Urban Decay's Naked On the Run Palette

You know when you find a make up palette and you love most of it, but not all of it? Or you buy one because it has a couple of your favourite products in it, but you don't really have time for the rest?

Well, for me, it is the complete opposite with the Urban Decay Naked On The Run palette.

If you are a fan of the 3 Naked palettes by Urban Decay, then you need On The Run in your life! I was actually lucky enough to snuffle this fabulous palette in the Selfridges January sale...it was only a fiver off, but I would have happily paid full price for it, so this was just the icing on the cake really.

The palette comes with 6 brand new eyeshadows in stunning nude shades, a pretty pink blusher, a neutral bronzer, a travel size Perversion mascara, a 24/7 Glide On eye pencil in Stag AND a full size Naked lip gloss in Sesso. Wow! All packaged up beautifully in a super stylish box, with a big mirror on the inside. Not bad for £37...well....£32 if you got it in the Selfridges sale like me.

The blush is such a pretty pink shade. It has blue undertones and a gorgeous satin finish, which blended easily into my skin...lasted a good long time too! The bronzer had a light to medium tone and a matte finish - perfect for an all year round bronzer. It blended well with my trusty Real Techniques brush and was the perfect partner to the blush.

The Perversion mascara was possibly my least favourite item in the palette. It's very useful to have and its handy travel size makes it perfect to pop in your handbag for quick touch ups, but it didn't give the lift or volume I usually look for in a mascara. The eye pencil glided on easily and blended beautifully! The colour I think works well with pretty much all eye colours and skin tones - a cool toned dark brown. Gorgeous for wearing on its own or blended with the eyeshadows to create a more smokey look.

The full sized lipgloss in shade Sesso is so pretty! A warm, light plum/pinky colour with a subtle sheen - making it ideal for day or night wear. It has a semi-sheer finish and is actually not sticky...always a massive bonus for me when it comes to lipgloss.

The 6 eyeshadows are all brand new, which is what makes this such a great partner to the 3 Naked palettes. They range from matte to sheen to sparkly and each colour is just so pretty and easy to wear and blend! Dive is a sparkly, rosy copper shade with just the right amount of sparkle. Fix is a medium brown matte shade, which was ideal for blending with other shades to make a dramatic evening look, or wearing alone for a pretty day time natural look. Resist is a golden taupe - subtle yet with enough of a metallic sheen to make it special! Dare is a taupe brown and so soft and silky and easy to blend. It is matte and is really pigmented. Stun is a chocolate brown with a more distinct glittery finish. It is slightly dryer than the other shades, but the colour when applied is just beautiful! Finally, 5050 - a shade which I first mistook for a highlighter! It's probably my least favourite eyeshadow, and works better for more subtle looks, or as a highlighter shade for the very corner of the eye.

All in all, this is a fabulous palette and well worth the price tag. The only thing I think it is missing is the double ended brush, which comes with the Naked 2 and 3 palette. This would make the palette a 10 as opposed to the 9 I would give it now. Either way...if you can get your hands on the On The Run palette, then trust me...GET IT! You will love it.

Belle x

Naked Palette Dupes by MUA

OK, so maybe I have been hiding under a rock but the last couple of years with the pregnancy and the baby, the "It" beauty must have kind of rolled past me with nothing more than a vague sigh of longing from me.

Now that I have a new job starting very soon and the baby is almost a year old (can you believe it?!) I have been slowly getting back into the make up, beauty and fashion loving Claire Belle of old. So in the last three months, my make up collection has been joined by all three of the much lusted after Naked Palettes by Urban Decay.

Now, at £37, these are not a cheap addition to any collection, but, boy are they worth it! I actually worked my way backwards and started with number 3 and after a couple of months of testing, I would say number 1 is my favourite. Now, I saved for these bad boys, but if the thought of spending over £100 on 3 palettes makes you cringe slightly, then do I have a treat for you!

When I was schmoozing on the high street the other day, I wandered into my local Superdrug and have a looksee at the make up. I never normally check out MUA but I just fancied having a look on that particular day and I was very happy that I did. Lining up smartly on the MUA counter were three palettes, which made me stop in my tracks. OK, so the packaging was not as impressive as the Urban Decay numbers, but the similarities in the colour shades was amazing.

Undressed - £4

Heaven and Earth - £4

Undress Me Too - £4

Introducing Undressed, Undress Me Too and Heaven and Earth...the gorgeous 12 shade palettes from MUA. Featuring a selection of matte and shimmer nude and natural shades, these palettes were just begging to go into my basket and at £4 each (yes...£4 each!!!) I really could not resist. I really can't get over the price tag on these palettes, so I was expecting the quality to be a bit meh. Again, I was wrong. With the right eye shadow primer, these shadows are buttery soft and stay put with hardly any creasing. They blend together so well and the colour selection works so well in creating subtle or bold smokey eyes, with shades for highlighting, contouring and deepening.

It's taking some time to get through 36 shades, but if you are lusting after the Naked Palettes but can't justify the price tag, then I cannot recommend these MUA beauties highly enough.

Have you tried these palettes? What do you think of them? Enjoy x