Makeup Collection (2018): High End Products

Welcome!

Welcome back to another blog post! Today I wanted to do something different. I know my main goal for this blog is to provide affordable makeup options for those of you who are on a tight budget, however, I still want to show that some high-end products are worth their price point. 

Please keep in mind that I don't have a massive collection of products which I deem to be high-end, partly because I do truly believe that drugstore makeup can be comparable to high-end. However, I also believe that you get what you pay for in terms of the quality and longevity of the product.  

Overview 

• MAC Prep + Prime Fix+ - £19.00 

• MAC Matchmaster SPF 15 Foundation (shade 2.0) - £30.00

• MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Soft Ochre - £16.50

• MAC In The Flesh Eye Shadow x 15 - £49.50

• Benefit Cheek Parade Palette - £49.50

• Benefit Cheekaton Palette - £49.50

• Charlotte Tilbury Instant Eye Palette - £60.00

• Urban Decay X Kristen Leanne Beauty Beam Highlighter Palette - £22.00

• Urban Decay X Kristen Leanne Daydream Eyeshadow Palette - £25.00

• Urban Decay X Kristen Leanne Kaleidoscope Dream Eyeshadow Palette - £28.00

MAC Cosmetics

MAC Cosmetics is a brand which has been talked about a lot in the past, mainly because of their products. I have only recently gotten on the bandwagon when it comes to MAC, mainly because of the price point but also because I never found anything I was truly impressed with. For me, when it actually comes to parting with my money, I have to feel like the product I am getting in return is worth the money I am handing over.

The first thing I remember purchased from MAC was the matchmaster foundation (£30.00) in shade 2.0. I remember trying it and not being overly impressed with the actual formula of the product. I felt like it was emphasizing all of my fine lines and pores by sinking into them, I also felt the product sitting on top of my skin where it wasn't sinking in properly (not great when it transfers upon contact with clothes). I also found that it started to look cakey after about 4 hours of wear, even if you added powder on top to lock it in place. I can honestly say that I am not a massive fan of looking like I have a thick layer of foundation on top of my skin. 

Whilst I have kept this foundation in my collection because of the price point, the shade I have is way too dark for me and whilst I am not the biggest fan of the product on its own, I do mix it with either the Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless Foundation (£6.99) or the Dream Satin Liquid Foundation (£7.99). By mixing these two together, I find that it makes the perfect combination with the coverage, colour and the actual longevity of the product. 

I have also purchased the MAC Prep + Prime Fix+ spray (£19.00) which is a product that is used by 80% of the beauty community for so many different reasons. I find that I use this to improve pigmentation of my eyeshadows, to set my makeup in place and melt all the powders and liquids together, and occasionally I use it to dampen my beauty sponge if it starts to dry out whilst I am using it. I really like this product and it does last for a long time, I have had my bottle (100ml) for about a year or so and I still have about 20ml left which will probably last me for at least another month. I will continue to re-purchase because it is so versatile with its uses, but also because it is a staple in my daily makeup routine. 

I picked up the 'Soft Ochre' paint pot (£16.50) which I was on the fence about because typically I don't actually use an eyeshadow base where I find that eyeshadows last a decent amount of time on my actual eyelids. However once I had watched some of my favourite YouTubers use it, I decided to purchase it myself and see if it was worth the hype. 

As soon as I used it for the first time, I completely agreed with all the love this product receives. It glides on effortlessly, it gives a flawless base to work with, all eyeshadows blend flawlessly on top and the best part, it really does help with the longevity of your shadows. I do feel that this product is creamy and easy to use. I literally had to take the smallest amount on a synthetic brush - apply and blend on my lids and then I was able to either apply shadow on top (basically as a base) or set my entire lid with a neutral eyeshadow and then use it to cut my crease.

Lastly, I have the MAC 'In The Flesh' eyeshadow palette (£49.50). This is a 15 pan palette with a range of shades to create a flattering office eye, date night eye look or even a dramatic smokey eye. I really enjoy the selection of shades available in this palette, however, my go-to shades are 'Glam Gold', 'Nutrelle', 'Rustique', 'Sandstone', and 'Carbon'.  I find these shadows to be creamy, pigmented, long lasting and really easy to work with.

Benefit 

Benefit Cosmetic is known as one of the companies who know what they are doing when it comes to our brows. Whilst they have multiple brow products available, they also create limited edition face palettes which are made up of 5 full-size blushes/bronzer which are grouped into one palette and sold at a discounted price. The two palettes I own currently is 'Cheekaton' which I believe was released in 2016 and 'Cheek Parade' which followed in mid-2017. These are limited edition so they are not available on the market anymore, however, the shades in the palettes are sold separately (see below). They are priced at £25.50 per 'shade' which means that you would be spending a total of £127.50 for all 5, however, the palette is sold £49.50 which is a saving of £78.00.

