Budget

P.S Love Makeup in Primark

- Vicki 19 Comments
Budget Friendly Makeup

The big inner city Primark in Liverpool has quite a large selection of makeup from the brand P.S Love and so I thought I would buy a few products and see how they perform. The products I bought ranged in price from £1 to £2.50, so very reasonable in price. I haven’t heard or read much about this line so I bought a selection of products & colours.

Primark Makeup

Primark Lipstick

P.S Matte Long Last Lipstick £1.50 is really pretty & I would say its a pinky nude colour. It applies nicely to the lips & doesn’t feel too dry, It wears quite a long time, but it does wear off evenly after about 2-3 hours & I don’t mind having to reapply. Im sure if unlike me you don’t have the terrible habit of biting your lips this will last considerably longer on you. It does feel a little dry on my lips but I have been told that most matte formulas are a little drying, but it’s nothing that would stop me wearing it. This is the first matte lip product I have tried and I do like it, Im going to pop back in to Primark and get a few more shades. I’m very impressed with the colour & how nice this looks on my lips, it is an easy shade to wear & a perfect daytime colour. I also love the packaging, it looks much more expensive than it was. Also you can see the shade at the bottom & that is very true to the colour it swatches.

Budget Friendly Makeup Primark Lip Crayon

P.S Love Lip Gloss Crayon £1.50 – I’m a chubby lip crayon addict & I thought this nude shade would be a safe bet. Again it’s really nicely packaged and is a twist up so no sharpening needed. I would say its a caramel nude, its quite a glossy finish and applied nicely & evenly to my lips. The colour pay off is OK and it looks nice & natural on the lips. I have been wearing this over some lipsticks too and that works well. On its own its nice for adding a little colour to the lips, I wouldn’t say this lasts a great amount of time but these lip crayons are really easy & effortless to reapply. I would be interested to see if there are other shades & how pigmented they are. This smells really nice too and not minty like a lot of the other brands. This has been in my handbag for the past week & I’ve been really enjoying wearing it.

Primark Eyeliner

P.S Love Eyeliner & Pencil Sharpener 2 Pack £1.oo – I couldn’t resist these colours & have been loving experimenting with brighter colourful eyeliner. You get 2 eyeliners & a clear plastic pencil sharpener in a pack for £1, thats a complete bargain. The two colours in this pack are a teal blue & a baby blue, so very pretty. These are creamy and apply so easily, no pulling at all they just glide on & add a pop of colour. They are very pigmented and that vibrant colour lasts all day. I’m very impressed with these and think they’re great value for money. Perfect if you don’t want to spend a fortune on a bright colour you might not reach for that often.

Primark Eyeliner

Primark PS Love Makeup

P.S Love Felt Eyeliner £1.50 – I Bought this in Black as I love to wear liquid liner & these felt pen style ones are my go to option. However this was the one product that brought my haul back down to earth as I found it to be watery & hard to apply. The pigmentation was poor and it sunk in to all the lines on my eyelid. I would give this a miss, even for £1.50 save your money.

PS Love Black Liquid Liner

Primark Eyeshadows

P.S Love 8 Shade Day Palette £2.50 – This is a really well packaged palette with a big mirror inside, and eight eyeshadows of which 2 are matte and the rest are variations of shimmer / metallic. These are a little hit & miss some of the colours are really pretty but have a lot of fall out whilst other are very chalky and have no colour pay off. As a rule I would say the top row with the slightly more shimmery colours are better quality and wear OK.

If you have time to work with these, wear a primer and build up the colour you can achieve some pretty looks & for £2.50 this very well packaged palette is great for makeup newbies or people like me that are unable to walk past a palette that contains neutral colours.

There is another version of this palette with 8 Night Shades, which I’ve heard is even better and I am tempted to pop back to get that & see how it compares.

PS Love Makeup

Swatches of the bottom row – only one swipe & with no primer

PS Love Palette

Swatches of the top row – one swipe & with no primer.

Primark Nail Polish

P.S Love Nail Polish £1.00 – These have a real Butter London feel to the bottles & my word this pink shade is vibrant. It is a true hot pink neon & dries to a semi matte finish, two coats will give you an opaque colour. I am so impressed with the consistency of this polish & I had it on my nails for 3 days without chipping, I took it off to apply a different colour but It looked great & was very bright. The only downside to this polish is the smell, its very very strong, not once its on your nails but whilst you’re applying it. So if you get a headache from the smell of nail varnish this is a very very strong one.

I was very impressed with all but one of the products I bought, I thought all the products had pretty packaging and it felt and looked more expensive than it was.

The selection in Primark is quite good & if you can get to one that is selling the makeup then pick up a few products – but not the Felt Pen Eyeliner. None of the products have colour names which is a pain, but thats quite common with more budget brands.

