So the new MUA £1 range has been out in stores for almost a week and I’ve been playing with a couple of items that I was sent. It’s quite hard to review such bargainous products… it’s difficult to decide whether I cut them a break on the quality front because afterall.. they’re a £1 each… or do I just review them based on whether or not I’d use them again? I vote in favour of the second option… hard luck MUA.
I’ll start with some of the face products…
The MUA bronzer (I have shade 1) is a sparkle fest, and as a result… quite gritty in texture. It’s definitely more bronze toned than golden and if shade 1 is the lightest I can’t see it suiting pale tones too well. I have tried it lightly brushed across my cheeks, but the glitter fall out has left me cold and I won’t be reaching for this again.
A staple for any cosmetic line up is a pressed powder. I have shade 4, which on my skintone… actually makes a fairly decent matte contour shade. It’s quite silky to the touch in an old-fashioned Cornsilk kinda way. It’s also highly scented… powdery, like an old pharmacy. When I brush over the surface…. a lot of the product is kicked up and sits ontop of the pan which means you need to give your brush a bit of a shake before lifting it to your face to avoid fall out. It blends quite smoothly though, I’ll certainly be putting this aside for another play next time I can be bothered to contour.
Ahhhh blusher… such a great product for a quick skin pick-me-up. The best way to describe this is… draw a line between the bronzer and the pressed powder… the blusher lies halfway. It has the sparkle and the silkiness. Unfortunately this stuff really flakes when you brush at the surface… I had more product sitting ontop of the pan than ever I did on the brush. It also suffers a bit when blending, it has a tendency to blend away to nothing if you’re not careful. The 4 available shades are really rather pretty though.
It’s worth noting that none of the face products contain mirrors in the packaging, I’m sure for obvious cost cutting reasons. No applicators are included either, which I totally welcome with the eye shadows, but you’d be hard pressd (no pun intended) to achieve much with a pressed powder on the go without a little puff or mirror.
Talking of eyeshadows…
I was sent two of the pearl eyeshadow shades. One a duochrome purple/blue and the other a pink/lavender shade. You get a generous 2g of product for your money and these two shades look particularly stunning in the pan.
They’re soft, smooth and well pigmented. The packaging is cute (prefer these to the face products packaging) and in my opinion a must have if you’re thinking of checking out the range. I’ve already used the darker shade a few times this week and it’s lovely blended along the lower lashline for a pop of colour. Thankfully, these don’t appear to be fragranced either.
See that duochrome effect in Shade 9? Lovely! I will say that I find these shadows don’t pick up too well with a natural haired brush… so I’ve been using my Aurifere or E.L.F synthetic concealer brushes to apply!
The lipstick packaging remind me a little of the NYX Round Lipsticks with it’s transparent bases… unfortunately, that’s kinda where the similarities end. These feel greasier and just not as comfortable on the lips. Shade 1 is a stonking confident creme shade but it wears very unevenly so a lip liner as a base is a must. Shade 5 is promising in the tube, but delivers very little on the lips. It’s frosty, but also contains glitter particles… I guess it might work quite nicely as a layering product to take a nude lip from daytime to night time. Other than that, these are a pass for me.
Ok, what next…
Eyeliner… a beautiful, vibrant blue, almost metallic in appearance. The applicator is too stiff and scratchy with very little flexibility. This means that as you’re drawing the line, the product is only really applying at the edges of the applicator… multiple passes are necessary to achieve full opacity.
Once dry, a gentle swipe of my finger lifts great flakes of product from my skin and if that weren’t bad enough… underneath the line? I’m left with stained skin. This is a poor product and such a shame because that colour is so pretty and summery. Let me know if you make this work for you but I’m sure there are much better alternatives on the high street for not much more money.
After those damning comments, I’ll finish with my favourite…
The Eye Dust. I have Shade 5, which I’ve artfully typo-ed. First things first, these aren’t going to last longer than 46 seconds on your eyelids without a base of some sort, and you better make it a good one.
But look, how beautiful is this shade?
Combine this with a slick of UDPP or a coloured cream shadow base and you’re gonna get great payoff and a beautifully shimmering neutral shade. Packaging is irritating, but I’m not gonna let that overshadow what is a lovely eye dust for the money.
Overall, the new MUA range is a bit of a mixed bag… pretty much what I expected it to be. My tip though? Go and check out the eyeshadows and eye dusts, I’m delighted with them!
I’d be interested to know where they are manufacturing the products to be able to produce them at £1 an item.
in uk…
I agree with you about the eyeliner, I hate the applicator and I wore it for a day and by the end of the night it looked terrible! The blusher i’ve got has a funny smell to it as well, don’t know if it’s just mine or it’s supposed to smell like that. I do like the colour though but it’s quite hard to work with. I do like the eyeshadows, eye dust and nail varnishes though and think I would prob buy them again.
I totally agree with your review, I didn’t even want to pick up any of the face products and was most impressed by the eyeshadows and eye dust. The lipstick have beautiful shades but don’t even last 5 minutes which is a shame 🙁 But t’d definitely go back for the eyeshadows!
