Review: Urban Decay Naked 3

The latest addition to Urban Decay's all-famous Naked series has finally hit Singapore's shores. Out of all the Naked releases, this palette is probably the one that I am most excited about. According to Urban Decay's website, this palette features 12 brand new eyeshadow shades and they are all rose-hued neutrals!

Naked3 is currently available in Sephora Singapore and retails for SG$83. Comparatively, this palette is more expensive than the first two. All the Naked palettes are available in the U.S. for US$52 and when first released is Singapore, the original Naked and Naked2 were SG$80 each. So I was quite surprised that there was a small hike in the price of the Naked3 and was contemplating whether I should get it from the states. My lovely sister saved me all that trouble because she surprised me and got it as a christmas present!!

Here's a look at the Naked3 palette in all its glory...

In the box packaging.

Actual palette, comes with 4 eyeshadow primers samples.

Love the packaging of the Naked3!

Moving on to the swatches (from left to right of the palette)..

Complete swatch.

As usual, the UD shadows are of great quality. Every colour is pigmented and easily blendable. Some reviews online mentioned that Trick has quite alot of fall out but to me, it applied fine. In fact, I have no complaints about the quality of the shadows. As you can tell from the pictures, this palette included various finishes of eyeshadow. There are 3 matte, 4 shimmery and 5 satin shades. My favourite shades are Burnout, Nooner and Factory and I use them together for a everyday look.

The brush that came along with this palette is a dual-ended one. It has 2 shader brushes, one that is flatter and the other being thicker and more fluffy. I personally prefer the brush that came with the Naked2 because one side is a fluffy blending brush. Not really sure why UD gave 2 shader brushes but I guess it still works.

After about 2 weeks playing with the colours, I dare say that this is my favourite Naked palette. I wouldn't call it a must-have despite it being the case for me because some may not find the rosy shades complementary to their skin tone. This palette is just so pretty and I find the colours just make the whole look more feminine while still great for everyday. The price point is rather steep though (especially since Sephora Singapore increased their price) so this is definitely a splurge. I would still have saved up and buy it myself had my sister not gotten it as a present for me though.

Hope this review was helpful and apologies for the delay in posting this. I have been procrastinating blogging since my return to Singapore and it's really bad, I know. Take it as my year-end break before I start pumping out reviews and hauls in the new year. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and happy new year!!

Review: Models Prefer Sweet Shadows

Happy November everyone! Hope you all had a great Halloween. I've got a long review for you today so let's get started. Models Prefer released 2 new palettes and I am going to review one of them. Here's a quick look at the Sweet Shadows palette...

Before I begin, it is pretty obvious that this is a knock-off or inspired by the Too Faced Bon Bons Shadow palette. The packaging and colour scheme of the shadows resembles the Bon Bons to a large extent. It contains 12 eyeshadows, an eyeshadow primer and a mascara and brow gel duo and comes in a metal tin which you can recycle. This palette will set you back AU$15 and is available at Priceline.

Swatches according to arrangement in palette.

                        1st row:

                         2nd row:

                         3rd row:

The eyeshadows are not the best quality but they can still do the job. In my honest opinion, I do find they are pretty decent. When I swatched them with my finger, they are quite soft and have good pigmentation. With the lighter shades, I will definitely need to go back several times to pick up more product to build up the colour but the mid-tone browns and darker shades are rather easy to apply and blend.  My favourites are Angelic, Sweetened and Lovely.

The only shadow that didn't really work for me is Cute. This particular shade has a crazy amount of fallout and the powder would just get everywhere, whether I'm using my finger or a brush. After using the palette several times, you can already see a noticeable 'dent' in the pan and it looks like the eyeshadow just crumbled.

One particularly powdery eyeshadow.

Here's an overall view of all the 12 shades...

Left to right: Innocent, Lovely, Sweetened, Graceful, Kisses, Cute, Sugared, Luscious, Adorable, Angelic, Precious, Enchanting.

Just as an example of how the shadows perform, here are 2 eye looks that I wore using this palette. (Note that I was going for a natural look because I was going to uni and did not want to look too made up.)

