Barry M (available here)

One of the best brands to pick up whilst in the UK as it still isn’t too widely available everywhere else, their Dazzle Dust are quite underrated if you love shimmery shadow but their nail paints are a must try and very affordable. They offer everything from nail care to glitter and gel effect polishes.

Bourjois (available here)

Available quite readily in Europe Bourjois has really high quality products at great prices. Although their foundations break me out I think they are a great drugstore option for anyone that doesn’t have sensitive skin. Their blushers are some of my absolute favourites but their concealers and lipsticks are also worth a look.

Collection (available here)

Very affordable drugstore brand, I personally find the Lasting Perfection Concealer a little drying but it’s very affordable and highly rated by so many people that it’s a must try.

Gosh (available here)

Surprisingly this was the hardest brand for me to pick a top product from, everything is nice but there isn’t really anything I can’t live without. Other than the Velvet liners, the lipsticks and blushers are also both really nice.

L’Oreal (available here)

L’Oreal True Match foundation is an absolute must have with a nice colour selection but the liners, neutral eyeshadow palettes and lipsticks are also worth picking up.

Makeup Revolution (available here)

Known for offering affordable alternative to cult beauty products, their palettes and lipsticks are great alternatives to highend brands.

MaxFactor (available here)

Although I love the whole range, no other drugstore brand offers better volumising mascaras than MaxFactor, I don’t have a particular favourite but all the ones I have tried have been great.

Maybelline (available here)

Great all round brand but the Instant Eye Eraser is a great alternative to highend concealers and I would quite happily swap my usual cocnealer for it. I also really like Dream Flawless Nude Foundation, Brow Satin Eye Pencil and their Color Sensational Lipsticks.

Models Own (available here)

Models Own started by offering nail polishes and I still think it’s what they do best. My favourite colours are Beach Bag and Utopia although their Hypergel and glitters are generally great ranges.

MUA (available here)

Anther super inexpensive UK beauty brand, their eyeshadow palettes are also great value for money!

Real Techniques (available here)

Probably my favourite brush brand, their original collection is still by far my favourite along with their sponge, I would personally skip the bold metals collection (although they look beautiful) as they’re pricier and not as soft.

Revlon (available here)

Revlon is a great brand for almost everything and it has quite a makeup artist feel to it. If you like lip crayons then Revlon do the best affordable ones.

Rimmel (available here)

Theres so many great items from Rimmel, the whole Exaggerate range is excellent, I love their lipsticks and I reach for their foundations and concealers regularly.

Sleek Makeup (available here)

Has a special place in my heart as I use to blog about Sleek endlessly when I first started blogging. Palettes, blushers and Matte Me in Birthday Suit are all well loved in my collection.

Soap & Glory (available here)

Slightly higher price point in comparison for drugstore products but I adore their body products. Other great product include Brow Archery, Supercat liner and Thick & Fast Mascara

Topshop (available here)

Not strictly drugstore as it’s available only in Topshop stores but a great price point. All the lip products, blushers, bronzers and nail polishes I have tried have been fab but the glow highlighter has to be the best cream affordable one I own.

Would love to hear your drugstore recommendation in the comments, are there any drugstore secrets I am missing?

There are very few brands that can really do this to me, I am so fortunate to have more than enough makeup but there’s something about the Charlotte Tilbury range that really makes me happier than any other (along with Tom Ford and MAC). That said here’s my quick guide on what to buy and what you can possibly skip from the CT.

The first product I ever got from the range was a Colour-coded eyeshadow quad in Dolce Vita for Christmas2014 and this palette is now my absolute favourite quad! I can’t recommend the quads highly enough, they’re beautifully packaged with a useful mirror, the colours are perfectly selected, they’re creamy and blendable- just perfect! Dolce Vita is my absolute favourite but Golden Goddess is a close second and Vintage Vamp is stunning too.

I recently added her Colour Chameleon (Bronzed Garnet), Nocturnal Cat Eyeshadow (in The Huntress) and Rock ‘N’ Kohl (in Amber Moon) eyeliner to my collection. The Colour Chameleons are really lovely and creamy, with very wearable shades. I personally don’t love eyeshadow crayons but if you do these are a great option. I reach for mine on a regular basis as I use it to line my lower lash liner and it’s the perfect product to do this with. The Nocturnal Cat Eyeshadow came as a duo with the Rock ‘n’ Kohl and they’re probably one of the few CT products I would skip, don’t get me wrong, they’re nice but nothing overly special. The single eyeshadow isn’t as creamy as the quads and I find that the shimmer is also a little denser, the eyeliners are nice but I think you get get some which are just as nice from the drugstore.

Onto lips, I only have two lipstick and a lip liner. The Lip Cheat (lip liner) I have is in Pillow Talk which is probably her most famous, the colour is a perfect nude and I really do think it helps give a plump look to the lips. The lipsticks are also amazing, I love their rose gold packaging and the quality of the actual product is one of the best I own. I have Red Carpet Red which is a Matte Revolution (review here), very glam, true red and Hepburn Honey which is part of the Kissing range, warm toned peachy nude.

I had the Filmstar Bronze & Glow for a really long time but it is pretty pricey at £49. When I first got it I wasn’t wow’d but the more I use it the more I love it, it’s a really easy to use, natural but still beautiful contour and highlight palette. That said it’s still almost £50 which isn’t cheap, if I were to break it I probably wouldn’t run out to replace it, despite the fact I use it almost daily. I don’t have the Powder & Sculpt brush which I have heard makes this product particularly amazing.

