Neutral shadow - Urban Decay, MUA, Crown Brush, VIVO

As promised earlier today, this post is about various neutral eyeshadow palettes I own. There's a palette to suit all budgets here and I'll be reviewing them alone and comparing against each other. I only usually wear neutral eyeshadow as I'm not brave enough for bold colours (yet). Lots to do so here goes...

First up we have the VIVO - Innocence palette:

This palette contains 3 eyeshadows and a sponge applicator. Personally I can't stand sponge applicators and never use them when they come with products, I just don't think they stand up against brushes for application and blending. The shades are simply referred to as Shade 1, 2 and 3 and they all have a slight shimmer to them. If you've never used eyeshadows before to create a smokey eye then this has directions on the back of the case telling you to apply shade 1 as a highlighter to your brow bone, shade 2 across the eyelid and shade 3 across the lash line. I guess this is helpful if you really are clueless but I do have a fair bit of practice with smokey eyes after many laughable errors so it really wasn't of much use to me. 

You can find VIVO available in large Tesco stores and also from their own website linked here. The trio retails for £2.50 which is pretty good for what you get as it's less than £1 per eyeshadow. This is what the eyeshadows looks like when swatched:

They are not the best eyeshadows I have used in terms of pigmentation however when you take in to consideration you're paying less than £1 for each colour it seems quite worth it. They do look quite nice when worn however I'd probably mix these shades with some from my other palettes as I don't like the look they suggested on the back of the product. I'd say they were worth buying if you aren't really used to eyeshadows. 

Next up is the Heaven and Earth palette by MUA cosmetics:

Again this product come with the sponge applicators I hate and I would seriously recommend investing in a brush, however, if you have no brushes this is most likely a good thing rather than applying with your fingers!

This palette contains 12 neutral shades which is a good variety, however the only quarrel I have is that they are all shimmer shades whereas I like a mixture of shimmer and matte shades. That said, the pigmentation from this palette is pretty good for most of the shades with only a few needing to be built up. If all of the shades needed building up I'd be getting pretty annoyed with the palette but as I said it's only a few and I can live with that :). 

I swatched them in rows on my hands so here is the top row:

The bottom row looks like this:

As you can see you do get plenty of colours in the palette and you could use some as highlighters and the darker ones in the crease of your eye etc, so it would allow you create a variety of smokey eyes. I'd say this was worth buying as it only retails for £4 which is probably less than a single train journey nowadays and considering the previous palette was £2.50 for 3 shadows, you're getting 12 for £4 in this so that's like 33p per eyeshadow - bargain! You can find this in Superdrug stores, the Superdrug website or the MUA website.

Next up is the Crown Brush 88 Nude Palette:

As suggested in the name, this palette consists of 88 (yes, you heard right!!) neutral eyeshadows!!! Crown Brush is a recent discovery of mine and after receiving my first order of brushes off them and falling in love, I went back to order more and this caught my eye. I wasn't really sure what to expect as Urban Decay are usually my go to eyeshadow brand (they're coming up next) but I was pleasantly surprised! The variety of colours here is unbelievable, I could probably create 50 looks and still have more combinations available. Colours aside though, the actual quality of this palette is amazing, the eyeshadows are sooo pigmented and smooth to apply with minimal fallout. I also found them pretty easy to blend. I have fallen in love so much that I'm now lusting after the metallic palette which I think will be my next purchase. Their customer service is unbelievable, with my parcels consistently arriving within 3 days of placing my order. This brand is going to be huge (bigger than it already is), I completely love it!!

If I were to swatch every colour I literally would be here all day, so I've chosen a selection of different finishes (matte and shimmer) and a variety of the colours in the palette to swatch:

As I mentioned I like to have a variety of matte and shimmer shades to play around with in palettes and this has both. You can see you get silvers, whites, beiges, browns, golds, blacks and even berry shades! The possibilities are literally endless with this palette and you're probably thinking that this must retail at a high price but you're wrong! This beauty of a product retails at £22.99 and can be bought from the Crown Brush website. I am so impressed with this brand and palette it is a definite recommendation from me. 

Finally is my trusty Naked 2 palette:

I LOVE this palette so much. As you can see you get 12 shades in the tin which are a variety of matte, shimmer and glitter finishes. You also get a 'Crease & Shadow brush' included which I love, it's so soft and makes the application and blending of my eyeshadow so much easier with a perfect finish. You also get a mini Lip Junkie gloss which says it cools and plumps - and it does. It has a minty fragrance to it and makes your lips tingle which in turn plumps them up shortly after.

I've swatched this palette in two halves from left to right in the palette so here's the first half:

From left to right in the above pictures we have Foxy (which you can barely see on my hand so I use this underneath my brow), Half Baked, Booty Call, Chopper, Tease and Snakebite. 

The second swatches are below and I also swatched the gloss for you:

 From left to right in these pictures we have Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted and Blackout with the gloss on the far right.

These eyeshadows are a firm favourite of mine and I would recommend them to anyone in a heartbeat. They are so pigmented, easy to blend and look absolutely beautiful on. I'm going to show you a look I created a few weeks back using this palette alone:

The Naked 2 palette is the most expensive of them all in this post, retailing at £36.00 and available to buy from Debenhams stores or their website linked here. That being said I definitely think it is worth the investment as it is a beautiful set but you also get the brush with it. 

So, to finish this post I would absolutely recommend that people buy the Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay and the 88 Nude palette from Crown Brush as both are great investments! I would also say anyone on a budget, try the other two from MUA and VIVO as if I didn't have the money for the other two they would be my choices on a budget, especially MUA as they are probably the best eyeshadows available for less than £10.

I hope this gives people an insight if they have their eye on any of these palettes or if you were unsure that it has helped you choose what is best for you! Any questions just ask below!

Amanda :) xx