Eyeshadow base budget comparison

So... as I'm completely skint these days (after leaving the family home, getting married and having to look after myself), I've decided to try and be a bit more choosy about makeup products.

I sometimes wonder if high price really means high quality in the cosmetic industry. Or is it a bit like jeans - all made in the same factory with different labels put on them?

After a phase of spending big on products, I've decided to go proper "budget", because I literally will not be able to do anything enjoyable if I spend all my money on makeup.

One of my staple makeup bag products is an eye shadow base coat in a white or ivory colour. I ran out of my No 17 one (which I didn't think was that good) so I put out a request on twitter for some suggestions. Someone recommended Urban Decay shadows, but honestly, I cannot afford £14 for an eyeshadow. That's like 14 loaves of bread lol

So I called into Superdrug. Not looking at the brand names, I was just looking for a nice ivory shadow with a touch of shimmer. I came across the MUA and Accessorize concessions. They both had decent looking Ivory shadows. The MUA one was £1! And the Accessorize shadow was about £2.99 or something ridulously cheap. I bought both - why not for that price?


The first one I tried was the MUA shadow. It's quite metallicy, so I would guess I'd prefer to wear this one in the evening. It probably wasn't subtle enough for me for day time. Although it did make a nice colour to layer browns etc. on top.

With a base coat, I normally cover my whole eye completely from lash to my eyebrow. This way, you've kind of added a highlighter to your brow (if it has some shimmer).

Throughout the day, I did realise that the shadow had creased, so not really ideal, but I was still happy enough with it for the price.

I hadn't expected to like the colour of the Accessorize shadow as much. It looked to have a gold tinge to it, but in fact it was more subtle and less metallic than the MUA shadow. This is more what I was looking for. It made my eye look quite smooth and evened out before applying some browns to create a smokey eye. I was quite surprised, as it blended really well with my eye shadows.

In contrast to the MUA shadow, there were no problems with creasing or wearing off. I'm quite happy with the Accessorize shadow. I will still use the MUA Shadow. Admittedly I have never used an expensive eyeshadow, so I can't compare them at all for you. I'm happy to use the budget version and be oblivious to what's out there on the higher end of the market. If I tried an expensive one, I'd probably like it too much :)

Have you tried any of these products? Are you a fan of more expensive eyeshadows? I 'd love to know the difference :)