The Skint-tember Finale - Highstreet VS Highend (Drugstore Dupes/Alternatives)

We couldn't end Skint-tember without looking for some high-street alternatives to higher end products and I've had a good rummage through my collection over the last few days to pick out some that I think are great.

I'll get this one out of the way because I have already mentioned it this month but I thought I'd touch back on it in case you missed my original post: if you still have took the plunge and picked up the Urban Decay Naked Palette and the price is putting you off, you might want to give the Revolution Redemption Iconic 1 Palette a go. The original post include side-by-side swatches so you can see how close they come and it's a steal at just £4 compared to the Urban Decay's £36.

My First ever MAC Lipstick was their "Lady Danger" which is a great matte orangey red. The dupe I've found for it is the Maybelline Colour Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in the shade "Fab Orange". While I would say that the Maybelline is a teeny bit darker and slightly less orange-y toned than Lady Danger, on the lips you wouldn't be able to tell that it's two different lipsticks. Additionally, I find the pencil application method of the Mabelline makes it easier to get a smooth lip line without having to use a lip line.

I love Estée Lauder Colour Envy Lipsticks and the shade "Tumultuous Pink" is a particularly nice, bright pink shade. In the picture I'm wearing "Tumultuous Pink" on the bottom lip and on the top lip I'm wearing NYC Expert Last Lip Colour in "404 - Air Kiss" and, again, they're practically identical. If we're being picky the Estée Lauder is a tiny bit more blue in undertone and obviously has a better wear time but the NYC is much more of an affordable option at a mere £1.99.

I've been a fan of the Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliners for years and last year I picked up the Christmas set that included the shade "Faint", it's a lovely light brown that offers a subtle definition that I really like on the lower lash line especially. Side by side against the Rimmel Scandleyes Eyeliner in "004 Taupe", you can hardly tell a difference. "Faint" is a tiny bit warmer than the Rimmel option but the lasting power is very comparable and the Rimmel is just as creamy to apply.

When I was building my first ever MAC quad, I made the mistake of picking up a shade without swatching it first and got suckered in by how lovely it looked in the pan. MAC's "Gleam" is an amazing glittery peachy-pink shade but it's a nightmare to apply, it's bitty in texture, the glitter falls down constantly, and by the end of a day wearing it you have no eyeshadow left on and glitter all over your face no matter what you're using for a base. So while It does actually cost a tiny bit more to pick up the L'Oreal La Palette Nude Blush, you're getting more colours for your money and the 5th shade from the left is a dead-on match for "Gleam" but it's nice and creamy to apply and doesn't fall down at all.

And finally, the dupe that I'm most excited by. When I first heard about the By Terry Ombré Blackstar in "Misty Rock" I had to have it, it was so unique and the formula was nice too, but the £28 price tag made my eyes water a little bit. I justified it because the colour was so unique and I've used it a tonne, but then I picked up the KIKO Long Lasting Stick in the shade "05" and it's identical in colour and the formula is creamy and long-lasting. I will continue to use and love "Misty Rock" but when it's time to repurchase, I think I'll be picking up another from KIKO.

Fleur's Lip Launch

When Fleur De Force announced that she was releasing a makeup line I headed straight to feel unique and signed up to the waiting list. In her videos her lipstick has always been something she gets right and I just had a feeling that the lip products in the range would be something worth trying. While the eyeshadow quads looked nice they weren't really unique to me and I decided against picking them up but maybe I'll give them a go if she releases some more unique combinations in the future as they did look nice.

While they're currently only being sold on FeelUnique.com the price £6.99 each price point puts them as a high-street product for me so I thought it would be fair to include them in skint-tember and for the money they seem to be really nicely though out products, I can see myself possibly trying out some more shades in the future.

So I just picked up two shades to begin with, and the shades I have are "Starry Starry Night" and "Written In The Stars". I like how she's got a clear theme with the product names but I do think that it will be hard to continue with the "star theme" if she goes on to release more products but I like the amount of thought that's gone into the products. I picked up a light shade and a darker shade to see if there was any difference in the formula and from what I can see it's a nice consistent range and both the lighter and darker shade show up glossy and opaque as the mentioned in the description for the products. The packaging is also nice, a gun metal top and doe-foot applicator and the "Fleur De Force" logo on them, and the lipgloss tubes reflect the colour of the product inside which I like.

