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.

Save Money: 6 Dupes for High End Products

Guerlain's Les Meteorites pearls are a cult product, finely milled they give a very subtle glow to the skin and more recently they have been available in a convenient, travel friendly, compact form. The refill price though expensive it what I'd expect from such a high end brand but the compact is a whopping £97.20! (from Escentual. In house of Fraser it's around £108!) That means you're paying  £62.70 for the packaging alone! That will buy you another Guerlain product or two or possibly most of Make Up Revolution's entire stock! Kiko offers a budget friendly alternative, with a mixture of  matte and shimmery shades of violet, green and pink that can be swirled together for a champagne coloured sheen. I understand that the Guerlain compact is actually more shimmery than the original Meteorite pearls and from swatches here and here I'd say Kiko's version is more similar to the Meteorite pearls (£37.50) giving a subtle glow.

Despite it's name the Max Factor blush is actually a powder not a cream. The Max Factor Creme Puff Blush in Nude Mauve seems to have the same lasting power as Hourglass Mood Exposure blush and the shades are very similar which you can see in a post by Gemma from Beauty Nook here. The differences are that Max Factor has less product than Hourglass and is also less expensive.

I really liked Benefit's new Rollerlash mascara (you can see the review here) but £19.50 is an expensive price tag. However money savvy beauty lovers have sussed out not one, but two dupes. The first is Maybelline's Lash Sensational Mascara which is the cheapest dupe. They share a similar curved wand (although Maybelline isn't as skinny as the Benefit wand) and you can see just how alike the results are in Elle Sees Blog post here. The second dupe is Max Factor Masterpiece Transform Mascara despite the wand looking completely different the results are very similar which you can see for yourselves in a post by Make Up Monster here.

Although Claire's Valentine Hearts nail polish isn't an exact dupe for Nails Inc Alexa Hearts, they are similar each having red hearts inside which I couldn't find anywhere else. La Femme also do a range of  polish with gold, silver and turquoise hearts in them which you can find here for 99p.

These Maybelline color drama lip pencils are much raved about Nars Velvet Matte lip pencil dupes. Maybelline lip pencils are good quality but significantly cheaper than Nars. Maybelline's Red Essential is thought to be a Nars Cruella dupe and you can see in this post by Make Up Over Mind here that they are very similar in colour. They are great in pigment and texture-wise comfortable to wear and leave a stain. Maybelline's Fab Orange is supposed to be a dupe of Nars Red Square. You can see the swatches on my pintrest beauty board.

Nars Radiant Creamy concealer is often recommended as a good concealer for under the eye. Maybelline Fit Me concealer is it's high street counterpart. The differences are that Nars offers more coverage with less product, while Maybelline needs to be built up, but both give medium coverage. Maybelline dries slower than Nars meaning you have more time to blend. The consistency differs as Nars is creamier than Maybelline. Nars does give you more product at 15ml while Maybelline has 6.8g but is still worth trying out.