Review | Stila in the Light Palette

Hi Guys! I hope you are all well. I was meant to write this post last night but I had potentially the most unlucky night of my LIFE! I thought I'd tell you what happened as it makes for quite an amusing little story looking back.

So, last night I finished work at 5.00pm as normal and waited for my taxi that I'd booked half an hour in advance for 5.05pm. Now the reason I'd ordered a taxi is because I was due to have my first counselling session last night (for my anxiety if you didn't already know) at 5.30pm and was in a mad rush. Well, it got to 5.15 and there was still no sign of my taxi, great, I was going to be late. When it eventually turned up at 5.20, we got stuck in the most horrendous traffic and in the end my taxi driver said 'your going to have to get out here or you'll be late'. Fair enough he was trying to help me out but we were in the middle of a MAIN road - not cool. So after dodging several cars getting across the road, I'd made it to my appointment just in the nick of time. However, after telling them my name at reception they kindly informed me I'd been double booked and couldn't be seen until 7.30pm. Baring in mind it was 5.30, was I really going to hang around for two hours? No. I was so angry but also quite amused as it was only the night before they had called me to say 'we need to change your appointment from 6.30 till 5.30 as we've double booked you'. Okay so you double booked me twice in the space of 24 hours? Its safe to say I won't be going back there again.

Anyway, as if my night couldn't get any worse, I then had to walk home in the pouring rain only to discover I'd not put my keys in my bag before work in the morning. My boyfriend had locked up as we were leaving and I didn't even think twice about having my keys as we usually walk home together from work and only need one set. However, last night my  boyfriend was out at a seminar after work which meant I couldn't get in to my flat. Great, I was locked out. So there I was stood outside my flat for two hours like a complete lemon bursting for the loo and listening to my next door neighbours cooking their tea - not my idea of fun when I'm tierd, starving and have a full bladder 8)! Thankfully, my friend Sophie came to the rescue and the night ended with a glass of wine, a ham and cheese panini and girly chat. So if you're reading this, thanks Soph ;).

So after that humongous intro (I hope you enjoyed hearing about the trials and tribulations of my life yesterday haha), I will move on to the actual purpose of this post - a review of the ever so lovely Stila 'In the Light' Palette. I have to be honest, I've missed doing product reviews lately. I've done what seems like a lot of posts but none of them have been individual product reviews so I'm excited to get back into the swing of things and share my thoughts on a few gems I've accumulated over the past few weeks, this palette being one of them.

I received it as a Christmas gift from my boyfriends mum and dad after they asked me what I would like. It had been on my wish list for quite some time after reading Zoella's review on it so I was very excited to finally be able to give it a try. To be honest, I usually want most things Zoe raves about as we have very similar taste in beauty products but this one in particular stood out to me as it looked like the most perfectly pigmented and creamy neutral eyeshadow palette. I have to say - it is all of those things and more. As soon as I opened it on Christmas morning I just had to swatch each shade instantly. Not only was I blown away by how buttery soft each of the eyeshadows are but also by the amazing amount of pigmentation each of them provides with the lightest touch. I love how there is a variety of shades and almost every colour you would ever need for a variety of different eye looks. I'm a sucker for a neutral smokey eye and this palette ticks all of those boxes featuring pale champagne, copper, metallic golden brown and deep crease colours. It also has a couple of super smokey shades perfect for a dramatic look if thats what you prefer. Another thing I love about this palette is the cute names. I don't know why but I love products I own to have a name. Is that weird? A few of the nicely named shades featured in this palette include Kitten and Gilded Gold, how lovely?

When it comes to price, it is fairly reasonable. It costs 25.00 and contains 10 eyeshadows. If you split that up per eyeshadow, you can't grumble at £2.50 a pop. It also comes with one of Stila's Smudge Stick waterproof eyeliners in the shade 'Damsel' (a deep brown) which alone retails at £13.00 meaning it even better value for money. I ordered mine from the Feel Unique website here as they offer free worldwide delivery and let's face it, no pesky delivery fees is always a bonus when shopping online.I haven't had chance to wear this palette as much as I'd of liked to yet, purely because I haven't been anywhere nice enough (I might start rocking a smokey eye at work?) but as soon as I have a proper experiment I'll be sure to update you with a tutorial or different looks I've created. However, what I will say for now is the quality is exceptional and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for some everyday eyeshadows in a handy little gold palette. What's not to love?

