Makeup Geek Dupes for the Batalash Palette

A few months ago the makeup corner of the internet was a-buzz with talk of the LE Saucebox Batalash palette.  8 shadows of amazing (!!!) quality chosen by the Batalash girls. I didn't think I was going to be able to get my hands on it but then it became available on a UK site and the rest is history.

As of writing this, the palette has been sold out in the US for quite a while now but there are still some left over at Cocktail Cosmetics for any European makeup lovers.

The shade range is great.  There's a range of warm and cool; matte and metallic; neutral and colourful.  The eye shadow pans are huge, 4g each (0.5g more than a Sugarpill pan).  My only complaint about the palette is that the copper and the warm brown are very similar in colour and I would rather have seen something completely different.

Because the palette was so popular and the shades work so well together, I thought I would try to dupe it with my Makeup Geek shades.  I was only choosing out of the colours I already own from Makeup Geek and was very surprised by how similar a palette I could create!  Read on to see the dupes in all of their glory.

OCC Lip Tar Swatches - Light and Dark

Next in my OCC Lip Tar series are the lighest and darkest shades that I have.  Some of these I happily wear on their own, others are good just for mixing new shades or giving a colour a different finish.  I've made a video showing how each Lip Tar looks on my lips, below, and further down in the post there are photos showing the similar colours side-by-side.

If you are new to my blog then I'll just let you know that OCC Lip Tars are my favourite lip products ever!  I love how versatile they are and how massive the colour range is.  They are highly customisable and very hygienic so a great kit staple!

My Favourite Makeup Geek Products

If you've read only a handful of my blog posts you'll probably have already realised that I'm head over heels for Makeup Geek.  A few months ago I even had Makeup Geek Week on here!
My latest YouTube video is all about my favourite products from Marlena's line, with swatches.

Read on to see some close-up swatches of my very favourite shades.

OCC Lip Tar Swatches - Pinks

If you saw my last Lip Tar post you'll know that I'm going through all of my Lip Tars in colour groups, with lip swatches on my YouTube channel, and arm swatches on my blog.  It's primarily to help anyone interested in buying these shades, as I know when I started off buying them I researched similar colours a lot.  I think a lot more people will purchase OCC Lip Tars now that they've been released in RTW (Ready To Wear) form, which is in a hard tube with a doe foot applicator.  This means you no longer have to take a separate lip brush around with you when you want to reapply.

I think Lip Tars are wonderful, which is why I have so many of them.  For professionals they are great in your kit as they're hygienic and easy to mix to create custom shades.  For the makeup fan they're highly collectable as they come in so many colours and the options are endless when you start mixing the different finishes.  You also only need to use the tiniest bit for opaque cover; a full tube will last ages!
No matter what type of colour you're looking for there will be a Lip Tar shade to suit you!

Anyway, here is my pink Lip Tars video and read on for side-by-side swatches.

OCC Lip Tar Swatches - Reds

OCC's Lip Tars are one of my favourite lip products ever.  They are incredibly versatile and they have SO many shades.  They really have a red/nude/pink to suit everyone, and if you can't find what you want?  Mix it.  Lip Tars are great for MUAs as you can create any custom colour you want, and they're super hygienic.  A little goes a really long way; one of the full-size ones will last you forever, unless you body paint with it or something.

As I have an awful lot of Lip Tars I thought it might be helpful to swatch them in colour groups to help anyone looking to buy some.  I really support the brand too, so hope to get a few people curious about them!

This post ties into the YouTube video I just made in which I show the various OCC Lip Tars on my lips.

You can watch that video here

My MAC lipstick collection

MAC lipstick collection

I thought I'd show you my ten MAC lipsticks today; it's not a large collection at all but I feel like it's a beauty blogger rite of passage that I just have to do at some point.  About four or five years ago I thought MAC were the bee's knees.  I've become a bit disillusioned since then, largely because of the almost-impossible-to-buy limited edition collections which sell out in a heartbeat.  When it comes to their lipsticks they do have an impressive range of colours and finishes, though there are lots of cheaper dupes for many of the shades out there.

I haven't used lipliner for any of these swatches.  I'm starting with the LE shades that are no longer available.

Battle of the liquid lipsticks

Battle of the liquid lipsticks

The matte lip trend has been going strong for the last few years and isn't going anywhere!  Matte lips are easiest achieved with liquid lipsticks, which come packaged like a gloss with their own wand, but dry down in minutes.  More and more brands are bringing out their own liquid lipsticks and to be honest, I don't mind as most of them are a bit different in some way.  Plus the more colour options, the merrier!

I thought it would be good to have a bit of a showdown between my matte liquid lipsticks, to see just how well they dry.  For each one I show a lip swatch (one layer) and then what my hand looked like when I kissed it 5 minutes later.  There's quite a difference in how they all perform.  I've got 12 brands to show you here so grab yourself a mug of tea!

My favourite Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils

It's no secret that I'm an Urban Decay junkie and one of my favourite products from the brand are their 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils.  I was originally drawn in by their wide range of colours (which has since expanded) and kept using them because of the amazing quality.  They are the best eye liner pencils I've ever tried; they don't budge at all and the colour stays intense all day.  I love that they set really well, my eyes are slightly hooded and other pencils can transfer up to the top of my eyelid but these don't do that.

Read on to see swatches of my favourite eye pencils.

