Fight back against over-priced cosmetics! Post your cheap but outstanding discoveries

green1970

Here's my staple cheaper products that I reach for every day -

Foundation - Holika Holika Petit BB Moisture spf 35 - from ebay at around £6 including shipping. This is my absolute HG foundation as I'm very pale and lots of the palest foundations still look orange and dark on me. I feel like I've tried every high end foundation going and this is the best. Good fullish coverage, dewy sheen, full of lovely ingredients and built in decent factor sunscreen. Couldn't do without this at all. I apply it flawlessly with an ELF studio flat top powder brush.

Contour Powder (bronzer) - NYX blush in taupe. I can't use bronzer as it looks ridiculously orange on me so I use this instead as I like to contour/shade the hollows of my cheeks, jawline, sides of nose, parts of forehead and eye crease. It's a perfect ashy taupe that just creates a shadow rather than an orange streak. It's about a fiver but it's used every day with every look, without fail.

Blush - La Femme Blush on Rouge pan in 'Coral Spice' - £2.99 online only. This is the most highly pigmented, stay put blush I have ever used. It's a perfect pinky coral sheen and just looks perfect. If I could only keep one from the dozens I own, it'd be this one.

Lippy - MUA - £1. I never spend much on lippy as I like to change my colours too much. MUA means I can do that guilt free. Another brilliant lipstick is NYX matte lipstick which is around the fiver mark but stays put better and the colours are striking. Even though it's matte, it's not drying and really flattering.

Eyeshadow - Sleek - £6.49. I have a couple of these in Storm and Natural and can do all sorts of looks with just those two. Pigmentation is brilliant, goes on your eye like it look in the pan, really soft, buttery and easily blended. If you feel like you can't splash out on the Naked palette, these come a very close second and won't break the bank. If you're visiting the US, pick up some Wet n Wild Color Icon palettes from Target - they're amazing and usually just a couple of quid a pop.

Mascara - ELF Mineral Infused Mascara - £3 I think. The only thing I don't like about this mascara is that it's a little difficult to remove, you definitely need a proper eye make-up remover or a proper oil/ponds cleanse to get it off. The brush is silicone, separates and coats lashes beautifully without a clump in sightand is a gorgeous glossy black. It can be a little 'liquid' when new so this is the first mascara I've had that actually improves with age :-)

Brushes - ELF £3 or £1.50. Worthy of mention are:
Studio Powder brush - best brush for liquid foundation application ever!
Basic Eyeshadow brush - Hit & miss but if you get a good one, it's great for packing on colour.
Studio eyeshadow C Brush - same as above only better quality and more tightly packed.
Haven't found a good blending brush from them yet though, still use my MAC 217 or a nice brush I got in a set from Ecotools. In fact, the Ecotools blush brush is the softest blush brush I've ever used. I suppose they're still a bargain if you get them in a set though.

Skincare - I make a few of my own things (CE Ferulic Serum and Niacinimide Toner) but for my cleanser, the simpler it is, the better. I usually buy the cheapest one recommended on beautypedia.com - there's no need to spend much at all on cleanser. My most brilliant moisturiser is from the US unfortunately but I'm hoping that they're going to launch here soon as they hinted that they were when I asked them. It's Cerave pm - soaks in completely, full of ceramides and niacinimide in good proportions so fab for your skin - although it's pm, that's only because there's no sunscreen in it. There's no need to buy one for day too as my foundation has sunscreen. Another good basic moisturiser which is perfect as a base instead of a primer is Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream which is about £5.

Sorry for waffling on, just wanted to share the goodies that I now stick with after years of trying everything going.

BOBS

Found this thread researching what brushes to buy - would like to replace all my most used ones .... foundation brush, blusher/bronzer brush, small and large eyeshadow brushes and a fine one for eye liner/ well more smudger!
Green 1970 - you mention ELF brushes - where do you buy them from ?

faithless

BOBS wrote: »

Found this thread researching what brushes to buy - would like to replace all my most used ones .... foundation brush, blusher/bronzer brush, small and large eyeshadow brushes and a fine one for eye liner/ well more smudger!
Green 1970 - you mention ELF brushes - where do you buy them from ?

