Primark Beauty Haul Part 2

This is the second part of my Primark beauty haul which is mainly  comparing  three brush cleaners/ brush mats as well as a brush and nail polish.

Primark's Lips Shaped Brush Mat has five different textures to work your brushes into as you clean them. The wavy lines and semi circle nodules are very effective for cleaning bigger thicker brushes such as foundation brushes while the dots are good for fine, small eye brushes. It doesn't have any suction pads to stick to the basin so initially I used it near the lip of the basin but it gave me back ache. Instead I found it much more comfortable to hold it vertically in one hand while holding the brush in the other. For £1.50 this is a bargain and actually works very well.

Primark Pink mini silicone brush cleaner. You're supposed to pop this on a finger or two and use the other hand to swirl the brush on it. Although I have slim fingers it felt like a squeeze to fit more than one inside and it felt more comfortable to hold in the palm of the hand instead. The long grooves are best for the bigger brushes and the smaller dots for eye brushes. This is the one I think you can skip- the other two brush cleaners are better and easier to use.

Primark Heart shaped 2 in 1 brush cleaner & Brush wiper (£2)  I've seen these brush wiper sponges on ebay but when I got this I didn't realise this is actually a 2 in 1 brush cleaner!  You can use the black sponge to wipe your brush clean before you use a different eye shadow and if you take the sponge out you can use the patterned silicon base as a brush cleaner! It's like a tray with a raised polka dot texture inside and the back of has a ridge pattern for bigger brushes. This is the most comfortable to use as it fits nicely into the palm of the hand. This is a brilliant multi-tasker!

Primark PS. Blue Eye Makeup Brush
Another 2 in 1 brush from Primark, one end is a slim and pointed pencil brush which is good for running eye shadow across the lash line and precise enough for highlighting the inner eye. The other end is a small flat brush good for applying eye shadow. It's smaller than the other Primark double eye shadow brushes I've bought (16cm vs 19cm) with much smaller heads, the pencil end is 0.8cm in length and the flat brush is 1 cm long. This makes it easier to create detailed eye makeup looks. I don't think there's been a Primark brush I haven't liked, so if you're after cheap but good quality make up brushes I'd recommend them.

Primark PS Satin Matte Nail Polish in Postbox Red (£1.50)
This nail polish is a thin but pigmented formula which requires a thin smooth base coat underneath. It will show any uneven strokes and you have to be careful to have enough polish at the tips so that  brush stroke marks won't appear. The brush is wide and fairly short and in two strokes will often cover a nail. It is opaque in one coat and dries fairly quickly which makes up for a fussy application. This is the first polish I have that is a satin matte finish which reminds me of a ribbon, it has a sheen to it so it's not completely matte. The staying power is pretty good, I painted my nails on Thursday and now it's Sunday, there is some slight wear along the tips but otherwise my nails look in good shape.

Primark Beauty Haul Part 1

I've been popping into my local Primark every so often and these are the things I picked up. Primark seem to release a few different makeup ranges around the same time so I've split the post into the different collections.

Primark received a lot of press for their P.S. Chocolate range being a dupe for Too Faced's Chocolate range. They had a similar Chocolate eye shadow palette but as I already had all of those shades I picked up two of the Chocolate Lip Kits instead. The packaging is gorgeous all the products are designed to look like they're dripping in gold (a la Kylie Lip Kits.) The lip glosses are in a similar tube to the Too Faced melted liquid lipsticks with the same sponge applicator. Both the lip kits contain a lip liner and a lip gloss.

The lip gloss in the Crème Caramel Lip Kit is a peachy nude and for me, more wearable out of the two lip glosses. It has very subtle silver glitter which I only noticed when I tested if it was transferable. The formula is very sticky but glossy. It does transfer on to cups and glasses and it is not kiss proof. It will need topping up after eating a meal.  The lip liner is also a peachy nude colour with subtle gold sparkles. I quite like the colour of the lip pencil as it's unique. The pencil is soft to use but will need sharpening. It smells sweet but the scent disappears once it's on the lips.