In terms of the actual formula, the glosses are thick on the lips and you can feel them during wear but they are a smooth texture rather than a super sticky gloss. The thickness gives them a decent lasting power on the lips and they're comfortable and moisturising on the lips rather than sticky feeling. Fleur describes them as "somewhere between a lipgloss and a liquid lipstick" and I can see why she'd use that description, they're glossy in finish but are also opaque on the lips and don't need too much building-up. I will mention with the darker shades, I did experience a slight bit of bleeding with "Starry Starry Night" and that's not something I get very often with lip products so if that's something you struggle with I'd keep that in mind.

The Friday Review: MaxFactor Miracle Match Blur & Nourish Foundation

On a recent trip to Boots I was looking around for something new to review and saw one of the little blue "New" stickers on the end of the MaxFactor counter, and with me being on the hunt for the perfect foundation I picked up their new Miracle Match Blur & Nourish Foundation to give it a go.

While the shade range wasn't extensive (those with a darker complexion may struggle with this one) I found that shade "40 - Light Ivory" was a really good skin tone match for me and I think we all know that I really struggle with foundations not going light enough for my ghostly complexion. I also like the packaging for the product, it's the typical MaxFactor oval glass bottle with a pump and a plastic lid but the pump on this one has a locking mechanism which is nice, while glass bottles aren't the best for travel, the locking mechanism makes it more travel-friendly.

On application, I did notice a very strong almost almond-biscuit-y scent to the product that was off-putting for me but once it's on the skin the scent isn't noticeable on the skin. The coverage is light-medium and buildable, I personally would still need to go in with a concealer to cover dark-circles and blemishes but it just evens out the skin tone. The formula feels light on the skin and blends to give a very natural finish and I went in with a powder to set the foundation as I do with all base products.

The product last relatively well but does begin to break down for me before I finish a whole day at work, I often have to re-touch products in my t-zone especially as this is where I have problems with oiliness. I think this foundation would be no good for oily complexions and combination will have to touch-up in areas of oiliness but for a drier skin type it's got a lot of moisture to it. On thing I will mention is the skin on my cheeks is quite dry and skin is usually relatively blemish-free, and within 1 day of applying this 3 white-heads appeared on my cheek and nothing else had changed in my routine. I'll do some more testing and update on that front but I think this may clog poe and cause blemishes from my experience and I'm a tad cautious to use it again.

Top 10 Under £10 - Complexion

The final instalment of the top 10 under £10 series here in Skint-tember is going to be focusing on all things complexion. This was a difficult one as even high-street base products often creep up to and beyond that £10 limit and there's a few amazing high-street base products that I love that didn't make it into the list on price, but here's the one's that made the cut:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, L'Oreal generally hit the nail on the head when it comes to base products and this list contains two foundations from them that are great. The True Match Foundation is a lovely light feeling foundation that's got a good build-able coverage and it lasts well on the skin, the shade range is amazing and it comes in just under budget at £9.99, easily comparable to much more affordable formulas and I'm more than happy to say that this is probably the best high-street foundation I've tried.

My second L'Oreal pick is there Infallible Matte Foundation, this is the one in the squeeze-tube packaging, again nice feel on the skin, good coverage, long-lasting. The shade range on this isn't quite as good at the True Match but the packing is very travel friendly. Best of all? This one's slightly more affordable at £7.99.

And finally for foundations, I thought I'd give the Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation, at £7.99 it's another one that's not going to break the bank and it's just a bit different. This foundation feels almost like a moisturiser on the skin and the coverage is build-able but it looks so much like skin. The thing I like most is the way it covers redness well but still lets my freckles peek through and it's a lovely comfortable formula with a decent shade range.

When I heard that New Look had released a make-up range I was all up for trying some bits but the stand was quite overwhelming and I only came out with a couple of bits but their Pure Colour Concealer is amazing. At just £3.99 it goes on like an eye-cream and the coverage is nice as well. The packaging does look a little bit cheap and the product doesn't actually say what it is once you take it out of the box which is a little bit annoying but the click-y pen style applicator is nice and the formula is clearly hat they're put the budget into.

I'd been looking for the perfect pale-skin contour for a while with no luck until I stumbled across the Maybelline Master Sculpt, this highlighting and contouring duo comes in at £6.99 and it's the perfect subtle contour for fair skins, not too grey, not too orange, not too dark. Love.

An oldie but a goodie is the ELF Studio Blush in "gotta glow" which is more of a highlight than a blush. It's great for the new "strobing" trend and it's the perfect way to lift the face if you wake up feeling a bit tired. I dust this under the eyes and on my chin, nose and forehead to bring some dimension to the face and it's lovely. At £4.50 it's not one of ELF's cheapest products but it's a solid pick.

And we'll finish things up with a few blush picks. When it comes to blush, MaxFactor are pretty much the brand to go to. Their Creme Puff Blushes are a lovely powder formula that bring a lot of glow to the cheeks, at £8.99 they're the priciest of my blush picks but the shade range is lovely , I think "Nude Mauve" is a particularly unique shade for the high-street. If you prefer a cream blush then their Miracle Touch Creamy Blushes are also really nice, slightly cheaper at £6.99 a piece, the packaging isn't the nicest but the formula is great and they're great for travel as they're so dinky.

If you want a standard one-shade blush the L'Oreal True Match Blushes are great. Lovely pigmentation and compact packaging all for £7.69. The shade "160 Peach" has been the only blush I've reached for since I picked it up a few weeks ago, it just brings so much life to the face. It also comes with a brush in the bottom of the compact but the brush is quite firm and the formula is quite pigmented so I'd recommend using a soft, fluffy blush brush instead.

Supermarket Skincare - The Skin System For ASDA

Last time I did one of these "Super Market Skincare" posts, I found a couple of nice products that I'm still using and enjoying to this day that were super affordable. With that in mind I figured it would be a good idea to bring it back and scour a different supermarket for another exclusive, affordable brand and let you know how it fairs, and today we're looking at The Skin System range from Asda.

The Skin System range is quite bitty in terms of product selection, there were a couple of products for a dryer skin type but only the oily skin type range offered a serum or moisturiser so I gave that sub-range a try. The products in the range are super affordable at £1-£2 a product and you get a good amount of product in there too. I also think the packaging for the range is nice with a colour coding system, green for their "Tea Tree" range, pink for the more nourishing range and they also have products packaged in blue which seem to be radiance enhancing.

Naturally, the first product I picked up was a cleanser and the one I chose was the 3 in 1 Mask, Scrub and Cleanser, the range did offer a foaming cleanser but it contained SLS so I promptly put it back on the shelf and went for something else. The 3-in-1 cleanser contains glycerin as a main ingredient and also has salicylic acid in which are both ingredients that my skin get on with and the 3-in-1 claim intrigued me. The product also has a light minty fragrance which isn't overpowering during use.

If you're intending to use this as a cleanser, I'd apply it to a slightly damp face as it's a bit too thick in consistency to work into a dry face and this would be your exfoliation step as well. I mainly use this as a second/morning cleanse because the scrubby particles make it no good for removing makeup. To use as a mask I'd use it exactly the same way but leave it to set before removing, it will dry down on the face like a clay mask. I think this cleanser would be best to maintain blemish free skin rather than get rid of spots you already have, the scrubby particles will just spread the bacteria in any current spots around your face and potentially make the acne worse. That being said, as a relatively spot-free person, I've enjoyed using this product and will continue to use it.

The second product I tried was the Overnight Blemish Serum. Again the product contains salicylic acid but a notable mention on this one is that the alcohol content is high, it's got the nice light minty fragrance that the 3-in-1 cleanser had, but you can smell the alcohol content coming through. The product is cooling on the skin but does leave a sticky sensation on the skin which doesn't completely disappear even after applying a nourishing oil over the top.

Also, the packaging on this product recommends that you "Apply a thin layer cleansed face or affected areas, avoiding delicate eye area", which is not something I'd do. Due to the high alcohol content, even when used under and oil and a moisturiser overnight it left my skin so dehydrated that my skin would drink up the moisture in my foundation the next day. If you are going to us this product, I'd recommend targeting your application to blemishes.

Finally, I tried the Light Mattifying Moisturiser. The glycerin and salicylic acid in this product are a little further down the ingredients list and I found this the most difficult to give a fair review of. The light mint fragrance is nice and the moisturiser has a lovely cooling sensation on application but for me the hydration levels weren't enough. I think the product would be great for it's targeted oily-skinned users but even those with combination skin will more than likely find this to not be quite enough for them.

The Friday Review: Aroma Actives Lift & Firm Serum

After picking up a coupe of masks from the Aroma Actives line and loving them (the Deep Cleansing & Purifying Clay Mask is lovely), I wanted to pick up a few more products from their range to try and I was drawn in to the Lift & Firm Serum because it has hyaluronic acid in it, and as we all know, I love me a hyaluronic acid serum.

The packaging is nice and simple, a white tube with a pump at the bottom is both practical and aesthetically pleasing for a lower-cost brand and you get 50ml of product so it's a good size for a serum. The serum applies like a light moisturiser and has a light cooling feeling on the skin before sinking in to the skin quickly.

