£15 High Street Challenge - February

Cast your mind back to January, I started a year-long challenge to hit the high street, spend £15 and try to pick up at least 3 products.  I decided to do this to try and reduce the amount of PR sample posts on the blog, and give some more variety.  Here's what I bought last month if you want to refresh your memory.  

This month I have spent countless nights browsing the Superdrug and Boots website in search of products to try, and after so much deliberation, I finally made a decision :)

I've never tried anything from Beauty UK before, and this shimmer box really caught my attention. Priced at £4.99 I thought it was pretty good value too, and a potential dupe for the Bobbi Brown ones. I haven't swatched it or even tried it yet, so I can't say anything about it's quality - but I can say that the packaging feels really well made.  

Next up, the new Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara - on offer for £5.98 at Superdrug.  I'm a BIG fan of Maybelline mascara's, 'The Falsies' is probably one of my all time favourite mascara's, it's so good!  I actually unwrapped this today and used it for the first time, I'm not yet decided on it, but I do like it, I'm just deciding how much I like it :)  What I will say as a first impression - it gripped my lashes brilliantly, and was fantastic on my bottom lashes :)

Last but not least, a Barry M metallic liquid eyeliner in Gold (£4.79 in Superdrug) - now, I'm not one to normally sport a gold eye liner, however, I bought this for a look I've had in mind for AGES, I'll post back here with the look when I've perfected it, I need time to practise first :)  If it looks good and I'm happy, I'll invest in some other liquid eyeliner colours for the look.

I'll be back in the next few weeks to review each of these, some sooner than others :)  Oh, and I did go a little over budget with this by 76p

Do you like my picks? Any recommendations for next month?

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My lip product collection

Hey guys!  Ok a couple of things about this post, it's my lip product collection (excluding lip balms), now, I haven't listed every item because there's too many too list.  Similarly I haven't swatched them all either :p  What I will be doing over the coming weeks is lots of posts on Top 5 (lipsticks, glosses, glitter glosses, reds, pinks etc etc) but I just wanted to start that series off by showing you the collection I'll be making my picks from :)  So without further ado here's the collection :)

There were a few I missed out which I found afterwards, but not many :) So over the coming weeks, be prepared to see lots of posts featuring these items :)  I'm also making a pledge to myself, a pledge to wear a lip product from this collection every day :)  Clearly judging by the size of the collection, I love lip products and need to make better use of them :)

You'll notice I've got quite a mix of products, from MUA to Chanel - when it comes to lip products, I'm not loyal anywhere, if it's good and I like it that's all that matters.  When it comes to skincare it's a little different, things need to be a little better, the ingredients need to be right etc - that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be expensive, just good quality :)

I might do a Project Lip Pan - so using 5 lip products lots and not allowing myself to buy any more until they're gone :)  Food for thought :)

Pixi3 out

xXx

Friend Swaps Number 4

Hey everyone and welcome to 'Friend Swaps Number 4'!  Today is all about Barry M and their wonderful Dazzle dusts, I have a couple of these now and love them!  So this one my friend gave me as it's not a colour she would generally wear - she's more into dark colours, whereas I'll wear them all pretty much :)

The Barry M Dazzle Dust she gave me is a beautiful light shimmery purple (my favourite colour!).  These cost £4.59 each and come in a massive range of colours, I mean, like over 50... pretty decent!  I did already have one, which was actually given to me by another friend, that's a deep purple - both I love!

*without primer*

As you can see this is a super pretty colour, they're all really well pigmented and the colour lasts really well.  It's worth mentioning that when I do all my swatching for my blog/youtube, I never use a primer on them first, so assuming you all use primers (most people I know do), then the colours will be a lot more vibrant.

What's your favourite Barry M Dazzle Dust?

Pixi3 out

xXx

Benefit v Barry M - Loose Eyeshadow

Ok, so I was in work the other day wearing my Benefit Lust Duster in Punk Royalty when a friend asked if I'd seen the Barry M Dazzle Dust, to which I replied 'nope!'. So the next day, she kindly brought in a lovely purple dazzle dust for me to try and do a bit of a comparison on. Here's my findings :)

Benefits' Lust Duster - £14 and might now be discontinued (or updating the line)

First off, I've had this for about a year, maybe 8 months. I haven't used it extensively, probably used it... 6-10 times. It's a loose powder with tiny little bits of glitter in it, very pretty. It looks quite dark in the pot, but when applied it has a lavender hue.

I've searched the net for confirmation of the sizes of the pots, but I can't find anything other than the Benefit one is 1.8g but I can't find any mention about the Barry M one. I would say on looking at the pots that the Benefit one is bigger.

Barry M in the colour Cherry- £4.95(ish) - available in a range of 60 colours

So I've had this for about... 3days. It's on loan to me, but one thing I will say, is that after this experiment, I will be going to buy a range of my own :) The main difference between this one and the Benefit one is that this one, is more metallic. The colours are a really close match, Punk Royalty (Benefit) is more matt (with little bits of glitter) than the Barry M one.

Video Review

Ultimately I love both products, but the Barry M was definitely the better of the two. I will continue to use the Benefit one, but when it's done (and if it's brought back from being discontinued) I doubt I'll replace it.

Well done Barry M! A great Dupe for Benefit and many others :)

Pixi3 out xxx