The lip liner in the Mocha Lip Kit is a brown greige colour and is nice and soft. I know the colour is fashionable but I don't think I could pull it off without a gloss on top. It smells a little sweet but you can't smell anything once it's on your lips. The Mocha Molton lip gloss is sticky in terms of texture with a very glossy finish. The colour is brown and a little metallic, it's too dark for me but it may be good as a nude, neutral shade for deeper skin tones.

I have to admit I don't like the scent of either of these Chocolate Molton lip glosses they are sweet, fake and sickly. Initially I thought it wouldn't bother me but when I walk past the gloss on my dressing table and get this fake sweet waft of the scent and it doesn't make me want to pick them up and use them. I wouldn't recommend these.

On to Primark's Nudes Collection, where the packaging looks very similar to the recent Kim Kardashian makeup line. I picked up an Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick in Voluptuous. It has a curved doe foot applicator which makes it easy to apply. When it's first applied it's a light pink colour but it dries down to a salmon nude which may not suit all skin tones. It dries to a powdery finish. It's comfortable to wear and doesn't dry out your lips, but it will show every line on your lips which may be a deal breaker for some people. I'm not actually sure what the sponge end does or how to use it with a liquid lipstick. It does transfer a little onto glasses and cups but will still remain intact. It's kiss proof as well. A little may come off when you're eating a snack but mostly looks OK. However you'll need to apply it after eating a meal. On the whole the lasting power is fairly good for a budget matte liquid lipstick (though not as good as Rimmel.)

I also bought an lip and eye gloss stick. It has a sponge tip applicator and you twist the top it will click and release product. It's fairly easy to use. However it doesn't seem hygienic to use the same applicator for both eyes and lips, so i'm just going to use this on my eyes. I know eye glosses aren't very popular because of the texture, and therefore are a bit of a niche product. I'm fascinated by them ever since I saw an X Factor episode with Lucy Jones performing Guns N' Roses Sweet Child of Mine during Rock week. Her eyes are dark and glossy but later I found out the makeup artist didn't actually use gloss. This lip and eye gloss doesn't have a name or number on it.  I like the fact that this has some colour (peach) but it does wear clear after a few hours which is a shame because it might ass well be Vaseline. It is sticky like a lip gloss but not as much as some of the MAC eye glosses which need to be mixed with a mixing medium to make them usable. Because it's sticky it doesn't migrate to other parts of your face, which Vaseline can do. This eye gloss is easily removed with eye make up remover. If you're looking for a cheap eye gloss or want to try it out i'd definitely recommend this.

Primark's K-Pop Range is inspired by kitsch, cool and innovative Korean Beauty. This K-Pop Bubble Blush in Coral Dreams is a liquid cushion blush, something I've never tried before. The mini puff sponge looks so cute! The puff sponge 'prints' the product onto your cheek but you do need to blend it with your finger to make the placement look natural. The colour is a bright peach perfect for the summer! This blush doesn't really have a scent to it. The pot is actually bigger than it looks in the photos measuring 6.5 cms and it contains a very generous 10g, though I don't know how long the sponge will last. It is still excellent value for money especially now it's on sale for £2!

Overall the haul was a bit of a mixed bag, I liked the creme caramel lip pencil. lip & eye gloss and the cushion blush. The matte liquid lipstick was OK but I did not like the chocolate lip glosses. My next post features the rest of my Primark beauty haul.

If you've tried these products, what do you think? Anyone recommend any Primark P.S. beauty products?

Affordable & Good Quality Makeup Brushes: Primark P.S.

On  a visit to Primark I picked up some of their eye and lip brushes and was surprised by the quality. The bristles are soft and not at all scratchy. They are easy to clean and haven't shed.  You can treat them as workhorse brushes as they are cheap to replace. Originally the brushes had silver ferrules with black brush heads with pink tips but they've now switched to rose gold ferrules to capitalise on the rose gold trend.

