April Favourites

So April has been and gone. During April I celebrated my 28th birthday, and the 2nd birthday of this blog! 2 years has absolutely flown by, and I absolutely love my blog and everything that it stands for. 

I am passionate about affordable makeup. I am a big believer that affordable brands and products are just as good (if not better – in some cases) as high end brands/products. 

April was a crazy month for me, I set up my own business, I went to see Ed Sheeran in Nottingham (my husband surprised me with the tickets for my birthday) and for the past week I have been quite poorly. Thankfully I am getting better now 😊

Here are my April Favourites: 

I recently placed an order with Superdrug for a haul of makeup and beauty products. In that haul was the Vitamin E Hydrating Mist & the Simply Pure Hydrating Serum. Do you ever use a product once or twice and just know that you love it? I did that with these two products. They made my skin feel absolutely amazing, silky smooth and hydrated. I am living for this combination right now. The texture on my skin has almost gone, my makeup applies much better now too! 

The Technic Mega Lash mascara is just brilliant. It’s my favourite mascara right now & I reached for it a lot during April. It doesn’t smudge, it’s easy to apply and it makes my lashes look fuller and longer. It ticks all the boxes for everything I want a Mascara to do. It’s super affordable too! 

I am pretty sure I have mentioned the Maybelline Eraser Eye concealer before in a previous blog. The Eraser Eye concealer is my go-to concealer. It hides my dark circles perfectly, it lasts really well, it doesn’t cake or crease and doesn’t feel heavy on the skin at all. 

Another haul order I placed was with Essence Cosmetics. In that order was the Matt Matt Matt Longlasting Lipgloss in the shade Beauty – Approved! 

First of all, this product smells incredible. It smells good enough to eat. 

I absolutely love the shade too, it’s a perfect pinky, brown, terracotta nude shade. Here is a swatch: 

A matte lipgloss sounds weird doesn’t it? But I am living for this product right now!! It’s like a liquid lipstick only you don’t have any trouble removing it at the end of the day. I was surprised how long it lasted during the day too. 

Another product in my recent Essence Cosmetics haul was the Prime Of Your Life primer. On the bottle it says it’s a smoothing, light reflecting primer. I don’t hold out much hope when it comes to primers. I have tried other primers that claim to make my skin smooth and give me a pore-less appearance. But, I gave it a go and OH MY GOSH, it is amazing. There are really no other words to describe it. 

I used this primer in my problem areas (where I have texture in my skin, on my nose and my cheeks) and then applied my No7 primer on the rest of my face. My skin looked completely different before and after applying makeup. I can’t believe how good this primer is. It does exactly what it says on the bottle. I will definitely be stocking up on this product. 

As I briefly mentioned there, I have also been using the No7 Airbrush Away Primer. This is another fab primer and keeps my makeup on all day. I use it every time I apply my makeup, and since using it I have noticed a big difference in how my makeup applies, looks and lasts. 

I have been reaching for the Technic Treasury palette SO MUCH lately. I mean, it’s just the perfect palette! There are so many shades, mattes, shimmers and possible eye looks with this palette. I just love it. 

The Technic Treasury palette is pigmented, really easy to work with and blend out. Let’s be honest, it’s so pretty too 😍 

Apologies for the long blog, but that’s it for my monthly favourites! What have you been loving lately? 

Thank you for reading 

Jen 

PS, head over to my Facebook page where I am currently running a giveaway 😊

http://www.facebook.com/bargainmakeupblog

March Favourites & Exciting News..

Hello again! 

This month I have really made an effort to try and do my makeup everyday, or atleast every 2 days. Being a stay at home parent to a toddler means I very rarely get time to myself or time to do my makeup. Often it’s a toss up between getting up early and putting my face on, or getting more sleep and looking like something out of the walking dead. 

Recently I have been feeling really pants about how I look on a day to day basis. So I gave myself a kick up the bum and this month I have discovered new products & rediscovered old ones that I had forgotten about. 

