MUA always comes up with something new that no one expects, and that's just one of many reasons why I love this brand so much! The products that, in my opinion, they are the best at creating are their eye shadow palettes - they are so affordable, so neatly presented, including great complimenting colours with incredible pigmentation and long-lasting power. Their newest addition to the palette range is The Artiste Collection - a multi-use palette with 6 merged eye shadows, 2 blushers, a bronzer and a highlighter.
The Artiste Collection has got basically the same design like the rest of MUA's eye shadow palettes, however I have to say it does look much more sturdier than the rest of them. I will admit that my Heaven & Earth has had the lid broken off for absolute ages because the joints of the plastic lid just couldn't deal with such a frequent use. This does not seem to be the case of The Artiste Collection - thumbs up for that, MUA!
Now to the product itself. The first thing I've noticed that the crowd has been cheering about are the names of each shade - and I have to say that is one of the things that (childishly) attracted me as well - how could I turn down an eyeshadow that carries the same name like my kitten?! A little yay for Cookie (and for me being the most superficial infantile MUA buyer, ah!). The eye shadows are merged (they have two colours in each pan that create a slightly different swatch than expected), their quality is amazing, just like any other MUA eye shadows. My favourites are Mocca, Chocolate & Cookie - very nice natural earthy shades (these are also the ones I used in the picture below). What I noticed is that as soon as you get fairly deep into the pan, the speckles of the merged colour disappear slightly, at least I can't see that many of them left in it anymore - not that it matters that much really, the colours are ace on their own anyways.
I really like the blushes and they are well pigmented, pretty much like the £1 blushes from the basic MUA range, so that's all good. The bronzer seems to have similar tone like the Bronzed Perfection one and has got great pigmentation as well. The highlighter however is not very pigmented, which is pretty disappointing because the colour itself is amazing and when I make the effort and dig some out, it looks absolutely stunning - sort of a translucent pink colour, a bit like Benefit's High Beam! Maybe it's not that it's not pigmented, but it sort of stays in the pan and doesn't swatch - as if the powder was a bit too pressed down. I would totally do a little happy dance it if MUA released this highlighter on its own in a bigger pan and more buttery consistency, or maybe even pearls, because the colour and the effect it gives is just beautiful! Apart from this, the biggest issue I have is finding a brush that would fit into these little pans. I just don't seem to have a brush small enough to be able to pick up just one blush or the bronzer, I always find that the brush picks up a bit of an eyeshadow or mixes the blushes together.. *sigh* Has anyone figured out how to do that? Maybe I'm just a bit daft, eh! I'm thinkin about gettin these little Poundland brushes for that, maybe they could work?
In the picture above I'm wearing The Artiste Collection eye shadows, MUA 3 in 1 eyeliner, MUA mascara (the one that smells like sweets or apples) - a very natural almost 'no make-up make-up' eye and my new favourite lipstick - Topshop's Wicked!
Overall I'm thrilled with the palette, the eye shadows are brilliant, so are the blushers and a bronzer (if you know how to use them to their full potential - aka have a brush which is small enough) and although the highlighter is beautiful, the consistency is a bit of a let down. For £6 (from the online MUA store or selected Superdrugs), it's definitely a palette worth purchasing - it's going to be brilliant for taking on holidays when you have limited luggage allowance!
What's your favourite MUA palette so far?