5 Beauty Products Under £10

You may recall my 5 Beauty Products under £5 post? Well now its time for another, although this time with a slightly bigger budget at £10. The drugstore really have some gems and these particular products are favourites of mine and best of all they can be each be purchased with just one £10 note.

First up are the gorgeous Max Factor Creme Puff blushes. I have one in the shade Gorgeous Berries and gorgeous really does sum it up. These swirly baked blushes are said to be a dupe of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushes which are stunning but expensive so these make a great alternative. Drugstore blushes are never really that appealing if I’m honest but Max Factor have really delivered with these blushes making them one of the best drugstore launches in a long time! Great quality, gorgeous and affordable!

Another great pick from Max Factor is their Excess Shimmer Eyeshadows. These are the perfect drugstore cream eyeshadow with a whipped like creamy texture and bold pigment. Similar to the Maybelline Colour Tattoos but with a much easier and creamier formula. I have two shades, Bronze and Copper which are two gorgeous shimmery shades. The name ‘excess shimmer’ may put people off but seriously there is nothing overly shimmery here, just the perfect amount of shimmer that can be worn on an everyday basis. A really beautiful formula worth picking up!

The Queen of Drugstore Eyebrow Products is of course Soap and Glory. They have a great selection of brow products that could easily rival Benefit and put other drugstore brands to shame. My favourite is of course the Archery pencil which is supposedly a dupe for the Anastasia Brow Wiz? This pencil comes with a pencil end (obviously) and a spoolie end. It is a super quick and easy product to use and creates a much fuller brow but still leaves your brows looking natural and soft.

I finally caved into buying one of the much hyped Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Lipsticks a while back and I am forever lusting after more. As liquid lipsticks really have their moment, Bourjois stole the show with their affordable but quality version. I picked up the shade Hot Pepper, a bright red which has strong pigment and superb lasting power. These have a really nice formula too which glide on smoothly without any stickiness and dry down to a smooth matte finish. Now what shade to get next…

Lastly, I couldn’t do this post without mentioning one of my favourites. The Topshop Glow Pot Highlighter in Polished. Highlighters are one thing that the drugstore has been rather slow at delivering but Topshop have set the bar high and really have produced some glowy gems. This is my favourite from the collection, a creamy based pearly coloured highlighter that gives such a fresh radiant glow. Pressed along the cheekbones, this is just perfect and one you need in your collection.

Are you a fan of any of these products?

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5 Beauty Products Under £5

There is no denying we all love a good bargain, am I right!? Quite often many of us especially myself are guilty of overlooking the sea of options available in the drugstore and instead turn to high end counters with higher expectations and a world of beautiful packaging. Although the drugstore holds so many amazing products at really amazing prices. Today I want to share 5 products to be exact from the drugstore that all come under the £5 mark and all deserve a round of applause!

Barry M Nail Polish – How could I not mention Barry M nail polish! With a wide collection of different shades and top notch formulas all under £5 you really cannot miss out on these wonderful creations! Every-time I pop into Boots I always have to have a little look at the Barry M display. You really don’t need to fork out a lot of money for a good nail polish, the drugstore have great options and Barry M is definitely one of my favourite brands for nails.

Rimmel Stay Blushed Liquid Cheek Tint – This cream/liquid blush from Rimmel really is great value for money! Rimmel are such a great affordable brand and still create really great products, ideal if you are on a budget. I have had this cheek tint for so long now and I still have a lot of product left. For a 14ml tube, you only need a tiny amount of this to create a lovely flush of colour on the cheeks.

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover – Back to nails. This nail polish remover from Bourjois really is a game-changer. For ages now I relied on the old school method of a cotton pad and the usual bottle of nail polish remover then this entered my life and changed everything. It makes life so much easier, you simply put your nail into the pot and twist it around and magic, all the nail polish is removed. It really is magic!

Maybelline Colour Tattoo Cream Gel Eyeshadows – Probably one of my favourite products from the drugstore, if not my favourite. The formula of these are probably one of my favourites too, they are super creamy and glide on to the eyes super easily. The shades are also great and super pigmented! On and On Bronze and Metallic Pomegranate are my two favourites in the line and definitely worth picking up!

