Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Palette

Do you know how bloody hard it is to photograph a mirrored palette!

ARGGGHHHHH

I'm a bit late to the game on this one so I'll try and keep it brief! To mark Urban Decays 15 year anniversary they released this palette, with 15 brand spanking new eyeshadows.

I LOVE the packaging for this palette, it comes in this very plush purple velvet box, which I think Bam Margera would love ;) I'm going to store my jewellery in it though, cos you know, dont think I'll be bumping into him anytime soon!

The actual case itself is mirrored so is a real fingerprint hoarder but I do love it!

So these are the 15 shades. Now the reason why I ummmmed an ahhhhed over this palette is because I am a neutral kinda girl. I don't do bright eyes, I think at the ripe old age of 25 I'm kind of past that. I'm all for the dramatic editorial looks, but I'm just not gona rock a lime green and pink eye. Its just not gona happen. So on first glance I thought that this is all this palette was (bright colours) that I would never wear but I'm not ashamed to say I was wrong.

There are 8 gorgeous neutral shades in this palette (I count black as neutral!) So if you are a neutral girl like me you really should check this out because the colours are gorgeous and they make a nice change from the Naked Palette if you already own that.

From left to right;   Midnight Rodeo, Midnight 15, Vanilla, Flow, Chase, Deeper, M.I.A and Blackout

See.....what did I tell you!

From left to right; (My permanent tribute to Bob Dylan, I ADORE him...anyway back to the make up) Tainted, Junkshow, Omen, Evidence, Deep End, Ace and Half Truth

And you know what, the brights aren't too bad either. Evidence, Ace and Half Truth are quite dark so will make a nice smoky eye and Junkshow could even be used as a blush (very, very light hand needed!)

So if you were on the fence about this like me then I hope I swayed you ;) Of course you might be more sensible then me and just wait for Urban Decays Naked 2 (FYI Exclusive to Debenhams early January for those in the UK) But unluckily for me I am a person of very little sense!

Oh and I almost forgot, I got this on Debenhams online where its currently on offer for £35.10p instead of £39.00, now go, make haste!

Little MAC Pro Haul

So this past weekend me and my friends paid a visit to the MAC Pro store in London and of course even with best intentions in mind, a small haul was made!

If you're not aware, the MAC Pro store is just off Carnaby street and if you were expecting a big store you will be disappointed, its tiny in there and gets very busy (Its not a pleasant shopping experience!)

So the reason we went to MAC Pro in the first place was for this blush in Taupe, which is a Pro exclusive. To cut a long story short, my best friends, hairdresser's, sister is a make up artist for the likes of Girls Aloud. She recommended Taupe as the best contour shade and one she uses all the time. So naturally we both had to get one! 

You can see why its perfect for contouring, being more grey toned its much more subtle and buildable. No orange cheek stripes here!

To prove I went with good intentions in mind, I took a bag of 6 items to Back to MAC (If you take back 6 empty MAC containers to a MAC store, you get an eyeshadow or lipstick for free!)

So I got Girl About Town lipstick. This has been on my list for a while but seeing as I recently picked up Nars Schiap and MAC Show Orchid, I didn't really need another bright pink lipstick straight away but as it was free I couldn't say no!

This is a gorgeous bright but slightly darker pink shade. My other best friend who came with us picked this up first and we both fell in love, so again we ended up getting two!

Magenta Lip Liner was another item I had on my list but never quite got round to picking up. I have been wearing and absolutely loving MAC's Violetta lipstick lately. In fact I wore it for my work Christmas party, I might recreate the make up and put some pics on here. Violetta is a gorgeous purple but I didn't have a lip liner that went with it and being such a bright colour I really wanted one. As I was browsing the lipsticks I saw this out of the corner of my eye and shrieked! Again my friend (who is also a Violetta fan) fell in love too and again we picked up two!

This was a complete impulse purchase, we were trying out all the blushes and again me and my friend both fell in love with Something Sweet and to continue the running trend we picked up two again! I really really love this colour, its the perfect neutral peachy colour and the newly formulated cream blend blushes are so much nicer then the old cream blushes, which were horrible and sticky. These aren't sticky at all, in fact out of everything this is probably my favourite thing I picked up! Highly, highly recommended. 

Swatches from top; Taupe Blush (MAC Pro only), Something Sweet Cream Blend Blush, Girl About Town Lipstick and Magenta Lip Liner.

Chanel Rouge Noir vs Barry M Red Black

Now we are officially in Winter, its time to rock the vampy nail colours. Although to be honest I would wear these any time of year! 

I thought I would compare these two colours as in the bottle they both appear quite similar.

Chanel Rouge Noir is a cult classic. Famous for appearing on Uma Thurman's nails in Pulp Fiction. Like all Chanel nail varnishes this will set you back a fair bit at £17.50 a bottle.

Compared to Chanel, Barry M's Red Black is an absolute bargain at £2.99

For comparison I have applied two coats of each polish, with a top layer of Seche Vite.

First up, Chanel Rouge Noir:

I love this colour. Its rich, vampy and gorgeously glossy. I think this looks very luxorious and for such a dark polish its applies very well. Two coats is all you need......did I mention I love this colour?

Next up, Barry M Red Black:

I was surprised at how different these two were on the nails. Barry M is much more red, where as Chanel is more of a rich burgundy. Unlike Chanel, Barry M was surprisingly an absolute bitch to apply, as you can probably tell! This again is two coats but you would definetley need a third coat as after two its stil uneven and streaky. This was a real dissapointment for me as Barry M nail paints are normally always amazing quality and for I find after 2 coats they are completly opaque.

Chanel Rouge Noir

For me Chanel Rouge Noir is a clear winner. There is a real difference in quality between the two which you would hope to see when you paying so much for Chanel.

Of course though there is a huge difference in price and with one more coat I think there would be a huge improvement with Barry M's Red Black. When you think you could buy almost six bottles of Barry M for the price of one Chanel polish you may not be bothered on the difference in quality.

But I am clearly extremely shallow and would pick Rouge Noir over Red Black any day. This is one of those cult beauty shades that I feel everyone should own and it really does add a touch of luxury to your nails. That said I am a big Barry M fan but its just a shame that Red Black doesn't match the high quality of other shades in the Barry M range.

Barry M Red Black