Much as I can be a sucker for anything pretty, packaged, and pricey, I do love discovering gems that aren't expensive, primarily because as a student on a limited budget, I'd have to starve myself for a month before I could even bear to entertain the thought of buying a Chanel eyeshadow. I have to admit, with my makeup obsession, I'd be tempted to do that, but I know that with my lousy sense of self-control (hence my immense stash of makeup and nail polish), I wouldn't even be able to starve myself for 5 minutes. So I usually attempt the cheapskate tactic of buying drugstore instead. Fortunately, there are plenty of awesome but inexpensive items out there to keep a girl on the budget happy.
Enter
Beauty21, a cheap and cheerful online retailer that also dispenses advice on the side. In addition to being a retailer, they have an "Ask the Expert" section, courtesy of established makeup artist Sara Hill (an actual makeup artist! Not some badly-informed customer service personnel like some other companies *coughMACcough*), and they also have some interesting articles on their site. And shipping is cheap - local shipping within the UK is a mere £1.50, and overseas shipping is £4. That's a serious bonus for me - being a major cheapskate, I can't tell you how many times I've passed over a deal because I didn't want to pay shipping!
And since I've just admitted to being an I-want-that-deal-but-I-don't-wanna-pay-shipping cheapskate, my favourite section in the entire store is OF COURSE the 3 for £10 section (located
HERE), encompassing a range of drugstore brands that contains a good array of drugstore products from staple brands (Rimmel, Maybelline, Bourjois, Sally Hansen), covering pretty much all the basics - lipglosses, eyeshadows, mascara, blush, and some nail treatments. I like it; it works out to be cheaper than waiting for the items to go on sale at Superdrug, and you get to mix and match across different brands, which rarely happens during drugstore sales. Some of the items are still in stores (like the Sally Hansen nail treatments, so if you're a regular user of any one of those it's probably cheaper to buy three at a go and stock up), and some of the items aren't carried in drugstores anymore, which is pretty cool if you like finding things you can't easily get in stores.
And since I wanted to prove that beauty doesn't have to cost a bomb, here's a demonstration of what you can get for your £10 in Beauty21's 3-for-£10 section:
I know! Isn't that adorable? It's a pocket-sized eyeshadow duo by the staple brand of European drugstores, Bourjois. This is the Petite Guide de Style Perfect Harmony Shadow and Contour palette. It contains two coordinated colours that you can use in a variety of ways to make your eyes pop. I got the colour 16, Crazy Baby.
Isn't that cute? I know you're going to want to see a picture of the inside of this little palette too, so here you are:
This duo consists of a shimmery vanilla colour and a forest-y ivy green colour. Isn't it pretty?
And it even comes with a tiny little mirror. I'm not sure how useful a mirror if this size is, but gosh it's cute:
That's only one out of three items though. The next item I got was Rimmel's Extra Super Lash Mascara:
And here is a close-up of the brush. This is your typical mascara brush with a tapered end:
And for the last item, my personal favourite, Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipgloss in Mauve Addiction. You know I love mauvey, rosy lipgloss shades, so this is definitely up my alley:
And a look at the brush. This brush is pretty interesting, and I don't think I've seen a brush like this one yet. It's a modified doefoot applicator, where both sides of the applicator can be used to apply the gloss to your lips, instead of just one side like your typical doefoot. I think that's kinda cool.
That photograph shows just one side of the applicator. The other side is also similarly slanted to allow you to apply lipgloss with both sides, instead of one. Nothing groundbreaking, but pretty nifty. Then again, doefoot applicators are my favourite, so I'm biased.
Of course, it would be immensely cruel of me to post pictures of these items and not show you how they look once applied. So, I did an EOTD and an LOTD using the products above!
Here's my EOTD. I have to admit I cheated on this one, and supplemented it with a brown shade from the Sleek iDivine Safari Palette. But you get the idea:
The highlight and lid shades were from the Bourjois Crazy Baby duo, the crease/contour colour is a shimmery dark brown from the Sleek Safari Palette (for those of you who want to know exactly which shade it is, it's the shade all the way at the bottom right corner). And then I lined with Stila Smudgepot in Jade. The mascara is Rimmel Extra Super Lash.
Not too shabby eh? I did find that the Bourjois duo was not particularly pigmented - it was decent, but required a couple of layers for the colour to be true to pan. The shimmery vanilla shade was also less pigmented than the ivy green shade, but it's nothing that is too difficult to work with. I did notice that the instructions said you can use the shades wet, though, so perhaps if foiled they might be more vibrant, but I didn't try them on wet. These were all worn dry. I really should try out the ivy green wet though, it looks like it could be gorgeous when wet.
The mascara was just okay for me. I wore it a few times, and I think it's better at adding length than it is at adding volume. It was decent, but not spectacular. I think it might work best on girls who have lashes that are numerous but short. Of course, mascara is very user-dependent, and one person's holy grail can be another person's trash bin item (case in point: Maybelline Full n'Soft mascara. It's universally loved, but did jack squat for me). It does generally seem to get good reviews, though, which is why I tried it in the first place. *Mutters* Stupid wimpy Asian lashes...Makes finding a mascara so hard...*Kicks a rock* The consistency of this mascara is also on the wetter side, so I do think this will get better with more use as it dries up slightly and takes on a more creamy consistency.
Wear time on both items was pretty good. I wore this EOTD out for one day, and at the end of the day I experienced neither smudging nor creasing, and only slight fading. The mascara stayed put and didn't smudge. They actually fared better than I expected!
Anyway, on to the lipgloss! I somehow knew I would love this by just looking at the picture on Beauty21's website, and what do you know, I was right! Do I have lipgloss telepathy or what?
First, here's a picture of my naked lips, just so you can see how beautiful the lipgloss is and really appreciate it on me:
So now that I've made you suffer by looking at my naked lips, here is what Mauve Addiction looks like on:
Isn't it a beauty? I totally hearts this. It's a beautiful glossy wearable shade of mauve. When Rimmel called these Stay Glossy, they weren't kidding - these are really glossy! I can imagine these looking totally awesome with matte makeup everywhere else - the glossiness of the lips will contrast the matte makeup nicely. And I generally hate glitter in my lip products with a passion, but the glitter in this one doesn't show up much at all, so I think it's still work-appropriate. I also really like the formula of the lipglosses - they are similar to the Revlon Super Lustrous lipglosses, but slightly more tacky, which is a plus for me, because I do find the Revlons a little bit too "wet" for my liking, and wears off a little too fast. But they're similar enough, so if you liked the Super Lustrous range, you'd probably like this too.
In terms of weartime, these were pretty good, as far as lipglosses of this nature get. They didn't last past a meal (but then again I've yet to find one that does), but they definitely lasted longer than the Super Lustrous did on me, and they basically stayed on as long as I didn't eat. I really like this gloss, and the Nude Signature colour looks really pretty too...
For £10, I feel this isn't bad at all. It's almost a complete look - all we're missing is the blush. What do you think? Good value for £10?
(The three featured products were sent to me for review. I am not paid for this review. This review is my full and honest opinion.)
