Makeup Revolution Acid Brights Palette

Makeup Revolution is a fairly new brand and lately I have been able to try some of there stuff out. The new Superdrug Beauty Studio in Cardiff has this brand. My friend who works there was telling me about this super bright eyeshadow palette so I got myself down there to have a look.

The palette is called Acid Brights and comes in packaging similar to MUA. The colors are mainly neon mattes with some non neon shimmery colors mixed in. The colors come in rectangle shaped pans all next to each other. The palette also comes with one of those applicators. I never use them as I like to use my brushes. I'm not fussed on the rectangle design of the pans, circular pans like Sleek and MUA work much better.

This palette was £4, so not expensive. I thought I would try this out as I love anything super bright, plus I like trying out new brands.

Some of the colors glow under a blacklight. It's only the neon colors though. So if like me you love uv activated colors, give this palette a go.

The Acid Brights Palette looks exactly like Sleek's Acid Palette. The colors even come in the same order. I love my Acid Palette so I was interested to see if it was a dupe not only by colors but by quality too. The packaging may not be a dupe but the colors look like they are.

Makeup Revolution And Sleek

One thing I did notice about the Acid Brights is that the colors are quite powdery and the pigment isn't that great. It does take a bit of work to build the colors up really intense and they don't blend that easy either especially the matte colors. The shimmery ones worked a bit better, but still needed work. The best colors in the palette were the neon pink, matte purple and matte pink. While the worst ones were the neon yellow, white and black. 

Compared to Sleek's Acid, this one is not a dupe quality wise. Sleek's is a much superior product, much more pigmented and the colors blend much easier. The black in the Sleek palette is more pigmented too. Makeup Revolution's version didn't crease though or fade, once the colors were on they stayed on. For £4 more I would definitely buy Sleek's Acid Palette instead of this one.

I've heard about a number of bloggers saying how this is a dupe for Urban Decay's Electric Palette. I have that palette and it definitely isn't a dupe for it, quality wise. The colors may look similar but that is where it ends. UD's palette is easy to blend and very pigmented. This one from Makeup Revolution is not.

Now heres some of the looks I did with this palette.

Normal light

Blacklight

Normal light

Blacklight

Normal light

Blacklight

My favorites here are the uv activated colors. The blacklight turns the color into something completely different. 

x

ELF Brushes, My Review

At the time buying ELF brushes seemed like a good idea, they looked good and were at a good price. This review is all about those brushes I bought and how it might have been better to get ones from somewhere else.

So let me start from the beginning. ELF as many of you know is a budget beauty brand that has a good range of makeup along with other products such as brushes. Here in Cardiff they opened a store selling all of their products including the brushes that I am blogging about now.

ELF I have found as a makeup brand can be hit and miss. Some of their products are quite good such as blushers and some eyeshadows. I really like their baked range, pigment eyeshadows and the blushers are generally good. Although some of blushers and eyeshadows do have a very powdery texture, some of them I have found could have done with more pigment. 

So heres onto those brushes. When it comes to brushes I usually favor more high end brushes such as MAC, Illamasqua and Bobbi Brown. Although I have found that cheaper brushes such as some from Barry M haven't done too badly. So I decided to get some from ELF. At £3.95 each I found you can't go wrong and they did look alright in the store. Nice black handles and brushes for all sorts of things.

The brushes

The brushes I bought were from ELF's Studio Line. The Studio Line is meant to be better quality to ELF's Essential Line, that is the brushes with the white handle instead of the black one. The brushes I got were - Eyeshadow C Brush, Small Stipple Brush and Small Smudge Brush. My favorite out of the three happened to be the Eyeshadow C Brush, but only because it was good with filling in eyeshadows on the corners of the eyes. 

I did find the Small Stipple Brush to be a bit rough, the hairs needed to be a lot softer. I wasn't too fussed on the Small Smudge Brush, it didn't seem to smudge that well.

These brushes have only lasted me a couple of months. These past weeks the Small Stipple Brush and the Eyeshadow C Brush have fallen apart. As I had been using them I did notice they started to feel a bit weak, like they would come apart. Now those two have. The Small Smudge Brush seems to be going the same way too, feeling quite loose. I managed to stick the brushes back together for the picture above.

