Makeup Revolution haul! – Part 1: eyeshadow palettes swatches & in depth reviews

So a few weeks ago I got my Makeup Revolution order and I was SO excited to play around with all my new makeup 🙂 Makeup Revolution is a UK based brand with really cheap prices, even after converting to US dollars. Overall, I think some things are VERY much worth the month wait for the makeup, and some things are kind of meh to me.

3 palettes, 4 lippies

This is going to be long and image heavy 🙂

So I ordered 3 palettes: Redemption Palette: Essential Mattes, Redemption Palette: Iconic 3, and Salvation Palette: Girls on Film. Weird names, but I’ll shorten them to Mattes, Iconic 3, and Girls on Film for the sake of review.

the Mattes

I really really needed an all matte palette, which is why I wanted to place this order! It’s a nice mix of colors, despite the first 4 off-whites kind of all looking the same on me. The blue and darker browns are my favorites.

The darker colors are definitely more pigmented. I’ve read some blog reviews that call this palette ‘buttery and smooth’ and I’m not really sold on that description. I think they are all a little dry, especially the palest colors. You can kind of see the dust bits all over the palette from where I was swatching the colors. The strips are also kind of small (about half an inch wide); some of my brushes don’t fit nicely.

I’m really happy to have a matte palette, despite the somewhat dusty colors.

Next is the Iconic 3.

Iconic 3

This is a pinky, golden mix of shimmers and some mattes.

Overall the Iconic 3 has the same dusty problems. I have to be careful not to pick up too much on my brushes, especially of the dark colors, because it gets ALL over during application. These palettes definitely need primer underneath to get better pigmentation! I love this color mix a lot (it was why I bought it) but I do wish the metallics had more pigment and less fall out.

My favorite palette was Girls on Film.

clear film on top labels the colors

a mix of shimmers and mattes

Girls on Film is SO much more pigmented than the other palettes. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t gotten the others once I touched this one. It’s a really lovely mix of shimmers and mattes from dark to light. The mattes in this palette are also more pigmented and show up better on my eye.

I think if you were to take a chance on Makeup Revolution, the best bets are the new Salvation palettes (all of them named after clever songs). These seem to have better pigmentation and I like the size better. Those little strips kind of annoy me haha 🙂

In terms of quality, I would say better than e.l.f. but not as good as Lorac or Urban Decay, like some blogs say. When I was reading reviews to decide what to buy, so many blogs were saying the Iconic 3 was as good as “if not better” than Naked 3. Totally disagree: these are a REALLY nice cheap alternative, but it’s not as buttery. My Stila In the Moment palette still wins my heart for buttery and pigmented metallics.

Maybe if I lived in the UK and got these cheap (and without paying shipping!) I would be more in love. They are really nice drugstore alternatives to really expensive palettes. If I had these a couple of years ago, my opinion would probably be higher, but now that I’ve gotten deeper into the middle end-high end of products, I know that these have room for improvement.

In summary; the Salvation palettes are my favorite and the website itself is chock full of amazing dupes for cheaper prices. But you do get what you pay for! Don’t expect miracle dupes, just nice drugstore products.

This is part 1 or 2. I will do the lip products soon!

Have any questions about the brand or the palettes? Let me know in the comments!

til later lovelies,
xoxo Swatchlette