IMATS 2010 - What I got

Here's what I picked up from IMATS:



Face Atelier foundation in #4, pro size




NYX blending brush
NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in Soft Fuchsia
NYX Mosaic blush in Pink
NYX blushes in Natural, Taupe




MUFE #92 eyeshadow
MUFE HD blushes in #14 and #6








Crown Brushes




Will be reviewing these once I've tried them out!

2009 IMATS haul!

Make Up For Ever:

Got these for 40% off - a matte blue eyeshadow and the HD primer. I had also wanted the 92 matte purple eyeshadow but they were sold out already at 10am in the morning! :(



Oh and I had listed the items I wanted in writing, and specified "green HD primer". But somehow, I was given the purple primer, and only discovered it when I got home :( Moral of the story: check your purchases before you leave. I want to write to the company to complain but I can't seem to find a customer service email or contact page on their website. Maybe I should complain to their twitter account?


I got me some OCC Lip Tars, CDN$10 each:



Conquest, Hush, Grandma, Pageant




Crown Brushes:



-Italian badger blending brush
-Lash fan brush
-Double ended spoolie and angled brow/liner brush
-Double ended eyeshadow / crease brush
-Bent liner brush (1 extra for a friend)
-Plastic spatulas for my creams/masks that come in tubs


Brush belt



Yaby:

I debated long and hard before buying their palette (as Rasilla and Babybubblz will remember :D). I think what swayed me was the fact that this particular palette was sold online for $136 but at the show it was only $89.

Anyway I had actually wanted the Pearl Paints palette, but they were sold out (and this was only around 12-1pm on the first day!). However they told me it would cost almost the same ($1 more) to buy the palette and individual shadows separately, so thats what I did! Even better I got to take out a few colours that I didn't like as much and replace them with others. I'll also get to arrange it anyway I want from the start :)



My cute little palette waiting to be filled:



Auraline palette, $5



Got this mainly for the MUFE eyeshadow, since they are larger than MAC eyeshadows. The palette is magnetized and holds 5 MAC eyeshadow size pans and 3 MUFE size pans.


A view of the total haul:




I also got two China Glaze glitter polishes because Halifax kindly looked for them for me at her local Sally's! I couldn't find these colours so was very excited when she got them for me. Thank you so much! :D

Fortune Teller on the left - black with orange glitter
Cleopatra on the right - rich warm gold glitter



See anything you want reviewed first? Feel free to let me know :)

Urban Decay 24/7 VIP & MUFE Aqua Eyes Travel sets

Urban Decay's VIP set




Shades & Ingredients

Zero (zealous black), Lucky (brilliant deep copper), Covet (peacock green), Electric (bright aquamarine), Lust (plush purple).



Swatches



Product Observations
Colours: Pigmented, vibrant
Texture: Creamy, smooth
Ease of use: Very convenient size and easy to apply
Price: $29
Size: 5 x 0.03 oz


Make Up For Ever's Aqua Eyes set



Shades & Ingredients


Swatches



Product Observations
Colours: Pigmented, coloured shades are very vibrant
Texture: Creamy, smooth
Ease of use: Very convenient size and easy to apply
Price: $35
Size: 5 x 0.025 oz


Both products seem very similar in terms of being easy to use and quality of the product. The ingredients even seem almost the same! The order of ingredients is slightly different though, so that may account for the minor differences I noticed.

The main thing I found is that the MUFE liners last longer than the UD liners. UD Zero would smudge on my upper lid quite quickly while the MUFE equivalent barely smudged at all. On my lower lashlines both will smudge though (so no difference there). Sorry I was unable to do actual side by side comparisons of the two (because I returned the UD set) but Fuzkittie has done an excellent review and detailed comparison with lots of pictures of the full sized liners - click here.

Both products are very soft, but I noticed that UD's pencil tips tend to wear out faster than MUFE's. It was also harder to do precise lines (eg. winging) with UD compared to MUFE.

However on a cost basis UD seems to have the advantage. The size of the UD liners is more value for money though as you get slightly more product, and at a cheaper price compared with MUFE liners:

UD liner in Yeyo (from the Velvet Rope set) vs MUFE liners.


Therefore if you wanted to give these as a present, UD would be the better choice. The MUFE pencils look really tiny in real life, so it just doesn't look as good when the receipient opens up their gift :P

The length of MUFE pencils also makes it tricky to work with if you have larger hands. I have pretty small hands and still found them a bit inconvenient compared to UD.

Colour selection wise, I personally liked MUFE because of the dark navy blue shade provided. I didn't like UD Covet (peacock green) because it looked way too bright for me to ever use it. However UD does have a wider range of colours.

Minor gripe: The caps of the MUFE liners are ridiculously hard to remove ! They were capped on really tightly. I enlisted the help of the bf and they still wouldn't budge, until he used some dishwashing gloves to get enough grip to yank them off.

Pros and Cons
UD Pros: Wide colour range, size and packaging is nicer for gifts
UD Cons: Smudges easily, needs frequent sharpening due to very soft tip
MUFE Pros: Stays put better than UD, colour selection is more practical
MUFE Cons: Tiny size, hard to remove caps, less product but more expensive


Overall
I think MUFE has the better formulation, but UD is the more economical choice. But if you really want a pencil liner that doesn't smudge I say either use a eyeliner sealant, or go for MAC's Technakohls :P Those are the only pencil liners I've found so far that don't smudge even on the lower lashine.