1. Using Innocent all over the lid, Lovely in the crease, Adorable as transition shade, Angelic on the brow bone and inner corner. (more purplish)

2. Using Sweetened all over the lid, Sugared in the crease, Angelic on the brow bone and inner corner. (more neutral/browns)

Moving on to the accessories of this kit.

The eyeshadow primer comes in a squeeze tube. The product is a light skin-tone shade but when you blend it there isn't no colour on the lids. It does feel a little waxy when I applied it, as though it doesn't really sets. I don't really know how else to describe it but I find that once I apply my eyeshadows over it, all is fine.

The mascara and brow gel duo is a nice addition and I actually like it surprisingly.

Mascara on the left, brow gel on the right.

The clear brow gel is quite watery compared to the Essence lash & brow gel mascara but it still gets the job done and keeps my brows looking neat.

Standard brush.

The brush of the mascara is different to anything I've tried before. It has a side of longer bristles and much shorter ones on the opposite side. I start by combing with the shorter bristles to give my lashes a good coat of mascara and then go back in with the longer bristles to separate and comb out the lashes.

Rubber bristle mascara wand.

Closer look at the mascara wand.

I tried a more dramatic look over the weekend and also to showcase the mascara and brow gel in action as well. For this look, I used Adorable on the lids, Precious and Cute to darken the outer corners, Sugared in the crease and Sweetened as a transition colour. On my brow bone and inner corners are Angelic (again!) as a highlight and Enchanting on my upper lashline.

Mascara separates well and gives some length.

Overall, I do think this is a decent palette with pretty packaging. The eyeshadows had good pigmentation for most of them and apply well too, with the exception of Cute. Although I like this palette, I wouldn't say you need to rush out and get it. If you are like the colour selection and don't mind a few hits-and-misses, you might actually enjoy it too. Or you could just wait for it to go on sale (or use vouchers like in my case) to justify this purchase.

Hope this review helps! Let me know what you think about the Sweet Shadows if you're tried it.. xo

First Impressions on BOE Beauty

So I was walking around Big W a while back and around the cosmetic section, I found this brand of makeup for only AU$2!! Everything from this brand is freaking 2 bucks. I was kind of thinking it's probably crap but seeing it's only $2, I got some of their products to try. Just to clarify, this is a long-overdue collective haul. I definitely didn't buy all these in one setting in case you were wondering.

Starting first with the lipsticks, I picked up 3 of the 4 colours that were available at the Big W I visited. The only shade I did not get was the red because I know I won't get much use out of it. Packaging of this product is somewhat 'cheap' but the actual lipstick is quite something. I'm not saying the lipstick is amazing quality but for the price, it is a great product! The pigmentation is pretty opaque and wears like a regular lipstick would so I do need to re-apply it after eating/drinking. The lipsticks have a clear cover so you can see the colour of the actual product through the top.

Clear plastic cover with black packaging.

Left to right: Perfect Pink, Natural Tea Rose, Birthday Suit. 

Moving on to their Jumbo Wind Up Lips. These jumbo pencil/crayon type products have been all the hype lately so I picked up Manic Pink (#21) and Better Bare (#23) to see how they fare. These are actually pretty amazing! I really like them because they are not drying and have decent pigmentation. Not the most long lasting lip product (about 2-3 hrs wear time) but definitely still a great product for the price.

Top to bottom: Better Bare and Manic Pink.

The product twists up so there's no need for sharpening.

Left to right: Manic Pink, Better Bare.

Next up are the lip laquers/creams. I'm not sure what the difference between the lip laquer and the lip cream is but coincidentally the shades that caught my eye just happened to be one of each. I got a pink shade in Kissalicious (#4) and a light brown shade in Nude (#31) To me they are pretty much the same type of product just with a different finish. These are also easy to apply with good pigmentation. The pink lip laquer is slightly more sheer than the matte lip cream but that is probably due of the finish.

Top to bottom: Kissalicious and Nude.

Left to right: Kissalicious and Nude.

As you can see from the swatch, the matte lip cream doesn't really dry matte. It is a natural, non-glossy finish which is still nice but just note it won't give you a completely matte lip.

Left to right: Kissalicious and Nude.

