Maybelline City Mini Palette in Blushed Avenue: Review and Swatches

Hello hello! This is a quick review of a small palette I picked up at Walmart the other day. I have had experiences with the City Mini Palettes before, and for the most part I liked them. Maybelline is releasing more that I think offer better color options.

One in particular I thought was quite pretty was the palette in Blushed Avenue:

It retails for about $8.00 at Walmart.

I personally have a soft spot for both Maybelline and Covergirl quads. I find that eyeshadows with this "slurry" formulation, as coined by the Muse (of Musings of a Muse) are quite blendable and easy to work with.

Here are some swatches:

 The dark purple is a bit drier than the other shadows, but still I find it quite usable and not as hard to blend as the ones found in the Colourpop Good Sport palette.

The two shimmers are a little disappointing. Knowing that Maybelline is capable of very shimmery and shiny shadows make these rather muted cranberry and peach shimmers lackluster.

Then we have two mid-toned mattes- a pink and a light orange. Both for me are perfect transition shades. They are light, but stay on the eye all day with primer.

The cream shade is a very light peach and performs adequately.

Below is a look I did with the light orange transition in my crease. The flash on my camera mutes the colors a bit, but it did help me make a very blown-out and blended look.

Overall, these are very trendy but very standard shades. They remind me a lot of the Carli Bybel Deluxe palette. Still, I plan on using this more- especially the mattes. This is an excellent drug store option.

Thanks for reading!

Subculture Inspired EoTD (w/ lots of pictures of my eye)

Good morning! November already....I am floored by how fast this year is going.

Today's eye look was inspired by one of my favorite youtubers- Makeupstruggles- who just put out a video last night on affordable palettes and whether or not they were worth it.

She mentioned the Maybelline palette collab w/ Shayla- and said that she found it too expensive for what it was, but it was a fine drugstore palette.

 I agree, but I do want to feel like I am getting my money's worth in some way. I actually like the cool yellow shimmer in the palette- it works for me, I feel, as well as the two mattes.

So today I decided to incorporate this palette into my look, as well as other eyeshadow singles and palettes because why not.

Let's go over the look! Pictures ahead. And of course, be forewarned that my camera quality is not great.

We'll begin with the different eyeshadow products I used:

From Shayla's Citi Mini Palette, I used the top cream matte shade, as well as the bronze shimmer, and the yellow gold  shimmer/glitter. 

From the Indie brand Vanessa's Vanity, I used the shade Tangy Dijon. Because of this shade, I feel like the entire Subculture and Yes, Please palette is irrelevant to me. It is a beautiful mustard yellow. 

From the Modern Renaissance palette, Warm Taupe in the crease. I have such a deep dip into this, but I am not entirely sure if I panned it or not. I want to use it up and my goal is to have five pans in the Modern Renaissance by the end of the month. I already have three. Though this shade is called "Warm Taupe," it is one of the cooler-lighter toned browns/taupes that I own. 

                                  

Finally, depotted from my Floriculture Palette  by Tarina Tarantino palette, Deep Dahlia. The picture shows shimmer, but this more of a satin/matte shade, comparable to Rowdy from the Subculture Palette.

All of these combined to make the following color palette:

To make the the following looks:

 I used the cream shade in the Shayla palette over my brow bone and crease, and then put Warm Taupe in my crease. On the lid, I placed the darker coppery shimmer from the Shayla palette, and then the gold glittery shade on top of that. I then blended the yellow shade out slightly above the crease ( I could have done this before adding Warm Taupe, but it occurred to me to use the yellow a little later). To make the look more complex, I placed Deep Dahlia in the outer corner.

At the time, I was not trying to create a look that could also be made by the Subculture palette, but here we are. I definitely think this is a cool look that I don't normally do, but would want to replicate again!

Drugstore Palettes: Ranking and Reviews

I own six palettes on the more expensive side of the spectrum. Two of them are larger palettes, and the rest of them are smaller-sized, including one "mini palette."

As for drugstore priced palettes, I've got five. Today I wanted to rank them according to quality and how much I choose to use them.

All five are commendable in their own way, but all vary in their effectiveness for me. Only the palettes that I am talking about for the first time on this blog will be swatched. I will link to the reviews for the others.

Let's begin with the one I use the least:

5. Milani Palette in Earthly Elements ($10.67). One, I am not loving the price increase on these. When they were first introduced, they cost $9.99. Not a huge price difference, but I am having trouble believing they are over $10.00. This is a pretty popular palette, but only valuable in my eyes for the two mattes. The one glitter shade is a total dud. There is a satin peach that has no pigmentation, and the two shimmers are too similar to inspire creativity. The two mattes are very high quality- the swatches are only one swipe of the finger, without too much pressure. But besides the mattes, I really would not use the palette for anything else.

