This month I’ve been tying to squeeze that last little morsel of foundation out of its tube, sticking my mascaras in a mug of hot water and sharpening my eye liners into teeny tiny stubs – that must mean a make-up haul is well over due! Do I stay with my favourite products or take a gamble and experiment with new brands, products and colours? As I countdown those last frustratingly slow days until payday there are a few products that have really caught my eye; and then there’s the ones I can actually afford – it’s just payday, I haven’t won the lottery! Here’s Septembers ultimate wishlist…
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Bobbi Brown Vs. Sleek |
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I’m completely lusting over Bobbie Browns Smoky Nude Eye Palette.. well I lust over all their products actually but retailing at £48 I can guarantee it’s one product that won’t be in my shopping basket this month. I will however be trying Sleek Divine Eye Shadow Palette in Au Naturel (available from Superdrug). Sleek is a low budget beauty brand featured heavily in beauty blogs right now due to it’s reasonable prices and stunning pallets. With the cult classic ‘Naked’ pallet from Urban Decay retailing for around £37.00 more and more highstreet brands are starting to copy it’s trademark colour combinations at a fraction of the price. I can’t wait to see if this one lives up to the hype! This retails at £7.99 and definitely wins the battle of the eye shadows this month.
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Elf Vs Benefit
Elf is another high quality, low budget brand and is available to buy online in the UK at eyeslipsface.co.uk. I was really impressed with their range of cosmetics; mineral powders, eye shadow pallets, foundation, primers, and all are beautifully packaged; at a glance they look as professional as some premium brands. The Complete Coverage Concealer (£3.95) is just one in a whole list of products i’m dying to try out! But be warned a lot of the sites bestsellers sell out quick so get in their fast and grab a bargain!
On the other hand Benefits boi-ing concealer (£17.50) is the one product in my whole make-up stash that I keep religiously buying – i’m NEVER without it. £17.50 sounds steep for such a tiny tub but a little of this industrial strength concealer goes along way. I’ll give the Elf concealer ago if it’s in stock otherwise it’s off to the benefit counter come this Friday!
Clinique Vs Elf Vs MUA
I love Clinique products but I’m not so keen on their prices. I’ve been wanting their blusher (£22) for some time now but realistically I’d rather invest this money on a high quality foundation and buy MUA powder blusher for £1 as it’s coverage and colour are of surprisingly high quality and I bet nobody would know the difference but me! Elf’s blusher also retails at £2.50 and i’ll love to give this a try at some point too. Think this round definitely goes to the low budget beauty brands.
Yves Saint Laurent Vs L’Oreal Vs Benefit
There’s a few products I’m willing to pay more for and that’s foundation and mascara. The contenders so far are – Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effect Babydoll £24.50, Benefit They’re Real £19.50 and L’Oreal Volume Million Lashes Excess £10.99. All three featured on Cosmos 10 Best Mascaras of 2014 with Babydoll having the highest ranking. I love Benefits They’re Real, it really does lengthen, curl, volumise and separates lashes. The only down side I found is that it’s quite tricky to remove at the end of the day and I sacrificed a number of lashes in the process. The only YSL product I’ve used is their infamous Touche Eclat, which I was obviously seriously impressed with. I know its very pricey but it maybe worth a try as I seem to be continually disappointed with cheaper highstreet brands – this may be a good investment? And finally Million Lashes by Loreal, the cheapest of the three has a brilliant reputation and it promises a luxurious fanned out effect… very unsure about this! Any advice in the comment box below would be extremely helpful!
Estee Lauder Vs Clinique Vs Bare Minerals
And finally the battle of the foundations – cult classic Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup at £29.50, newbie BareSkin Pure Brightening Serum Foundation by Bare Minerals at £26 and my usual and most of all favourite Clinique Stay Matte Oil-Free Make-up £22.50. Estee Lauder’s Double Wear continually wins beauty wards and regularly features on the best foundation lists in Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Glamour. New kid on the block BareSkin has been receiving rave reviews online also. I do love Clinique’s Stay Matte though… why ruin a good thing? Definitely have to do more investigating and testing at the beauty counters this weekend!
So realistically i’ll probably splurge on one of two premium items (foundation & mascara are looking most likely) and pick up a few bargains along the way… but a girl can dream. What would be at the top of your ultimate wishlist?
Any marvelous new products you think I’ve overlooked?
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