Here is what I have been absolutely loving this month:

March Favourites

Clockwise: Red Cherry Lashes #213, Arrow Boost Colour Enhancing Lipbalm, Unbranded makeup brushes, Technic Treasury Eyeshadow Palette, Technic Mega Lash mascara, w7 Flirty Eyes mascara, Benefit They’re Real Push Up liner, MUA 6 shade palette Soft Suedes. 

Red Cherry Lashes #213 Normally I am not a false lash wearer unless it’s a big night out or a special event. But, I saw this set whilst browsing online and had to try them. They are wispy, Natural looking but add a bit of drama to the eyes. They are so comfortable to wear & I am definitely going to stock up on them! They have been used – excuse the glue & mascara on them 🙈

Arrow Boost Colour Enhancing Lipbalm I think I have mentioned this little beauty in previous blogs, but I have been reaching for it a lot this month. It brings out the natural colour of your lips. It’s a bit tangy and a bit minty too, which I love. If I am in a rush or my lips feel a bit dry I will use this. It’s such a great little product. 

Unbranded Makeup Brushes I will admit it, I am a makeup brush hoarder. I also cannot stop buying makeup brushes. If I see a set that look a bit different, or are too pretty to resist then I will buy them. I was browsing eBay recently and came across this set of brushes. They are ridiculously gorgeous, and not only that but they are super soft & so easy to use. They apply and blend products beautifully. Did I mention how pretty they are??? 

Technic Treasury Palette This gorgeous palette has 24 shadows that range from mattes to shimmers. I was actually shocked at how good the shadows are in this palette. They apply lovely and blend really easily. I have been using this palette A LOT this month! 

Technic Treasury Palette

Technic Mega Lash & w7 Flirty Eyes Mascaras I simply couldn’t choose between them, so I had to include both in my March Favourites. It’s not often that you find a good affordable mascara that ticks all your boxes is it? But I have found two! They’re not clumpy, they separate my Lashes perfectly, they don’t smudge and they last all day. I love love LOVE them! 

Benefit They’re Real Push Up Liner So, I am absolutely pants at winged liner. I have one eye that is a different shape to the other, so trying to get my wings even is a struggle. I rediscovered the Push Up Liner in my collection, and thought I would give it another shot (I really didn’t like it the first time I used it), and MY GOSH, I love it. Winged liner is so much easier with this, and it doesn’t budge! 

MUA Matte Soft Suedes Palette I spend a lot of my evenings browsing websites for new products and MUA have some seriously fab new products on their website right now. I wanted a compact palette with Matte shadows in, and added this little beauty to my basket. When my MUA package was delivered this palette was the first thing I tried. The shadows are gorgeous, blendable and buildable if you need to. This palette would be perfect for a natural/smoky eye. 

Wow, that’s a lot of Favourites this month! If you have managed to stick with me this far then I must share my exciting news with you. 

I recently launched my own affordable makeup website!!!! 

It’s something I have always wanted to do, and I am so excited about it. I am very proud of my website & I am currently building up my stock. 

www.bargain-makeup.co.uk 

I would love for you to check it out. 

Thanks for reading! 

Love Jen xx

My daughter refuses to smile for all photos

Technic Cosmetics

Happy Friday!!!

The lovely people at Technic recently sent me some of their newest products. 

Technic PR Package

Technic kindly sent me: 

Colour Correcting Setting Powder

Eyeshadow Primer

Brow Pen

Get Gorgeous Bronze Highlighting Powder

Mega Lash mascara 

The colour correcting powder is like magic in a pot. It evens out my skin perfectly and makes my skin look flawless. It doesn’t make my foundation look cakey either. 

I don’t usually use eyeshadow primers; I usually just prime my eyes with concealer. But I noticed a massive difference when I used the Technic Eyeshadow Primer. My eyeshadow applied easier and lasted much longer than usual. 

I am completely stuck in a rut when it comes to brows. I have found the product that works for me, and I usually stick to it. However, I was so excited to see a new brow product in my package from Technic. The Technic Brow Pen is like a felt tip for brows. It is absolutely PERFECT for creating natural looking brows. 

The Get Gorgeous Bronze Highlighter is ridiculously pretty! 