Oh yay, I’ve been waiting for this. Love the wide selection of products you bought: really shows a nice preview of the range
woop: you bought ‘graffiti’ for the poor, so excited: your photos captures its true beauty, the blue ‘reflects’ drama really shows. Thank you for the tip for application. I think I might use the good old sponge applicator to pack the colour on and then use a brush to blend. Blimey, packaging on the blushes look cheap. Not tempted by the lipsticks: they look pretty waxy to me.
Having bought some products and after I had a go at reviewing them myself, it made me realise even more how great your reviews are. ”
You said “multiple passes are necessary to achieve full opacity” where I would have spent 30 minutes, and a long dull paragraph to explain that.
what can I say? you’re just brilliant
I haven checked these out yet, but the price tag is good and bad. The eyeshadows look like a good ‘cheap as chips’ option. Might go and check them out.
Thanks
I would be a bit disppointed too, as i always hope that a product will be amazing, even if i already know they will be some “pass”. That’s a feeling i always have when i try somethging new, just like if i wanted to discover a gold mine :)))
My MUA order should be arriving today, so i’m excited to see what I think of them, as I got one of every product type they offered.
Its a shame the liquie eyeliner wasnt great :/ I hope the glitter eyeliners I have on the way are better!
i agreed with you too, but the main downfall is they only stock in certain store, and there’s only 1 in central London, which is quite inconvenience @.@
I’ve been intrigued about this range since I heard about its release. So glad you’ve done a review! 🙂 Everyone seems to saying the same thing – eyeshadows have good colour pay off and are pretty decent, everything else…mmmm nope!
My main gripe is that while I know the stuff only costs £1, why haven’t they bothered with names? Shade 1…come on!
The shade 9 eyeshadow looks similar to MAC stars and rockets to me. Would be interested to compare..I have to find a location near me to check this range out. Thanks for the review, give me an idea on what to look out for.
I bought some eye shadows at the weekend and unfortunately a lot of the nice ones had sold out but I picked up some gorgeous emerald shades. I could tell the eye shadows were a winner from how visibly pigmented they appeared when I was testing them. The other products didn’t strike me to be in the same league and so I skipped past them but I bought a liquid eyeliner and I agree about the flakiness of it and the stiff brush. Still, for £1 I can’t quibble too much. Eye shadows are amazing quality and for just £1 each!!
I saw this line in my local Superdrug yesterday and quite liked some of the eyeshadows, but since I’m not a teenager on a low budget, I won’t be bothering with them. Me snob? Surely not, lol.
The Shade No. 5 is really gorgeous. I’ll have to have a look at the Superdrug in Milton Keynes on the weekend and see what they’ve got. For £1 I won’t complain, and as I’m so fickle with eyeshadows, I won’t feel so guilty about buying it, using it a couple of times and then relegating it to the back of my makeup box like so many others! I don’t think I’ve ever finished an eyeshadow…
Agree with @kyvani, just one shop in Central London that has these = insanity! Luckily the one up the road from me does have them, so I’ll be checking them out.
LOVE that purple colour. Will be picking that up.
Also want to compliment you on the phrase “multiple passes to achieve opacity”. Very concise and eloquent!
O.o Those were a dollar. Are. You. Joking. That eye dust is simply gorgeous, as it the violet duochrome shadow!
Mind -> blown.
Well i’ll definately be checking out the eyeshadows after your review. And if there are any colours i really like of the less favoured products then at least it’s only a pound!
amazing review 🙂
i really want to check some of these out now 🙂
xx
Oh i’ve picked up quite a few bits already – lip gloss, lipstick, a couple of eyeshadows, and about 5 nail varnish
Would definately say that you get what you pay for with some of the items but for £1 it is really cheap!!!. Abit annoyed this morning as I’d picked up the lip gloss in shade number 3 – which is really nice shade and love the texture of it on (not to sticky) and the lid has broke on the packaging. It will still fasten but its a pain trying to use it!!! and its a real shame cos I love the gloss
Planning on doing a full review tongiht!!
Lx
http://beautifullyaddictedto.blogspot.com/
Hiya! thanks so much for the good quality pics. I especially like the swatches of the e/s. Damn, this is great stuff! The duochrome e/s is amazing and I’m happy to see that the effect don’t change after application. I’m also interested in the eye dusts. Well, the only problem is that I have to wait for them as I live in Germany. 🙁
I’ve done a comparison swatch post including Stars N Rockets if the lady above is still curious!
MUA eyeshadow swatch post on London Beauty Review
Sorry for linkspamming you Charlotte. I did link to this post from mine so I hope you’ll maybe forgive me a leeetle bit…
where is the store in central london with these products?
has anyone tried the new mua out there plumping lip gloss peach shimmer ? i applied it for the first time and instantly my lips started to tingle and itch,which i have never had before so i will not wear it now and it cost £2 not £1
Hi April, this post is two years old – they launched at £1 each. Plumping lip glosses usually DO make your lips tingle… they increase the blood flow to the lips (hence plumping them) by using a mild irritant such as cinammon or mint).
Hi, April I faced the same problem while using mua lip plumping lip gloss. The tingle & the itch is not harmful. I usually apply a base coat of lip balm before applying mua’s lip gloss. My personal favorite is Lipice lip balm by Multibrands, its light & smooth & gives a smooth finish to my lips.
I really love the MUA Products. im in love with the undress me too palette. th best dupe for UD Naked 2