Top Setting Powders

Collection 2000 Sheer Loose Powder, £2.99 link. Collection 2000 Pressed Powder, £1.99 link. YSL Semi Loose Natural Radiance Powder, £38 link. Maybelline Fit Me Powder, £5.99 link. Natural Collection Loose Powder £1.99 link. New CID i-Powder Compact, £21.50 link.

Even though I have really dry skin, I always use a powder to set my foundation and create a matte look. I don't really like a super dewy look, and I like that powder can give a little extra coverage. These powders work amazingly well for me and my dry skin, and are my favorite of all powders I've tried myself.

New CID Cosmetics i-Powder Compact Pressed Powder in Extra Light, £21.50 link
Maybelline Fit Me Pressed Powder in 120 Classic Ivory, £5.99 link

New CID Cosmetics i-Powder Compact

I adore this powder. I didn't pay the full price for it because it was in TK Maxx. I think I paid £7.99 for this, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than the full price. I would pay the full price for it though because I adore it. You get 9 grams of product which seems to be lasting me a long time, and it claims to give a "flawless, velvety matte" finish to the skin. I'm not sure I would call the finish flawless but it leaves a nice, natural matte finish to the skin and sets my foundation amazingly well.

Maybelline Fit Me Pressed Powder

This is a new addition to my collection, and I think I'm in love.This is my go to powder at the moment. It's great for winter because it gives a great amount of coverage, a beautiful matte finish and lasts all day.I love the compact because it has a space for a powder puff and it has a nice big mirror too.

Natural Collection Loose Powder in Neutral Translucent, £1.99 link
YSL Semi-Loose Natural Radiance Powder in Translucent, £38 link
Collection 2000 Pressed Powder in Ivory, £1.99 link 
Collection 2000 Sheer Loose Powder, £2.99 link

Natural Collection Loose Powder

This is a brilliant budget powder, and I would use this almost everyday if it wasn't so messy. It's a great, light weight powder that doesn't offer that much coverage but gives the skin a nice natural matte finish that doesn't feel cake-y or heavy.  It's only £1.99 and lasts a lifetime.

YSL Semi-Loose Natural Radiance Powder

This is a beauty, but a tad on the expensive side. It's £38 a go, and it's not exactly compact. The product more than makes up for the awful packaging and the price, in my opinion. It lasts a really long time, it combines the convenience of a pressed powder with the finish and feel of a loose powder. It gives the skin a  beautiful matte finish without making it look flat or dull. It is also silky soft and smooth, and but wows me when I use it.

Collection 2000 Pressed Powder

If you want a simple, cheap go to powder, this is for you. They offer quite a large shade range and it's only £1.99 a go. It lasts for ages and it offers a decent coverage. I use Ivory, which is great for my Casper white skin, so pale girls this will work for you. It isn't cakey or anything like that but it does set my foundation and it contains vitamin E and UVA/UVB sunscreen. 

Collection 2000 Sheer Loose Powder

This is,  hands down, the best drugstore loose powder. I used this almost everyday for a month and I still have a bucket load left. It came with a puff but I threw that out because it was rubbish! It is a bit messy because it's a loose powder but I feel like it's worth the mess. Its silky smooth, sets your foundation without having that cakey effect.
twitter | bloglovin | hello cotton | tumblr | pinterest | youtube 

Awesome Blushes on a Budget

I am on a spending ban. I am literally so close to running out of cash that I’m down to buying food to live on and that’s it. So, there won’t be any new reviews for a while but I was looking through my collection deciding what I could post about and the blushes I have stood out to me. I don’t have the best or biggest collection of blushes because they aren’t my favourite part of makeup, but the ones I have I do really like and I thought I would share my opinions on my favourites with you.

 ELF Blush and Bronzing duo link, ELF Blush link, Topshop Cream Blush link, NYX Rouge Cream Blush link and Natural Collection blush link.

 ELF Contouring Blush and Bronzing Duo 

This is a pretty popular duo I believe, and I can see why. It’s a great way to get a bronzer and blush that complement each other really well and for such a cheap price. I’ve also heard that this is a dupe for NarsOrgasm and Laguna, which is great considering it’s £26.25 cheaper than the Nars compact. It’s got shimmer in it, which can be noticed if you are to heavy handed but overall it’s a nice natural looking duo that can work for even pale girls.

ELF Studio Blush in Passion Pink

I know that ELF can be a bit hit and miss, so this might not be the greatest thing for everyone but I adore this blush. It’s a nice bright pink colour that isn’t to pigmented. That would normally be a bad thing but because of the brightness of the colour the lower than average pigmentation makes it easy to use. It gives a nice flush to the cheeks and it’s a nice matte colour so you don’t get chunks of glitter on your face.

Natural Collection Blush in Pink Cloud

These blushes are only £1.99, and they are amazing. They are better quality than most more expensive blushes that I’ve tried. They are nicely pigmented, super blendable and they last a decent amount of time. The shade pink cloud is one of my favourites, and one of the brightest in the range and the other colours are more natural. It’s one of the only brands in the drugstore that I’ve found that do really neutral/nude coloured. 

Topshop Cream Blush in Neon Rose

I’ve raved about this until I’m blue in the face so I won’t say too much. These are fantastic, and I think I own every colour that they had in the Oxford Street store. They blend nicely, they have amazing pigmentation and they packaging is lovely. The finish on these is nice to because it goes on like a cream but sets and lasts like a powder.  Just all around fabulous, in my opinion. 

NYX Rouge Cream Blush in Golden

This blush is gorgeous, and a really nice neutral colour with golden shimmer. It’s a little too creamy, but the colour is lovely so I work with it. It works nicely when you use a brush or your fingers. It’s a little hard to get a hold of in the UK but I’ll link it above. I know these are easier to get in the US. If you’re from the UK, and putting a NYX order in online would highly recommend this.

Review & Swatches | Natural Collection Eyeshadow in Milk Chocolate & Crushed Walnut

Well hello again lovelies,

I’ve got a 2 in 1 review for you today. You have probably seen my love letter like posts to the MUA and Natural Collection eyeshadows before because I do adore those little guys just as much as my pricy MAC shadows. They are just as good quality, and cost literally 1/10^th of the price.

Anyways, here’s a new love letter for you all. I picked two of my favourite natural collection shadows to review for you today, and I’m just going to start by saying they are AMAZING! The shades are Milk Chocolate and Crushed Walnut. They are both insanely pigmented, and really blendable. I find that they last all day (although they can fade a little) without creasing. They aren’t chalky or anything like that, and I never get any fall out from these.

Milk Chocolate is a light matte brown colour that I personally use as an eyeshadow but I’ve heard so many people say they use it as a brow powder so that might be another great use for it.

I like that it’s a warmer brown, rather than ashy which would make it even better for red heads if you wanted to use it in your brows.  If this were a little lighter the tone would be perfect for me (a natural ginger) because it’s not ashy.

Crushed Walnut is a dark brow with the tiniest bit of shimmer running through it. It’s not noticeable when you swatch it but on close inspection of the pan there is defiantly some sparkle there. Don’t be put off by it at all thought because you honestly cannot see it when it’s on your eyes.  For me, it’s one of harder ones from the collection to blend but it’s so worth that little extra work. This is actually what I wanted MAC Esspresso to be when I brought it. It's a very close dupe for it and I would say this is better than the MAC one.

These are worth the money and then some so if you can get your mitts on them, then do so IMMEDIATELY. At only £1.99 a piece, you really cannot go wrong.

Thanks for reading guys, and be sure to follow for more declaration of love for cheap products! I do love ‘em.
Sarah xo

Review & Swatches | Natural Collection Eyeshadow in Sky & Aqua Shimmer

Hey guys,

I’m not going to ramble to long today. I just wanted to bring you a quick review and a couple of swatches of some great shadows from Natural Collection.

These great mono or single eyeshadows are only £1.99, and are usually on offer like 3 for 2 or 3 for £5. As far as I know the range is only available in Boots so go and check them out. Not only are there eyeshadows amazing but most of their other goodies are fantastic to.

The two colours I’m going to talk about today are both gorgeous but very different blue colour. The first is called Sky, and strangely enough it’s a light sky blue colour.  It’s one of the less pigmented of the bunch but it still gives a nice blue tint and has very little or no shimmer running through it. It’s a really nice colour just to add some colour to the eyes without it being scary, and for only £1.99 it’s a great way to experiment with colour.

The second of the two is called Aqua Shimmer and again strangely enough it’s a very shimmery blue shade. It’s a bit darker than Sky and much more pigmented. If you wore this you could 100% tell you are wearing blue, but it’s not too crazy that you should be scared of it. It’s really easy to work with in my opinion and blends amazingly.

These shadows do fade on my without a primer but with a nice white or skin tone base they last all day until I take them off. They don’t crease on my, but most shadows don’t so that’s no great achievement in my opinion.

Do you like Natural Collection products? Do you think they are worth it?

Thanks for reading,

Sarah xo

PS: These are the size of MAC palettes so if you depot them you can keep them safe and sound in your palette.