Bobs, elf = https://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk. They're a brand that sell their own stuff on their website. They're quite a 'budget' brand, some of their stuff is supposed to be really good, some not. I particularly like their 3in1 blusher/lip/eye stick.

green1970

Bobs, if you sign up to elf's facebook page, wait for when they're doing a deal before you buy (sometimes they have a certain percentage off, free shipping, half price on Studio items, etc) - link here http://www.facebook.com/elfcosmeticsUK

I'd definitely splash out on the Studio Flat top Powder Brush which is perfect for foundation rather than buying a 'dedicated' foundation brush - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~136.htm. I like the Studio brushes more than their budget range but the eye brushes in the budget range aren't bad - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~41.htm , http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~223.htm and http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~45.htm. The eyeliner brush that comes with the gel eyeliner isn't bad at all and that's on sale at the mo - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~398.htm

https://www.crownbrush.co.uk are really reasonable for brushes too - it's one of those things that you should spend a lot of time and effort on sourcing as they can make all the difference to your makeup if they're good. I've spent £20 each on 3 separate foundation brushes over the years but the £3.50 Studio Line one from elf beats them all hands down, yet I have about half a dozen useless cheap blending brushes and keep going back to my more expensive 217 brush as nothing can touch it.

I know it's not great to recommend another forum/site but https://www.makeupalley.com has a brilliant set of reviews on all brushes (lots of US only ones though) and I always look on there before splashing out on any make-up or tools. Can't be doing with making expensive mistakes any more.

BOBS

Green1970 - thank you so much for taking all the time to write that post. Loads to look at and great tips.!!
Thanks again.

salesaddict

green1970 wrote: »

Here's my staple cheaper products that I reach for every day -

Foundation - Holika Holika Petit BB Moisture spf 35 - from ebay at around £6 including shipping. This is my absolute HG foundation as I'm very pale and lots of the palest foundations still look orange and dark on me. I feel like I've tried every high end foundation going and this is the best. Good fullish coverage, dewy sheen, full of lovely ingredients and built in decent factor sunscreen. Couldn't do without this at all. I apply it flawlessly with an ELF studio flat top powder brush.

Contour Powder (bronzer) - NYX blush in taupe. I can't use bronzer as it looks ridiculously orange on me so I use this instead as I like to contour/shade the hollows of my cheeks, jawline, sides of nose, parts of forehead and eye crease. It's a perfect ashy taupe that just creates a shadow rather than an orange streak. It's about a fiver but it's used every day with every look, without fail.

Blush - La Femme Blush on Rouge pan in 'Coral Spice' - £2.99 online only. This is the most highly pigmented, stay put blush I have ever used. It's a perfect pinky coral sheen and just looks perfect. If I could only keep one from the dozens I own, it'd be this one.

Lippy - MUA - £1. I never spend much on lippy as I like to change my colours too much. MUA means I can do that guilt free. Another brilliant lipstick is NYX matte lipstick which is around the fiver mark but stays put better and the colours are striking. Even though it's matte, it's not drying and really flattering.

Eyeshadow - Sleek - £6.49. I have a couple of these in Storm and Natural and can do all sorts of looks with just those two. Pigmentation is brilliant, goes on your eye like it look in the pan, really soft, buttery and easily blended. If you feel like you can't splash out on the Naked palette, these come a very close second and won't break the bank. If you're visiting the US, pick up some Wet n Wild Color Icon palettes from Target - they're amazing and usually just a couple of quid a pop.

Mascara - ELF Mineral Infused Mascara - £3 I think. The only thing I don't like about this mascara is that it's a little difficult to remove, you definitely need a proper eye make-up remover or a proper oil/ponds cleanse to get it off. The brush is silicone, separates and coats lashes beautifully without a clump in sightand is a gorgeous glossy black. It can be a little 'liquid' when new so this is the first mascara I've had that actually improves with age :-)

Brushes - ELF £3 or £1.50. Worthy of mention are:
Studio Powder brush - best brush for liquid foundation application ever!
Basic Eyeshadow brush - Hit & miss but if you get a good one, it's great for packing on colour.
Studio eyeshadow C Brush - same as above only better quality and more tightly packed.
Haven't found a good blending brush from them yet though, still use my MAC 217 or a nice brush I got in a set from Ecotools. In fact, the Ecotools blush brush is the softest blush brush I've ever used. I suppose they're still a bargain if you get them in a set though.

Skincare - I make a few of my own things (CE Ferulic Serum and Niacinimide Toner) but for my cleanser, the simpler it is, the better. I usually buy the cheapest one recommended on beautypedia.com - there's no need to spend much at all on cleanser. My most brilliant moisturiser is from the US unfortunately but I'm hoping that they're going to launch here soon as they hinted that they were when I asked them. It's Cerave pm - soaks in completely, full of ceramides and niacinimide in good proportions so fab for your skin - although it's pm, that's only because there's no sunscreen in it. There's no need to buy one for day too as my foundation has sunscreen. Another good basic moisturiser which is perfect as a base instead of a primer is Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream which is about £5.

Sorry for waffling on, just wanted to share the goodies that I now stick with after years of trying everything going.

Hi There,

thanks so much for taking the time to post this. Even though I am part of the no buying toiletries challenge I still love hearing all about the make up that the afficionados rate
You really know your stuff:)

faithless

Green1970, you mention the BB cream, do you wear this on its own, or do you need any kind of primer, or any powder or anything to go over the top? The BB dreams sound good, but so far I've tried (testers in the shop) Garnier, which was totally Orange, and No 7, which sat on top of my skin. Does it last long?

green1970

faithless wrote: »

Green1970, you mention the BB cream, do you wear this on its own, or do you need any kind of primer, or any powder or anything to go over the top? The BB dreams sound good, but so far I've tried (testers in the shop) Garnier, which was totally Orange, and No 7, which sat on top of my skin. Does it last long?

Hi faithless - I wear the Holika Holika one just on it's own, no primer or anything as it contains moisturiser. I tend to use a little bit of powder on top just because I like powder blush/contour and it doesn't go well on 'un-set' liquid foundation. These couple of blogs will give you an idea of how it 'looks' on and the colour - it's very pale! http://www.phyrra.net/2011/07/holika-holika-essential-petit-bb-cream-spf-30-pa-review.html and http://lotuspalace.blogspot.com/search?q=holika+holika+petit+bb

London18

Hi all,

Moisturiser - Derma Tech Soultions V10 anti-wrinkle cream

I bought this stuff from my local £-land recently (not in a box but lid is sealed inside so still hygenic) and it's actually easily as good as my usual, quite expensive, L'Oreal moisturiser. I have dry-ish skin and it felt really soft. Poduct says it's not tested on animals and is a nice texture, if you like a cream not a lotion - is not too thick though, just not runny. Smells a little like Dove or old fashioned cold cream - not strong & quite pleasant. They also had the Night cream which I will be going back to get as well.

It's also about £3 on Amazon which I still think is good value.

BOBS

green1970 wrote: »

Bobs, if you sign up to elf's facebook page, wait for when they're doing a deal before you buy (sometimes they have a certain percentage off, free shipping, half price on Studio items, etc) - link here http://www.facebook.com/elfcosmeticsUK

I'd definitely splash out on the Studio Flat top Powder Brush which is perfect for foundation rather than buying a 'dedicated' foundation brush - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~136.htm. I like the Studio brushes more than their budget range but the eye brushes in the budget range aren't bad - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~41.htm , http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~223.htm and http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~45.htm. The eyeliner brush that comes with the gel eyeliner isn't bad at all and that's on sale at the mo - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~398.htm


.

Ordered one of each of the above - came yesterday so had a wee play today. The flat top powder brush if fab for foundation - was a bit sceptical when i saw the size of it but when i tried with liquid foundation it was fab. I have never used gel eyeliner before and this on is really good - brush makes it very easy to apply - got the gunmetal one so wouldnt look too harsh - but think i could manage the black in it. Thanks again :beer: