MUA Elysium Palette Review & Swatches

Hi,
Today I will be reviewing MUA's Elysium palette. I love how affordable MUA is and how their makeup is such good quality for the price. This palette contains 10 shadows and costs £6.
Elysium is an unusual word, it comes from classic mythology to mean the place people go after they die. The colour names follow this theme.

With flash

Without flash

So lets start on the swatches, the first five are more suitable for the daytime, while the next are better for a more glamourous night look:

L-R: Air, Cherub, Charm, Astral, Grace

Air: Air is a subtle matte nude colour. It is not very pigmented but would be good to brighten up the corners of your eyes.
Cherub: Cherub is the least pigmented shade here. In the palette it is a very sparkly light pink but it comes out more nude and less sparkly on the skin.
Charm: Charm is a matte dusty rose colour. It looks darker in the palette. I think if you are pale (like me!) then this could also double up as blush in a pinch.
Astral: Astral is a rich, deep glittery pink in the palette, which translates to more of a peach on your skin. I was the most excited about this colour, so felt a bit let down by the real colour.
Grace: Grace is the most pigmented of this five. Its a dark shimmery brown that comes out the same on the skin as it is in the palette.

L-R: Refine, Entrance, Adore, Smoke, Seraphic

Refine: Refine looks like a dark terracotta pink in the palette, but shows as more a mauve on the skin. I've found that it is good for putting in the crease.
Entrance: Entrance is the most pigmented of the shimmery shadows in this palette. It is a brown with hints of gold but seems to lean towards purple on the skin. This pairs well with Refine.
Adore: Adore is a dark purple with a hint of shimmer which is not really visible on the skin. It is the most pigmented shadow in this palette.
Smoke: Smoke lives up to its name, it is a smoky grey colour on the skin, however in the palette, it is a matte black. It is not very pigmented, so you would need quite a few layers to get an opaque black.
Seraphic: Seraphic is a beautiful shimmery bronze which is the more or less the same in the palette as it is on the skin, although maybe less shimmery.

This palette also comes with a double ended eyeliner and highlighter pencil. I have not used this yet although from swatching, neither are very pigmented and the highlighter is very soft as the tip broke just from swatching. I was not pressing very hard. Personally, I don't think the highlighter suits my skin tone, but for others I'm sure it would be fine.

These eyeshadows need to be worn with a primer because they do not have good staying power and tend to crease easily. I have noticed a massive difference between wearing them without primer and with. I've been using Urban Decay's eyeshadow primer which has also enhanced their colour.

In previous MUA palettes, I've found the shadows to be more pigmented and have more staying power. However, with primer this is a really pretty palette which gives you the freedom to create both day and night looks.

Overall, I would give it 3 stars.

Thanks for reading,

Ellie

Crush by Eve Ainsworth Review

I think the title of this book is misleading. It sounds like a fun tween book, but the reality is much darker.
When 14 year old Anna meets Will Bennett, she feels overwhelmed with luck. Hot, cool Will choosing a nobody like her. However Anna finds that being with Will is not easy. He expects a lot from her, and she is desperate to keep him. She becomes slowly isolated from her friends, family and counsellor and feels less and less confident in herself. Will mixes his criticism with compliments, and she finds herself changing to please him, to keep him thinking that she's beautiful.

"He could be really nice you know. He made me feel special"

Thats the part that made me feel the most pain, that she relied on him to make her feel good. I think a lot of people can relate to that. He was very manipulative, threatening her with self harm, putting her down and making her feel bad about spending time with others.
I liked Anna as a character, she was relatively easy to relate to and feel sympathy for. A lot of the time I just wanted to hug her. I loved that she used music as an escape. However it took a while for me to warm up to her.
Will was more difficult to like, but of course that's the point. I liked the challenge of trying to work out what had happened to him and who he was writing to in his POV pages. I'm glad we had the pages from him so that we could understand him more, but I think if there had been more from him, it would have taken away from Anna's story too much.
This book made me feel sick and shaky. It was gripping and accurate. If you are interested in dark, realistic YA then this is the book for you. I think this should be a must read for every teenager to warn them of the dangers of an abusive relationship, and to help them spot the signs.
It was a quick read, I read it in a couple of hours in one sitting. I think it would have been less intense if I'd have read it in multiple sittings, but I just couldn't put it down.
I'm rating this 4 stars. It would have been five except for the fact that it took me a long time to warm up to Anna. Otherwise it was an excellent book.

Color Club Holos

Hi!

Today we will be looking at two of my favourite nail polishes, Miss Bliss and Over the Moon by Color Club. These are from the Halo Hues collection. There are 12 polishes in this collection, and a further 7 in the Halo Hues 2015 collection. They retail for £9.99 on the Color Club UK website. Holographic polishes are my favourites because I love having rainbows on my fingernails!

Miss Bliss

Miss Bliss is a beautiful light pink colour with a linear holo effect. It takes 3 coats to fully cover the nail. I have found that its best to apply it without a base coat and with flat strokes. A top coat like Seche Vite will help it to shine even more and last longer. Miss Bliss is very wearable and eye catching and will suit any nail length.

Miss Bliss with flash                                              Miss Bliss without flash

Over the Moon

Over the Moon is a stunning bright blue. Without flash it looks more baby blue, but with flash it is brighter and more of a sapphire blue. Again this is a linear holo. It reminds me of a mermaid's tail. This is 3 coats with a topcoat of Seche Vite. I feel like it is not as wearable as Miss Bliss, but just as beautiful.

Over the Moon with flash                               Over the Moon without flash

I hope you enjoyed seeing these beautiful polishes and that it will inspire you to get rainbow nails!

Thanks for reading,

Ellie

P.S Please bear with me while I get the hang of using Blogger, so please ignore any weird formatting!

Hi!

I'm Ellie.

I've decided to start blogging to share with you my love of both reading and beauty.
I will do posts on these as well as on lifestyle, health and travel.

ABOUT ME:

I'm 19 and living in England. I'm currently on a gap year, after which my ambition is to go to Falmouth University and study Journalism and Creative Writing. During the next 6 or so months, I will be attempting to write a book, learn German and travel if I can.

To introduce you to myself, I will do a few favourites:

Animal: I'm a massive cat person and I love my cat, Bliss, to bits. Soon I will be getting a kitten which I am hugely excited for.

Food: Chocolate and pizza

Drink: Non alcoholic: hot chocolate, alcoholic: Malibu and coke (I can't drink at the moment though) :(

Colour: Pink, purple and blue.

Beauty item: Mascara, I can't live without it. It can completely change your look.

Nail polish colour: Miss Bliss by Color Club

Book: Impossible to choose just one! So I would say Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger are probably my top 2 favourites.

Song: Currently You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC but it changes all the time!

Place: There's a spot on the island of Paros in Greece where you climb up this hill in the old part of Parikia and sit on the wall outside of this church and you can see the port and the hills and out to the ocean. Its the most beautiful place I've been to. The picture below is a panorama from that spot.

Thanks for reading,

Ellie