Most of Primark's makeup brushes are double ended, although they have recently released some brush sets such as the lip brush set and eyebrow set which are not double ended.  With double ended brushes I think you either love them or hate them. On the one hand they are good value for your money, with two brushes in one; and they also save space in your makeup bag while travelling. However they can be awkward to store in a pot and to wash and dry them. The best thing is to find a wide makeup bag / brush holder so the brushes fit inside and maybe to wash one end at a time so that the water doesn't loosen the ferrule. Each individual brush is £1 and the 3 Lip Brush kit has 3 brushes for £3.

The Eye shadow & Concealer brush was the first brush I bought. I was about to place an order for some Sigma eye shadow brushes when I came across this in Primark, saw that they were only £1 and thought it would be worth giving it a go. I was pleasantly surprised, the brush was soft and was good for packing on eye shadow. It is slightly smaller and shorter than Urban Decay's eye shadow brush (from the Naked 1 palette.) The concealer end is a good size, being small enough to cover blemishes but big enough so that covering dark circles isn't a laborious job. It works well with both thicker, creamy concealers and runny liquid formulas. It can also work as an eye shadow brush for larger eyes. The brush is fairly long at 18.5cm which is something to bear in mind when storing brushes away or for those who are short sighted and need to be closer to a mirror. However I was so impressed with this brush I had to go back and buy some more.

The Smokey Eye Brush is not a blending brush. The round end is very small and precise and best used for running along the upper or lower lash line to achieve a smoky look rather than blending eye shadow in the crease. The end with the flat headed brush is slightly smaller than the eye shadow brush head making it good for smaller eyes for placement of shadow. You can use the brush on it's side in a winds wiper motion along the crease (with eye open) for a subtle-ish smokey look.

As for the  Eye Brow Brush, i'm in love. The angled brush is perfect for filling in brows as it's so precise and easy to use. In the past I've just used an old mascara wand to brush through my brows, but I do appreciate having a good spoolie brush as well. Primark have since come out with a 4 brush Eye Brow set which you might want to pick up, I considered doing so but this brush does everything I want really, so for me there's no need.

Three Pack Lip Brush Set 

All the brushes in the set are pointed which mean you can draw a nice neat outline. They are also smaller in length than the eye brushes (around 14cm)  which is good if you are short sighted like me and need to get closer to the mirror.

I actually use the Precision Brush to outline the cupids bow because as it gives a nice sharp line, but it's also good for outing the lips too. The Filing brush is great for filling in the lips and I prefer it over the Real Techniques travel lip brush because of the thinner point at the end. I also use the Cupid's bow brush for outlining the lips as well as defining the cupids bow.

Overall these brushes are definitely worth checking out. Don't let the price fool you, these £1 brushes surpass many makeup brushes in their quality and I prefer them over E.L.F brushes and some of the Royal & Langnickle brushes. They are excellent value for money, good at getting the job done and are easy to wash. This bargain buy is definitely worth adding to your makeup arsenal.

Available in Primark Stores Nationwide.

Disappointing Beauty Products #7

When trying out beauty products there are always going to be some that you don't get on with but for others it's their holy grail. These are just my experiences if you use any of these products and love them then don't stop.

Sanctuary Spa Ultimate Salt Body Scrub 
I really wanted to like this body scrub especially as it has jojoba oil- a scent I love, as well as coconut and almond oil which are famous for their moisturising properties. The salt is anti-septic as well as being good for exfoliation. However after doing a patch test on my leg I found that it made my skin itch and look irritated which was a shame. I'm glad it was only a sample size and that I didn't buy the big jar (though it would look pretty in the bathroom.)

