Budget Beauty Series - Make Up Academy (MUA) Professional Eyes

I've been promising this Budget Beauty Series post on the MUA Pro range probably since the year dot lol Things got in the way though computer problems, illness, bad light - yeah you get the picture but wait no longer you shall (don't you just love Yoda ;) the first part my MUA Pro post is here ready and waiting for you to read.

I decided to split the post up into two because quite frankly it would be a total epic otherwise and just far too picture heavy - this post is going to focus on some of the eye products from the MUA Make Up Academy Professional range.

This range has had a lot of coverage in the beauty community and rightly so, although it costs a little bit more than the basic line your still getting amazing value for money. The MUA Professional line contains a wide variety of eye make up products including felt tip liners, mascaras, eye bases, false lashes and or course eyeshadows - and the prices range from just £1.50 - £8.00, making it accessible to the majority of budgets.

This post is going to focus on just two areas - eyeshadows and mascara - we'll start with the lonely item the mascara. I have to say I am a complete mascara junkie I just can't resist buying every new one that hits the market, hence the need for Project 10 Pan ;) so it not surprising that I picked one up from MUA Pro. The Pro range features two mascaras Extreme Curl and the one I picked Extreme Volume.

The first thing you notice about this product is the chunky nature of the tube, if you like little slim tubes of mascara then this probably isn't the one for you. The spoolie as you would probably expect isn't anything earth shattering or innovative, it's in the traditional Christmas tree type shade and made with fibre bristles.

The mascara comes in two colours Shade 1 Extreme Black and Shade 2 Black / Brown. I went for the black, it's not the darkest black mascara if you what I mean but it's still well pigmented. As you can see especially from the photo above it has quite a dense texture.

I had no problems applying it to my lashes, the wand did the job, and the formula covered the lashes pretty well, I did experience tiny bit of clumping, and some dotting but it did the job - how about some befores and afters

Before 

One Coat

Two Coats

I'm sorry some of the pictures are a little blurred I took them a while ago and because this mascara is nearing the end of its life the textures changed a bit so I couldn't redo them :( I hope you still get the idea though, it defines and separates the lashes pretty well, it's not a super dramatic change but you can definitely see the difference this mascara has made to my lashes. Yes it clumps, smudges and dots a little bit but so do mascaras worth 10 times more than this one, if your looking for a cheap mascara then you could do a lot worse than pick up this one. MUA Professional Extreme Volume Mascara retails at £2.00.

OK now the part you've all been waiting for eyeshadows, as well as the famous palettes which I'll come on to, MUA Professional also produces two other types of eyeshadow. The Trio Eyeshadows retail at £2.50 each and come in 6 shade options. Each trio contains 3 baked eyeshadow shades that can be used wet or dry. I have about a zillion baked eyeshadows in my collection so I have to be honest and say that I've never tried these, but for £2.50 again I think they are worth the risk. MUA Professional also produce another type of eyeshadow called the Extreme Metallic Quads, these quads are £3.00 and again they come in 6 shades. I did have one of these in my collection, and the one I had was Go Getter.

In each compact you got 4 different stripes of intense metallic eye colours, Go Getter contains a pale pink, a silver / taupe, a coppery brown, and a very dark plain chocolate shade.

These swatches show the product dry but you can also use them wet. They have a very, very soft texture, and they are filled with sparkle which can lead to a bit, no a lot! of fallout. I had a love hate relationship with this quad to be honest as much as I loved the colours, the texture and the glittery fallout made them quite hard to work with. The soft texture of these shadows really hit home when my lovely ginger Persian Jasper knocked the quad onto the floor, all I was left with was a pile of sparkly dust, it completely and utterly disintegrated. I have to be honest and say that I won't be repurchasing this, it's pretty but it just wasn't worth the effort. MUA Professional Extreme Metallics Quad Eyeshadows retails at £3.00.

Unless you've been living under a rock then you'll have read about these babies 100 times, the star of the MUA Professional range is undoubtedly their eye palettes - with an amazing 12 shades in each palette for just £4.00, there are 8 palettes to choose from. I have three of the palettes - first up the real star Heaven and Earth

This palette has been described as the budget version of Urban Decays famous Naked Palette. It features 12 beautiful browns, coppers, nudes and neutrals. All the colour in this palette unlike have some shimmer in them so if your a fan of matte shadows this palette probably isn't for you x

The shadows are super smooth and super pigmented, if you can't afford the Naked palette or even if you can and you love neutrals I would definitely recommend this palette. In fact I would say I actually use this one more than I use my Naked palette now - whoops! I've taken some photos of some eye looks in this posts which aren't that great because of the lighting etc. but I hope you get the idea x

OK Heaven and Earth is the out and out star, but don't ignore the rest of MUA's palettes, I also own Starry Night

Again all the shades in this palette are shimmers, it's a lovely combination of blues, greys, silvers, pinks and lilacs, where as Heaven and Earth is a more daytime palette this one will be great for night time.

Again the shadows are soft and pigmented, you do get a tiny bit of fall out with this palette but nothing that isn't manageable - here's a little eye look using the colour 3 from the right on the bottom row x

I have to say I've used this palette an awful lot, again if you like these shades and shimmery shadows this palette is a must have x

The finally 12 palette that I own from MUA Professional is the most recent in my collection, Dusk Till Dawn

Dusk Till Dawn is the perfect name for this product, it has a range of colours that would be great for everyday wear alongside more glam, bright and smokey colours which would great for the evening. This really is a multi use palette.

Again the colours are soft and pigmented, and yes again they all have some shimmer in them. In the eye look below which uses the blue on the bottom row you can not only see the pigmentation, but some of the glitter and shimmer x

As I say there are 8 twelve pan palettes in the range as well as these 3, you can get palettes containing brights, pastels and combinations. I have to say for the price these palettes are amazing, you get 12 soft and pigmented shades for just £4.00. A lot of people compare these to the Sleek palettes but I have to say I prefer these ones, I find them a lot easier to work with and obviously they are a bit cheaper :)

Following the success of these 12 pan palettes just before Christmas last year MUA Professional introduced the biggie - the 24 shade Immaculate Collection

The Immaculate Collection contains the shimmers that you would expect, but it also contains a few matte shades. The palette as you would expect contains a good mixture of neutrals and brights - it's a real all occasion palette

The shimmers as you would expect are really soft and pigmented, again you get a little bit of fallout with the shimmers but that only to be expected with such soft shadows. The mattes on the other hand are a bit of a disappointment, they aren't that pigmented and are quite chalky. I've done a couple of eye looks with some of the shimmers for you including this purple which proved so popular in a recent post x (It's the colour on the bottom right in the palette)

I've also done some pics using the coppery, bronze shade in the middle row

and finally the turquoise shadow from the top row x

This palette has its issues, the mattes really aren't that great but that doesn't bother me to be honest because as you know I'm not really a fan of matte eyeshadows, but you only get a few in the palette, the shimmers on the other hand are amazingly soft, smooth and pigmented. If you like shimmers and your on a budget for £8.00 you can't really go wrong.

As I say I haven't tried all the eye products in the MUA Professional  line but I've been pretty impressed with the ones I have tried. The eye palettes as you would expect are the real stars of the line, pigmented, soft, smooth and affordable you really can't ask for more. If you have any questions please ask x Have you tried any MUA Professional eye products and what can you recommend? Next up in my Budget Beauty Series - MUA Professional face products xx