Cheap Makeup | Vanity Claire

ClaireFebruary 12, 2014

Collection Sheer Loose Powder Review

My dear friends and admirers.

Today is a momentous day. NAY. Today is the day that history was made. Today, I am writing to tell you that loose powder is great. No more will we think ‘pahaha loose powder is for my nan and her shiny mate Mildred’. No more will we breeze past the loose powder products in disgust. I am here to tell you that this loose powder has changed my life.

Practically my entire life has been plagued by my shiny face. And I don’t mean shiny in a cute dewy way. I mean full blown you-could-use-my-face-to-find-ships-lost-at-sea shiny. Since learning to apply makeup like a vaguely normal person and eschewing blue eyeliner with a firm hand, I’ve always used powder. I know face powder isn’t for everyone, but is an absolute essential in my makeup bag. I also like a heavy duty foundation, so a nice dusting of powder helps to set my makeup excellently.

I’ve used quite a few different powders and my usual tends to be Rimmel’s Stay Matte pressed powder because it’s cheap and safe. I’ve used Bourjois Radiance Powder too – which I liked but wasn’t the best at keeping my face matte all day. I’ve also used Collection pressed powder pretty frequently – but never used their Sheer Loose Powder.

I grabbed it the other day because I needed a translucent powder, of which there were none in the pressed powder section. How I wish I had grabbed it sooner. If you take anything from this review, it should be this: this is the best powder ever and I strongly encourage that you go and buy it – and proceed to be happy in all areas of your life.

My main points of happiness with the Sheer Loose Powder is this:

It smells like my mum. This sounds weird, but I’m pretty sure my mum uses this powder and it reminds me of her. My mother is a lovely, tiny, neat woman who always has an organised handbag – so this is a big positive for me and takes me back to the days where I sniffed her face. I’m sure there must have been at least one day I did this for a laugh.
It keeps my face matte all day. This is unheard of. I always always always have to powder at least once a day, especially when I’m at work. The only time I didn’t have to powder was when I was using Dermalogica’s Skin Perfect Primer (amazing btw). I don’t know what wizardry is in this powder, but it keeps my skin looking relatively normal for 9+ hours – without touching up.
It sets my makeup well. There’s no need to expand on this really, but it does a good job of making sure everything stays where it should and things don’t go wandering about my head.
It’s not heavy. I always thought that loose powder would be super heavy and rubbish. I don’t think that this is at all – it feels light on my skin.
It’s cheap. It genuinely costs £2.99, no joke. I don’t know how either, I imagine that the employees at Collection are related to Gandalf.

As with any product, there are a few downsides too. I will put these in bullet point form too, because apparently that is what I do now.

I find the sieve annoying.
I hate the applicator pad. No one uses applicator pads.

I really don’t think I’ll be using another powder again (unless someone decides to treat me to a nice MAC Mineralise Powder). I really do love this though. Snaps for you Collection, I am adding this to the list of excellent and underrated products you do.

What about you? Have you tried this powder before? What do you think?

|| Don’t forget that you can follow us on Bloglovin’, Instagram and Twitter! ||

ClaireNovember 19, 2013

MUA Matte Perfect Shine Control Foundation | Review & Swatches

Well, it has happened. I always wondered when I would end up becoming a Jeremy Kyle level of tramp and it appears to be the month of November.

Claire and I decided to do some online shopping at work (er, big surprise there) and ‘invested’ in some bits and bobs makeup-wise from MUA. Read about what we bought here and for a more detailed review of the Pro-Brow Eyebrow Kit, have a clicky here. Out of sheer curiosity, I bought MUA’s Matte Perfect Shine Control Foundation. Which you can buy for £2. That’s right. You can buy foundation for as much as two steak bakes from Greggs.

I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting much. I do like MUA products, but I have found that some of them have a few drawbacks – which obviously you’d expect when things are cheaper than Katie Price’s face (ooo-er, I’m such a bitch). So, when our parcel of excitement arrived, I thought it would be a fun experiment to give this foundation a whirl rather than it become a permanent fixture in my makeup bag.

And guess what chums… it was actually really good.

In a slightly weird move on MUA’s part, the foundation only comes in two shades: fair and almond. I really love how MUA include swatches in their product information, which is super useful when choosing shades. The almond colour looked really orange (even for me), so I opted for ‘fair’ thinking I could always bronze up if the dreaded pale-face-orange-body issue occured.

As you can see, it is quite a light shade but it works well on days that I haven’t tanned and I’m using my Bourjois Bronzing Primer underneath on days that I have oranged up to darken things a bit.