Small Stipple Brush

Broken Small Stipple Brush

Eyeshadow C Brush

Eyeshadow C Brush has come apart

The Small Smudge brush is still intact

I know these were £3.95 each so I shouldn't expect amazing high end products, but for two to break in the same way and for the third to be almost going the same way isn't good. These were from ELF's Studio Line which is meant to be better quality than ELF's Essential range. The brushes weren't even given heavy use unlike my other brushes.

I have had some of my MAC brushes since 2007 and they are still going good, not even coming loose. You may be paying over £15 each for a brush from MAC but you cant compare to quality to these ones. As the old saying goes - You get what you pay for.

x

What I bought In America, Plus My Visit To Basin And The Cosmetics Company Store

Two weeks ago I went on a two week trip with my Dad to Florida, mainly Disney World. I had a really good time there and was actually sad to come home. I was actually crying the night before and in the airport waiting for the flight back to London.

I stayed for two weeks at Disney's All Star Sports Resort. It's a really fun resort to stay at, the rooms are all sports themed along with the outdoor areas. In the tennis themed area around from the room were figures of Huey, Dewey and Louie playing baseball while annoying there uncle Donald.

The rooms were really nice and comfy and most importantly had air con. The weather was so hot and humid, having air con is a must and feels like a dream when coming back from the parks.

Heres some photos of the hotel

Huey, Dewey and Louie playing baseball on the tennis courts!!

Donald seems to not be in a good mood

The quiet pool at night

I need to get myself a coca cola that big!!

Football themed area

The room

I went to all of the Disney parks, Disney's Blizzard Beach, Universal and I took some time out to do some shopping. I always love shopping in America as you can find stuff there you cant back here, especially beauty products.

One day I decided to go to the Premium Outlets on International Drive. If you are familiar with the area you will know that there are two outlets each end of I Drive. I went to the ones right at the end past Wet N Wild. The outlets have a good range of shops to spend money in and their is something to suit everyone from designer clothing, Disney merchandise, electronics and more. One of my favourite shops is the Cosmetics Company Store.

I've been to a couple of these stores before and think they are absolutely amazing. It's basically the outlet store of Estee Lauder brands. So if you like your Bobbi Brown, MAC, Clinique etc and love it even more when it's cheaper, this is the store you will want to be.

Once inside I went over to the MAC section and noticed not only did they have permanent products, they had limited edition past collections such as products from Archies Girls, Holiday collections and the MAC Rihanna collection that sold out super quick.

I decided to only buy one product. An eyeshadow quad from the MAC RiRi Hearts Collection. I remember when this collection came out, it was really hard to buy, as most of the stuff sold out in no time. People would often buy loads of lipsticks and then sell them for double the price on Ebay.

I wasn't able to take any pictures in the store as I had no battery on my camera, theres loads of pics of the Cosmetics Company Store on Google if you want to have a look at some of the things you can buy.

The palette I bought is called Smoked Cocoa and was at $31.00. The original price of this was $44.00, so I made a really good saving there.

Rihanna Eyeshadow Quad

A couple of days later I visited Basin at Downtown Disney Marketplace. The store is similar to Lush with products like bath ballistics, soaps and lip care. The products are a bit different to Lush, and are not really expensive. All the products are paraben free, not tested on animals and free from chemicals.  When you walk past the store you have this most amazing scent that just makes you want to go in and have a look.

For those of you familiar with Disney World, you may have seen a similar store in the Grand Floridian Resort called Basin White. It sells the same sort of stuff and I think sells slightly different products. That store looks like it is themed like a bathroom while the Basin store just looks like a store.

Soap

Bath Ballistics

Lip Products

Bath Salts

There was plenty of products to choose from. As someone who loves all different scented soaps this store was a like a dream. The bath salts I could just stick my head in all day, words can't describe how amazing the scent was.

You can check out Basin here and for those of you interested - Basin White

In Basin I bought two Mickey soaps, Rubber Ducky soap and a Raspberry Lip Balm. I think it all came to around $22.00.

What I bought altogether

I had a really good time in America, i'm missing it already :(

x