Storybook Cosmetics Wizardry and Witchcraft Eyeshadow Palette Book Review

Price:$52 Available at Storybook Cosmetics

I've been wanting to get my hands on this eye shadow palette ever since it was announced. I missed out on the first time it went on sale but managed to get it the second time around. So I decided to review this palette and to share my thoughts with you all.

So here is a little information about the brand. Storybook Cosmetics products all have a magical and mystical theme to them. As well as this palette, they also have some make up brushes that are inspired by wizard wands and roses. They have some license collabs coming soon involving Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Hunger Games, which I am looking forward too (mainly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
Also I just want to say that I live in the U.K and Storybook is based in the U.S.A. So please bare in mind you may have to pay customs. I was lucky and didn't have to pay any customs this time, but please do remember when you buy from another country you may have extra shipping or custom charges.

Packaging

When the palette arrived it came in this brown velvet bag with the company logo and a bookmark thanking for the purchase with all the company information. I also love that the bookmark goes well with the palette as the actual palette is shaped as a book. 

The actual palette itself, you open it up as a book and inside are the actual shadows with the name of the shadows underneath, which is always a win for me. On the opposite side there is a large decent mirror. Under the mirror there is a quote that says 

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

I think that is such a lovely touch, I loved that they went that extra mile on the packaging as I feel a lot of brands don't really do this. So far with just looking at the packaging, I can see that they really thought and work hard on creating this palette.  

The Shadows

The shadows are a mix of matte, pearl and metallic shades. I love the colour selection and when I first looked at the palette, I can see a few looks I can create with these shadows. 

(Left to Right: Jinx, Charms, Spellbook, Cauldron, Bewitched, Merlin, Salem, Prophecy, Potions, Cloak, Sorcerer, Broomstick) 

The shadows feel very smooth and creamy, they are very pigmented as you can see from the swatches in the image above. All the shadows are beautiful and Bewtiched, Potions and Sorcerer are the three that really stand out to me. Prophecy you can't see too well as it is a very similar colour to my skin tone but I can still use it as a base colour. I am going to share with you three looks I created with this palette. 

Look One

For this look I used the shades, Prophecy, Charms, Broomstick and Bewitched. All the shadows blended very well. I did use Mac Fix + to apply Bewitched to make it more intense. These shadows are so pigmented that I hardly have to dip my brush into the shadows and found a little goes a long way.

Look Two

The shadows I used for this look were, Prophecy, Sorcerer, Cauldron, Charms and Jinx. I did use Mac Fix + again this time on Jinx in the inner corner. Again the shadows blended beautifully and a little went a long way.

Look Three

For this final look I used the shades: Prophecy, Charms, Potions, Jinx and Cloak. With this look I am getting Slytherin vibes and I didn't plan on it, but I love that. The same as before the shadows blended beautifully and you only need to dip your brush in a tiny bit as the shadows are highly pigmented. I also used Mac Fix + on Jinx again to give it a bit of a boost.

Final Thoughts

I LOVE this palette. I have no faults or anything negative to say about this palette. So much thought and hard work has gone into this palette and you can tell just by looking at it. The packaging is just brilliant and the shadows are so highly pigmented and blend so beautifully, that they are just a dream. There must be some actual real magic put into these shadows because of how wonderful they are. I highly recommend this palette to anyone. I really cannot wait for there next palette and I really want to try there brushes now. 

Urban Decay Naked Palette £4 Dupe!?!?!

Hi everyone, recently I discovered a few news articles on a palette that is a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette and only cost £4 from Primark. If you follow me on Instagram you will know that I recently bought the Naked Palette. So I wanted to see if what the news articles are saying are true and find a good dupe for the Naked Palette for those of you, who maybe can't afford the Urban Decay palette or just looking for a good bargain.

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Price:£39.50 Available at: Urban Decay, Debenhams, Feel Unique, John Lewis & House Of Fraser

This palette has revolutionised neutrals. I feel if you are a true makeup fan or collector you either have or had this palette. It has a velvet case and comes with a mirror and a duo end brush. There are 12 shades that are a mixture of matte, satin, shimmer and sparkle textures. 

Primark PS Bronze Shadow and Shade Palette

Price:£4 Available at: Primark

This is the palette the news has been talking about. I won't say much about the palette here but more when I am comparing it the the Naked Palette. This palette only has 10 shades in a mixture of matte and shimmer. It comes in matte and metallic cardboard packaging with no mirror or brush. 

Packaging and Layout

As you can see from the image above, they have very similar layout and packaging. The shadows in the Bronze Palette are longer than the Naked Palette, but there are less of them (Naked has 12 shadows and Bronze has 10 shadows) and the Naked Palette is thicker than the Bronze Palette. The Bronze Palette doesn't have a mirror nor brush. They both have the name of the palette inside that is pretty large font. The Naked Palette has the names of the shadows underneath the actual shadow which I actually like unlike the Bronze Palette which comes on a plastic sheet protecting the shadows that you can throw away. 
The outside packaging of the Naked Palette has a velvet coat which I don't mind but I know some people won't like. The Bronze Palette has just a sort of matte/metallic coat, which I again I don't mind, especially for the price. 

Swatches and Textures

The image above shows the swatches of both palettes and as you can see both palettes swatched really well. The Naked Palette I think was a tiny bit more pigmented but the Bronze Palette has actually impressed me with the swatches especially for £4. 