I hadn’t heard much about the blushers before I got the Cheek to Chic in Sex On Fire, the quality is beautiful; finely milled, as pigmented as I’d like and buttery soft but this shade just isn’t quite right for me.

I also tried the Brow Lift a while back and really loved it, the Feline Flick is also really nice but just didn’t last long enough for me to justify a repurchase.

I’m hoping to add more incredible Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks to my collection over the next few months as well as try the Magic Foundation which has been top of my wishlist since it launched. Would love some CT recommendations in the comments and to hear your thoughts on the range.

 

Nothing excites me more than a brand new Makeup Revolution release.. what can I say? I’m an addict. When I saw that they’d launched a collection of matte blushes, I was extremely excited to try them, especially as I don’t like shimmery blushes. The Makeup Revolution Matte Blusher Collection consists of six shades, with each shade costing just £3 which is insane as each of these blushes contain a very generous 8.9 grams of product.

 

 I really love the packaging of these blushes.. slim, circular plastic compacts with clear lids so you can easily see which shade is which. The packaging feels very sturdy, and has a nice and secure closure so I’d be more than happy to carry one of these in my makeup bag without worrying about it getting broken or opening and getting damaged.

 

I really like the range of shades they’ve chosen for the collection, as they’ve not gone for the typical pinks and peaches.. there is genuinely a shade for all skintones, and as you can see from the photos above, there’s some seriously bright shades which you rarely see within the drugstore and certainly not at £3 a pop. I really hope they extend the shade range even more, and perhaps consider ‘duping’ some of the crazy shades within the new Urban Decay Afterglow Blush Collection.. I’d love to see Makeup Revolution create a purple blush like Urban Decay’s Bittersweet.

 

 

All six shades of the Makeup Revolution Matte Blusher Collection are incredibly pigmented and you only need to tap your brush into each blush very gently as the pigment is so strong. The blushes all feel really silky and smooth, with an almost velvety consistency which only kicks up a little bit of excess powder when using a fluffy brush which really surprised me, as cheaper blushes tend to be quite powdery. I find all six shades easy to apply, but the three bolder shades (New Rules, Dare and Divine) do need a little more extra work, but that’s the same for all brands with bright blush shades in my experience. The weartime is very impressive at a minimum of four hours across all shades, but I can clearly see them on my cheeks upto six hours later, albeit a little faded but for £3 you really can’t complain.

 

Until trying these blushes, Sleek were my favourite drugstore brand for blushes but these have definitely taken over.. they are incredible blushes, and the shades are all so pretty. My favourite shade from the collection is Beloved as I love a good peachy coral, but I really like how Divine looks against my pale skin. I have to admit I’m a little intimidated by New Rules as it’s almost red, and reminds me of a slightly pinkier version of MAC’s Frankly Scarlet Blush. I cannot recommend these blushes enough.. £3 is beyond amazing for blushes of this quality, and you can buy all six shades for £18 which is the price of just one MAC Blush, and the pigment and quality really does give highend blushes a run for their money. Even though I’m a real matte blush girl, I’d love to see Makeup Revolution release a collection of shimmery shades too, especially after being so wowed by their Matte Blusher Collection.

I don’t often buy makeup from Dior, but as soon as I saw the limited edition Nude Tan Tie Dye blushers from their new spring/summer collection I knew I had to have one.
 The limited edition Tie Dye blushers come in two colour options, with each one made up of four complementary powder shades.

 

At £40 each, these aren’t exactly cheap, but they do come with a cute little brush which actually seems reasonable quality, plus they’re Dior, so they were never going to be a bargain buy. The outside of the compact is almost as pretty as the inside and it’s surprisingly heavy, which adds to the luxury feel.

I have a feeling these are going to be a very quick sell out, so nab one quick if you like what you see.  I’ll be staring at mine lovingly while working up the nerve to actually swatch it...

 

The limited edition Tie Dye blushers come in two colour options, with each one made up of four complementary powder shades. (001 Pink Sunrise) and (002 Coral Sunset).

Inside the drum inspired packaging there is a mirror within the lid, but there isn’t an applicator as Benefit recommend applying the blush with your fingertips. The compact closes shut with a magnetic mechanism which is strong enough to not have to worry about it opening accidentally in your makeup bag. The blush itself is domed, with a pretty sunburst pattern embossed into the blush. One of Majorette’s endearing qualities is that it’s Peach and Pomegranate scented which smells amazing.. just like a tropical smoothie. If you have sensitive skin that reacts to scented skin or makeup products.. fear not, as the scent doesn’t transfer to the skin.

The cream to powder finish description is spot on, and you get the best of both worlds – the easy application of a cream blush, but the longevity of a powder blush. In terms of shade, Majorette looks like quite a bold orange in the pan, but on the skin it’s a much softer pinky coral that I imagine will flatter all skin tones. You can choose to wear Majorette as a subtle flush of colour, or you can easily build it up for a bolder effect. Application is so quick and easy, by dabbing my fingertips or my beauty blender into the blush and then onto the apples of my cheeks until I’ve got my chosen colour intensity.

Benefit have marketed Majorette as being a Blush Booster in that it can be used as a base for other blushes to ‘amplify your flush’. At first I did think that it was probably a gimmick but it really does add depth and dimension to other blushes by applying Majorette as a base with your chosen blush layered over the top.  By wearing Majorette layered under a powder blush, it helps to lock the blush in place all day long with absolutely no fading and when worn alone it lasts for around five hours.