blends out well but fades significantly during the day.
11)Silver- nice texture, easy to blend but fades during the day.
12)Dark silver plum- Nice texture and blendability but greys out significantly.

My final complaint is, to me, the most annoying. When the shadows are first applied they look vibrant and as they do in the pan. However, after a few hours many of them fade and ‘grey-out’. I don’t know if there is a technical term for this btw, so if you know it, let me know! It could be that there is an over-abundance of shimmer to pigment, so as the pigment fades, the silver shimmer dominates. If I do a green smoky eye, I want it to stay green. I don’t want it to become a grey smoky eye! I use a primer, so my shadow should stay the same colour for more than a few hours. GRRRRRR!


So would I buy this again? It might surprise you to know the answer is yes! While more than a few of the shades are absolute duds, I love the blue (4), the copper (8) and the plummy silver taupe (9). They are worth £4 to me.

So, my lovely readers, I've outed myself. I'm not that impressed with the MUA palettes. Anyone else hiding a makeup secret they want to confess?

4 comments:

Zaynab Warind said...

sleeks black is more like dark grey =/ BH cosmetics has the better black

http://splishsplashnspunky.blogspot.com/

Demonicsmurfette said...

Perhps you had a bad Sleek palette- I've always found they had the best black eyeshadow on the high street. Sadly I can't compare it to the BH palette as the high shipping costs have put me off from buying it. Thanks for the tip though.

Bella-Marie said...

Hmm I've always been a bit skeptical of MUA and all the hype they got and I'm glad I've met someone else who's not convinced, I swatched a few of them and I just wasn't impressed. The neutral ones quite good but then neutrals dont need to be that pigmented. I know they're cheap but if I wont use them I dont see myself spending even a small amount on them!

xxx

Demonicsmurfette said...

It seems we are the minority BunBun! I haven't tried the Heaven and Earth palette but if the quality is like this one, I can't imagine why it is cnsidered a dupe for UD Naked.