TAG TUESDAY: I heart drugstore make up tag!

I've decided to start doing something a bit different to my usual product reviews. I'm a big watcher and reader of other beauty bloggers and I love watching tag videos in particular so thought I could do a few that have been around. I thought the best one to start with would be the I <3 drugstore make up tag where I can tell you about my personal favourite picks. I don't own any high end products so this is pretty much just my favourites from my whole make up collection.

1. What is your favourite drugstore makeup brand overall?

My initial answer is Rimmel because they are probably the brand I own the most products from. I think their face and lip products are fantastic, however maybelline is by far the best drugstore brand for eye products!

2. What are your favourite face, cheek and lip products?

The Rimmel match perfection foundation is my favourite foundation I've ever used, it applies really evenly and gives a perfect balanced look between matte and dewy, it's also quite high coverage and has a wide range of shades for my skin tone at all times of the year. I'm not sure if this counts as drugstore but the cream blushes from Topshop are my absolute favourite. They look really bright but once you apply them they blend really easily and last for ages! The Rimmel Kate lipsticks are by far my favourite lip products, the colours are great and they don't try your lips out at all! 

3. Least favorite product?

I absolutely hate the Rimmel Scandal Eyes Mascara. I won't go into too much detail because I did a blog post about it before but I would never buy it ever again!

4. What is the best makeup bargain?

Anything from MUA. Their products are so great but most products are between £1 and £4! 

5. What is your favorite underdog product? (Something you love that often gets overlooked?)

The Accessorize bronzer/highlighter duo in laguna. I use the bronzer for contouring every day and love the highlighter too but I've never seen anyone else mention it. 

6. A drugstore product that is overpriced?

Most mascaras and pretty much everything from bourjois! 

7. Show your best drugstore dupe(s)!!

I've never used the nars laguna bronzer so I couldn't comment but the name of the accessorize bronzer duo I love suggests it could be a dupe for that holy grail product. Also, the MUA neutral palettes which I have blogged about before are an amazing dupe for the Urban decay naked palettes. 

8. Drugstore product that isn't worth the hype?

Revlon Photo ready face primer, lots of people seemed to love it and for £11.99 I was expect great results however it was super greasy and made me break out a lot. 

January Favourites 2013!

As it's the last day of the month I thought the perfect post for today would be my January favourites. Here are the products I've been loving this month!

CK One

I asked for this perfume for Christmas and I absolutely love it! It's a scent for both men and women so it is quite musky but I really like that. I was looking for a more grown up scent and something that lasts all day rather than smelling nice for 5 minutes then disappearing off your skin and this perfume gave me both! I've only had it a month and I've used quite a lot already so that proves how much I love it!

Maybelline the falsies volum' express waterproof

I bought this after seeing Tanya Burr rave about it almost non-stop on her beauty channel! She was always saying how much she loved the falsies so when I was looking for a new mascara because I felt unsatisfied with the one I was using, I went straight to Maybelline! It is without a doubt the best mascara I have ever used and I may review it soon. I always wear waterproof mascara and this has passed the crying test so it's perfect! 

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation

I was completely besotted with the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation as I said in my blog post last year but when winter arrived I felt like I needed a higher coverage foundation that was a little less dewy looking. After the experience I had with the wake me up foundation I went straight to Rimmel and picked up match perfection on recommendation of Fleur De Force and I was not disappointed.

Simple Kind to Eyes Make up remover

Because I wear waterproff mascara, I'm always looking for an easy and effective way to take my eye make up off and now I've found this I won't be looking anywhere else! It's so easy and it feels really natural so it's no problem at all putting it on your eyes! Just put it on cotton wool and wipe over your eyes!

MUA Undressed Palette

This is my absolute favourite product of the moment and I don't think I need to rave about it any more. Cheap but amazing! If you want to know more about it you can read my review here. 

Why get Naked when you can get Undressed?

In the beauty blogging world, there are a few products seen as holy grail items by most. One of these is undeniably the Naked Palette from Urban Decay. I have lusted after this heavenly seeming neutral palette for years but have never been able to bring myself to spend £36 on one make up item.

I never really wore eyeshadow until recently because I could never seem to find colours that suited me and were easy to apply. But since I've become really interested in make up, it has seemed silly to stray away from eyeshadow just because I'm a little bit scared. I searched all over to try and find eyeshadows that I thought would suit me and could ease me into wearing them. I tried the maybelline colour tattoos which I found incredibly easy to apply and great for bolder looks for nights out but they were not what I was looking for when it came to everyday easy make up.

I am a big fan of the brand MUA (Make Up Academy). Their products are easily found in most Superdrug stores and they offer a wide range of good quality products for very low prices. I'd already tried a few of their products and was a massive fan of their face primer so when I read a few blogs and saw a few videos talking about their neutral palettes I was intrigued. It took me a while to finally get round to buying one but when I saw that they are only £4, my decision was made easy.

There are two neutral palettes available from MUA, 'Heaven and Earth' and 'Undressed'. I chose Undressed as it seemed to have the widest range of colours. Both palettes appealed to me as they are not matte at all and most have some shimmer in them. I prefer the lighter shades but the black colour is extremely handy for a smokey eye look. I'm always a little scared of blue shadows and so haven't used the navy colour that is included in the palette but it looks great when you swatch it and I'm sure I'll get up the courage to try it out soon.

As you can see from the picture, this palette has been very well loved by me. I use it every single day without fail and I never feel like I need anything else. I think the colours would suit a wide range of skin tones and they give you the opportunity to use just one colour or experiment and blend them on your eyes. I have found that since using this product I haven't felt the need to use eyeliner as much because the shadows open up my eyes on their own, which for me is great news as I tend to have a bit of wobbly hand when it comes to applying eyeliner. However, each shade still looks great when worn with eyeliner as well. The palette also comes with an eyeshadow brush, however mine fell apart really easily and it's just a cheap sponge one so you'd be better off to use your own.

I have friends who own the naked palette and I still think it is one of the best products around, however the MUA neutral palettes work as perfect dupes and give me exactly what I'm looking for. I understand why people are still buying the Naked Palette but when given the option of paying £4 against the option of paying £36, MUA is going to beat Urban Decay with me every time. I'm going to continue to make the most of my battered Undressed palette but as soon as I've used up every last bit of eyeshadow, I'll be running straight to superdrug to get a new one!

Wake Me Up!

My Favourite Foundation!

In the past the only foundation I had re-purchased was the Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse which is super drying and horrible and I wouldn't buy it now but when I was 15 and wanted complete fuss free make up it worked pretty well for me.

After that I just tried out various foundations, always buying something new when it had run out or before it had run out in a few cases which is quite unusual for me as I do try to get the most for my money as much as possible.

I struggle with buying foundation, particularly in the summer months because I'm allergic to some sun creams and therefore quite a few foundations that have SPF in them. This made me more than a little wary to try the Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation that was being raved about by every beauty blogger in the world. In the end I just couldn't escape it and when I tested it in store it automatically lifted my face. It's the most amazing thing I have ever seen and still after months of using it it continues to amaze me. It has not been bad for my skin at all and that makes me so happy!

I have normal to combination skin, it's mostly normal and quite problem free but I do get a dry forehead and an oily nose which I swear is a weird mix but weird is just me to be honest. Lots of people say don't recommend this to people with oily skin but my nose has a tendency to be very shiny and this foundation doesn't make it any worse so I don't think it would be awful for people with oily skin although it is very dewy looking.

The only problem I have with this is to do with the packaging. I like the glass bottle and pump and orange lid but the pump design makes it very hard to get out the last of the product, I've been having to take the lid of and get out the foundation by wiggling the end of the pump round the bottle. I should just buy a new one but I'm a cheapskate and like I said I like to make the most out of my products. I do however like that because it is glass you can see how much product you have left.

Another foundation I'd like to mention is GOSH X-ceptional wear. I've never heard anyone speak about this and I don't know if that's because it's awful or because they haven't tried it. I got this in the winter in shade "golden" which was a complete mistake because I am Ginger and obviously very pale so I went for a while being orange until I bought Wake Me Up in Ivory but I've been using the GOSH foundation recently now I have a bit of a tan and it's quite a nice foundation. Not amazing, there are definitely a lot better drugstore foundations around but for £ I would say it's definitely one to try.

Don't judge a mascara by its packaging!

My Favourite Mascara!

This one is easy. A few months ago if you'd have told me I could only have one product, I'd have probably chosen a foundation but this mascara has changed my life.

I had been buying Maybelline Great lash in blackest black with no interruption ever since I first started to wear make up when I was about 13 and I still think that is an amazing mascara and I would go and repurchase it any day.

I stopped buying my comfort blanket mascara when Rimmel Scandal Eyes came out. This was around the time I was becoming obsessed by make up, lusting after all products out there and spending most of my time in Superdrug, despite my lack of money to spend on it. It seemed impossible to escape the bright orange packaging and I succumbed, I also then got another one free when I bought the Rimmel Wake me up foundation. I cannot stress enough how much I do not recommend this mascara, it's super crumbly and it makes me sad. The only thing I like about it is the packaging. BUT this blog is about my favourite mascara not my least favourite, so let's move on in my mascara story.

One of my friends had a foam party for his 18th and as if I didn't hate Scandal Eyes enough for it's crumbliness I had also recently discovered that even though it never claims to be waterproof it seems to give you worse panda eyes than any other mascara ever with only the slightest bit of water so I went on the search for a new (cheap, because that's all I do) waterproof mascara.

The Bourjois clubbing waterproof mascara caught my eye, not because of it's packaging which unlike Scandal Eyes is the only thing I don't like but because the tube has "tested at foam parties" written on the side. This is volumising but not at all clumpy and it stays on no matter what. It survived the foam party and quite a few tears that night, it has survived 2 rides on a very wet log flume, rain, jumping off a boat, swimming and another foam party. I rave about it so much, it is without a doubt my holy grail product, it's brilliantly waterproof and I have now idea how this works but when you want it to come off, in the shower, with a make up wipe, face wash, cleanser or however you take your make up off at the end of the day, it is super duper easy to take off. My top tip though is to wipe off excess product on to the side of the tube before applying or it will be clumpy.

being impressed with the mascara after jumping off a boat in Crete

Bourjois Volume Clubbing Waterproof Black Party Mascara 

Moral of the story: don't judge a book by it's cover or in this case, a mascara by its packaging!

My Favourite Eyeliners.

I've never really been a big user of eyeliner. People never think I'm wearing make-up when in reality there is rarely a day that I don't have any on and I've never been able to work out why people can't see it. Over the past couple of months, I've realised that eyeliner is what makes it, along with lipstick, they're a bit hard to miss.

My eye - with both of these eyeliners on

Earlier this year, I took on the mission to try and perfect winged eyeliner. I tried a few liquid eyeliners that seemed to make it almost impossible until I tried the Collection 2000 Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner after a friend's recommendation. It literally makes putting eyeliner on like drawing on your face, it's so easy to use and is only £2.99. My only problem with it, is that it does tend to smudge a little after a couple of hours which you don't really expect with the 24 hour claim.

The felt tip

well loved miss sporty eyeliner in need of a sharpen

I tend to move from beauty products quite quickly, I don't repurchase products very often. There is one exception though. The Miss Sporty eye pencil in 001 magic has been a part of my collection since I was 14. It's only £1.99, is a rich black perfect for the waterline and it lasts pretty much all day.

nice and blurry good quality photo.

Welcome!

Let me just warn you now. I have no money and I don't really know what I'm doing.

I like make-up and skin care and nail varnish and hair products and all that jazz. I like them a lot. I am constantly boring my friends and  family with talk of how amazing the new cleanser I've just bought is or raving about a certain waterproof mascara so I think I need somewhere else to put my thoughts. 

I already write a blog about preparing to start university (theroadtouniversity.blogspot.com) but I'm excited to start this as it will be a bit different and I'll have to end that one in September when I'm no longer on the road to University and I (fingers crossed) become a fresher. 

I'm not sure if anyone will be interested in reading this but I'm going to enjoy writing it anyway and if there is anyone out there then do feel free to leave any requests or recommendations for beauty products or blog posts. I think I'm going to start with a few posts about my favourite beauty products to use, all of which are from drugstore/highstreet shops and then I'll see where I go from there.

Thank You for reading and hopefully there'll be a completely unqualified beauty opinion coming to you soon! :)