Nivea Lip Butter Raspberry Rose – You may know I am a big fan of this after mentioning it in my April Favourites. For only £2, yes I did say £2, this stuff is amazing! The raspberry scent is heavenly but more important the texture is super smooth and soft on the lips. I wear this at night and it keeps my lips super hydrated and moisturised. It really is a great buy!

What are your favourite drugstore products?

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The Spring Lip Edit

 

When it comes to Spring, berry and bold lips are taken aside in favour of peachy corals and pinks in much lighter hues. You may have seen my Spring Edit were I looked into the dewy radiant beauty look fit for Spring but now its time to delve right into some of the lips products I will be reaching for in the much warmer weather. (Each lip product I mention is in order with the swatches from Left to right.)

MAC Shy Girl – I briefly mentioned this one in my Spring Edit post, it is in fact the first ever product I bought from MAC. Its a beautiful nude peachy shade and is in a cremesheen formula which makes it slide easily over the lips. I like a light layer of clear gloss over the top for the perfect spring lip 🙂

Bourjois Colour Boost Lip Crayon Peach on the Beach – I bought this late last year and never got much wear out of it since it was around Autumn time. As the warmer weather has slowly settled in, I dug this one out for a try. Its such a pretty bright coral shade and the formula has a glossy finish. I do find this quite drying on the lips and it can settle into dry patches making it appear a little unfortunate although I have found that slightly patting it into the lips works the best.

MAC Creme Cup – I am having a bit of light pink/nude moment just now. I am already eying up several lip products of similar shades, as if one wasn’t enough! I bought this quite recently and I have been pretty much wearing it non-stop. Its such a beautiful light pink shade that isn’t too pale that it washes you out or too ‘Barbie’. Again this one is a cremesheen formula so is incredibly creamy on the lips, look out for a full review coming soon!

Chanel Rouge Coco Cecile – Of course this beauty was going to make the cut! I am totally in love with this beautiful nude pink shade from Chanel which I reviewed raved about here. The formula of the Chanel lipsticks are truly like no others, beautifully creamy and super hydrating, basically like the qualities of a lip balm but with the pigmentation of a lipstick. I am definitely eying up a few other shades from the line!

Benefit Lolli-balm – Speaking of lip balms, there is no better time than Spring to wear a good tinted balm and I can’t rave enough about my love for these Benefit offerings! The formula of these is super hydrating and nourishing on the lips but the pigmentation is also pretty impressive for a tinted balm. Lolli-balm is of a light pink shade and gives the lips such a lovely boost of colour. I reviewed this one and the Benebalm here.

Topshop Whimsical – Topshop lipsticks are something I am pretty on the fence with if I am honest. I know they are pretty popular but the shades I have feel pretty drying on the lips and aren’t as creamy as MAC offerings. Although the shade Whimiscal is something I am trying to be a little more optimistic about. It is indeed a very pretty bold coral shade, perfect for Spring. I find that similarly to the Bourjois option, this lipstick is much better when patted into the lips acting more of a lip stain as I find it uncomfortable sitting on the lips. Interestingly, my original review here still continues to be my most viewed blog post to date, ooo!

Calvin Klein Delightful – Last but not least, probably the boldest on offering here is from Calvin Klein. This shade is a bold fuchsia pink, one I haven’t got a lot of wear out of. Bold pinks are something I used to wear a lot when I was younger but I haven’t got much wear out of them in recent years but this is definitely a shade I need to pluck up the courage to wear more often! While it is pretty vibrant, its not too in your face which makes this shade a lot more wearable. The formula is also very creamy and even better I got this lipstick for only £1.99 from Fragrance Direct, bargain!

What will you be wearing on your lips this Spring? 

 

 

 

Disappointing Products

I like to think I remain pretty positive particularly on my blog but sadly some products just don’t impress me much (apologies for the Shania Twain connection). Speaking of which, today I am going to talk a little on some of those products. Now when it comes to beauty, everyone has different preferences and some things suit others better so I am sorry if I am about to slag off your holy grail product! Anyway here are my picks of the not so impressing products (for me anyway).

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation – Now I have mentioned this one before and I know a lot of people love it but sadly it just didn’t work well with my skin. Sometimes it would sit okay and others it just failed on me. It seemed to stick to my dry patches, it didn’t last long and I felt like it was slightly difficult to blend in to a good finish.

Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder & Highlighter – Again I know this bronzer is a favourite of many but again I just didn’t get on with it. I don’t know whether I got a bad product or its always like this but I found this pretty unusable. Both the bronzer and highlighter are really stiff in the pan. My finger doesn’t pick up the bronzer at all and while it does for the highlighter, my brush doesn’t pick up the product. Other than that it smells pretty damn amazing which is probably the reason why I haven’t chucked this one yet!

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer – I’ve spoke briefly on this one too here and again its a pretty hyped up favourite by many. It just didn’t offer me the coverage I needed for my heavily blemished and red skin. It was really cakey as well in my opinion and just stuck to dry patches and the lasting claim never really happened for me either.

Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser – Sorry for the repetitiveness as I know I have mentioned my dislike for this one too. I love my primers but this one just didn’t quite cut it. It felt really greasy on my skin and never did anything for my pores. I didn’t really feel like it helped pro-long the wear of my makeup much either which is what I look for in a primer.

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner – Being a lover of eyeliner pens like the style of this one from Eyeko, I was pretty excited to receive this in the Latest in Beauty box. However after first use attempt I was pretty disappointed. It’s not easy trying to master the cat flick with eyeliner so I always felt using pen style liners were much easier but this one left me in a struggle. It was so difficult to apply that I actually had to swap back to my trusty Soap and Glory Supercat to finish the look. It didn’t apply smoothly and felt like it was dragging my eyelid, I wanted to like it but it was just far too difficult to apply.

Benefit They’re Real Push Up Liner – Yep another eyeliner and pretty much the same reasoning. I absolutely love Benefit, they hardly ever let me down and being a huge fan of the mascara from this line I got quite excited to receive this in one of the Christmas gift sets. I have heard many reviews of this one saying its a bit like marmite, some love it and some hate it. Sadly, I’m in the latter category, I just couldn’t work this, it was too difficult to apply and it wouldn’t give me the smooth line I was after.

The Body Shop Tea Tree Pore Minimiser – Another disappointing primer. Again I couldn’t really see what this did for my pores at all and I don’t think it really did much to help improve the base of my makeup. The tea tree scent does feel fresh on the skin but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

Are you a fan of any of these products?

 

 

February Favourites

I don’t think I can quite believe that its March already! I think thats my starting line for every favourites posts but hey time goes fast! Anyway if you seen my favourites last month you may recall my lack of makeup but now since I’m back at uni and have some sort of life now I have been picking up a few newbies over the month and getting back to my usual makeup routine.

The Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil – You may recall seeing this before in a review I did which you can check out here. I love this cleanser. Long are the days of removing my makeup with wipes and a damp cloth (extravagant, I know!). This cleanser is perfect, it removes every trace of my makeup and makes my skin feel fab as well as being a good affordable option at £10!

Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Red Pepper – When it comes to liquid lipsticks I have always been put off. I don’t like the idea of putting something wet and sticky on my lips which is why I keep my lip-gloss use to a minimum and why I never really wanted to purchase this in the first place. As usual though due to phenomenal hype by so many bloggers I caved and bought it and I love it. It is super long lasting and is such a beautiful bright red which is great for daily wear.

Benefit Roller Lash – I apologize in advance if you are sick of hearing about this little gem which is Benefit’s new release. I don’t want to say too much as I may touch upon this one a little later but its probably one of the best mascaras I’ve ever used! It really does what it says on the tin!

ASOS earrings – Earrings are something I wear on a daily basis (oh the irony of not wearing any right now) and I always get sick of wearing the same basic boring earrings all the time until I seen what asos had to offer. I seen Suzie from Hello October mention these earrings in a haul and had to snap them up! They are just so different and I have had so many compliments on them, they are just fab and I have my eye on a few more from asos!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover – When it comes to nail polish removing its just no fun! I hate the tedious and boring job of having to remove nail polish that just wont budge. I heard a lot about this remover and picked it up and oh my has my life transformed! This really is magic, you simply stick your nail in the pot and give it a twist around and out it comes with no sign of nail polish, wow!

What have you been loving lately? 

 

Makeup Haul: Soap and Glory, MAC, Bourjois etc.