Shiro Seven Kingdoms collection review

Shiro overload!  So a few months ago...actually probably less than 2 months ago, I ordered 4 of the Seven Kingdoms shadows from Shiro.  Once they arrived and I had a play around I pretty much ordered the rest of the collection immediately.  I'm a big A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones fan so these shadows are cool as each colour is inspired by one of the characters.  While you can get smaller size jars of the shades, full-size was the only conceivable option for me as the full-size feature drawings by Robert Hendrickson of the show's characters.

 I'm so obsessed with these shadows at the moment that I don't really want to use anything else right now and couldn't concentrate on other posts until this one was done.  The collection features mainly neutrals that wouldn't be out of place in the ASoIaF/GoT world but that doesn't mean they are boring.  Quite a few of them are duochromes and, as I've mentioned before, duochromes get me really excited!  

Shiro's shadows are loose ones, so if you aren't used to using them there can be a bit of a learning curve, especially when it comes bringing out the sparkle in them.  As well as doing a '5 Looks with the Seven Kingdoms collection' post soon, I also plan on writing a guide on using loose shadows so hopefully that will help anyone new to the world of loose shadows.

Read on for swatches of all 15 shades in the Seven Kingdoms collection!

My Favourite Makeup Geek Shadows

Clockwise from top left: Unexpected, Stealth, Burlesque and Rockstar

I am so in love with Makeup Geek shadows.  I had seen them all over YouTube and Instagram so had a pretty good idea of what colours I wanted.  You order the singles and then arrange them in a palette yourself.  I have mine in a large Z Palette. I made my first order about two months ago so have done lots of playing.  I bought enough colours to made for pretty much unlimited combinations so I haven't been straying from them much.  All of the different textures blend beautifully and there are some really unique colours.  I highly recommend the shadows in general and I can't wait to get more.  I thought a great way to introduce them would be to show off my four current favourites,  I've loved using these colours together as well as with the other shades

Cargo Vintage Escape Palette Swatches & Review

I heard about Cargo from Tati on YouTube and just assumed it was another US brand that we just couldn't get our hands on here in the UK.  One day, making my rounds of my local Debenhams beauty hall, I strayed a little further than usual and lo-and-behold found a small Cargo Cosmetics counter.  To my immense pleasure they stocked the Vintage Escape palette which Tati was raving about last autumn/winter.

The name combined with the colours make me think of my friend's b&b on the edge of Dartmoor where I quite often go this time of the year to get away.  The shades perfectly capture a walk through the countryside, with dying Autumnal leaves and a grumpy looking sky.

MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer

L-R Tranquillity, Halcyon, Aflush, Criminal, Funk, Kooky

I was planing on swatching the new OCC Lip Tars this week but, of course, a coldsore got the memo and came to say hello.  I still wanted to do a lip-central post so in true Blue Peter style, here's one I made earlier.

Matte lips are really in at the moment so MUA hit the nail on the head with their Luxe range of Velvet Lip Lacquers.  They come in 9 shades, from nude to deep purple.  I have 6 of them to show you.

Orange Lipsticks

L-R: Infrared, Bang, Bang! Bang!

Generally I'm not one to change my clothes or my face with the seasons very much (dark smokey eyes in August? Yes!) but summer really is the perfect time to be wearing an orange lip colour.  Orange has been quite 'in' over the last year or so and I feel like there are definitely more oranges on the market.

My Top Lip Tars

I have been planning to do a Lip Tar post for ages and I thought now was a great time as there will be an OCC booth at London IMATS this coming Saturday.

Lip Tars are a liquid lipstick made by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics.  Unlike most liquid formulas they do not set and so feel more comfortable on.  They come in three types; Matte, Metallic and Stained Gloss. I mainly own Matte ones and while they have no shimmer, I wouldn't say they're matte as they have some shine to them. They have a slight peppermint smell and tingle.  Lip Tars are great for mixing, the formulas blend together perfectly and you can create a limitless amount of shades.  They are my favourite lip product by far.

It was so hard to pick out just five favourites.  I ended up going for ones that I find easiest to wear and go with a lot of looks. 

Zhora 

5 Looks with the Naked 3

I've heard some friends say that they loved the look of Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette but that they weren't sure how to use it.  I have been loving it for a few months now so I have devoted the last week to the palette, coming up with looks for this post.

I think it's an easy palette to use.  Strange is the perfect highlighting colour for under the brow and around the tear duct.  It's hard to go wrong if you stick to the general idea of lighter colour over the lid, darker colour in the outer V and blended out with a mid-tone into the crease.  That's been the base for most of these looks.

For all of these looks I used either Urban Decay Primer Potion, original formula, or MAC's Paints in Sublime Nature.  I used Too Faced's Better Than mascara in most, if not all, of the looks.  My brows throughout are filled with Illamasqua Brow Cake in Thunder.  The double-ended brush that comes with the Naked 3 is quite good but I feel like you need a good blending brush and maybe a little smudger/pencil brush too.

My Dream Product

So unfortunately this is not about a favourite product of mine but about a product I wish existed.

I really struggle in the heat, being really pale and burning easily.  My makeup really suffers too as I am oily at the best of times.  What I wish existed is a good setting spray that keeps me matte all day AND that includes SPF 30 or higher.  That would be seriously amazing as the consistency of most sun cream products only exacerbates my oily skin.  Is it too much to ask for?  

Are there any makeup products that you feel to not exist yet? And if I have some how slept through the invention of my dream product please do let me know!

Rachel