Smokin & Ever Matte are the first MUA (Makeup Forever) palettes that excited me enough to purchase. I’m all over a matte eye shadow and these nude tones were crying out to be tested - and the jewel-like shades of Smokin really did look hot! After testing these out in various combinations over the past week, here are my thoughts - & of course, lots of swatches!
MUA Smokin Palette
I could actually just stop the review at this point. I mean let’s just pause and gasp at that gorgeousness…. heavily pigmented, smooth and workable little beauties.
The palette includes several matt tones (another tick), meaning you can create quite subtle looks with a subtle pop of colour on the centre of your lid, inner corner or along lash line. Use a thin, damp brush for insane opacity. The colours also layer well - the blue and green give a gorgeous beetle-back effect. It also includes a black eye liner pencil.
I decided to swatch the metallic tones with a brush to give you more of an idea how they actually apply on the eye. You’d expect it to be way more subtle than the finger swatches above, right? Wrong. Just wow. The steel, aubergine and bronze shades are my faves.
Shade names for you reference.
MUA Ever After - Matte Palette
Until a few years ago, I wouldn’t have considered putting what are essentially skin tones on my eyes - what would be the point… you can’t even see them?! Thankfully I changed my mind about this, aided by a lovely Space NK girl and Laura Mercier. Matte, nude eye shadows can even out skin tone on the eyelid, contour and define in a barely there way, or be smoked up into something much more dramatic for evening. Genius. Granted, these don’t blend as beautifully as the Laura Mercier, but for a quarter of the price of one shade for a full palette, they’re definitely worth a go!
Final thoughts…
I expected to love Ever After the most - and while I do like it and find the colours are flattering, I think Smokin is streets ahead in terms of quality. Both work best over primer (I use a Lime Crime one) and there is a little creasing from Smokin shades after a few hours, but no moreso than much more expensive shades.
Apologies for not including pics of the colours applied - I genuinely haven’t had time to do makeup looks lately, but promise to instagram a pic of me wearing them in the next week or so… if you’re not already following, you can find me here.
Ever After is £4 and Smokin, £6 (20 eye shadows & an eyeliner for a tenner!). I bought both palettes directly from MUA here, though I expect they’ll be in Superdrug soon.
