Haul and Review: Makeup Revolution

Hot new brand Makeup Revolution launched last month to a real buzz.

The range starts from just £1 and the most expensive item is only £12, but it was championed by top celebrity make-up artists, including Nariman Pouranpir - who does Anna Wintour’s slap.

Their big claim was to have formulas, ingredients and durability to rival the prestige brands.

So of course I, and every other beauty blogger, sat up and took notice!

 I placed an order at the start of May, so I’ve been using the products below for a while now and can give a strong opinion.

By the way, I hope you’ve all noticed how much the pictures on this blog have increased in quality? The photography used to really let it down, but I’m super-proud of the pics in this post – and its all thanks to the genius Sony QX10. It’s an amazing solution if you shoot using your smartphone. Read a little about that here. 

Anyway, on to the make-up…

Makeup Revolution Iconic 3 Palette
£4.00

This is one of the hero products, much lauded in the press and it’s a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette.

Now, since my wonderful adventures with the MUA Undress Me Too palette, I’ve been eager to find a budget alternative to N3 as well. I’ve been uncertain about getting it because I wasn’t sure some of the pinker shades in N3 would suit me, so I thought this would be a great way to give them a go.

I’m so pleased with this palette, the shades are beautiful and so creamy. 

They’re really pigmented and strong and easy to blend – everything you’d expect from a high-end shadow palette but without the price tag. 

There are some taupes in there, a lot of bronzes and rose-gold shades. I do think these sorts of colours are better suited to blue eyes, but I found them surprisingly wearable and I don’t know what I was so hesitant.

My favourite shade is a metallic purple-black bruised plum shade that’s a dupe for Urban Decay’s ‘Blackheart’ – its such a gorgeous, unique colour that would look amazing on a night out, but the whole range is much more wearable that I would have thought.

Obviously the packaging is nowhere near as pretty as the real Naked palette (did you really expect it to be for £4?), but there’s nothing too awful about the slim-line glossy black plastic cassettes these come in – and actually, if you’re tucking them away in a drawer, they are much easier to store than the UD tins, which are a really awkward size and shape. 

You also get those useless sponge tipped applicators instead of the nice UD brush, which is a downside, but obviously I have plenty of good-quality eye brushes so I would never use that anyway.

The durability of these shades also matches the Urban Decay stuff, stroke for stroke. It didn’t budge on me all evening when I wore it out for dinner, so I’d have no qualms on that front.

I have so much love for UD products, but with brands like Makeup Revolution, Sleek and MUA producing such insanely good quality stuff it seems almost criminal to ignore it.

For the beauty of the shades, the quality, pigmentation and blendability and how durable they are, there's nothing in it. You wouldn't be able to tell them apart. When did drugstore palettes get so good?!!

Ridiculously pleased with this and I would definitely buy more of their collections – what a great way to update collection of eyeshades without spending a fortune or compromising on quality. Go get!

Makeup Revolution Vivid Blush Lacquer – Desire
£3.00

Wow. Just wow. This product is a show-stopper and was my absolute favourite thing from my little haul. I want this in every shade, because its amazing.

I have honestly never had a blush that was as good for durability, other than the Daniel Sandler Watercolour blush - which is also awesome, but its £10 more expensive and you can only buy it online other than a few inaccessible spas, so it’s a gamble as to whether the shade will suit you.

At Makeup Revolution prices, you can definitely take that gamble! 

A tiny, tiny amount – about the size of half a grain of rice, gives as much as you need, so these will last so long. It comes out as a very intensely coloured cream, but a micro dot, sheered out with a brush or your fingertips, gives a flattering wash of colour. 

And boy, does it last. I’ve never been a huge fan of powder blush, just because it seems to have no durability on my skin. But Vivid Blush Lacquer is seriously tenacious and will last all day.

Also – important for a shallow soul like me – I love the packaging of this. It comes in a little clear plastic pump with a black lid and its neat, compact and very hygienic. Really, there’s nothing bad I can say about this – it seriously outperforms its price tag.

I picked up the shade ‘Desire’, which turned out to be a sort of mid-toned pink.

 I struggle with pink blush sometimes as a lot of the more pastel shades look un-natural on me, but I found this tone really flattering and believable because it had a more earthy, brownish tone. 

I’m going to be ordering a few other shades next month, because I’m so impressed with it!

If you’re in a hurry, this also works on the lips – the formula is so creamy, it doesn’t leave your lips all chalky looking like a lot of blush creams, so its perfectly possible to tint your pout with it.

This is a seriously five star product!

Makeup Revolution Out of this World Merged Eyeshadow – Heavenly £1.50

There’s not an awful lot you can really buy for a £1.50 these days – it wouldn’t even get you a coffee in most places! So to find a quality make-up product for this price is pretty special.

I was drawn to this eyeshadow purely because it looks so damn pretty - look at that gorgeous golden champagne shimmer with the ripples of bronze. Delicious.

Just as with the palette, the quality of Makeup Revolution’s single eyeshadows are exemplary. This is every bit as good as the Mac and Chanel eyeshadows I own, which makes the price even more insane. 

This shade is very pretty on the lids – you can see it in action in my post FOTD: Natural Dollface, teamed with the Vivid Blush Lacquer.

It’s called ‘Heavenly’ and its part of four marbled shades in the ‘Out of This World’ collection. I’m tempted to go back and snap the others up on the strength of this. 

Again, this is one item where the packaging is really nice. It’s a very sleek little flip top container, much better than the packaging for their palettes. This wouldn’t embarrass anyone to have in their collection, its simply gorgeous.

Makeup Revolution Lip Power – It’s My Life
£3.00

This is a double ended lipstick and gloss, and its become my working week staple since purchasing it. 

This shade is a warm neutral that’s very flattering due to the peach shades and it would be the perfect accompaniment to a bold, smoky eye.

The lipstick itself is very matte. My only reservation about it is that you definitely need to have applied lip balm first because it will settle into every line and highlight every bit of flaky skin and generally look atrocious if you don’t. However, providing you pat on some balm first, it looks gorgeous on. 

And its actually quite nice that its matte, because that’s very on trend at the moment. You can either leave it there, or apply some of the gloss on top.

The gloss is pigmented and buttery. The shade is a warm beige that matches the lipstick, but its shot through with a golden shimmer that I love because it makes your lips look so appealing and it really makes the beige look special.

 The gloss has a doe-foot applicatior so its nice and easy to use. 

This lipstick impressed me with its staying power – it doesn’t claim to be long-lasting, and it certainly didn’t go all morning, but it was a good 2-3 hours before I needed to reapply, which pleased me.

The black plastic packaging is not the nicest, but I’ll forgive them for that because its another great product – although not quite as stand-out as the eyeshadow and the blush. Still at only £3.00, this is still around £3.50 cheaper than even a Rimmel lipstick, so you can’t really go wrong.

Verdict

This range is seriously good and most certainly lives up to the PR hype. I love the name and the brand ethos! The range includes a lot of top-drawer products that punch far above their weight in quality terms. 

The packaging is better on some items than others but with amazing quality on offer for pocket change prices, that’s okay.

I’m already planning my next order and will be stocking up on the single shadows and the liquid blush. 

They have quite a few other noteworthy products including high-fashion foil eye kits, and a foundation called ‘The One’ with skin-mimicking ‘complexion-perfecting’ technology, although I’ve heard mixed reviews about that.

 But I feel like I’ve discovered an amazing brand and, as they promise to be at the forefront of new make-up trends, I’m seriously excited to see what they’ll release next.