I came across the Day Time Collection in another Big W and wished I saw this before I bought the separate lip lacquers. This trio only cost AU$5 so it's better bang for your buck. There are no individual names for each lip lacquer/cream but they do look very similar to the individually packaged ones. So I'm just going to assume they are the same product because there are corresponding products for each item in this trio. I ended up getting it still because Kissalicious was the only repeat shade. The other shades looked similar to Milk Chocolate (#8), which is the light brownish nude and Blush Pink (#32) which is a light pink matte lip cream. They also have a Night Time Collection which includes 3 other shades that are also available individually.

Comparing the individual product to the ones that come in a trio set, you can see the packaging is slightly different. The trio set has a longer packaging and are uniform in the clear plastic tube it comes in. With the individual matte lip cream, it comes in an opaque plastic tube. The individual lip lacquer has the similar clear plastic tube packaging. The picture below show the 2 individual lip lacquer/cream on the left side and the trio on the right.

BOE also does face products which includes the pressed powder compact, blush and bronzer. I didn't pick up the face powders but I've got the blush and bronzer to try out. The packaging on the face products comes with a clear plastic lid, similar to the Rimmel Stay Matte powders. There are several shades for the blush and bronzer. I got the Pink Goddess (#91) blush powder and Glow (#5) bronzing powder. All their blushes and bronzers have slight shimmers in them but they aren't obvious when applied on the face. They just give a nice sheen on the cheeks if that's the look you're after.

Left to right: Pink Goddess blush powder, Glow bronzing powder.

Left to right: Pink Goddess blush powder, Glow bronzing powder.

Moving on to eye products, I decided to pick up a electric blue eyeliner just because.. (: Their liquid eyeliners also come in other colours like green, purple, bronze and black.

Brush tip applicator.

I haven't had to chance to use this but I did swatch it on my hand. The colour is gorgeous as you can see but the formula/brush isn't that great. I tried drawing a line several times but it keeps leaving a gap where the brush moves over. Trying to go over the 'bald spot' is even worse because it just applies too much product on the sides like in the 2nd swatch from the left. I don't think you can get a very thin line with this but if you want a bold blue lash line, this could work for you.

Their eyeshadow only come in a duo form and there is quite a nice selection of shades to choose from. I obviously chose a neutral one which actually looks really nice in the pan. The shade that I got is Natural Beauty (#21/22) that is champagne and dark brown duo which is great for just a very simple but still put-together look.

Natural Beauty eyeshadow duo.

Natural Beauty eyeshadow duo.

The packaging comes in a twist-cap pot (which honestly isn't my favourite) with a clear lid. From its side, this eyeshadow duo look like pretty big but it really isn't. I'm not a fan of the packaging because it's just a waste of plastic plus the screw top makes me reach for it less especially when I'm in a hurry. 

The pot is not as deep as it looks.

Sorry for the super long, picture-heavy post but I just had to pick up at least one of everything (well, almost everything) since it's only $2! One issue I have with BOE Beauty is their packaging. Apart from the lipstick, all the other products I got had the shade names on the seal. I carefully peeled the seal off and recycled it (stuck them on the caps/bottom of the products) but it doesn't stick very well after.

There were other items such as the matte lip stick, lip gloss tube, volumizing mascara, curling mascara, eyeliner pencil and nail polish which I did not pick up because I didn't fancy those. They even had sets for lips and eyes that were slightly more expensive.

Lip and eye sets, ranging from $5-10.

My favourites from this brand are definitely their lip products! For $2, you do get a nice, pigmented lip colour. So I definitely recommend checking them out, especially the lipsticks and jumbo wind up lips. Also on my list of recommendations are the blushes (and bronzers if you don't mind the shimmers). I do also enjoy the eyeshadow duo but it's not a must-have for me just because you can also find relatively cheap alternatives (BYS/Essence) with better pigmentation. I wouldn't say anything is a no-go because they are only 2 bucks! I mean seriously, what more can you ask for? They are definitely fun if you're just starting out with makeup or just getting them for young girls (daughters/sisters/nieces) to play around with.

Hope this bit of my first impressions was helpful! And thanks for sticking around.. (: