Hey everyone, hope you're having a lovely Summer wherever in the world you are. So, like most girls, I love the high-end things in life but unfortunately, as a student, with a part time job, it's pretty hard having to spend my money on them all the time. Yes, I love Dior and do spend most of my wage on make up products, but sometimes this little angel on my shoulder pops up and says, come on Em, £35.00 for a foundation when you've got bills to pay and food to buy, simply on a part time wage? It really does take its toll, so, because I'm sure a lot of you are the same as me, a consumers dream, buying all of these expensive products, I'm going to show you my favourite budget beauty products, the things that I have bought over and over again. I like high end but it doesn't hurt anyone to find some bargains does it, nowadays everyone is looking for ways to save money.
VIVO Brow Palette. I bought this from Tesco and I instantly fell in love with the brand behind it, VIVO. It’s a brand that I’d never
heard of, but a brand that I now highly recommend to everyone. My friends swear by Benefit eyebrow kits and yes, I do love Benefit, but when it comes to eye brows, I rarely touch mine, so wanted to get myself a nice little easy kit to play around
with. I can honestly say, I’d never buy another kit over £5.00 now, if this kit
can be just as good as high end ones (and double up as an eyeshadow kit too), for only £5.00, then everyone needs it in
their life. Every time I go into my local supermarket, Tesco being the best for
make up, I stock up on VIVO. They do
such nice eye palettes too.
Palmers Natural Bronze Body Lotion. I saw someone blog about this and immediately went and bought it. Unless you get it on offer, it is around £5.00 in Boots which I still think is pretty expensive for a high-street moisturiser, we're talking bargains here and that is not a bargain. But, I'll let it off because I've been using this one bottle for ages. It gives the best natural glow ever. I would never use a sunbed, each to their own, but I never would personally. So I stick to my natural olive glow (thanks Dad, he is quite italian looking) when the sun is out or, throw a bit of Xen-Tan on. I haven't applied fake tan for weeks because the English sun has bronzed me nicely, but, when my tan fades, this is what I turn to. I apply this on an evening and wake up looking fresh, glowing and olive. There is nothing orange to this, no one wants to look orange, that was so year 9, we all make mistakes and have been through that St Moriz orange stage but you wont have that problem with this. This goes on easy, isn't sticky, smells delicious (everyone at work has commented on how nice it smells) and it develops really gradually. If I apply this in the morning, by lunch time I can see my glow developing really naturally. 5/5 for this incredible gradual moisturiser. 
Boots Essentials Cucumber Moisturising Cream. I have been buying
this for as long as I can remember. I have a lot of moisturisers for different
things, I love my S5 one because I know it’s natural and delicious, I love my Vichy Aqualia Thermal moisturiser for hydration but this is the moisturiser that has never left my side. This Boots Essential Moisturiser is the one that I go back to
over and over again. I think it’s priced at about £1.25 from memory. It smells like cucumber, so fresh and it is just
simple. It just does what a moisturiser should do, hydrates and well, the obvious; moisturises.
There isn’t anything fancy to it, but it’s a huge tub for a small price and I
really do see a difference in my skin. It makes me glow and gets rid of any dry
patches. I’d recommend picking this up as an every day moisturiser just in case.
All About Nails. Another one of my favourite products from my local
supermarket, this time again, Tesco. These little nail varnishes are £1.00.
They are quite small, but they go on quite thickly, I did newspaper nails using
this nail varnish and it really did last for a week without chipping. I’ve had
expensive nail varnishes where you need to use the whole bottle for them to look thick and then they just chip after a day anyway. Most supermarkets do great nail
varnishes for a low price. Everyone uses their hands a lot so its going to chip
anyway so whats the point in paying £15 for a nail varnish, (unless it’s a
really nice colour, I do love a bit of Leighton Denny and have been known to
fall into the Essie trap once or twice). I am a consumers dream. But try change
your ways and try out a cheap £1.00 nail varnish, I promise you’ll love it.
Collection 2000's Primed and Ready Primer is just simple. It reminds me of Benefit's Porefessional i texture, colour and how well it works (just half the price), it just completely smoothes the face out ready for make up application. It makes your make up stay on your face longer, but actually, even without make up on, your skin looks so much nicer with this. Instead of carrying a massive heavy primer abroad with me, I'll be taking this one. It's just as good, just probably not as natural and good for your skin as some of the high end ones which pride them selves of being full of this and that. 
Primark Very Fluttery Eye Lashes. When I first ever started
blogging I used to rave about these. My blog may have changed a bit (I got with
the times and actually bought a decent camera!) but my taste in eye lashes certainly hasn’t. I absolutely love Primark lashes. I used to swear by spending my wage
each month in Harvey Nichols at the Shu Uemura eye lash bar, £15+ for a pair of stick on
lashes. These are £1.00, you can reuse them, they look like real hair…
sometimes really cheap false eye lashes look cheap,a bit plastic and shiny,
these, surprisingly do not. They are the perfect natural length and not too big for your eyes
like some cheap lashes are. You’d think that because they're so cheap, the lash
glue will be rubbish but actually, I stock up on the glue that comes with these
because it is so sticky. I cannot recommend these enough, I once went into
Primark and bought 10 pairs just in case they discontinued them, this is love
trust me. I love Primark.
Jordanna Lash Extreme Mascara. This is from Australia so you may not
have heard of Jordanna, I keep re-buying this from Amazon and it comes
up to about £4.00 with postage which is incredibly cheap. One of my favourite YouTubers, Lauren Beauty recommended this and she has amazing lashes.
Apparently it’s about £2.00 in Australia which is crazy. It lasts all day and
actually makes my lashes too long! It manages to make them dark, thick and long
at the same time. I used to swear by Mac mascara but for the past 6 months I
just keep re-buying this over and over. I bought my Mum some too and she also
loves it.
Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation and Concealer. I do love my high end foundations, but recently I've been grabbing this one as my every day foundation. It reminds me so much of my trust MAC Studio Fix Foundation and is possibly a very good dupe for it. It's thick, creamy, really does make you look radiant, has a really nice buildable coverage and protects you from the sun with an SPF of 15. I will keep buying this over and over again (if it ever runs out, you only need to use a little bit). I got the concealer free with it because it was on a 3 for 2 offer in Boots. The concealer again, is really good, basically the same as the foundation but thicker. Too gloopy for under eyes and I got the colour too dark, but perfect for spots. This foundation will not make you look orange and crusty as some people would say, quite the opposite, smooth, radiant and depending on what colour you choose, olive. I do think this foundation has a very Kim Kardashian make up look to it, it's radiant, highlighting and quite heavy. Kim would love it.
Real Techniques Brushes. Any excuse to get some Boots points, I’d heard people rave about these in the bloggesphere and my make up artist friends swear by them too so I had to see what the commotion was about. I was going to buy the set, it’s £21.99 for 4 brushes, but it didn’t include the two brushes that I wanted, the Powder Brush and the Expert Face Brush. Instead, I just bought these two separately. From memory, it was £9.99 for the expert face brush and £12.99 for the powder brush. Considering I paid over £20.00 for one MAC brush about a year ago, and they’re shedding on my face and just don’t blend my make up well at all, so yes, I think this is a really good bargain. I don’t have one bad thing to say about Real Techniques. I am going to Boots next week to buy myself some more of their brushes. The expert face brush is the best brush for applying foundation that I've ever used.
Collection 2000 Glam Crystals. Again, after watching LaurenBeauty’s YouTube videos and seeing how nice gold glitter eye liner looked on her eyes, I
had to go and find some. I went into the little shop at Uni and found a Collection 2000 stand and found my dream liner. This one. The colour is
amazing, it shimmers so well in the light and like most glitter eyeliners, it’s
tough to get off. This is perfect for Summer and a lot of people have commented
on it.
Natural Collection Lipliner. Like eyebrow sets, I am not that
bothered about lipliner, so to play around with them, I always buy them from
the Natural Collection. They have some really nice colours and unlike Mac,
don’t charge £10.00+ for a lip liner. They’re tough to come off and really do
make your lips look better. I use this one with my Mac Myth lipstick.
MUA Lipsticks. My friends wear MUA lipsticks but I’ve always stuck
with my trusty MAC. You can read about my lip collection here if you missed that. Recently, I was
going for a meal and realised that I'd forgotten to pack my lipstick, so I went into
the nearest Superdrug and bought myself two colours, a red and a peachy pink.
They cost £1.00 each. They go on really nice,thickly and the colour is really
intense, throughout the night, they don’t come off, but the colour does fade
slightly. I am going to be doing a comparison of Mac and MUA lipsticks soon so I
will let you know my verdict then. But for £1.00, you really cant go wrong. Of
course, Burberry is the best lipstick I’ve ever had, but you pay a lot for it,
so it should be unbelievable. MUA have been the talk of the town at the moment after announcing
that they are launching a One Direction make up collection (what!), I’m not sure how I
feel about this. I think I’m the only girl who isn’t a crazy One Direction fan
because of their looks. I could never be a WAG or anything like that,
independent women for the win I say. But it will be interesting to see If One
Direction bring out any nice lipsticks for MUA. Would I want to be seen with a
One Direction lipstick in my hand? Well, for £1.00 and if the colour was good,
why not.
Sleek Blush Palette. I got this at Clothes Show Live and boy,I'm glad that I did. Sleek is my go to brand for ridiculously good, long lasting make up which doesn't cost the world. I've been looking for these coral cheek colours for quite some time and even the ones that MAC recommended to me, weren't the kind of coral that I was looking for. I love how Sleek do things in sets like this. I grab my blusher brush and just rub it over all three of these and put it on the apples of my cheeks, it just gives a rosy and highlighted glow when adding all three colours together. Next I want to buy their contour kit.
Balmi Lip Balm. I got one of these with a Glossy Or Jolie box ages
ago and have loved it ever since. I’m not sure if it counts as a budget product
because when I went to Boots and re-bought this, TWICE. One for me and one for
my boyfriend, it cost me about £5.00+ for it. I mean, come on, it’s only a
lip balm. Yeah its cool, easy to apply and tastes delicious but maybe it isn’t
so budget after all. I do love my lip balm and I'm the first person to spend silly amounts of money on a good lip balm but in comparison to some others that
I’ve paid a lot more for, this is budget. I do have a few from
Savers which cost me 99p and they are pretty rubbish if I’m going to be honest,
the flavour well, they don't really have a flavour/taste and the result doesn’t last, with this, it really does so it's worth paying an extra pound or so for.
What are your favourite bargain beauty products? Which high-end products wouldn't you swap? Will you be trying any of these?
Lots of love, Em x
P.S, I've been shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan 'best new beauty blog' award and I am speechless, I'd love to have your vote. You can vote for EmTalks here. Thank you so much.
