Brand Focus: Makeup Geek

Makeup Geek

https://www.makeupgeek.com/

When it comes to makeup, YouTube and Instagram are great places to find new trends and indie companies. Makeup Geek (MUG), is a Social Media Brand that became hugely popular due to Marlena and her YouTube makeup channel, Makeup Geek. 

 From the beginning, Marlena's bubbly personality, provided educational tutorials, whilst developing her online store, which then progressed into producing beautiful shadows. She used her successful platform and built in customers to expand her fledgling beauty company . With quality shadows and a fantastic price point ($6 US per eye shadow), MUG has exploded and continues to expand its customer base and product line. Some believe that M.A.C actually lowered their eye shadow prices due to MUG's rise in popularity. 

Her product line includes 

Shadows: mattes, satins, shimmers, duochromes $6 US  1.8g

                Foil eye shadow $10 US  1.8g

Blushes $10 US  4.25g

Contour powder $10 US 4.25g

Eye liner Pencil $9 1.2 g
Gel eyeliners $9.99 US 3g

Pigments $8.99 US 2g

Sparklers (glitter) $10 US 4g

brushes $8.50-18 US are synthetic

Shipping to Canada - $5.99

Talc and Paraben Free, Cruelty Free and many colours are Vegan. Made in the USA

barcelona beach- great transition,crease and all over colour

beaches and cream - all over colour and transition

brownie points -crease,outer v colour

cherry cola -crease,outer v and smokey eye

cosmopolitan - movable lid, spotlight colour

dirty martini - smokey, outer v colour

creme brulee - transition colour

enchanted forest - outer v and smokey colour

mirage- all over lid, highlight

moondust - outer v, spotlight colour

peach smoothie- all over lid, crease,and transition colour

preppy -transition, all over lid, crease colour

pretentious- outer v, spotlight colour, smokey bronze 

secret garden- outer v, all over smokey colour

shimma shimma - highlight and spotlight colour

shore thing- all over lid, spotlight colour, inner corner highlight

steampunk- smokey eye, outer v

vanilla bean- all over lid, highlight and spotlight colour

bada bing- outer v, smokey, and crease colour

Okay, now for my review. Let me preface this with that MUG has spoiled us with such good quality shadows, that when other colours are not at the same standard, they stick out. That isn't to say they are not good, they just do not measure up to the others. Even though, I had the most trouble with her mattes, I feel they are one of the best formulations out there. While, the majority of the colours I purchased are creamy,  they easily blend and are highly pigmented, there are a few that need some work.


Dirty Martini- olive green matte. It a little stiff and harder to blend. It can be a little patchy.
Enchanted Forest - dark blackened forest green matte - stiff, hard to blend and you need use a few layer to get the rich dark colour.
Peach Smoothie - light peach beige matte - I found this a little chalky and I needed to build up the colour.
Cherry Cola - deep cherry brown matte - need to build and slightly hard to blend.

Shore Thing - mint aqua matte - chalky, need to build. 

Top 5...... Eyeshadow (companies)

With the plethora of eyeshadows out there and "must have" palettes, I feel overwhelmed as to where I should invest my hard earned money. I am sure I am not alone feeling this way, so I have thought long and hard about which companies make the best powdered eyeshadows.  Using criteria of pigment, textures, variety of colours, how long they last, and blending ability, here are my top 5 (in no particular order and keep in mind I haven't tried all eyeshadows out there)

MAC

They still remain the most popular and understandably so. They have so many colours and with all the different textures - matte2, frost, matte, satin, lustre, veluxe, veluxe pearl, velvet, not to mention the LE collections like Starflash, it remains a favourite of makeup artists. MAC knows what they are doing and whilst not every texture is fabulous...uh hmmmm Lustre I am talking to you, their Veluxe Pearls, Frost, and Matte 2 are fantastic. Most are a dream to blend, the pigmentation is fab and they last and last.

Urban Decay 

With their cheeky names and their success of the Naked Palette, this little company has come a long way. Their deluxe eyeshadows are gorge. The colours are well pigmented and they feel luxurious. Blending is never tricky and their variety of colours never disappoint. Not only are the aforementioned reasons enough, but their new packaging for palettes is a great idea and just plain smart.

Lancome

Yes, I am partial to these guys as I wrote about them in another blog post. The bias has merit. The range and amount of textures and hues are amazing. They last super long and they are fabulously pigmented. Their mattes are one of the best out there and never feel chalky.

Make Up For Ever

I don't hear much in the blogosphere regarding these guys and honestly I am a little perplexed. They have unique shades that have incredible pigmentation. Use them wet, use them dry.....just use them. You won't be sorry.

 

NYX

I remember when we received the trio palettes and couldn't believe the consistency and colour pay off of these. Amazing. This is one drugstore company that does colour well. They have an incredible range of brights and more subtle colours. If you want a trendy colour, these guys are definitely worth a look.

Honorable mentions:

L'Oreal- their line of eyeshadow has improved. The HIP range was a great start but too few colours and those were really saturated and intense. However, within the last year they launched the Infallible eyeshadows. These are lovely and velvety smooth, but again the colour range is limited.



Unfortunately you notice I don't have many drugstore/highstreet companies as I find this is where the mass makeup names need to desperately improve. I have never tried but have heard that UK brands like Sleek, MUA and a few others are definitely worth checking out.

Let me know about your favourite eyeshadow companies.
cheers,
xo Megs