It leaves the skin feeling moisturised but for me it doesn't offer any long-term benefits. It's not the type of serum I'll put on at night and wake up the day with my skin feeling plumped and juicy or particularly healthy-looking, it's pretty much a bog-standard moisturising serum from my experience. That being said, it's a good serum to use during the day as it makes a nice base for makeup.

But the one thing that has ruined this serum for me? The scent. It's a very heavy, over-poweringly fragranced product. It's a powder-y, floral scent that you can't really escape whilst applying and it does linger on the skin after application. As it's a nice product in every other respect, I am slowly working my way through it and trying to use it up but I definitely wont be repurchasing which is shame because the scent just really lets it down and it's inescapable.

The High-Street Makeup Starter Set

It wouldn't be a high-street-centric month without a post dedicated to my top high-street makeup picks, so I've rounded up my recommendations for what I'd pick up for someone just starting out in makeup. Maybe you don't need an item from every category but if you wanted to buy a full face with every step, here's what I rate from the high-street:

So for primer, there's only one, high-street or high-end, that I really reach for these days and that's the MaxFactor FaceFinity Foundation Primer. It's designed to make your makeup stick to your face better and I think it does a great job at just that. This is one of those products that I maybe don't reach for everyday, but when I need my base to really last I crack this out.

In my opinion, L'Oreal do some of the best foundations on the high-street, and their True Match Foundation is one I've been a fan of for a long time now. It feels light on the skin but the coverage is nice and last a long time without feeling heavy on the skin. Also? The shade range is great, so there should be something for most people.

Concealer was always that product that I thought high-street brands didn't do overly well, I'd tried a good few over the last few years and they were all just a bit heavy or drying on the skin. In the last year or so that seems to have changed dramatically and now you can pick up great formulas for less and my favourite at the moment is actually the New Look Liquid Concealer, it feels like it could be a skincare item it's so light on the skin, and the coverage is nice without being cakey, it's also insanely affordable.

My powder recommendation is obviously the Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot, will I ever stop bleating on about this? Probably not. Its finely milled, controls oil amazingly. A must-have for all with oily skin.

I've foud that MaxFactor seem to do the best blushes on the highstreet, with both there Creamy Touch Blushes and their Creme Puff Blush formulas being lovely, L'Oreal do some nice powder blushes too but I think MaxFactor wins on the grounds that they offer two different but great formulas in a good range of shades and so I can imagine most would find something they liked from Maxfactor.

If you're into contouring, you can now have that on a budget with the release of Maybelline's Master Sculpt Contouring Palette. I really struggle to find contouring products even in the high end, they're always a bit dark or a bit orange or a bit muddy. But this one is amazing, and it comes with a small but perfectly formed highlighting powder too. Genius.

If contouring isn't your thing but you just want a bronze-y glow, the Soap & Glory Solar Powder is probably a pick you'll enjoy. It's has two shades, a lighter and a darker bronze that can be used separately or swirled together which means you can customise how much bronze you get. And they're updated the packaging so it's not so flimsy anymore, yay!

Finding a traditional eye-primer on the high-street was a tough-y. The only brand that really seems to stock one was Rimmel, and while their Exaggerate Shadow Primer doesn't quite rival formulas from Urban Decay and such the like, this is still going to be a nice base for your eyeshadow that will make them apply a little easier and last a bit longer.

For a powder eyeshadow palette, I was going to choose the Maybelline The Nudes Palettes because the shadows in that palette are not messing around, they're buttery and pigmented and rival higher-end brands in terms of quality, but if you're trying to cut back the price even more then it's got to be the Revolution Redemption Iconic 1 Palette, as mentioned in my review post last week, it's a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette for £4, who could ask for more?

Now for eye-liner I was going to recommend the Rimmel Scandaleyes, and if you want some nice coloured liners, that's where you need to go, but for a basic black the Maybelline Master Drama swooped in at the last minute and stole my heart. It's a great formula, a solid jet black, so comparable to Urban Decay's Perversion liner. I won't dwell on the Maxfactor 2000 Calorie Curved Brush Mascara because we all knew it would be in here. It's amazing, it's the best, need I say more?

For brows I'm loving the No7 Beautiful Brow Sculpting Pencil the chunky nib makes for a speedy application and the spool-y brush on the end is perfect. This has kicked my Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil to the back of the class in my collection.

And then for lip products, I had to pick two, a bold matte and a glossy neutral, becuase not everyone likes both. The bold? Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvets, again you've heard about them on here quite frequently but they're just great. The my glossy option would be the Maybelline Colour Sensational Shine Glosses, nicely tinted, not sticky, great shine.

And there we have it, a whole face of high-street products.