 

So last week I did a little spot of shopping particularly to buy some makeup that I had been luring over for ages and I would like to share with you all the items I purchased. Most of the makeup I purchased from Boots which had great deals which I fully took advantage of! and I also visited House of Fraser and Topshop. Below is a little description of the items I purchased *warning long post ahead* and hopefully soon I may post some reviews/swatches on the products once I have used them a bit more.

I used to be one of those people who never bothered with eyeshadow, I always would stick to my trusty mascara and that was it really however recently I have jumped on the bandwagon and I now do love a little shimmery pop of colour on my eyelids. After using powder eyeshadow for a while I found it quite useless and felt as if it never really stood out on my eyes so after hearing many great reviews on Maybelline’s Color Tattoo I thought I would try them out. Boots had a great offer of 3 for 2 so I purchased 3: Pink Gold, On and On Bronze and Timeless Black. After trying them out a few times I have to say they are absolutely fantastic, the colour and application is long lasting and looks amazing. Thats that checked off my wish list! £.5.99 each.

Bourjois also had a 3 for 2 offer in Boots which I also took advantage of! Firstly, I bought the Bourjois Colour Boost Lip Crayon in 04 Peach on the Beach shade which I originally intended to buy. This is actually my first ever lip crayon ( I am late I know!) and this was £7.99. I haven’t actually properly used this yet so I can’t say much about it other than it is a great colour.

I also purchased Bourjois Effect 3D clear gloss as part of the 3 for 2 offer. I am not really one for lip gloss however I thought I would buy a clear one to create a different look over lipstick and to give my lips a bit of shine. It works great and is pretty long lasting, it also has a nice brush applicator. That was also £7.99.

And lastly from Bourjois I bought their Delice de Poudre Duo (bronzing powder and highlighter) for £7.99. I have heard many amazing reviews on their bronzer and I really couldn’t resist especially since it looks like chocolate and even smells like it *heart eyes emoji*.

I have really been in need of a good liquid concealer after having no luck really using the sticks so I purchased the blogging fave Collection’s lasting Perfection concealer. I bought this in the lightest shade Fair and it cost a great £4.19 and it really does a great overall job. Great buy!

And lastly from Boots I took quite an interest in the Soap and Glory makeup collection which was on a buy one get one half price offer which of course I took high advantage of buying four products. I was in need of a new bronzer and I really liked the idea of the multi-shade shimmer brick called Wonderbronze which looks really cute and comes in a mirror compact. The shades are all quite varied so you can stick to one or go for a sweep of them all for a sunkissed look. This was £11. I also purchased the Supercat eyeliner pen for an amazing £6 ( well £3 on the deal). I am quite the beginner when it comes to eyeliner and this has to be my favorite eyeliner, its incredibly easy to use, its long lasting and glides on easy. I then also picked up the Archery eyebrow tint and shaping pencil which I have heard great reviews for. My eyebrows are in the need for a little bit of shaping and I hate eyebrow pencils but when I seen this I thought I would give it a try and I’m glad I did. Its easy to use and makes my brows look a lot tidier and still natural. I picked up the Brownie Points shade and this was £10 (£5 on the deal). And lastly from Soap and Glory I bought Its About Prime ( nice little pun there) eyeshadow primer for £8. I never really used eyeshadow primer before but this stuff is great and my eyeshadow has stayed on perfectly in long hours with no creasing. Overall I cannot wait to go and pick up more from the Soap and Glory makeup line, their stuff is fantastic!

I then took a trip to the MAC counter at House of Fraser to pick up the Shy Girl Cremesheen lipstick for £15.50. Believe it or not but this is actually my very first MAC lipstick and I was in need of a nude shade and I really liked the look of Shy Girl so I purchased it and I am still very impressed. Its a great lipstick for day-to-day wear and looks great with a bit of clear gloss over it to shine it up. Love it and I will definitely be back at MAC for another shade.

And Finally I went to Topshop to buy their highlighter Glow Stick in shade Play up. I had been looking for a highlighter recently and since highlighting and contouring has only recently started to be popular there isn’t a lot of drug store brands that have released a highlighter of some sort. Despite already purchasing the powder from Bourjois I had my heart set on this Topshop twisty stick which I love. Its easy to use and has a great appearance on the skin. This was £10.