Marks and Spencers Island Escape Sea salt and Bergamot  EDT
This was in M&S's beauty box. While the bottle is really pretty and summery, tinted yellow for the sand and blue for the sea,  I really didn't like the scent. There is only a touch of musk, but to me this smells like men's aftershave- like toned down Lynx- yuk! On M&S's website there are lots of people raving about this but it did not appeal to me at all.

Laura Mercier Translucent Pressed Powder 
I liked this translucent powder because the colour is an off white cream shade, which meant that it didn't look ashy on my olive tanned skin. However whenever I use this on my forehead I end up with more spots for some reason.

L'Occitane Repairing Shampoo For Dry and Damaged Hair
L'Occitane's shampoo promises silky hair that shines and to repair dry and damaged hair. It has five essential oils (angelica, lavender, geranium, sweet orange and ylang ylang) together with plant derived amino acids they form an anti-breakage complex which helps to repair and smooth the hair fibers. It is silicon free and has a herbal smell due to the essential oils, rather like Neal's Yard products, but on application it smelt like aniseed to me, a scent I hate. The smell does disappear after washing your hair. However immediately after the first wash my hair looked really frizzy on the top of my head and the next day although it was clean it looked stringy and oily despite not actually being oily. My hair looked a little shinier but I don't know if it repaired any damage because my hair didn't really feel nourished. This was a sample, the full size is £17 for 300ml and I felt that there are much cheaper shampoos out there that do a much better job.

Merumuya Melting Cleansing Balm
This has so many good reviews and I felt that it cleaned my skin so well. Unfortunately the next day this gave me spots and the red patches on my face had got even bigger! You can see my full review here.

Primark Egg Makeup Sponge 
This sponge is very firm compared to the Real Techniques sponge and doesn't really increase in size when it's wet. While I found the pointed end useful to apply foundation around the eyes I found that
bouncing it/stippling seemed to darken foundation and sometimes remove it. I didn't really enjoy using this despite all the positive reviews and I found it harder to clean compared to the Real Techniques one.

6 Beauty Tools I use Everyday

Tweezerman Tweezers Boots £19.50
I put off buying these tweezers for years thinking that they were really overpriced but it's been the best decision I ever made. These are sharp and precise and they make plucking my eyebrows so much faster and easier. My brows are quite bushy and my hands used to ache holding tweezers but these wide grip tweezers make such a difference and my hands never ache now. They are still available in wide grip and I cannot recommend them enough.

Nail Scissors £1 Primark
Ever since I read that Elizabeth Hurley used nail scissors to trim her eyebrows in a magazine I've been doing the same, regardless of whether it's a celebrity myth or not. It helps them to look tidy and neat.

Real Techniques Blending Sponge Boots £5.99
I love this sponge, it's great for achieving a flawless finish to your foundation and the pointed and flat edge is good for getting under the eyes and around the nose. I don't think it's as bouncy as the Beauty Blender but you can still stipple foundation on. Real techniques are such a brilliant, affordable brand.

Eyelash Curlers £1 Primark
I was heartbroken after I accidently spilt nail polish remover over my beloved Cosmopolitan eyelash curlers, I felt uneasy using them near my eyes and Cosmopolitan are no longer making beauty accessories. So I popped into Primark and found these and they are pretty good for only £1! I was deciding between these and The Body Shop ones but these had more positive reviews. I love eyelash curlers- they're great for opening the eye and looking more awake.

Sigma Brush Cleaning Glove Dupe ebay £4.79 or ebay £2.19 
Ok, so I don't quite use this everyday. This is really a silicone oven glove which I bought after reading a post by Fiona of Makeup Savvy to help deep clean my makeup brushes. It works best on short bristle face brushes such as Real Techniques Core Collection contour brush and Zoeva's 110, and 122. It helps to clean them quickly and easily.

Magnifying Mirror Tiger  £2
For days when I don't want to wear contacts, this magnifying mirror helps me to apply eye makeup without looking like a clown ( I'm very short sighted.). It has two suction pads so you can stick it on a mirror or another surface.