4. Milani Palette in Must Have Metals ($10.67). My review and swatches of this palette can be found here. I still agree with my original review, that even though the pigmentation of all shades in this palette are wonderful, you still have to bring in other palettes for a cohesive look.

To demonstrate, though, how awful the large cream-colored shimmer in the Earthly Elements palette is, let me compare it to the one in Must Have Metals:

Earthly Elements (l), Must Have Metals (r) no comparison frankly. One is a glitter bomb, the other metallic

3. City Mini Palette by Maybellie in Downtown Sunrise
My review and swatches for this palette can be found here.
Overall, this is a cohesive palette that I do reach for once in a while for the shimmers, and more often for the mattes. They are creamy and aside from the very pigmented brown shade, have okay pigmentation.

Because of how pale the light orange shade was, I was inspired to buy Angel Face from Coloured Raine, because I was frustrated that the shade in the City Mini palette wasn't showing up exactly how I wanted:

Angel Face (l), City Mini (r)

The quality of the Angel Face single also lies in its staying powder, compared to the shade in the City Mini Palette, which wipes away quite quickly.

2. Okalan Jupiter Palette (Lime Crime Venus 2 Dupe) from Hush, $8.00

I am including this in my post because it is priced in the same range as the other palettes, and if this did appear in the drugstore, I think many people would be very excited. I personally will not buy from LimeCrime, so to get an affordable version of that palette works for me.

As of now, I am incorporating this palette into a lot of my looks, but I don't have a comprehensive review up yet. I do have some swatches, though:

My personal favorites from this are Mustard and Mud (second to last on the right). 

1. Finally, my number one drug store palette is one that is currently being sold on Amazon for $0.98. It is the Greed palette by Wet 'n Wild. I love this. As the swatches will show, the peach and blue shimmers are duds, but the mattes are something special. That salmon one I use especially quite a bit.

All in all, drugstore palettes can be quite good, and I am frustrated that ones of a high quality, such as the W'nW one end up being discontinued. I find in interesting that though I did give the Maybelline palette a lower review than the Milani Metallic one, in terms of usability from day to day, the City Mini palette scored a lot higher. It goes to show that the pigmentation of a shadow may be intense, but whether or not one is drawn to it for daily use is another story.

Thanks for reading!

EoTD with Maybelline's City Mini Palette

Good morning/afternoon!

I will eventually make a makeup organization post, but for now I will say that my current system of organization has really been inspiring to me, and has reminded me of what I have and can do.

For instance, I was reminded that Maybelline's City Mini Palette in Downtown Sunrise is one of the best drugstore palettes that I have used in a while, and I wanted to use it again today.

Downtown Sunrise, as well as the other palettes in the collection, is a smart assortment of shades and finishes. It is not the most neutral palette in the collection, but it is on the more neutral side, with also pops of color. I have previously reviewed this palette, and did take off points for pigmentation. However, I do not think that a worth or value of a palette can be determined by pigmentation alone. I am still drawn to this palette because it can be built up, and I love the texture of the shimmers.

Today's look used all the colors in the palette, as well as one shade from the Modern Renaissance thrown in (Love Letter).

After the pictures, I'll go in with a reflection on how I think the shades apply and perform.

Primer was Milani Eyeshadow Primer (really liking this a lot), eyeliner was Physician's Formula eye booster, and mascara was L'Oreal Original with Curved Brush.

So for this look, I used the cream color to set my primer all along my browbone and in my crease. I then blended in with a fluffy brush the light orange shadow- this is really the only shade I wish had more pigmentation. It really disappears on the eye save for a light hint of color. 

Here you can see Love Letter in the crease. I did blend well with the colors from the Maybelline palette. On the other corner is my favorite matte in the palette- the dark brown. Already you can see a little bit of shimmer in the crease- which is transfer/fall-out from all the shimmer I used on the lid.

 On the lid I put down Too Faced Glitter Insurance, and used all three shimmers. The taupe shimmer went all over the lid. I then basically mixed the two pink shimmers and placed them on the lid. I feel it did create somewhat of an iridescent effect.

Here we have two pictures without flash, in different lighting. 

Final: the mattes in this palette really work best with a denser brush. I used a fluffier brush with the light orange shade, and perhaps that is some of the reason why it continues to be harder for me to get to show up. I used a dense brush for the brown and it really worked well.

In sum: This is an easy to use palette that I know I will continue to use!