Make Up on a Budget - MUA

I've heard from a lot of sources that I simply MUST try MUA make up, I must tell you before you start reading that It's really mixed reviews here, some very good some not so great but it's 100% honest! I bought a range of different products to try and review and here they are!

MUA is an online Make Up company that sells a range of very reasonably priced cosmetics. Find everything at www.MUAstore.co.uk

Firstly I bought this gorgeous bronzer. I've been looking for a bronzer to suit my pale skin for a while and I think I may have found it. The mosaic pattern means there are a lot of different colours to blend and use on your skin, the peachy pinks work well with my pale skin tone as well as the bronze colours giving a bit of life and colour to my cheeks! It is very pigmented and a little goes a long way so it should last me a while which is a great bonus. The best thing about this product is that you get such a great quality piece of make up for £2.50, yes you read it right... £2.50! MUA make up is ridiculously cheap and I hope they keep it that way because, as you can see here, there are some real gems in their collection.

I've also been looking for a perfect nude lip colour for a long time and I feel bad saying it but I still haven't found one. MUA have a range of different coloured lipsticks and it may be that I just picked a bad colour because this one wasn't great. It cost me £1 so I wasn't expecting miracles but a lot of the reviews were raving about this product so I was eager to see what the fuss was about and I don't understand why there was a fuss at all. I naturally have dry lips and this lipstick wasn't creamy and easy to apply like some of the other more expensive ones I have. I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for which is why I was surprised with the good quality of some of the MUA products but this product in particular proved my theory and I don't rate it. I will try it again though, maybe apply vaseline 5 minutes before and then a clear lip gloss over the top. The problem with this lipstick was that it gave a plastic like texture to the lips and didn't blend well at all, it just sat on top of them and didn't look natural. 

I will get the only other disappointing product out of the way now because I don't like slating a brand that I actually rate quite highly! I think MUA might just need to improve their lip products because everything else I tried I loved. This product did seem quite exciting to me at first and maybe I do need to give it another try because it's such a good concept but again, I thought it was pretty poor. The lipstick was the same plastic consistency as the other and it didn't feel nice on your lips it was pretty gross, I thought having a lip gloss to go with this one would make it more smooth and pretty but it didn't really, the lip stick gathered on the drier areas on my lips and the gloss did little to improve this, it was sticky and it was worth no more than the £2 I paid for it. I wish they were better quality or a more high end brand would create one of these because they're great to carry around with you. The only good thing about this product was the smell of the lip gloss, it smells like vanilla and it is soooo good!

I'm actually annoyed at myself for not getting a different colour to try out. I got this very sheer nude pink just to use as a top coat and as a clear coat to keep my nails strong when I'm at work (I work in a bakery so my nails get battered and broken often). I think I should've got a darker colour to see what the consistency was like. I don't mind having to use lots of coats on nails as long as the end colour is good and I think this could be one of those brands. This nail varnish is nice and thin (good for a top coat) and goes on evenly, the brush isn't bad and it's a nice size. I do recommend their nail varnishes, at £1 you can't really go wrong!

For the past year and a half I've used nothing but urban decay pencil liners. I use brown as black makes my eyes look small, I will occasionally use black liquid, wax or gel liner when I'm going out which I love but on a daily basis I'm a pencil girl. And believe me when I say I've tried every type of eyeliner going. My urban decay eyeliners are so so good and I will continue to use them but they are also quite expensive and so I thought it might be a good idea to find a cheaper alternative so that I could alternate between the two making the more expensive ones last longer. I LOVE this eyeliner, it glides on just as easy as the urban decay ones. It's also really pigmented as well which is a huge bonus because who wants to be colouring in their eyes for ages every day, not me! I haven't worn this eyeliner for a long period of time yet so I can't say whether it's long lasting or not but this handy 2-in-1 lid/sharpener means you can just carry it around so on days when you're just shopping or something it's easy to quickly reapply as it takes about two seconds! Definitely recommend this and they do some amazing colours such as teal, orange and purple! This product was a crazy £1, I will definitely be repurchasing.

I've saved the best product for last! It's this gorgeous 'Heaven and Earth' eye shadow palette. This palette comes with 12 gorgeous shimmery neutrals about the size of a penny. They are amazing. I am honestly baffled at the pigmentation, obviously they are no MAC or Urban Decay but you would never be able to tell they were this cheap, they are very good quality for the incredible £4 you pay. £4! Every colour is so pretty and the combinations of smoky/neutral/evening/day eyes you could make are endless. I love this palette and will be telling everyone I know to get one. MUA have a wide range of eye palettes for all different eye colours/styles. I have brown eyes so on a day to day basis these are my go-to colours. I love my high end brand eye shadows but I use them on days where I don't really need to and so this is a perfect alternative. I also have friends who like to use my make up and they can use this as much as they want because £4 isn't much to replace compared to the £40 you'd pay for a beautiful urban decay palette!

There we have it, my MUA reviews. Don't be put off by the low prices, be open minded because the majority of products I tried were incredible quality and the price is just an added bonus. :)