MAC Lipstick Drugstore Dupes

First of all please excuse my dry lips.. I have tried everything to treat them but this baby is just sapping the moisture right out of me! These are all the drugstore dupes I found in my current collection for MAC lipsticks I own. I thought I'd share them with you. I made an accompanying video which will be up this week but I thought they would be better presented in a blog post. I hope it's helpful!

In the below swatch table the MAC shades are on the bottom and the dupes are on top. I will link to where you can purchase the drugstore versions with my lip swatches (read on) again the bottom lip is MAC and the top Lip is swatched with the dupe so you can more directly compare the two.

Speak Louder Dupe - MUA Shade 05

Available for £1 here

Vegas Volt Dupe - Coral by Miners

Available for £2.99 here 

Toxic Tale Dupe - Maybelline Colour Sensational in Coral Tonic

Available for £7.19 here

Freckletone Dupe - No 17 Mirror Shine On in Nudist Peach

Available for £4.59 here

Myth Dupe - Miners Barely Buff

Available for £2.99 here

Ravishing Dupe - Revlon Colorburst in Peach

Available for £7.99 here

*unfortunately the lip swatch for this one went missing somewhere, sorry*

I hope you enjoyed this post and it was useful for those of you craving some of these MAC shades but not so enamoured of their prices. I would like to give special mention to my favourite dupe on the list - Toxic Tale. It was a limited edition launched with the Venomous Villains collection so if you don't already have it Coral Tonic is a pretty close second.

Too Faced - Natural Eye Palette

This is the first Too Faced palette I've bought and I didn't know what to expect. I always considered them to be Urban Decays poorer sibling. It seems to be they bring out very similar products that just aren't quite as good but cost more money. Anyone else get that impression? Anyway.. I was pleasantly surprised by this little box of shadows so I thought I'd share some swatches with you. I know it's been out an age already so it's hardly breaking news but for those of you still wondering here are some swatches and my take on the product.

When you get it opened up you see that in a similar way to Urban Decays Book Of Shadows the bulk of the product is wasted packaging. There's a tiny "drawer" in the front that houses a dual-ended applicator of no use to anyone and in the lid there's a pull out section with "how to" cards which is a nice detail. It is unfortunately missing a mirror which is disappointing and makes it not so great for travel but if it's going to live on your vanity then a mirror is wasted anyway! As with all of the Too Faced shadow collections there are 3 rows of colours offering 3 different looks each with a base, a highlight and a crease shade. This totally takes the hassle out of your everyday eyes which I think makes this a great little package. I really like the design they've used on these collections and I think I'll be purchasing some of the others.

Top Row Swatches - "Day"

Middle Row Swatches - "Classic"

Bottom Row Swatches - "Fashion"

I favour the Classic row for everyday with a little of the Cocoa Puff from the Fashion row and the Velvet Revolver from the Day row. I love my neutrals and all but for the crazy yellow gold Honey Pot this is a really useable, beautiful palette for everyday eyes. I wouldn't swap it for my beloved Naked palette but it's definitely a valued addition to my collection.

In the above photo I'm wearing colours from the Classic row. Silk Teddy, which I have all over my lid and highlighting the inner corner is the stand out shade for me.

Do you have this? What's your most used shadow?

Everyday Lips... Just Cheaper

After the great response I got to my "you're lips bit better" post the other day I got to thinking.. I wonder if I have anything in my collection I could dupe with my favourite Viva Glam V. Turns out I do..

Ok so it's not a PERFECT dupe but read on.. you'll see my point. The formula's of these two lipsticks are near identical to start, the finish is the same glossy shimmer "lustre" and they don't feel drying like some lip products can.

The "dupe" I'm referring to is Rimmels Moisture Renew Lipstick in Beach Babe (050)

I've struggled to find this online and am assuming it's now discontinued so apologies for taunting those who don't have it but I think it's still worth mentioning that the Moisture Renew range still holds a lot of available shades, some of which may be a closer colour match than this.. I might even have to check them out for myself for a follow up post. You can buy them online at Boots for just £6.29 (less than half the price of the MAC Viva Glam V) You can see form the below swatches the a marked difference in warmth between the two shades. The Rimmel on the left is more of a bronze/nude where as the MAC on the right is more pinky toned.

