Musings on MUA at Superdrug

Perhaps I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I saw these MUA eye shadows in Superdrug about 3 weeks ago.  I'd heard quite a few bloggers talking about their products so I thought I would give them a moment of my time.  As it turns out, the MUA display at Superdrug was totalled! A big old mess with make up everywhere.  This is usually the point where I about turn and stroll off into the sunset, when something caught my eye.  The imaginatively named Shade 12, winked its duochromed eye at me and I had to go back.  And while I was there,  pondering over the quality of a make up item that cost a quid, I managed to throw 3 others into the basket. The packaging is a bit utilitarian, but hey, what do you want for a pound!?! 

So here are the colours I picked, that cost me the non too purse busting price of £4!!  From the bottom of the  picture upwards there is Shade 12 (pearl), Shade 13 (pearl), Shade 14 (pearl) and Shade 19 (matte)

Shade 12 is a total dupe for MAC Club eye shadow, which is a shade that I have been debating on purchasing for aeon's!  The MAC website describes Club as "Muted redish brown duochrome with green opalescent shimmer". It is meant to give the effect of wearing 2 or more eye shadows as the colour changes when blended out.  Also, the duochrome finish of the shadow emphasises different shades in different light.

 After seeing so many beautiful looks using Club, I often stop at MAC to admire it.  But then the SA tells me "not everyone can wear Club.  It looks fantastic on some and looks dreadful on others".  And this is not just from one SA.  I've heard this on a number of occasion's from different people. 

 I suppose I'm just not prepared to spend the money on something I may never use.  Ok, so I know that we all do that.  Buy things, hate them and never use them again.  But we at least purchase the product thinking (if not hoping) that it will work out for us.  I guess that I already have it it my head that it wont work for me, so I've always put it back on the shelf.  

Anyway, Shade 12 was worth a punt.  For a quid, I could afford to hate it! So here is is. From my initial swatch it seems quite pigmented and certainly does have the "look" of Club, so we shall see.  I haven't used it yet. Then again, I haven't been anywhere, except to work!  I think I will give this a spin the next time I go out. Who knows when that will be!! 

Shade 13 is a dark aubergine shade, shot through with a purple shimmer.  Yet again, it has a substantial amount of colour pay-off when swatched.  Looking forward to creating a purple smoky eye with this shade.

Shade 14 looks totally boring and disappointing in this picture. I can assure you, its better in real life.  Its a blackened green that looks amazing on skin.  It reminds me a little of spilled petrol or oil.  Now I know that is not the most glamorous of comparisons, but like Shade 12, there is a slight duochrome to this colour.   Another perfect shade for a sexy evening smoky eye.

Shade 19 was by far the biggest disappointment to me. I mean, how interesting can a matte brown be?  However, this was a "pre-Naked palette" purchase and I really didn't have any matte brown shades in my collection.  I didn't swatch this one in store, I just went on faith and the fact that I had been so impressed with the other shades.  When I swatched this colour at home, it was really difficult to get any decent colour pay-off.  I seems to coat my finger really well.  Fooling me into thinking it was creamy and densely pigmented, but that just did not transfer to skin at all.  I cant imagine that it will be very easy to get a decent amount of colour onto the eye lid.  I think I'll stick to the pearl formulations next time and Shade 19 will probably head straight for the bin!

Now, for a word of warning.  This is not a horrendous bruise on my arm.  This is a photo of the mess created trying to remove the MUA shades with a face wipe.  I didn't have them on my arm for very long but it took quite a while and a lot of scrubbing to finally get it all off.  This is my one concern with using these MUA shadows and as I mentioned before I haven't really used them yet, apart from swatching.  I really hope using a decent cleanser will make it a little easier to part company with the day/evenings eye shades, but I will have to let you know once I have actually tried it.

Have you tried any MUA products? What do you think of them?