I think I may have mentioned before that I am pretty crap at make-up. If it requires any more than a cats eye flick and red lips, then I am screwed. I just don’t have the skills.
Watching all the Youtube tutorials in the World hasn’t helped me refine any techniques and I really wish I could do a smokey eye effect without looking like I have been punched by Tyson Fury!
What was I thinking?!?!
Back in the day, us teenagers all had the same style in make-up. Rimmel Fudge Brownie lipstick and if you were really lucky a bit of blue mascara, although this really was for the school discos only.
Nowadays teenagers go to school with hundreds of pounds worth of make-up on their faces and look like supermodels aged around 20, whereas I looked like a 13 year old schoolgirl with cheap make-up on!
15 and clueless
Since then I have been suckered in to getting the slightly more expensive brands; Maybelline, L’Oreal and Pixi. It still didn’t do much for me.
I worked out that if I got my base right, the rest would probably fall in line.
Out went the £15 foundation and in came Clarins, Chanel, Elizabeth Arden and the costs rose to around £40. Adding in serums, primer and finishing spray, my make-up bag was worth more than my jewellery!
Not sure about this one either….
Still I wasn’t quite getting it. I would use all the products, put the foundation on, wait for it to set. Powder. Set. I still wasn’t convinced, but I started to get better.
As soon as I started to get the knack of it, a new technique came along; contouring, bronzing, highlighting, rougeing, and strobing.
I mean, What the hell is Strobing?
Just call me Casper!
Anyway I had umpteen colour matches done, spent hundreds of pounds on products and brushes to apply it with and still it didn’t do me any favours.
Either it didn’t stay on for as long as they reckoned it would OR went really dry and I look like I had some kind of skin disease.
In the end I just kind of gave up.
Luckily my change into the pin up style meant I could bluff it a little. As long as there was mascara, a cats eye flick and some lippy, I looked passably decent.
Getting into my style
This lasted for a few years until now.
I decided it was time again to try and improve my skills. Nearly 46 and frightened of a bit of eyeshadow.
Well, of course I didn’t want to spend hundreds of pounds. And to be quite honest I have drawers full of palettes that I have bought and been too scared to actually try. All I needed was a foundation, powder, blusher/other shiny stuff for my skin and I was gonna give it a go.
Happier with my look
I had been hearing quite a lot about the Primark foundations, and that they were pretty good dupes for some of the high cost brands such as Clarins. Well, perfect place to start then.
Popping into the mahoosive Birmingham branch, there was a massive area devoted to the makeup range. I dived right in and picked up a bottle of their Matte foundation in Beige which was ridiculously priced at £3.00.
Next was a palette of bronzer/highlight (£3.00). I added mascara £3.00, eyebrow pomade (£2.50), a powder foundation (£2.00), blusher (£1.50), lip pencil (£1.00) and finally a red lipstick(£2.50).
Well, you can’t go wrong with those prices. £19.50 for pretty much a whole face of makeup.
However when I got to the till, the lipstick I had picked up was reduced in price. Whilst this is good for the pocket, it was actually a special edition that was raising funds for the Global Fight against AIDS via the (RED) charity.
I have to say the lipstick is pretty special in any event. Branded as INSPI(RED) it was a stunning colour called Salsa.
I have an expensive Chanel ‘pop up’ case lipstick and this uses the same container. Basically it is totally flat and you push in the bottom and it slides out of a spring loaded shell.
This was also branded for the charity and a stunning colour called Salsa Red. I was only charged a pound, but I would have paid far more than that.
Pleased with the final result
Anyway, I tried the make up the very next morning and I was really impressed with the effects. The bronzer/highlight was fab and I love the false lash queen mascara – apparently a dupe for the Too Face ‘Better than sex’ mascara which costs £19.
All in all, I am thrilled with my purchases and I intend to go and have a look at their primers, finishing sprays and maybe a few false eyelashes too!
Pretty Good Colour Match
I mean, you really can’t go wrong. If you try it and it doesn’t work, its cheap enough to try something else until you find it.
Thrilled with the final effect
Till next time,
SPSG xxx