Yet because of the sheer formula the similarities are better seen on the lips. Both have an almost golden sheen to them but you can see less of a shade difference when worn, and isn't that the most important comparison? Just goes to show that you can't judge from the tube or a swatch what a lipstick will look like on! In the picture below my top lip is wearing Beach Babe and my Bottom, Viva Glam V.

If you had the choice, would you still make the more expensive pick? I do think the MAC is longer lasting but you're going to be reapplying either way so is it really worth twice the money?

Can you say... SIGMA?

I have to say guys...
These brushes are the most exciting promotional item I've ever recieved!!
They are just BEAUTIFUL!!!

I will take you through my morning... Remember this is just my first look, My review will come probably sometime in a week or so when I've had time to use the brushes enough.

So the packaging says Sigma...I'm officially excited...

inside... everything was wrapped in pink tissues paper and an envelope with my name on it laid on top..

Inside was some promotional information and inside the tissue paper were the brushes in an organza gift bag, so cute.

 

First look at the brushes, they seem really high quality, the bristles are all so soft and the handles are long and very substantial, all wooden. In all the information they included cleaning instructions, I must admit I've rarely cleaned my brushes in the past but I feel like I should make more effort with these!

So heres a closer look at each of the brushes...

I am sooo excited to start using the duo fibre brush with my new mac foundation, and the blending brush!! I've been using a kind of pencil brush to blend for a while but I have been dying to try out a brush specific for that purpose. So you guys will just have to wait for my review, in the meantime I'll leave you with this, my new brushes are so very soft and feel great in my hand, Can't wait to try them out!

I got NAKED!!!

Omg you guys I have wanted this palette soooo long and now I have it :)))

yay!

so..

here a few pictures...

How cute is the packaging?!

Its wasn't obvious to me in videos that the palette in actually like a velour type material and the letters are embossed in a kind of gold leatherette.. it's so cute and looks really luxe.. just hope I can keep it looking nice and not bust it up like most things I have... fingers crossed!

How gorgeous is this palette?! I mean reeeaally gorgoeus!

I wanted to post swatches on here, I think it's easier to see on my blog than on a video.. you can really see them all against the shades on the palette and against each other.

Right now I'm favouring sidecar and smogged as a cute bronze smokey combo but I know naked and buck will maked their way into every day eye rotation and LOVE half baked... it's maybe the prettiest colour in the palette.

Toasted is a really nice rose gold kina colour and gunmetal is really different, it's a matte glitter which I've not come across before, there's no shimmer in the powder at all!

I have come across the fallout problem that many people report with Urband Decay shadows because of how dense and packed with glitter they are ... but I'm sure using the primer and a shadow shaper will fix that. It's probably something I'll perfect over time. In the mean time I will be staying away from super glittery shadows for work when I don't have time to redo my base LOL.

So let me know what you guys think and if you have it yourself let me know your first thoughts, what are your favourite combos etc? I'd love to hear from you, also check out my Urban Decay NYC book of shadows III blog post and video.. in all honesty I don't now which palette I was more excited about but friday night.. I was a LUCKY GIRL!! :D x

xoxo

miss bb

Naked Palette Dupes...

Hi Guys!

Firstly thanks for all the kind and supportive message from everyone regarding the harsh hater comments left on formspring yesterday. It really means a lot that you guys would go out of your way to be outrgaed on my behalf lol.. Shows a united front to these people!!
Anywho, on to the swatching, I'd like to take this time to remind you AGAIN that this is NOT MY ARM!!!
It's a loaner arm for the purpose of swatching... my arm was already covered in swatches from me trying to find the right colours as I went a long, Hope you like the post and here's the link to the blog I found the original swatches from and tried to match up to (sometimes unsuccessfully I know)
http://www.vampyvarnish.com/2010/07/31/urban-decay-naked-palette-swatches-review/
This is my budget way of obtaining the unobtainable Naked Palette!!!

and here are the products I used

The toughest thing I found when finding dupes for Urban Decay colours (ever) is finding shimmers as highly pigmented! the closest I cam to any really great dupes I feel were the sahdes I had as kind of loose pigments.. very few of the pressed shadows gave the same kind of depth of colour you get from the UD palette.
So... I guess I still really do "need" the palette after all, but for the time being this excercise has at least refreshed my memory to some of the fabulous neutral shades I already own and maybe that will quench my beauty thirst... for now.

Miss BB