Two awesome MUA eyeshadow palettes: Smokin and Dusk til Dawn (photo heavy post)

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I'm going to try to make this one mostly photos with few words. I will quell my usual long-windedness as best I can, but if anyone has questions about these palettes, I'm happy to say more.

I think everyone in the UK knows about these, but since most people who read here are from North America, I thought someone might find this interesting. These aren't available in North America, as far as I know, but at least once a year MUA has a free international shipping sale (ETA: sadly they don't do this anymore), and it is totally, totally worth taking advantage of that. International shipping is normally £7.50, which is about $13 at this point, so it's not cheap. Not exorbitant (like it would be to ship makeup from North America to the UK), but the free shipping sale still makes a significant difference, especially since the products themselves are really affordable. They just held that sale last month, so it might not come around again for a while. MUA palettes themselves are £4-6. 

I bought the Smokin and Dusk til Dawn palettes in January. They are both excellent. The Smokin palette is clearly meant to dupe Urban Decay's Smoked palette. I'll write a post in future comparing the MUA shadows to UD's. Many of MUA's eyeshadow palettes seem to have been "inspired" by Urban Decay.

Enough talk. Let's look at the palettes. All of the swatches below were done without primer. Look how fucking impressive they are! I always use primer because of my oily lids - just imagine how much more brilliantly pigmented the swatches would be over primer. I wanted to give you the worst case scenario, the basic performance of these shadows, which is awesome on its own.

I've included photos taken with flash so that you can see the level of shimmer in each shade, since there's a range from completely matte to slightly shimmery to mattes with glitter to really fucking sparkly shadows.

Smokin

MUA Smokin Eyeshadow Palette

MUA Smokin Eyeshadow Palette (with flash)

Swatches of MUA Smokin Eyeshadow Palette (natural light)

Swatches of MUA Smokin Eyeshadow Palette (flash)

Here's a very simple eyeshadow look using the four matte shadows in the top row over primer. It's basically a gradient, with the lightest one near the brow bone, the beige in the crease, the brown on the lid, and the soft black as liner. The mattes are very nicely pigmented, but a little harder to blend than the shimmers (which is a typical difference between those two types of finishes, in my experience).

MUA Smokin Palette matte shades

MUA Smokin Palette matte shades

I'll post another look soon using the brighter shades in this palette. They are spectacular. But this palette is really versatile, because you can do a soft, fairly conservative look using it, as well as more flashy ones.

The eyeliner that comes with this palette is very pigmented, as you can see, but it is a sort of kohl-style liner: smudgy and doesn't ever really set. Not my favorite.

Dusk til Dawn

MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette

MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette (with flash)

Swatches of MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette: top row

Swatches of MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette: top row (flash)

Swatches of MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette: bottom row

Swatches of MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette: bottom row (flash)

And here's a look using some of the neutral shadows from the top row of Dusk til Dawn over primer. The far left, lightest shade on the brow bone, the pale warm brown that's third from the left on the lid, and the taupe that's second from the right in the crease.

MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette neutrals

MUA Dusk til Dawn Eyeshadow Palette neutrals

All in all, these are gorgeous palettes that perform amazingly well. MUA eyeshadows are among the best ones I own - better than some much more expensive options. I also have the Heaven and Earth palette and the Undressed palette, and they are just as good. If you have a chance to get your hands on these without paying out the ass, DO IT. They're cheap, so long as you can get them to you, and they are excellent quality.