Have you ever tried this palette or does it look like something you'd like to try?

Lots of Love,

Battle of the Urban Decay Neutrals | Naked 1 vs Naked 2

Original Naked Palette (Well used as you can see)

Naked Palette 2

Top - Naked 2 | Bottom - Naked 1

Naked 1 Swatches - Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

Naked 2 Swatches - Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout

How Cute?!

Hey Ladies! If you follow me on Twitter here, you will know that my lovely boyfriend recently surprised me with the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette. This had been on my wish list for quite some time after loving the first palette so when a package arrived in the post for me containing this, I couldn't of been happier. My boyfriend attached a little note with the palette saying '1000 blog followers deserves a beauty treat to blog about!! You've done brill!' I thought this was so thoughtful and cute so thank you very much Matt. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I recently hit the big 1000 followers milestone and I was over the moon.  My boyfriend knows how much I love blogging and the fact he supports me makes me a very happy girl indeed. Moving on from my soppy thank you, I have decided to do a bit of a comparison review between this palette and the original Naked palette. If you are a makeup fanatic like me (which I guess most of you are) then you may like to have both palettes in your collection. Alternatively, you might not own either of the palettes and would like to see comparison photos before deciding which one you'd prefer.

I thought I would start my comparison by talking about the packaging. For me, packaging is a huge factor when it comes to makeup. I realise it doesn't effect the actual product but having something pretty to look at when applying it makes it all the more pleasurable. When I first got the original palette last year, I adored the packaging. I loved the huge gold letters, the velvet texture and the sleek, clearly named shadows. The second palette comes in a gold metal tin, again with large letters, clearly named shadows and this time a humongous mirror. I think I prefer the outer appearance of this packaging because it looks very sleek and sturdy but for me, the original palettes inner appearance is more appealing. Although the new palette has a larger mirror, I love the eye-catching gold letters on the inside of the original palette. However, as you can see from the pictures above, my original palette is not looking great. The mirror has cracked, the velvet has gone fluffy and the letters are slowly but surely fading away. Due to the more durable packaging of the second palette, I can't imagine it becoming as tatty looking as the original. I'd also like to mention that the first palette came with a mini Urban Decay primer potion (which I didn't like) and an eyeshadow brush. Some of the original palettes came with a double ended eye pencil which I would have preferred as the brush isn't great. The second palette also came with a brush but this time a double ended version. Again, I'm not a huge fan of the brushes as they are very stiff and hard to work with. The second palette also comes with a mini lip junkie lipgloss which I really like. It is a lovely berry pink shade and makes my lips feel plump and tingly. Overall, I think the second palette slightly beats the first based on the practicality of a hard-wearing case and a larger mirror.

Moving on to the most important part of this comparison, the colour range. Both of these palettes have a selection of 12 gorgeous neutral shades that can be used to create a whole array of eye looks. I have included swatches in the photos above and as you can see, the shades are very similar. However, the only shade that is actually featured in both of the palettes is 'Half Baked'. Half Baked is definitely one of my favourites from the original palette and as you can see I have hit pan on it so I was very happy to see this shade again in the second palette. Apart from that, there is a range of newly named shades. To be honest, I could't really pick a favourite palette in terms of colour range. The only things I prefer about the second palette is the fact it has a matte black and a larger selection of cooler toners than the original palette. If you are looking for a mixture of matte and shimmer shadows, the second palette has four opposed to two in the original. That being said, I do love a good shimmery eyeshadow so the shades provided in the original palette don't offend me in the slightest. 

The original palette cost me £27.00 but after the huge hype and success surrounding it, the pesky people at Urban Decay decided to up the price to £36.00. Then again, who can blame them? In my opinion, £36.00 is still remarkably cheap for 12 high quality, highly pigmented eyeshadows. I have had the original palette for well over a year now and apart from Half Baked, it looks as though it has barely been touched. These eyeshadows will last such a long time and are a staple for so many looks that I think the price is completely justified. If you do a little bit of maths, it works out at £3.00 an eyeshadow which is pretty blooming reasonable.

