Beauty and the budget - Freedom makeup haul

      

Although I use a fair number of high end makeup products, I think I get far more satisfaction from finding great products that don't make me wince when I get to the till (I'm looking at you MAC). Given this, whenever a new low cost brand is launched I am often first in line to try it out! When I heard that Adam Minto from Makeup Revolution and Neil Phillips from Distribeauty UK (The people responsible for bringing e.l.f. to the UK!) were teaming up to create Freedom Makeup I was immediately interested.

This brand has been described as a low cost makeup brand for professionals, an affordable MAC if you will so I was excited to see how they would measure up. With lipsticks for £1, brow kits for £3.50 and eyeshadow palettes from £2.50 they certainly have affordable down but can a brand that is so low cost really deliver a line suitable for professionals? I was more than happy to investigate by purchasing a number of products across the line. My haul of 16 items came to a cost of just £17.75 thanks to an amazing deal of getting £15 worth of makeup for free if you spent £15. Over time I have noticed that they have great offers on a regular basis which makes them even more better value. In fact, they are currently running a 3 for 2 mix and match across all products!

Admittedly the vast amount of this cheeky purchase had been left untouched until very recently when I suddenly remembered my little stash of goodies! After rediscovering them, I have been thoroughly testing them out and wanted to share my thoughts with you all!

From Left to Right - Sugar Fix, Jammy Dodger, TGIF, D-ream

The first products I tried were the Pro Melts, a collection of liquid lipsticks that come in an amazing array of colours. From nudes to brights to berries, there is certainly something for everyone and at only £3 they are an absolute steal. As you can see in the picture above, the colours are incredibly pigmented and the formula is really smooth. There was no stickiness like you normally get with cheap liquid lipsticks and for all but D-ream, they lasted an impressive amount of time. Unfortunately while I loved the colour of D-ream it didn't set in the same way as the other three and wore off fairly quickly. However if you are happy to keep it on hand, it's easy enough to top up if you need to!

From Left to Right - Adorn, Sooner or Later

As with the pro melts, there are a huge selection of lipsticks and even some great sets that can save you a bit of money. Amazingly they are just £1 each so I initially didn't hold out that much hope. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was completely wrong! The lipsticks are pretty sheer but the colours build up really nicely and they are silky smooth to apply. I absolutely love both of the colours I bought as they are so wearable and have a gorgeous sheen to them.

From Top to Bottom - Pro Conceal and Correct Light, Pro Matte Foundation 02

These were probably the only products in my haul that I wasn't overly impressed with. The foundation had a really sticky consistency and didn't really blend well at all. Similarly, the concealer just kind of sat on top of my skin rather than giving a nice finish, not to mention the fact that it was extremely yellow toned. I'd give these a miss to be honest unless they decide to reformulate.

Pro Blush in True Loved

The blush I received in True Loved was a lovely peachy pink colour that was nicely pigmented and blended out really well. It also lasted all day so it was amazing value for only £1! I'm definitely planning to pick up a few more of these in a couple of different colours as the quality is lovely.

Pro Eyebrow Kit in Light-Medium

This was a lovely little treasure that was one of my favourites out of the whole selection. The eyebrow kit costs £3.50 and has 3 different shades of powder that can be used to create the perfect shade and some wax. In addition, it came with a mini brush and pair of tweezers (apologies for not including them in the photo!). Now I'll be honest, the brush wasn't particularly usable and I have a bit of a hatred for mini tweezers (why make something like tweezing extra fiddly on purpose!?) so I wasn't really a fan of the extras. However the powders were really great to use andit's easy to use the three colours to create an exact match to your eyebrow if needed. As an added bonus, I've discovered that the lightest colour (top right) is also a fantastic contouring colour for fair skin tones!

Smoulder Eyeshadow Palette

When you are presented with a 10 eyeshadow palette for just £4 you'll be forgiven for not expecting much. Yet this little palette and some really great eyeshadows included that I was genuinely impressed with. The first two colours on the right reminded me alot of Urban Decay Thirteen and Combust which are possibly my favourite base and transition colours. 

The pigmentation isn't quite as strong but they build up really well. I particularly loved the shimmers, especially the gorgeous blue green shade second in from the left. While they aren't the best eyeshadows I've used and certainly wouldn't be a professional standard, they are none the less a nice little addition to my makeup stash.

A selection of  Gilded Mono Eyeshadows

From Left to Right - 216, 218, 217, 219

These four eyeshadows are by far my biggest surprise and my favourite products out of the whole selection. They only cost £1 each and yet are so amazingly pigmented and blendable. The swatches above are only after one application and they are such gorgeous colours. 219 really reminds me of Mac Old Gold which is one of my favourite pigments ever so I was really happy with this cheeky little find. There is a fair selection of mono eyeshadows already but I would love to see more, especially from the gilded section.

