I'm a person who looks for the quality of high end makeup but with half the price tag. I think the most expensive makeup item I've ever bought myself is a maxfactor foundation and that only cost me £12.99. To me, makeup products from the drugstore should not cost more than around £10 - £15. And for around the £15 mark I would expect an amazing quality product. But with some brands you don't see this, some brands are really trying their luck with their price ranges.
The first time I'd ever heard of the brand MUA (Makeup Academy) was when everyone was raving about their £1 lipsticks. MUA are a UK based brand and have a wide range of products. These £1 lipsticks were the thing they became so popular for and were the first thing I ever tried from them. When I walked into superdrug and saw they'd bought out their take on liquid lipsticks I was so excited I wanted to buy every shade. They have over 10 different shades (not all are available in stores, but are online) but I managed to control myself and I only bought two at the time to give them a try. These cost me £3 each which is a bargain!
These are called MUA luxe velvet lip lacquers. First let's just talk quickly about the packaging. There are two different packaging types available on the market as they recently revamped the product, but the old packaging and formula is still available. The packaging is so chic looking with the frosted plastic tube, the old packaging has a black lid with gold writing and comes in a cardboard outer packaging. The new packaging has a gold top with black writing and comes shrink wrapped which makes it so much more hygienic. I much prefer the new gold packaging it just makes the product look so much more prestige and the shrink wrap also guarantees no ones used the product beforehand. One thing I only noticed recently is that on the bottom of each tube, there is a sticker with the shade name on. This just made me love them even more as with some MUA products once you remove the shrink wrap with the sticker on you lose the shade name. Even the simplest little thing like the outside packaging makes the product so much better. The new wand has also been revamped, with the does foot wand being made to be less fluffy.
The first two I bought are in the shades Reckless and Tranquillity. These two are in the old packaging and are in the old formula. Reckless when in the tube looks like a traditional red colour but when applied has a berry pink undertone and Tranquillity is a your lips but better everyday nude. Its a gorgeous colour and very highly pigmented and is a thicker consistency so you can get an even application with not alot of product. I'm just going to be 100% honest right from the start. I don't really like this formula. Since the first few times I tried these colours I never went back to them because there were alot of things I didn't like about them. They have a very strong lipstick cosmetic smell but once applied you can't really smell it but you can definitely taste it. You don't have alot of playing time with the application, as they dry
quite quickly and do dry down to a matte. These are very drying and do settle into the fine lines in my lips, and if I had dry lips I couldn't go near these because they would just look appalling.
However I have noticed different shades work differently. The shade Tranquility didn't settle as much as Reckless did. I have never been able to wear this formula for a whole day as it only looked decent for a few hours, and after that time it has completely rubbed off the inner part of my lip and has flaked off in other places. Both shades lasted the same and had the same problems which shows me that it is just the overall formula that the problems lie with. Both of these shades are no longer available in this formula but they are both available in the new formula. This change isn't mentioned on the website but you can definitely tell the difference with the new and old formula. This shows me that the problems I was having with them, weren't just confined to me.
They have recently bought out 4 new shades in Zest, Vivacity, Potent and Symphonic. I got one of these new shades in Zest and I also have the shade Kooky. Both of these are in the new packaging and the new formula and there are so many positive changes to it. These ones are very glossy when applying so it makes it easier to stay within the lines and not get it all around your mouth, however this does mean you have to layer abit more of the product on for it to be opaque. The new thinner formula does mean you have to take a little more time to apply them, but the extra playing time the new formula allows is no problem. These do have a very strong smell, worse than the others and it starts out as a fruity kind of smell mixed with a very cosmetic smell.
Kooky is a deep purple shade with blue undertones so isn't as vampy as most purple undertones which have more of a berry undertone. This colour does look drying on the lips, but it feels comfortable, if you apply this neatly it can look amazing, and looks really good in the winter. Zest is a bright coral shade and I love it especially around this time of year when it's starting to transition from spring to summer. But I did notice when applying that you do have to layer it quite alot else it can look patchy, as the coral is quite a chalky colour, but because the shade is such a stark shade it's hard for it not to look chalky. It is a little bit drying however but it's manageable and does last a long time. I had this on and after eating a meal and drinking it was pretty much stil
l on and it was bulletproof when I was trying to take it off.
The way I like to apply these is by using a lip brush to line the outside of my lips. By using a lip brush it basically turns the liquid lipstick into a lip liner as well, and by doing this it gives me a better looking application and also gives me more control when getting a crisp line. But the new applicator makes it easier to apply without lining your lips. I plan to go and buy more of the shades now the formula has been sorted out and for £3 I know I'm not going to have to worry about emptying my piggy bank to afford them.
These are all available online though I have heard that shades that were originally available in the old packaging and formula (e.g. Reckless) are actually still being sent out rather than the new gold packaging and formula (I cannot 100% guarantee there has been a formula change but I myself can definitely see a difference with it). Now I don't know if this is just a case of them getting rid of any old stock they had left over, because the image on the site has now been changed to the new packaging. Just a heads up that they don't sell all shades in store, but I do think that the issue with old stock being sent out would have now stopped because the website has been updated.
Thanks for reading and I think before you go out and buy your next high end liquid lipstick you should definitely give these a shot and let me know what you think of them!
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