Lashes and Little Ones: Beauty Bargains!

Having made myself gulp when rereading my morning post that raved about a serum that cost £125, I thought I'd put an afternoon post up about some beauty bargains I have stumbled across, that all cost under £10!

I'm a very loyal Boots shopper, I have reached the dizzy heights of £400 worth of points on my Advantage card, by buying everything I possibly can from Boots. However, recently, I have been hearing whisperings of good things coming out of Superdrug, as shop that I never tend to visit. So, being the intrepid beauty explorer that I am, I decided to pay them a visit, and was pleasantly surprised at some of the brilliant products they have to offer.

Before I talk about the beauty stuff, I have to mention that their baby section is really comprehensive and more competitively priced than Boots, with amazing offers on nappies, wipes and baby essentials. However, there is only so many superlatives I can use when talking about nappies, so I'll swiftly move on to some makeup must haves!

Superdrug BB Cream, 5 in 1 Day Cream: You may have read my post about the Diorskin BB cream earlier this week, which I really love, but find the single shade way too dark. However, I like the concept and wanted to try another, lower end brand. The Garnier version has good reviews, but is still a bit too dark for me, so I opted to try the Superdrug own brand. It has a dewier, sheerer texture than the Dior one, giving less coverage. I'd say it's more like a tinted moisturiser in terms of coverage, rather than a full blown foundation, which the Dior one is. I opted for the Light shade (also comes in Medium and Dark), which is still quite a bit darker than I imagined, but pretty wearable for me (but do try before you buy, I've been surprised at how dark BB creams seem to be). It contains SPF, caffeine, vitamin C and hydraulic acid, all good things for youthful skin. I really like it, and it's currently on offer at £6.99, so a good bargain and worth a try!

Sleek Eyeshadow: Another cult beauty product that, up until now, has totally passed me by, Sleek make very comprehensive eyeshadow palettes, containing 12 shades of highly pigmented, mineral eyeshadows. They are £6.49 each, so amazing value when compared to high end brands, but deliver the intensity of colour and blendability (I think I just made up a new word...?) of much more expensive products. The great thing about them is the diversity of shades, meaning you can cheaply build up a collection of great eyeshadows. Some of their collections are pretty punchy (The Monaco palette for example), but if you are feeling daring, they will certainly fit the bill. They were on 3 for 2 in Superdrug, so I got Oh So Special (658), Au Naturel (601) and Bad Girl (596).

Gosh Long Lasting Eye Brown Pen: I have recently discovered how important good eyebrows are for framing your face. I have quite thin brows, and try and keep them well groomed, but always have gaps; a throw back to my early teens when I plucked the hell out of them and they never recovered. I have always used a brow pencil, at the moment a Laura Mercier one, previously a Mac version. I saw on another blog that eyebrow ink was better in terms of longevity and accuracy (pencil does tend to smudge and can look uneven if you are in a rush). The only version I could find was by Cosmetics A La Carte, and pretty pricey. I wasn't keen to take a risk on something that might be too dark for my complexion, so decided to stick to the pencil, but it turns out the Gosh make an almost identical version for a fraction of the price. In effect, it is a very fine felt tipped pen for your brows, which you draw on (that sounds scary, it's not, it looks more natural than a pencil) and stays put all day. I literally had to use make up remover to get it off.