Anastasia Powder Contour Kit VS. Make Up Revolution Ultra Contour Palette

Today I will comparing Anastasia's Powder Contour kit to Make Up Revolution's equivalent. I really enjoy Make Up Revolution products, I use a lot of their products in my Make Up kit to use on others. It is an extremely affordable brand so when I saw this palette I knew I had to pick it up and try it. 

Anastasia is one of my favourite make up brands, I have never disliked any of their products that I have tried. I have been using their Contour Kit for a while now and I love it. As you can probably tell by the picture above, Banana and Fawn are my most used colours. Banana is the perfect under eye highlight and Fawn is the best more cool toned contour shade that I have tried. 

Anastasia Contour kit retails for £39 and the Make Up Revolution Ultra Contour Palette retails for £8. This is a huge difference in price! With the cheaper alternative, you get 2 more shades to use, so you are getting even more for your money.

I will now insert swatches of both the palettes to show you the colours and how they compare. 

Make Up Revolution will be on the top and Anastasia on the bottom.

These are the highlight shades, they are a little hard to see but both palettes are are really similar. The banana shade from the Revolution palette I find is slightly more yellow, but this doesn't show on the face as I have used this on clients. The shimmery highlight at the bottom is a lot more white/bright in the Revolution palette which I do like. I don't get much use of this in the Anastasia one as it is so subtle - and I like a strong highlight on my cheekbones!

These are the contour shades. I am extremely impressed with how similar all 3 of these shades are. I have nothing to fault with the colours, they are definitely colour dupes for the Anastasia product. The only difference is the quality although Revolution is great quality as well. There really is a tiny difference. I personally think the Anastasia shades are slightly smoother and blend a little nicer on the skin. The Make Up Revolution palette is definitely worth picking up, it's an exact dupe!

Here are the two extra shades in the Make Up Revolution palette. These are clearly for highlighting. They are quite metallic and shimmery so I personally would use something different for a cheekbone highlight although they are extremely pretty. With a very light hand and a fan brush, these would apply very nicely to add shimmer to the cheekbones. I also think these would be great for eyeshadow instead, the top one especially for an inner corner highlight. The bottom shade would be a lovely highlight for darker skin tones. As you can tell, these shades are extremely pigmented which is amazing for the affordable price tag!

Overall, these palettes really are almost the same. Even down to the size of the pans, I'm 90% sure you are getting the same amount of product with each pan. The Make Up Revolution palette also comes with a mirror which is a bonus. I do wish the Anastasia kit had this. I prefer the Revolution packaging as a whole, it is very sturdy and sleek looking, plus the mirror is really big which is great for travelling and on-the-go. Also, all the Revolution palettes have the same Rose Gold writing on the packaging which is beautiful. 

I love both of these palettes a lot. Definitely buy the Revolution one first if you don't have either, there really is no need to spend the £39 on the Anastasia one, it isn't necessary. You can purchase Make Up Revolution at Superdrug and on their own website. You can purchase Anastasia Beverly Hills on their own website and on beauty sites such as BeautyBay and CultBeauty.

One more thing, I have just got a job at MAC Cosmetics in London, I am so excited to be working with Make Up. This is such an amazing opportunity for me! 

Affordable Naked Palettes? - Urban Decay and W7 Comparison

For the past year, I have been using W7 palettes in my Make Up kit and I have really enjoyed using them. They look as though they are copies of Urban Decay's Naked palettes. I have never swatched the colours and compared the formulas properly until now.

First of all, the Naked palettes are extremely popular across the Make Up world and personally, they are definitely worth the money and worth the hype. Over the past few years I have been very impressed with all 3 of them as well as the Basics palette too. I don't yet have Naked Smokey but it is of course, on my wish list!

Price difference: Urban Decay's palette retail for £38/$58 and W7 palettes retail for £3.74-£4.99 depending on where you purchase them.

You can purchase the W7 palettes online (Amazon/eBay). I have also seen them in various make up stores, Beauty Bar in Westfield White City has them for £4.99.

 As you can see, the packaging is already a giveaway that they are aimed to be similar.

Here is an overview of the colours in all 3 Urban Decay palettes.

The overview for the W7 palettes.

The Original Naked Palette:

I will show 4 swatches at a time, going from left to right. The top swatch will be the Urban Decay shade and the bottom the W7 shade.

 Virgin, Sin, Naked and Sidecar

Shown with and without flash. 

Buck, Half Baked, Smog and Darkhorse

Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal

Naked 2 Palette:

Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall and Chopper

Half Baked is repeated in both the original naked palette and the second, although, the W7 version of half baked differs in their palettes. In the first dupe it's more of a bright true gold shade whereas in the second, it's more orange toned. As you can see in the photo with flash, this makes the colour not as bright.

Tease, Snakebite, Suspect and Pistol

Verve, YDK, Busted and Blackout

Naked 3 Palette:

Strange, Dust, Burnout and Limit

Buzz, Trick, Nooner and Liar

Factory, Mugshot, Darkside and Blackheart

As you can tell, not all colours are exact dupes. The first palette, In the Buff: Lightly Toasted is the most accurate when it comes to which is most like Urban Decay. In terms of formula, I can tell the difference in the formula but I am a true fan of Urban Decay eyeshadows. Urban Decay eyeshadows are very smooth, pigmented and easy to work with. The W7 eyeshadows are very good quality for the price, they are definitely comparable to other high end shadows that I have tried. Some of the lighter shades, the mattes in particular are a little chalky but other than that I don't really have a bad thing to say about them. They don't match up to Urban Decay quality but they are amazing for the price. They are blendable, easy to work with and definitely worth getting.

I would highly recommend the W7 palettes, especially if you are on a budget. If you don't want to spend the high price on Urban Decay, definitely buy the W7 palettes instead!

I hope this is helpful and gives you more options for your own make up collections. 

Thank you

Hannah x