Makeup Geek Pigment Review - Utopia & Insomnia
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Pre-apologies for the super long post!
I remember I first heard about these pigments when I received an email from Makeup Geek announcing the launch.
Without hesitation I jumped straight onto the site, watch the quick video Marlena posted about the pigments describing the first 6 available colours and then snapped up Utopia and Insomnia before they sold out! the crazy thing is, normally I would research and read a million reviews and check out a tonne of swatches, but Marlena's video explaining that these two particular pigments were dupes for shades from Mac (Reflects Antique Gold and Blue Brown) both of which I had been dying to try, sold me straight away.
The pigments come in low stack jars with approximately 2g of product for $6.99 each and the ingredients lists are available on the MUG store site.
On to the pigments!! Mwuhahahah! (Don't know why I evil laughed there)
Utopia - this to me is like the chunky peanut butter of the pigment world. Super tasty and super chunky. Its essentially a mega-glitter pigment with the majority of the texture being compromised of heavier glitter particles that in the jar seemed to bond together in large clumps due to whatever binder has been used in the formula.
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| Utopia: chunky, chunky glitter! |
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| fall out goes everywhere - even just opening the lid |
When swatched heavily you can see how the particles separate out in a relatively smooth layer thanks to the binder, however beware - there is still a quantum fuck tonne of fallout >.> . When blended out Utopia separates even further into smaller glitter particles that produce a lovely understated sheer wash of gold glitter - far less intimidating than the chunky peanut butter in the jar. All these swatches are over bare skin.
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left: heavy swatch on dry skin, middle: sheer/blended swatch,
right: chunky peanut butter straight from the jar, all indirect sunlight
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| same as above with flash |
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| blurred out to show the finer glitter particles within the pigment |
You can see TFSI helps the glitter smooth out into a very respectable richly warmed, gold-toned shimmer with fine glitter throughout. It also allows Utopia to sheer out on the edges when blended to a lovely barley there gold whisper.
However with Pixie Epoxy its more like..... WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME BiTCHEZ!! Super gilded, extra dirty, metallic foiled crunchy goodness - ohyeah! Here we can see the true colour shown in the pot. My tip for applying this with PE is too pat, pat, pat it on. Resist the urge to wipe or drag. RESIST!! Also let the PE semi dry otherwise Utopia will get stuck to your brush/finger instead of your facial area.
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Utopia: Indirect light left: over PE in all it's gilded glory
right: over TFSI a much more ladylike golden shimmer
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| tilted light shows Utopia's gorgeously dark base full of micro glitters of gold |
To sum up I'm extremely happy I impulsed bought this shade, even though she's a fussy wench of a pigment. The versatility of Utopia's texture means it can be worn at dinner with the in-laws paired with pearls or a steamy night at the club paired with a micro-skirt. This reason alone makes it a keeper in my make up bag.
Next up, Insomnia!
From chunky peanut butter to silky smooth whipped cream, Insomnia is night and day in texture to Utopia. Applied to bare skin with a just a finger, its smooth as silk, lightweight as a feather and densely pigmented with no fallout. The colour pay off its fan-freakin'-tastic. It's also one of the few eyeshadows that can withstand my ridiculously oily eyelids for more than 3hrs with no primer.
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| Insomnia - rust brown/aqua blue duochrome by MUG |
Insomnia was created by Marlena as a dupe for Blue Brown pigment by MAC and I think she not only nailed it, but produce a better product. The iconic duochrome the shadow is named for is spectacular in Insomnia, ranging from chocolate brown to rust, to aqua, to cyan to purple, the shift is easily visible and vibrant through all it's stages. It blends beautifully to a soft rust brown with just a sparkle of aqua duochrome sheen, making it very wearable.
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Insomnia: indirect light, bare skin. left: sheer and blended out,
right: single stroke heavy swatch
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While I rarely bother to wear this over primer, below you can see it swatched over TFSI and PE. I find TFSI doesn't create any drastic difference apart from longevity and needing maybe one less swipe for a heavily applied layer. While PE kind of destroys the integrity of Insomnia's already lush texture, making it thicker/paste-like and heavier - I would not recommend using it with PE.
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| Insomnia in indirect sunlight: left over Pixie Epoxy, right over TFSI |
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| Insomnia in indirect shaded sunlight: left: over Pixie Epoxy, right: over TFSI |
I like to place a neutral matte brown shadow in the crease and then slapdash Insomnia all over the lid with only a second thought to blending the two for a quick and easy yet complex looking smoky eye, that's day time friendly but can translate seamless into night with just some black eye liner and few more licks of mascara. Again I'm pleased as punch that I impulsed bought this shade and it also lives alongside Utopia in my make up bag.
For those interested, at this point in time I believe there's 15 shades available, all at the MUG store. A heads up though, the containers don't come with sifters inside so they are incredibly messy when opened!
2 comments
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pretty, ! definately need to get my hand on some of those pigments!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I got them! They definitely have one of the best formulas I've ever tried for pigments, and Insomnia is just so super creamy and smooth - there's a couple of other shades I definitely want to get as well :)
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