This product can be used to highlight, define and Bronze your features. And it also doubles up as a Gorgeous shimmery gold eyeshadow! 

I have saved my favourite product til last! 

The Technic Mega Lash mascara is right up there in my top 3 favourite mascaras, ever! It isn’t clumpy and I haven’t noticed any smudging under the eye. The Mega Lash manages to give your lashes a good coating of mascara whilst making sure that your lashes are separated. 

Thank you Technic for kindly sending me this lovely package. I now have some new favourite products in my collection. Especially the mascara. Did I mention how much I love the Mega Lash mascara? 

*Disclaimer: Although Technic sent me the products they have not paid me to say nice things about their products. All opinions are my own. I am always completely honest and transparent in my blogs and I genuinely love the Technic brand and I think their products are really good quality and amazing value for money* 

Thanks for reading 

Love Jen xxx

Technic Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palettes Look & Swatches

Hello beauties! 

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas? 

Following on from my last blog where I reviewed and swatched some of Technic’s lip products, I am going to write about the following 2 palettes: 

Mega Nudes 3 palette & Smokey palette

Both palettes have a mixture of matte and shimmery shades. They are both super affordable and you will be able to create lots of eye looks with them. 

Here are the swatches of the Smokey Palette: 

Smokey Palette Swatches

I was expecting this palette to be more pigmented than it actually was. But if you want more colour pay off and a stronger eye look you can build the eyeshadows up & layer them. If you are looking for a subtle Smokey eye then this palette would be perfect for you. 

The eyeshadows are very easy to apply and very easy to blend. 

On to the Mega Nudes 3 Palette:

Mega Nudes 3 swatches

Aren’t the swatches from this palette just insane??! 

Again, this palette has a mixture of matte and shimmery shadows. Some shimmery shadows are more intense than others too. I cannot believe how pigmented the shimmer shades are in this palette. 

The eyeshadows from this palette are very easy to apply and very easy to blend. I did notice a bit of fall down when I applied a shimmer shade, but it was easily wiped away. 

Both the palettes are currently available on Technics website: www.lovethymakeup.com

Mega Nudes 3 Palette – £5

Smokey Palette – £2.49

Here is a look I created with the Mega Nudes 3 palette: 

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy the remainder of 2016, I will be posting a blog of my favourite products over the past year in the New Year! 

Love Jen xx

Technic Cosmetics Lipsticks & Swatches

Hey! 

The lovely people at Technic sent me some beautiful products this week. 

I had originally planned to do a Winter/Berry Lipstick Look Blog, but I haven’t been feeling well this week and my skin has decided it hates me and I have breakouts all over the place 😩 so, instead I thought I would show you some swatches of the gorgeous lipsticks that Technic sent to me. I will do a separate post on the eyeshadow palettes.

I have been a fan of Technic products for absolutely ages! Their Lashitude mascara has got to be my favourite mascara, ever! So I was excited to try out their lipsticks. 

Here are the swatches: 

Bare – A lovely pinky nude shade

Bare All – A very light pinky nude

Deep Purple – Very creamy, very deep purple lipstick with a hint of pink.

Dream Lover – Purple/Brown matte lipstick. Smells absolutely delicious.

Deep Red – Red/Pink lipstick, very creamy too.

My favourite of them all has to be Dream Lover. Matte lipsticks are so in fashion at the moment, and I absolutely love this shade. I can’t get over how nice it smells either. 

Technic do some brilliant products at amazing prices, and I have quite a few in my collection. If you want to have a browse through their products on their website go to: 

www.lovethymakeup.com

I am sorry that this blog wasn’t what I originally had planned. I have been feeling absolutely pants this week, but I didn’t want to not upload a blog (if that makes sense?) 

I will post a more details blog about the Technic eyeshadow palettes soon (when I am feeling better) 

Thanks for reading

Love Jen xx

September & October Favourites

I completely forgot to upload a ‘September favourites’ blog post, so I am combining the last 2 months in to one blog.

