Makeup Revolution London Iconic 3 Palette

As a beauty product tester with Product Testing UK, I'm lucky enough to trial products of interest to me and was extremely excited to receive one of the Makeup Revolution London Iconic 3 Palettes*, which I've heard credited in the beauty blogging community as exact dupes for the Urban Decay Naked Palettes. With a price tag of £4 each compared to UD's rather hefty £37 each, how do they stack up against their more expensive twin?


With four eyeshadow palettes in the collection - Iconic Dreams, Iconic 1, Iconic 2 and Iconic 3 - if you're familiar with the Urban Decay offerings, you'll without a doubt be able to spot the practically identical similarities between those and the numbered Iconic palettes. I own the original Urban Decay Naked Palette and the corresponding Makeup Revolution London palette (Iconic 1) is pretty much exactly the same in terms of shades - see The Scottish Doll's comparison post here for side-by-side swatches - and from what I've seen online, the second and third MURL palettes are just as close in colour to the second and third UD originals. I had little interest in the third Naked palette as I'm not a fan of pink or purple toned eyeshadows on me, and much prefer neutral shades that can be found in the first and second predecessors. That said however, it was a nice change to try this dupe and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the mix of colours.

It definitely wasn't love at first swatch with this product at all - when I ran my ring finger along the shimmery pink shade (second from left) I picked up a lot of what looked like a highly pigmented eyeshadow, but when I swatched it on the back of my hand no colour transferred at all and there was almost nothing there apart from a tiny hint of glitter. Never one to give up at the first hurdle however, I then applied the product using a combination of a flat synthetic eyeshadow brush for the base and a tapered synthetic blending brush for the crease, and the result was a hundred times better; smooth application, no fall-out whatsoever and a satisfactory finish akin to the overall look of the Naked palettes.

(From L/H side of palette: 02 shimmery pink shade on lid, 07 matte lilac-toned shade in crease, 08 pearl taupe shade on lower lash line)

I created eyeshadow looks with these both in the day with and without primer and in the 
evening with and without primer, and found that they lasted a decent amount of time. Although there was a little creasing after a few hours, that's more down to the fact that I have oily lids and no shadows that I've tried last particularly well on me. I love that there's a nice mix of three matte shades along with nine shimmer and pearl shades, although I think that the palette is missing a nice highlight - the first matte shade is light enough and works well on the brow bone, but I prefer my inner corner highlight to have a pretty sheen to it. 

The dual ended sponge applicators that come with affordable palettes are normally rubbish so there's nothing new there, but this one is particularly pants - I used it to apply shadow on my lower lashline for the sake of this review and some black pigment actually came out of the sponge and transferred onto my skin, giving me an unintentional smudgy smokey eye! When I used my own makeup brushes however, I had no problems whatsoever.

Overall, I think these are a fantastic little purchase if you've been lusting after the Urban Decay Naked palettes but don't want to shell out almost £40, as let's be honest - these have clearly been created as copies or 'dupes' and I'll definitely be picking up the Iconic 2 whilst I make my mind up whether I really need the high-end original. As I already own the first UD palette I don't need the Iconic 1 palette, and although the quality is impressive for the price of £4 I do think that you get much better quality with Urban Decay, as their shadows are so beautifully buttery soft and genuinely some of the best I've ever tried.

Have you tried anything or have any recommendations from Makeup Revolution London? Would you choose to save on these palettes or splurge on Urban Decay?

Meg

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Any items marked with an (*) were gifted to me. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are 100% my own and honest - please see my full disclaimer here for more information.