I thought that the consistency would be quite watery and a bit pathetic – with no promises of full coverage, I thought it would be more of a BB Cream sort of product. How wrong I was. It’s really thick and I’d say it’s most likely oil based, which is something I prefer with a foundation. The coverage is amazing – I’d say on a par with Estee Lauder’s Double Wear and Rimmel’s Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation, both of which are my go-to base products. It goes on very nicely and you don’t think for a minute that it only cost £2 when applying. For those who prefer a dewy look, it has a lovely finish and only needs a light dusting of powder on the t-zone. I prefer a more matte look, so I tend to go for all over powder, but it still looks grand.

The staying power is also surprisingly good. I wore this to work, to the gym and still came home with makeup on my face (PARDON ME?!). It’s very impressive.

As always, I do have some issues with it (I am an old woman now and enjoy complaining as well as tense games of Scrabble. Deal with it). The product promises to “keep the shine at bay all day”, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite do that. I always wear a primer and find I need to powder by midday when wearing MUA’s Matte Perfect Shine Control regardless. SAYING THAT. The only time I don’t need to powder is if I wear Double Wear, so I feel I can overlook MUA’s false promises. I have a discoball face that loves to pester me with it’s shiny nose, so it’s not unusual for me to have to touch up during the day. Rather than shine control and mattifying, I’d say this foundation is better for full coverage and lasting – still really good but

And this is what it looks like on my face – NOT BAD, JA? JA.

What do you think? Have any of you used MUA’s Matte Perfect Shine Control Foundation?

|| Don’t forget that you can follow us on Instagram, Bloglovin’ and Twitter! ||

ClaireJuly 9, 2013

Collection 2000 ‘Fix Me Up’ Makeup Setting Spray Review.

If you follow us on Twitter or Instagram, you may have seen me get over excited about the fact that Collection have a makeup setting spray for around £5. I believe it was launched towards the end of last year, but the first time I saw it in-store was about a month or two ago – I’m not sure if this was me being horribly unobservant or if it hadn’t been stocked in Birmingham until then! I got it from Boots, if anyone is at all interested.

I think Claire and I have garnered ourselves a bit of a reputation for being bargain hunters (though I think in reality, we are just cheap and driven by poverty paha), so I’m always on the hunt for cheap-yet-quality makeup products. As far as setting sprays go, I’m a bit of a novice (hairspray on the face, anyone?). After doing a bit of research, I gather that there aren’t a huge number of fixing sprays on the market. Urban Decay do one called ‘All Nighter’ for £19, which generally has rave reviews – as does the Clarins Fix’ Makeup spray, which will set you back £18.50. I’ve heard conflicting things about the Mac Fix+ (£11) product, which teeter between rave reviews and confusion as to whether it actually is a setting spray or not (some say it’s more of a brightener?). Armed with this information, I still decided to invest in the Collection ‘Fix Me Up’ setting mist because it was one of the cheaper versions, and I’m generally a fan of their makeup products.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite deliver. Claire and I have this strange compulsion to like products and feel extremely disappointed if they aren’t really what we wanted. This is mainly why I was so sad that the Collection setting spray wasn’t great – and there are quite a few reasons why it just is a bit crap. I thought I’d set them out in list form because who doesn’t love a list, quite frankly?! (probably people with list phobias).

1. IT’S FALSE ECONOMY. For £5.99, you only get 18ml. I’m sure there’s a way of working out the maths but I am genuinely useless at that sort of behavior. Let’s just say that you may as well get the 118ml Urban Decay spray for £19.

2. It’s a bit damp. The packaging describes it as being a “weightless mist” but to the packaging I say “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT, have you gone mad.” I think the problem is the spray nozzle – it kind of comes out in squirts and doesn’t cover your whole face brilliantly (I’m sorry for how wrong this sounds). It just leaves you feeling a bit soggy and rained on.

3. The product doesn’t actually do very much. This probably should be at the top of the list but hey ho, I’m a maverick. I wouldn’t say I noticed a huge difference in my makeup staying on. For a girl who is genuinely a disco ball without powder, I was really disappointed. The setting spray didn’t deliver really and to that I say GOOD DAY SIR.

So, not a great review of Collection 2000’s ‘Fix Me Up’ makeup fixer. I would say that I don’t hate the fragrance as much as other bloggers seem to – it does smell a bit cheap but I quite like it! Other than that, I don’t really have anything good to say. Sorry Collection, but you have let me down on this occasion. The hunt for a good setting spray continues – I think I’m going to give the Ubran Decay ‘All Nighter’ setting spray a go after pay day and see how that treats my sheeny shiny face. After that…WHO KNOWS?!

Any of you lovely ladies have any other recommendations?

ClaireJune 13, 2013

Cheap Makeup: Is It Really That Bad?

Pretty much every beauty blogger and makeup aficionado will concede that for the most part, the more money you spend on a product, the better it is. As avid readers of beauty blogs, Claire and I often cry with jealousy over Mac makeup hauls, Illamasqua purchases and Bobbi Brown buys. While we have to confess that on occasion, one of us will splash out on something a bit fancy (see Claire’s Benefit ‘They’re Real’ Mascara Review), most of the time we simply can’t afford to. Our budgets don’t really stretch to spending £30+ on makeup when we run out and of course, things like paying for rent, water and (regrettably) food have to take priority. That definitely doesn’t mean we don’t want to and we’re not begrudging y’all who do (although we hate you and your beautifully made up faces), it’s just not something we do on a regular basis.

With all of this in mind, we have become quite the experts on cheap makeup. Over our makeup wearing years, both of us have tried pretty much every budget to mid-range makeup product on the high street. I get particularly excited and a bit over enthusiastic about trying new products, even if it is something a bit pathetic from MUA or Rimmel. There can be a lot of negative buzz around cheaper brands but I think there’s hope yet. Cheap makeup doesn’t have to bring back horrible memories of slathering your eyelids in baby blue eyeshadow from Miss Sporty. I am of the opinion that there are some absolute gems on the high street and there are a lot of cheap makeup products that you simply can’t ignore. So, with all of this waffle in mind (I just can’t get to the point can I?!), here are my five best cheap makeup products that have been tried and tested.

2True Cheek ‘n’ Lip Tint, £1.99

Any makeup brand that is called 2True should in theory have the face rash alarm bells ringing. Also, a product that is actually £1.99 probably sounds too good to be true (there was a pun in there, I missed it. I am sorry). ALAS MY DEAR FRIENDS, this is actually a great Benetint dupe and the only criticism I have is that it is slightly runnier than its £25 counterpart. The colour actually lasted longer for me and I generally just prefer it. Did I mention it is £1.99…?

Collection 2000 Extreme 24h Felt Tip Eyeliner, £2.99

As a big believer in winged liquid eyeliner (I am Cleopatra), I’ve always been on the hunt for the perfect liquid eyeliner. I’ve dabbled in Barry M, Rimmel and lots of others but this Collection 2000 beauty is at the top of my must-have cheap makeup list. It lasts for AGES (probably 24 hours, I haven’t quite tested it for that long) and it is mega easy to apply. Even Claire gets on with it and her face likes to reject liquid eyeliners.

Primark Nail Varnish, £2 for four.

These have been hyped quite a lot on beauty blogs recently and it’s no surprise really. They’re SUPER cheap (my maths brain works it out to 50p per pot and to this I say WHAAAAAAAAT?!), they last well and they have a great colour range. What more could you want, you needy human beings?!

Image Source

Perfect Girl Natural Flirt False Eyelashes, £3.99

These are my go-to lashes. Claire and I love false eyelashes for nights out and I personally couldn’t go out without a pair flapping away around my eyeballs. I used to be a firm Eylure purchaser, but it started to get a bit pricey at £5 per pair. I then went full circle and bought 60 pairs for £7 on eBay and I have now settled on these. They’re big, volumous and just look great. I would say that the glue is a bit crap so you may want to just buy a big pot of decent glue to stick these bad boys on.

Collection 2000 Supersize Mascara, £2.99

I’ll have to pop a disclaimer in over here. Mascara isn’t my forte and I know a lot of people (like Claire) are really picky with what they use. I have blonde eyelashes that have quite a good natural curl, so I am mostly bothered about getting some black colour onto them more than anything else. Saying that, I have tried a lot of the more expensive brands (of which Dior’s DiorShow has been THE WORST) and I will keep coming back to this Collection one. It does the job and I’m happy with it. It’s not too clumpy (though I weirdly quite like clumps) and it stays on well. Definitely worth the £2.99 I’d say!

So, is cheap makeup really that bad? I’d firmly say no. While there are some things you should spent a little more money on (like foundation and prostitutes), there are a lot of other products you can get away with scrimping on. So the next time you whip out your credit card for a hefty Mac haul, think for a moment whether you can pop to Superdrug and find a decent alternative (and then spend your saved money on tequila).