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And now for the second part of the MUA haul. Starting with cream blushes. They are actually bigger than I expected. There is a nice quantity of product and the packaging is big enough to be able to use a blush brush. I picked two colours out of four, Bittersweet (light barbie pink) and Dolly (coral-tan colour). These are very creamy and give a dewy glow to the cheeks, more so than Maybelline's Dream Cream blushes.
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When I first tried Bittersweet, I was shocked to see that there was no pigment whatsoever, just a clear cream. Fortunately, it turned out it was just the very top layer that was like that. It's actually quite pigmented and shows up well on my cheeks (however, I'm very pale). It blends nicely and gives a very lovely kind of barbie/doll pink cheek. Very cute, but I wonder how it would perform on someone darker than me. Surprisingly it lasted a quite a few hours, which is more than I expected from a 2£ blush, especially since it is a pale colour. I apply it with fingers or with a brush (I use a synthetic Real Techniques contour brush).
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Dolly is very, very pigmented. I can't apply it with fingers because I always get way to much colour on. I prefer to apply it with my Real Techniques contour brush to get a lighter flush. This shade looks on me almost like a natural slight sunburn or a bit of tan, quite a lovely natural colour. Because it's a more pigmented blush, it lasts very well on the cheeks and fades slowly.
I got two individual eyeshadows. One is from the pearl line called shade 12, a brown green duochrome colour, the second is matte shade 15, a very light pink. Both are very pigmented and blend nicely. They are soft, the pearl one is almost like a creamy texture and the matte one is more powdery. Both drop a bit because they are so soft.
Shade 12 looks very dark green in the packaging, but applied lightly looks warm brown. When you intensify it with more layers it gets a slight greeny blue sheen. However, it's hard to get so much colour on the lid to see the duochrome effect, also it fades fast, so for the most part it just stays sort of brownish taupe colour. It blends out nicely into a light warm brown shade. I heard it's close to Mac's Club eyeshadow, but I don't have that shade so I can't compare.
I got shade 15 as an all over colour. I wanted something matte and it was just a pound, so I gave it a go. It's a good brightening shadow because of this pinky hue. I imagine it would work well also as a setting powder under the eyes, but I haven't tried it for that yet.
Intense glitter eyeliner in Gold Nugget is not exactly gold, but more a copper gold shade. It makes my eyes look more blue than gray. It's more creamy and applies without dragging. It can be used all over the lid as a base for gold eyeshadow to intensify the look. For a pound you can't miss.
I bought Heaven and Earth palette as a Christmas gift for my counsin, hence no swatches. There is a good selection of neutrals, so it's a nice palette to have.