My makeup has been pretty basic over the past couple of months; being a mum to a 2 year old toddler who is on the go from the minute she wakes up til the minute she goes to sleep, doesn’t really leave me a lot of time to ‘put my face on’. If I manage to do my brows and slap on some mascara then we are having a good day! 

Anyway, I am rambling. Here are my favourite products I have been using over the last 2 months: 

The Technic Lashitude mascara is something that I have mentioned in previous blogs. I love this mascara so much. It separates my Lashes perfectly, applies evenly, doesn’t clump and doesn’t transfer on to my face after a few hours. This mascara is bloody brilliant! 

Benefits Ready Set Brow! Brow gel. I have the clear brow gel, I have coloured brow gels in my collection but I actually prefer the way this brow gel makes my eyebrows look. My brow routine has been the same for months, I use a cheap brow palette (mentioned in previous blogs) to fill in my brows, and then I use this brow gel in top. I love this brow gel! 

MUA Skin Define Matte Perfect foundation. I love that makeup products’ names are just getting longer and longer 😂. I have got the shade ‘natural beige’, I would say it is darker than I expected it to be, but it matches my skin perfectly when I have fake tanned. It blends out easily, I would say it is a medium coverage, but buildable if you want more coverage. This foundation and my current favourite setting spray are a match made in heaven. 

The w7 ‘The Fixer’ Face Spray is a lovely little setting spray. I would say that I was slightly disappointed at how small the bottle is compared to other setting sprays I own, but apart from that it’s great. It sets my makeup perfectly and makes it stay in place ALL DAY (or until the evening when I have put my PJ’s on and want to take all my makeup off). 10/10 for this product! 

Makeup Revolution Rose Gold lipstick in the shade ‘Chauffeur’ is my go-to nude lipstick. I cannot describe just how amazing this lipstick is. It’s the perfect shade for me, it’s creamy and applies so easily. I always struggle with dry lips and lip products not lasting (even if I buy a product that says ’12 hour wear’ or whatever, the product seems to move and disappear from my lips as the day goes on. So I never expect a lip product to last a long time on me. But this lipstick really does! Again, 10/10 for this product! 

I know a lot of people shy away from unbranded makeup because they don’t know where it is made, what is in the product(s) etc. I saw this 15 colour eyeshadow palette on Amazon for an absolute STEAL of a price and I just had to give it a go. I was mostly intrigued by the red toned shadow in the centre of the palette. I have used this palette so much over the past 2 months, it is crazy! And it looks like I’ve hardly touched it! 

This palette is absolutely perfect for Autumn & winter. Here is a look I created with this palette. The wing was done with the black shadow from the palette! 

Check it out on Amazon here:

LyDia® 15 COLOURS EYESHADOW PALETTE Matte Smokey Eye Effect Neutral Nude/White Highlight/Brown/Black/Chocolate #2

I will also be announcing a brand new giveaway on my Facebook page soon! 

http://www.facebook.com/bargainmakeupblog

And I also reached over 600 followers on my Instagram page this month! Instagram has been a tough cookie to crack, but I am getting there I think! I am so grateful for all of your kind words & support of my blog and my pages. 

Thanks for reading.

Jen xx

My Makeup Collection

Last week I shared a video on my Facebook page that briefly showed my makeup collection. 

I didn’t go in to too much detail about every drawer or each product (because the video would be way too long) 

I thought I would write a blog and upload pictures of each drawer of my makeup storage. 

This is where I store my makeup, dry shampoo, skincare products, fake tan etc:

Here are my foundations & primers

My concealer/contour/setting powder collection:

Some eyeshadow palettes, cream eyeshadows and individual eye shadows:

Face palettes & spare eyeshadow palettes:

Bronzers, highlighters, blushers etc: 

Mascaras, brow products and lashes:

The main eyeshadow palette drawer:

And this is how I store all my brushes, lip products, setting sprays and brush cleaners:

I have to keep the brushes out of reach from my daughter (because she is a professional brush destroyer), so they are high up on a shelf. 

