Affordable makeup must-haves! 💄

Yes, that is a lipstick emoji in the title. Can we appreciate it for a moment.

Moment over, hello guys! Are you well? I hope you're doing fine. If you have exams now (which basically the entire secondary education level students have starting from now- me included) then GOOD LUCK! Just remember that after exams it's summer, where we can forget everything we learnt in the year and stress about going into year 10! Whoooo. Anyway, I have been cursed with tonsillitis AGAIN, for the second time in four weeks, so I'm off school again and I am feeling pretty ill. I have a cup of tea though so it's fine. Now, today's post is an affordable makeup must-haves, and I am not actually sure how I feel about this post, I want to apologise in advance about the pictures, I decided at like 11pm that I wanted to do this, took the photos on my bed (I hate my sheets too, they
don't even match, like the bottom sheet is purple and the one under the quilt is red, weird, ikr) and thought that they would do. So, sorry about that, its not one of my best photography sessions, you can see the flash on most of them and it doesn't look great, but hopefully the actual post will make up for it!

So I'll start with foundation, and I have chosen the Rimmel lasting finish 25 hour foundation. Previously, I have moaned about this foundation and told you how much I don't like it, but my opinion has changed. Over a primer, this is amazing. It stays on for a really long time, and it is medium coverage, but it is buildable, last week I had a huge rash all over my cheek/chin, and two layers of this covered it so well. If you do build this foundation up, it goes a little cakey throughout the day and then patchy, sometimes my cheeks will still look fine at the end of the day, and my forehead and around my nose where I get oily it will start to go patchy and icky, however I only powder once all day. I've had this foundation since February, and I wore it everyday for about a month, and then probably for an equivalent of everyday for three weeks, and I did try to DIY a moisturising foundation thing, and used about 8 pumps (I know, I'm not sure what I was thinking) and it's only half empty. This foundation is £7.99 and is one of the more affordable foundations out there.

Next I'm going to be talking about one of my favourite concealers (I have two, and the other one is the Rimmel match perfection), and this one is the Maybelline fit me concealer, which is just a-ma-zing. Literally, I have no words, it is just such a good concealer. I am planning on trying the Urban Decay naked skin concealer this summer, which has recently been all the hype, so I'll report back on that, but so far this is the most amazing concealer ever ever ever. I got it at the beginning of April, and I bought a back up the other day, I didn't wear it for a while because I thought it was giving me breakouts, but it wasn't so phew, but I think there's about half, maybe more left- I just got up and checked, there's 3/4s left. I have heard that this concealer is a really good dupe for the Nars creamy concealer, and I can't personally comment on that since I haven't tried the Nars one, but if you like the look of the Nars one but wanted a cheaper alternative, then this one may be the one to go for! The coverage of this concealer is amazing, it's definitely full coverage and is so easy to blend, and the formula is incredible, it's creamy and thick but not too thick in the sense that it doesn't go cakey, it's just the right thickness. The actual packaging is ok, it does look like the Nars one, they are both in lipstick tube packaging with the spongy applicator, the bottle is plastic, and although you can't see it in the photo because I used the back up concealer to take the photo, the packaging does rub off and it does go a bit funny. Though for £5.99, I think it's worth the rubby-offy packaging because the actual product is incredible.

Just to change it up a bit, I think I'll talk to you about a lip product next, because those of you who know me know that I have a slight obsession to lip products, I'm never without lip balm and I love lipsticks and lip glosses, well, mainly lipsticks but y'know, I do own a few lip glosses so I thought I'd throw that one in. So one of my favourite lipsticks of all time is the Revlon Colourburst (yes, I spelt it the British way) lip butter in 001, Pink Truffle, it is just the most gorgeous, natural looking pinky lipstick with a brown undertone, it is very moisturising on the lips and the packaging is beautiful. This lipstick doesn't wash me out, and I'm quite pale in the grand scheme of things, it's just the perfect colour and I think it would suit everyone. I'm definitely going to try out more colours from the range very soon (meaning when I'm not broke, so basically never haha, no, I will try them out very soon) and review those too. For £7.99, these are very good value and they're incredible products, I will definitely be repurchasing this lipstick.

Now I will talk to you about a powder, and everyone raves about this powder and goes on and on and on and on, and I can totally see why. It's the Rimmel stay matte powder, and it's probably one of the best powders out there. I have repurchased this 3 times, I currently have three, one in backup, one I had to smash to get the last bits and I'm using that still, and then one that I was using because I was too lazy to smash up the rest of the other one. It says it lasts for five hours, and it does, it covers nicely and gives a really nice finish. It's £3.99 and is worth it, it has an array of shades.

I'm not sure how this post is already this long, but there's only one thing to go, you'll be pleased to hear.
So now I will talk to you about my mascara of choice, and it is the Maybelline lash sensational. I have mine in the waterproof version, purely because I prefer waterproof mascaras. I don't wear this on an everyday basis, as it does give the impression of very big, separated eyelashes, and that's no what I want everyday. It's nice for evening and weekend wear, and for special occasions. It's a good dupe for the Two Faced better than sex mascara, at least that's what I've heard from many people. Its £5.99 and for a mascara, that's a really good price. I also love the packaging of this, I love the colours and overall, I just think it's great!

So that is all for today, sorry it was really long, I'll be back soon with another post, and as this weekend I'm going on a staycation because it's half term, I'll do a post about it!
Anyways, toodlepip!
Alice x