I told you about this idea a while ago- well, here we go!

A fair few of the products in my collection could be described as being ‘Super Budget’ products- products that all come in under £5 but, more often than not, are around the £1-£2 mark. Brands that obviously come to mind are MUA, ELF and Collection, but there are also others like NYC, Miss Sporty and Beauty UK; brands that tend to be aimed towards the teen end of the market. Understandably so- if you’re a teenager, and you’re looking for some make up, you’re hardly going to be able to drop on average £7-£8 on a single make up item.

Now, I’m not going to lie. With some of the budget stuff, you really do get what you pay for. But most of what I have used, I have really, really liked! And with the right primers, they can last just as well as some of my more expensive products.

Super Budget Day

Here’s the day look I put together with my ‘Super Budget’ products. Now I will be honest here and give you a headsup- I liked everything except two products here, but one of them actually turned out to be good when used in a slightly different way.

This is what I used to achieve the above look. I also used a primer, but I haven’t included that because I only have two primers, which I use in conjunction with each other, so decided that they wouldn’t count! From the top down we have:

• NYC Skin Matching Foundation in Fair
• Collection Volume Sensation lipstick in Tea Rose
• MUA Colour Blast in A Girl Like Me
• ELF Eye Primer
• MUA Extreme Lash Mascara
• P.S. Love Eyeliner pencil
• P.S. Love Eyeliner Felt Pen
• Chit Chat Blusher in Blossom
• MUA Pressed Powder in Shade 1
• MUA Eye Trio in Innocence

Each product here cost under £5, a large number cost only £1 so that’s pretty damn good! As I previously said, I liked everything here except the Colour Blast and the foundation. I will speak about the foundation first; it claims to be a ‘skin matching’ foundation which is oil free and I’d guess a medium coverage. WELL. Wellity wellity wellity. I put it on and either the skin matching thing is AMAZING or it’s a very light coverage, because it looked like I had no product on whatsoever. I tried building it a little: nothing. So, not quite impressed. It did however give something for the powder to adhere to! The other product I wasn’t very impressed with was the Colour Blast, as I said: I applied it to my lid (not stingily, I will add) and again; it didn’t seem like there was much product there at all. BUT once I applied the eyeshadow over the top, it changed the texture completely and made it look bolder and generally lovely. SO I like it very much as a base!

I hope you can see what I mean! Everything else I was really impressed by- the pressed powder needed a little top up after about four hours but that’s standard with my skin, and the blusher was a bargain for being a Poundland buy! I also liked rediscovering my MUA baked eyeshadow trios, they’re sadly discontinued (as far as I can see from searching the MUA website) but they’re pretty decent shadows.

Super Budget Night

Night time’s when we all come out to play, mwa hahahahahaaaaa! First, before I show you some photos- I must apologise for the light quality of these! I changed my makeup at nighttime, so I had to have the light on and the photos of my day look were taken in daylight so the light in those is much better!

As you can see, I translated ‘night time’ as meaning ‘more heavily made up’ but I think that’s definitely what it means, no? I even bothered with my eyebrows, haha! Something that is noticeably missing from the face is any type of contour- I’ve grown partial to a contour- but I actually don’t own any bronzer suitable to be used as a contour from a budget brand, I own one of the MUA mosaic bronzers but it’s far too shimmery!

This was the selection I used.

• MUA Pressed Powder in Shade 1
• MUA Blush in Candyfloss
• P.S. Love Eyeliner Felt Pen
• MUA Lipliner in Red Drama
• MUA Eyebrow Pencil in  Brunette
• Collection Naturally Matt Foundation in Ivory
• MUA Lipstick in Shade 13
• MUA Intense Colour Eyeliner pencil in Jet Black
• ELF Eye Primer
• Beauty UK Eyeshadow Collection in Twilight

I also used (but forgot to photograph- what a ninny) the MUA Lash Boom mascara. Yes, okay, MUA is my favourite budget brand- I just can’t help myself! Most of what I have tried from them has been fantastic- and actually, the lipstick in Shade 13 is one of my all time favourites. I think I might do a separate post on it, but the foundation is such a disappointment. It’s very thick, I like the finish and the coverage is impressive; it’s just too dark for me! I picked up the lightest shade (as far as I am aware…) and it just looks very orange and gives me tide-lines. However, I think it’s almost wearable once I blended it out LOADS and buffed in the pressed powder. Really a shame, because it would be incredible value for money otherwise.

I did a bit of a smokey eye and huge cat flick combo. To be honest, this is something I’d wear on a daily basis but it’s definitely more of a ‘night time’ look than the day one! I’m really quite impressed with the quality of the Beauty UK shadows, they blend very well and the pigmentation is very respectable.

Special mention must go to the t-shirt I wore in these photos- get yourself to Primark because their current licensed gear is amazing. This beautiful Harry Potter shirt cost me six English pounds and is comfortable and fits very well!