Let me know if you have tried anything from the Primark P.S Love makeup range & if there is anything you would recommend I try.

elf Cosmetics Store Cardiff

- Vicki 5 Comments

I’m sure most of you are aware that e.l.f cosmetics opened their first European Store in the lovely city of Cardiff. It opened its doors on the 24th October and it sounds like it is going to be a huge success. I’m planning a road trip from Manchester to Cardiff so I can visit and stock up on all my favourite products.

In America e.l.f has been available in stores for a few years but in the UK we’ve had to get our e.l.f fix by ordering online & that has been a pain when wanting to see what the product colours are like as their online swatches have been known to be quite questionable. Now they have an amazing swanky new store so we can see what their products are like in the flesh.

I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite e.l.f products. It took me a while to narrow it down as they have so many products I enjoy using.

elf favourites

e.l.f’s Baked Blushes and Bronzers are amongst my all time favourites i have one of each in this post. They add a hint of glow and are also great as a highlighter. The two I like are pinktastic and maui I have a few more in my collection but I use those two most often. £3.75 for 6g

Their Baked Eyeshadows are also so pigmented and easy to blend, I have been using this beautiful dark brown shade called bark a lot and really want to buy a few more colours. They have 6 shades and are £3.75 each for 3.5g

Their Eyelid Primer in Sheer is a complete bargain and I have repurchased this so many times. It is a great base for shadow and just neutralises the colour on my eyelid and makes them look less red and evens out the colour. It helps keep my shadow on & my lids are alot less oily when I use this. This comes in 4 shades and is only £1.50 for 5ml.

e.l.f Contouring Blush and Bronzer Powder This is a great compact. I have used this when I go on holiday as yuou get both products in a good size compact and It has a great mirror. I have heard this be compared to NARS Laguna and Orgasm. I have never tried Laguna but I must say it is a quite a good dupe for Orgasm, the only difference is the elf blush isn’t as easy to blend. The blush in this is a lovely light peach with a hint of shimmer and the bronzer is a pigmented medium brown with a slight gold tint. I always recommend this dupe to people. £3.75 for 8g

These mineral eyeshadows from e.l.f are the only mineral makeup I have, I’ve used some in the past but find it messy and hard to keep in the pot. But these shadows are what I kept hold of as I really like the way they blend and they are pigmented and quite buildable. I have a few shades and like them all. The one in the photo is called Temptress. These come in 28 shades for only £3.00 each, such good value.

My beloved e.l.f Kabuki Brush is one of my most used brushes. I take it everywhere & use it for powder, blush, bronzer it is fab for travel and its so small & compact. It has never shed its bristles all over my face and washes really nicely. I should buy a second one of these as I use it every single day. £6.00

I seem to have an addiction to chubby lip crayons and this pretty pink one from e.l.f is a really good purse friendly one. It is in the shade Pink Umbrella’s and would say it’s a nice peach toned pink. It doesn’t have any shimmer and makes my lips look healthy and have a hint of colour. It is a twist up style so no sharpening needed. These lip gloss sticks aren’t long wearing but are fun and so easy to apply and nice to wear. £2.50 for 2.8g

e.l.f Cosmetics

What are your favourite products from e.l.f and do you plan on visiting their new Cardiff store

Draw The Line

- Vicki 9 Comments
Rimmel Sandaleyes Liners

A few weeks ago I received a Boots gift card for my birthday which I quickly spent on makeup. Shock horror. Boots were having their 3 for 2 across all makeup items so I picked up a fair few things 3 of those being some Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliners. These are fabulous. I had wanted to try them for a while and had seen some really good reviews about the Nude colour, I was excited to try them out.

 Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner in Black, Nude and Bronze 

I’ve always been a huge fan of coloured eyeliner (I went back and got the blue and silver ones too) – even if it looks a little 80’s. I’ve found these waterproof Rimmel Scandaleyes Kohls really do stay put all day and I’m a devil for rubbing and messing with my eyes throughout the day and these stay put regardless. Rimmel claim they will withstand ‘tears, sweat, humidity’ and they don’t lie. These are stubborn and I was shocked with how well they lasted esp as they’re only £3.99.

They glide on the eye with minimum effort and they do not drag at all. They’re creamy and all of the ones I have tried (5 in total) are all really pigmented without having to go over and over the same line. They are an inexpensive way to get a flash of colour that will stay all day. Perfect for me as I hate to reapply when I am out and rarely carry much makeup with me .

The nude colour is perfect for the waterline to brighten tired eyes and make them look bigger. The black is a great bold black it’s really quite dark and that deep colour transfers well on to the lid or waterline. I also like the bronze shade for when I wear a neutral eye and it blends so well. It has a slight shimmer to it. Not glittery but when the light hits it looks almost metallic it’s really pretty.

These eyeliners come in 7 shades from a classic black to a gorgeous silver. I highly recommend you try to pick these up esp when on offer. Full price they are £3.99 from Boots. Such a total bargain. Have you tried any of these Rimmel eyeliners? How did you find them?