Overall, I love both of these palettes and know I will get good use from them both but do I think you need both? No. I think these palettes are far too similar to justify buying both but  I 100% recommend trying one of them if you don't have either. Unless your a makeup collector like me, you really won't need both to create a perfect neutral eye. I have been fortunate enough to have the luxury of trying both but in reality, I wouldn't have bought  them both myself after seeing how similar they are. The only difference between these palettes aside from packaging is the original has warm shades and the second palette has cool shades so if you are unsure of which to go for, you can pick the palette most suited to your skin tone. 

I hope this review helped some of you in one way or another and I hope I haven't missed any important information out. If you have anymore questions about either of these palettes, please feel free to ask

Also, if any of you are on Twitter, I'd love to chat with you so send me a tweet!

Lots of Love,

Inglot Goodies

Eyeshadow Pearl 393

Eyeshadow AMC Shine 42

Eyeshadow AMC Shine 43

Hey Ladies! Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. I've been a busy bee and with the 9 hour time difference between Oz and the UK, its quite the challenge finding an appropriate time to write and post. Hopefully I'll get into some kind of Australia blogging routine soon though. Now, onto the post. If you read my Brisbane Haul you will know that I picked up some Inglot goodies. I was pretty chuffed to find an Inglot shop as I've always liked the look of their products but with the UK having very limited stores, I've never been able to go into a shop and test out their huge array of products.  When I say huge, I mean huge. No wonder Inglot don't give their products names. Jeez, they would be thinking of names forever if they did. As much as I do like products I buy to have names, I can forgive Inglot for using numbers instead after seeing their vast amount of products. 

So, what did I pick up? Well, I didn't go too wild as I plan to go back to Brisbane in July and spend my birthday money. However, I did pick up a 10 pan eyeshadow palette, three eyeshadows and a lipstick which is a nice little lot all the same. I obviously had to get some eyeshadows and one of the infamous palettes after hearing so much about them on blogs/youtube. I originally asked the MUA for a three pan palette to fit my new shadows but I decided I  of course would end up buying more so opted for 10 instead. Much like MAC, I love the concept of building your own eyeshadow palettes as you can fill it with colours you actually like and would wear. I must admit, I think I prefer the Inglot palette to my MAC one. I like the fact you can see the shadows through the palette, the shadows themselves are larger squares compared to MAC's small circular shadows and the magnetic lid is just genius. I get a strange satisfaction from clicking it on and off. Yes, I really am that sad. Oh and to top it all of, the Inglot palettes and shadows are a fraction of the price compared with MAC. I paid $18 for the palette and only $10 each for the eyeshadows. That works out at around 11/6 pounds. Bargain. 

The eyeshadows I picked out are very neutral, metallic shades including a pale cream highlight colour, a metallic golden brown for all over the lid and a deep metallic brown for the crease. When I say 'metallic', I mean they have a very high shine to them without them being disco ball glittery. Also, I have to mention how creamy these shadows are. The swatches shown above are after one swipe with my finger and the colour payoff is fantastic.

The lipstick I chose is a gorgeous berry shade, number 128. I love pink colours like this and already have a few you could say are pretty similar. I know I shouldn't have really bought it as I have things similar like MAC Impassioned/Girl About Town but just look how pretty it is? I'd say my biggest makeup weakness is lipsticks so I don't really need any excuse to buy a new one. I think I just wanted to own an Inglot lipstick to add to my ever growing collection. I wore is last night and it looked lovely. It was very vivid colour payoff and felt extremely moisturising on my lips. This cost me $27 which is around 15 pounds in the UK. I'm pretty sure this is more expensive than they are in the UK but I didn't mind paying it as a one off. Overall, I am massively impressed with Inglot and so happy I decided to treat myself to a few things. I just can't wait to head back to Brisbane now and pick out seven more colours to fill my palette. 

Have you ever tried anything from Inglot? What do you think of their products?

Lots of Love,