The Naked Palette as many of you may know, the shadows feel so smooth and creamy when you swatch them. But what of the Bronze Palette? The Bronze Palette is pretty smooth and a bit creamy but not quite like the Naked Palette I must admit. I would say the shimmer shades are a bit more smoother than the mattes in the Bronze Palette. 

The shades from both palettes I can see several looks that can be created. The only thing I'm not sure about is the blue in the Bronze Palette, it just seems a bit odd for that shade of blue in a palette that is called Bronze to me.

Application 

The image above shows two similar I looks I created using both palettes. 

For the Naked Palette look I used the shades:

• Buck
• Naked
• Half Baked
• Creep
• Sin

For the Bronze Palette look I used the shades:

• Day Trip
• Desert Dream
• Sunseeker
• Charcoal
• White Sands

I tried to use the shades that looked very similar in both palettes to give them a fair test and as you can see they both applied very similar. The Bronze Palette has a more of a bronze/orange tone whereas the Naked Palette has more of a golden tone. They both give a great look and have good pigmentation. The Bronze Palette needed a little bit more work when blending. But for this look I actually like the colour of the Bronze Palette more as I think they go better with my eye colour.

The only issue I had with this was the fallout from the Bronze Palette, there was so much of it, so just be careful if you get this palette when you use it.

Other Information

Both palettes use similar ingredients and both have a 24 month expiration date. The Bronze Palette shadows weigh 2g and the Naked Palette shadows weigh 1.3g so you are getting more of each shade in the Bronze Palette but you do get two extra shades in the Naked Palette. 

Final Thoughts

Well I have to say the Bronze Palette is a pretty good dupe for the Naked Palette. I would say the News articles are true. If you are saving money or can't afford the Naked Palette I highly recommend you get the Bronze Palette. The only main issue I had with the Bronze Palette was how much fallout you get. For £4 it is a absolute bargain, and you save yourself £35.50! It's not 100% exactly like the Naked palette but it comes pretty close.  

I also have to say Primark are really stepping up with there makeup range this year, I can't wait to see what I will get my hands on next to share with you all.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

Price: £39 

Available at Debenhams

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette I have wanted for the longest time! As soon as I got it I decided to share my thoughts with you all. Too Faced as a brand to me, well I just love how quirky they are from a lot of other brands. They think outside the box and put a lot of effort into there products which you can just tell by looking at the packaging. The better than sex mascara is my favourite mascara at the moment and there are so many more items of there's I would love to try. I also cannot wait till the Too Faced x Kat Von D range comes to Debenhams. 

First of all I want to talk about the packaging. I mean the box it comes in looks like chocolate bar packaging and is super cute. You really cannot deny a lot of thought has gone in to it. On the back of the packaging you can see the lines that would be for the foil wrap that would be covering the chocolate. You can also see the shadows and the names and a list of ingredients. When you get the actual the palette itself, its shaped as a chocolate bar. It's a decent size and isn't a bad size for travelling. It has a magnetic close on the palette which I really like. Inside it had a decent mirror so if you are on the go it doesn't warp your face or distort it. I also love that it has the name of the shadows above the actual shadows itself, I just think that is handy. You also receive a little how to guide for some looks using the shadows.

These shadows are made with cocoa powder and for those of you who don't know, these shadows actually smell of chocolate. The smell of this palette is just amazing! It's not super strong which I'm glad and the smell doesn't hang around when you have applied the product to your eyes. 

Now lets talk about the actual shadows themselves. From first impressions the colours look beautiful, they are the sort of colours I wear and I can see a few looks I could create with these. The shadows that really appealed to me are Marzipan, Salted Caramel, Cherry Cordial, Amaretto and Candied Violet. I did a swatch of all the colours before I tested some of them out on a eye look and they all felt smooth and creamy. You can see how my swatches turned out just below:

(Left to Right: Triple Fudge, Black Forest Truffle, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate, Gilded Ganache)

(Left to Right: Amaretto, Candied Violet, Strawberry Bon Bon, Semi-Sweet, Marzipan, Salted Caramel)

(Left to Right: Champagne Truffle, Cherry Cordial, Haute Chocolate, Crème Brulee, Hazelnut)

As you can see some of the swatches are more pigmented than others. White Chocolate and Strawberry Bon Bon were the ones that didn't seem to have much pigment but they may work different on the eye and to be honest, I really doubt I will use Strawberry Bon Bon. It is just a colour I would never wear and it is my least favourite colour from the palette.

The image above is what I created using the shadows. The shades I used were, White Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Cherry Cordial and Crème Brulee. I found the matte shades blended beautifully and with such ease. The only one I had a issue with was white chocolate due to the lack of pigment but that could also be down to me being as pale as a ghost. The shimmer shades I had a little bit of trouble at first but I decided to use a some mac fix+ to give them a bit of a boost and they performed a bit better after that. Personally I prefer the matte shadows as they were to easy to blend and are such beautiful colours. 

Would you recommend this product?

I would recommend this especially for the matte shades and for the smell. If you interested more in the shimmer shades then I suggest having some mac fix+ on hand. Or if you just looking for something different or a collector of make up I feel then you should have this. This palette is on the pricey side but I believe there are dupes of it out there. Too Faced also have a different range of these chocolate palettes now and a peach palette, so if the shades in this palette are not for you then maybe looking at the others or the peach palette. 

If there are any products you would like me to test out and review please let me know.

You can find more Too Faced products at Debenhams.