Party Face With Bargain Makeup

An eyeshadow palette with 15 shades and seven other items of make-up for less than £30 - how does that sound? Well, as someone with a severe Charlotte Tilbury addiction, quite tempting - but also nerve wracking. I decided to find out if any of the latest formulations of bargain make-up could tempt me away from the luxury brands.
It's not as strange as it sounds. Rumour has long had it that Bourjois makeup is made by Chanel. And with expensive brands, a lot of the cost is in the packaging and the marketing.

I decided to head to Superdrug to assemble the products needed for a party face. Superdrug has three brands I recognise from my youth, Rimmel, Collection (which used to be Collection 2000), and Barry M, famous for its Dazzle Dusts.

I also discovered a brand called Revolution and another called MUA, which was certainly the cheapest but as we will discover, the most surprising.

My receipt for less than £30. A discount was applied because there were various promotions going on. Below, the obligatory "before" shot. You can see that I have dark circles under my eyes, pigmentation, redness on and around the nose and a spot above my lip. Thank goodness for make-up!

As a teen I was always rummaging around in Woolworth's looking at the brands which were big at the time: Outdoor Girl, Rimmel, Miners (still around online), Evette (Woolworths' own brand) and in Boots, Boots 17.

First step, after exfoliating and applying my usual serum, eye cream, neck cream and moisturiser, was foundation.

I chose a full coverage product from Barry M called All Night Long in shade Crumb. It's vegan, made in the UK and says it contains vitamin E and anti-oxidising fruit extracts.

Barry M is an interesting brand, founded in the seventies by the late Barry Mero. Amidst the hustle and bustle of East London’s Ridley Road Market, he began selling nail polish from his mother’s front garden. Available in six, bright colours, it was these first, iconic shades that inspired him to create the most colourful name in British cosmetics.

Now the company is run by Barry's son Dean, and in 2017, Barry M marked its 35th Anniversary with the launch of a shiny, new Mill Hill East space – a state-of-the-art production, distribution, and storage facility.

I  have such a soft spot for brands I grew up with, which are still relevant today. Good for Barry M!

Back to the foundation. It's a liquid formula and gives a uniform finish. I had to apply a couple of coats to problem areas like the redness and pigmentation. Of all the makeup products, a foundation is probably the one where spending more money makes sense.  I missed the illuminating effect that my normal foundation from Darphin gives me. The Barry M finish was a little flat. However, on camera, it looks good - the Instagram effect.

To be fair to Barry M, the fact the foundation was called "All Night Long" should have warned me it was going to be a matte with full coverage, so not an ideal choice.

Next I dotted concealer on my problem areas, plus the areas which benefit from a little lightening (corners of the mouth, top of the cupid's bow, middle of the chin). The concealer is from the brand MUA Cosmetics and called Pro Base full coverage concealer, shade #130.

I normally buy make-up online, except for foundation where it's impossible to work out which shade you need, so it was good to use the testers and find the right shade.  I have quite pale skin - which is a recent development as I used to tan quite easily and in photos from just 10 years ago, my skin looks quite ruddy. It's neutral toned, which means I avoid shades with too much yellow, pink or blue in them.

I was impressed with the concealer.  It certainly does what it says on the tube with the dark under eye circles. 

There wasn't too much choice on the blusher front. Some of the brands didn't seem to have any blushers in their range, just endless highlighters and bronzers. Rimmel have some blush powders, but I am not a fan of powder formulas. They tend to look more ageing on older women than cream textures. Eventually I chose Gorgeous Glow from Collection, which looks similar to the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick product.

The blush wasn't a very definite colour but it gives a nice sheen, although a light hand is needed as too much sheen and shimmer is not great for older skin and can emphasise open pores. I prefer a more pinky shade, which helps to awaken the older complexion.

Soft Spot for Rimmel London

Rimmel makes me sentimental as a lot of the makeup and nail polishes I used as a teen were from Rimmel. Remember "Hide n Heal",  the concealer stick, (still around as "Hide the Blemish"), and the lipsticks Coral in Gold, Toffee Shimmer, and Damson Shimmer? Not to mention my favourite polish polish, Jade Shimmer.

Now called Rimmel London, the brand started in 1834 when it was set up by Eugene Rimmel and his father. At that time perfumes were called vinegar, mascara was made with mercury, and marketing meant a stand at a fair.

For my eyes I started with the Rimmel Brow This Way fibre pencil, which was nice and sharp and did the job. I like the fact you sharpen it. With my normal Charlotte Tilbury brow product, the "end" gets rounded and less effective over time.

I would happily have worked my way through Rimmel London's products but they weren't the cheapest on offer which was my brief.

Revolution Eye Palette

I'm not very certain on the provenance of the brand Revolution and Revolution Pro: their site describes them as "Revolution Beauty London". They started in 2014 as Makeup Revolution, founded by Adam Minto and beauty manufacturer Tom Allsworth as a disruptor and launching products very quickly onto the market. It's not clear if they are a UK or US company.

They rightly say that "makeup matters, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or sexuality."

The Revolution "intensely pigmented foil shadow palette" was a bit disappointing. The colours look very glittery in the palette but as soon as you apply your brush you can see it's a bit of a surface illusion.

There wasn't much glitter going on when I applied the eyeshadows. What there was gathered in my the folds of my eyelid. I used what looked like a purple shade but it seemed more dark pink on. I used the charcoal colour around the socket and the silver under the brow.

There's no way this product can compete with the likes of Tilbury, Huda Beauty and Anastasia, whose eyeshadows are genuinely deeply pigmented, very soft to apply, and full of iridescence. If you're an older woman wanting to use glitter (and I love it - why not?) I'd recommend the more expensive brands because the glitter has a moist foundation and doesn't sit in the lines and wrinkles looking harsh.

MUA Cosmetics: Impressive

I thought that MUA Gel Eyeliner would be a liquid formula, looking at the little bottle with its pointy end, but it turned out to be a solid eyeliner with the brush built into the pointy end. I wasn't sure if it needed water but guessed not  (I can't be arsed to look up things on You Tube). I was a little heavy handed and had to clear up afterwards, but I think with practise I could master it.

I wasn't overly optimistic about a cheap mascara. Regular readers will know I have a perpetual problem with mascaras - after an hour or two they transfer to my lower lashes and I turn into a panda.

But the MUA Fast Stroke Defining Lash mascara definitely surprised me. Non-gloopy and an instant separating effect. And, two hours on, no panda effect. Very promising.

Finally, for lipstick I decided to go for a new type of product to me, Collection's Lip Gello gloss in Jiggle, a shade which looked water melony / dark orange. Initially it looked good but it didn't last longer than an hour and that was without drinking anything.

So what did I think about the makeup? The result was better than I expected but it still looks a bit flat and lacking in light reflection. Logically, these products are intended for young women who don't need light reflective particles, and there are plenty of strobe and highlighter products in all the ranges to add this.  I prefer to get it in my foundation and eyeshadow without the need to use additional products.

I'm definitely happy with the concealer, mascara, brow pencil and the blusher. I think my 16 year old niece would probably find the makeup palette more useful, and maybe the foundation too.

Do you have any hero products from the cheaper ranges that you can recommend? 

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