• Cheekaton - 'Rockateur', 'Dallas', 'Hoola', 'Coralista', and 'Dandelion'.

• Cheek Parade - 'Hoola Lite', 'Hoola', 'Galifornia', 'Dandelion' and 'Rockateur'.

All of the Benefit boxed blushes/bronzers are beautiful to work with. They are pigmented, creamy, easy to blend and they really do bring the whole look together as though it was the missing piece. My favourite ones which are used nearly every day are 'Hoola Lite' and 'Hoola' for my contour/bronzer, 'Galifornia' and 'Rockateur' as my blush depending on the look.

Charlotte Tilbury 

Charlotte Tilbury is a brand which a lot of people use on YouTube. They are known for their luxury makeup within the beauty community, partly because the products are flawless but also because they are worth their price point. I have always wanted to try out the 'Bar of Gold' highlighter because it looks absolutely stunning, however, it is always sold out! 

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Limited Edition 'Instant Eye Palette' which was released in 2017. This offers a range of complementary eye looks ranging from Desk to Disco with a shade in each eye look to 'Prime', 'Enhance', and 'Smoke'.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing these shadows are, they truly are impressive and they are worth the £60.00 you will have to pay. The shade range within this palette is pretty much everything you will ever need in order to create a beautiful eye look - there are your typical 'base' shades, 'crease' shades and finally shades to 'define' the look.

My go-to looks with this palette mainly come from 'Desk Eye' and 'Date Eye' because they have the perfect crease shades, beautiful lid colours and they have the best shade in order to define the outer V of my lid. It appears that I am all about the flattering eye looks because I prefer the look to be natural and feminine to match my persona more than a dramatic eye look would do.

Urban Decay

Urban Decay are well know in the beauty industry primarily for their Naked Eyeshadow palette range as well as their eye primer in 'Eden'. I have heard a lot of positive things about Urban Decay, mainly about the pigmentation and blendability of their shadows. There was one thing which put me off from buying any of their products and that was the price tag associated to the actual product, personally for a palette which cost over £35.00 could get me at least 6 products from the drugstore (if not more!) for the same price. 

It wasn't until I watched Kristen Leanne swatch and discuss her collab with Urban Decay which made me want to pick it up. I am aware that it is limited edition and once it is sold out, it won't be returning but I just knew I needed to try out the actual products.

Firstly, I had to pick up the beauty beam palette (£22.00). As soon as I saw swatches of this palette I knew I wanted it, especially considering I am a highlighter junkie. This palette has three gorgeous shades, it has a soft rose gold, a white gold, and finally a warm gold highlight. The whole palette is 10.89g (3.63g per highlight) and has a mirror with the words 'stay gold' on the lower right-hand corner; the packaging is also pink cardboard which is sturdy and textured. 

The actual formula of these highlighters is outstanding. They are pigmented, soft and creamy, super metallic and reflective - plus they have amazing staying power.  On my skin they stayed reflective for at least 8 hours without fading, I applied them dry and without a liquid highlighter base so I am sure it would be super metallic and blinding if applied with these base methods.

I then picked up the neutral palette called 'Daydream' (£25.00). This compromises of 5 shadows which I believe are exclusive; the shadows range from your base colour to set your primer with to crease shades, to finally the deep dark definition shade for either your outer V or to create a shadow liner. 

The shades include Lucy (a matte white), Daydream (a matte warm toned light brown), 12/12 (a matte coral pink), Subscribe (a matte medium brown) and finally Eight (a matte dark purple/brown). I find these shades to be creamy, pigmented and easy to blend, they also work well together or with other shadows without becoming patchy or hard to work with.

Finally, I picked up the star of the show - Kaleidoscope Palette (£28.00). This is outstanding. I was a little sceptical, to begin with because I feared that the colours would be out of my comfort zone and I wouldn't use it that much. I was really, really, really wrong because I use this pretty much every time I do my makeup. 

I am extremely fond of the shade range in this palette because whilst they make look scary and slightly outside of (most) comfort zones, they are pretty wearable. They can be used as accent colours under the eye, they can be used as lid colours and finally, they can be used for the inner corner. The shades are all pigmented, easy to work with and they blend like butter. The formula is creamy with hardly any fallout, they also last for a good duration of time on the lids. 

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