I think it's easy to see that I have been really impressed by the Freedom makeup line. Their prices and quality are a truly fabulous combination and I can't wait to try out some more products from them. They have recently released a strobe cream and what looks like an Anastasia Dipbrow dupe so those will definitely be my first choices on my next order!

Have you tried Freedom Makeup yet? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette - It's finally here!

Ok, I will just come out and say it. I was SO excited when Urban Decay announced the Naked Smoky palette...perhaps even unhealthily so! But I certainly don't think I was alone given that #NakedSmoky was trending on Twitter and nearly every blog and vlog I stumbled across in the last couple of weeks was talking about it. Although this palette was released on the 8th July in America, us poor Brits were left waiting till the 30th July to get our hands on it!! Even now, the palette is only currently available at their flagship London stores and online until full release on the 6th of August so it has built up a considerable amount of suspense. 

So needless to say, when Urban Decay sent an early release email on the 29th July, I, along with hundreds, perhaps even thousands of other people went straight to the Urban Decay website to try and bag one of these beauties. After half an hour of repeated refreshing and rather fraught conversations with my fiancé (I'm sorry!!!), I became one of the lucky ones who could expect a rather beautiful delivery in a few days time...and my goodness was it worth it!!

My poor work colleagues must have thought for a moment I was starting to hyperventilate with the ridiculous amount of excitable squeals going on when my parcel arrived. I am an absolute sucker for good packaging and if there is one thing Urban Decay do well, it's exquisite design of the entire package of their product. At £38 it certainly isn't the most budget friendly buy but the sheer craftsmanship and attention to detail that has gone into Naked Smoky is apparent in every aspect and definitely makes the price feel justifiable. The outer box was pretty enough but when I saw the palette itself, I was in love. At this point I was practically shoving it at anyone who would give me 2 minutes of attention and proclaiming it to be the love of my life. Alas, noone in the vicinity was quite as excited as I was but bless them they did such a good job of humouring me while I yabbered on and on about it!

The palette itself is a taupe, translucent masterpiece with a smoke pattern running across it. As is always the case with Urban Decay, the palette feels well made and has a certain sleekness about it. It has a magnetic closure which again just oozes a certain touch of sophistication. There's also a guide included to help you create a number of different looks which I thought was a brilliant addition. All in all, if a palette could be sexy, this one would be seriously hot stuff.

Within the palette itself, you'll find an array of the most perfect eyeshadows that will help to create quite a variety of looks. There's a great selection of grey, bronze and even purple shades which will all lend themselves well to an intense smoky eye. From highlighters, to transition colours to crease colours, it's all there in one handy set. As an added benefit, there is also a great double ended brush. With one end being a pencil brush and the other a blending brush, if you were travelling this palette would probably be all that you'd need.

Apart from just three shades (Radar, Armor and Black Market), all of the colours are brand new and absolutely stunning. There are 4 shimmers (High, Dirtysweet, Radar and Armor), 4 satins (Slanted, Dagger, Black Market and Smolder) and 4 buttery mattes (Password, Whiskey, Combust and Thirteen) which gives a lovely variation for a number of looks.

The shimmers from left to right - High, Dirtysweet, Radar, Armor

The satins from left to right - Slanted, Dagger, Black Market, Smolder

The mattes from left to right - Password, Whiskey, Combust, Thirteen

Every shade has really impressive pigmentation and is incredibly easy to work with. They blend well with barely any fall out (apart from the glitter in Armor) and I truly cannot wait to experiment with them! The only eyeshadow I was just slightly disappointed with was Smolder as I was hoping for just a slightly stronger purple pigment but it is still beautiful nonetheless.

As someone who much preferred palettes from Urban Decay like Vice and Electric over the Naked Palettes (which I am aware is practically blasphemy for some!), I am really glad that this latest palette mixes things up a little. Considering Urban Decay's tagline is "Beauty with an edge", I couldn't think of a more appropriate palette for this brand. The smokey eye is without a doubt one of the edgiest makeup styles, full of mystery and sex appeal, so what could be better? Take it from me, this palette is worth every penny and your makeup collection isn't complete without it!

Over the next couple of weeks I will certainly be trying out some new looks with the help of the Naked Smoky palette and will have a tutorial up soon using these babies!

Have you got your hands on Urban Decay's latest offering yet? What do you think of it? Do you think it's worth the hype or are you a little underwhelmed? Let me know in the comments!