As you can tell, most of my collection is high street and super affordable. If there are any slightly more expensive products in my collection it’s because my gem of a husband treated me ☺️

I also must say that yes, some of the products in my collection were sent to me to review. However, 95% of my collection was purchased by me. 

This blog was not intended to show off, and I do understand my collection is quite big, but as a beauty blogger I love trying new products and writing about them.

Thanks for reading. 

Love Jen xx

My Biggest Giveaway Yet

I am trying to do a giveaway every month. Here is my latest one: 

You could win: 

X2 sets of eye brushes (11 brushes in total) 

Technic Correct & Contour palette

Technic Brow Tamer

Eyeshadow palette 

Makeup Revolution Baked Highlighter

W7 Hollywood Bronze & Glow

Technic Contour Stix

Kylie Cosmetics Kyshadow palette

W7 Absolute Lashes mascara

W7 Glow for Glory Illuminating palette

Eyebrow shadow palette

Ardell Wispies False Lashes

Loreal Paris individual eyeshadow

Kylie Cosmetics Birthday Edition Cream Shadow (rose gold shade)

W7 The Fixer Face Spray 

X2 W7 lipsticks

L’Oréal Paris Lipstick

L’Oréal Paris lipgloss

L’Oréal Paris nail polish 

Seventeen Easy On The Eye eyeshadow palette

W7 In The Mood eyeshadow palette

And these brushes are also included in the giveaway:

To enter, all you have to do is head to my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/bargainmakeupblog and 

1️⃣ LIKE MY FACEBOOK PAGE

2️⃣ LIKE MY GIVEAWAY POST

3️⃣ COMMENT ON MY GIVEAWAY POST

A winner will be chosen at random and announced on the 29th October with a video. 

International entries are also welcome! 

Good luck! 🍀

Jen xx

Big Facebook Giveaway

I haven’t done a giveaway for a while, I thought I would do my biggest giveaway yet! 

Who fancies winning all of these goodies?? 

Head over to Facebook & search ‘bargain makeup blog’, all the giveaway details are on my page! 

You could win: 

1 set of blending brushes

Makeup Revolution Flawless Matte 2 palette

Another eyeshadow palette 

Technic cream contour palette

Technic Colour Correction palette 

Eyebrow palette

W7 Hollywood Bronze & Glow

Technic Contour Stix

Makeup Revolution Lip Lacquer in ‘What I Believe’

Makeup Revolution Lipstick in ‘Chauffeur’

And 4 small tester hair/skin care products

GOOD LUCK 😘😘

My Name Is Jen & I’m a Makeup Addict

Phew! It feels so good to get that off my chest! It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders 😏 

Anyhow, yes, it’s true… I am addicted to makeup. I’m addicted to buying makeup, trying makeup, browsing online for new products, or in stores. 

I took my daughter shopping the other day, I could hear the makeup in my local Boots store calling me. “Jen, come on in, you know you want to!” So ofcourse I go into Boots, I am casually browsing the makeup, I pick up some foundation which I convince myself I need, I also pick up some concealer (which I actually did need because I had ran out), and then we move on to the palettes. I’m a sucker for an eyeshadow palette. I notice some palettes, the packaging was sealed so I couldn’t see what shades were inside… but I purchased it anyway!!! Who does that?! Me. That’s who! 

Nobody needs between 20-30 eyeshadow palettes, it’s ridiculous! 

New products are coming out ALL the time, and I love blogging about affordable makeup. But I have no ‘out with the old, in with the new’ process going on. 

My very understanding hubby is currently in the process of sorting out a beauty corner for me in our bedroom. I spoke to him about more shelves/storage, he agreed that we would get some. I then said to him, “When my new storage arrives, you might want to leave to me sort it all out… because you have no idea just how much makeup I own, and I don’t want you to see it all”. 

He would judge me. I know he would. But, he married me, he said the vows ‘In sickness & in health’… This is my sickness. 

I need some ideas for a process to keep my makeup collection to a manageable level. Feel free to share some ideas. 

Also, let me know if you would be interested in seeing my makeup collection, I would love to blog about what products I have and what products I use the most. 

Thank you for reading! 

Love Jen xx