If I had a pound each time I was asked what is my favourite brand I would have gathered a nice bit of money by now! The answer is I haven’t got a favourite brand. However I am very partial to the stylish and understated chic of Chanel, Tom Ford, Nars, Bobbi Brown packaging, I also like the cute boxes of Bourjois, Benefit, Guerlain products to name a few. The second question I am continuously asked is : what are your favourite products? That is much easier to answer and my list of desert island products is as follow. Some are world best sellers, other of newish cosmetics. I have divided it in two categories, minted options and a budget option as in the current economical climate we are careful in getting the best quality for hard earned money. So if you want to re-organise your makeup bag, save money and space read on and discover these must-have essentials.
You might like a classic foundation or be more of a tinted moisturiser girl, which is now cleverly re-marketed as BB creams (pretty much the same thing in my humble opinion) or make your own lighter foundation by mixing a foundation with your favourite moisturiser, the choice is yours.
NO.1 : THE FOUNDATION OR BB CREAM
MINTED : I love Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua £ 32.00 on Boots.com, it’s a gorgeous foundation and I use it all the time for myself and for my clients. I really recommended this foundation, it has a fabulous texture and gives a fabulous finish and creates a fab base for the skin.
SKINT : L’Oreal Paris True Match Super-Blendable Foundation £9.99 at Boots.com is a good light foundation with a large range of colours, easy to apply, it gives a light to medium coverage. Good products for a reasi=onnable price.
On the BB cream front my favourite budget option is the BB cream by Garnier is a great product, has an SP15, gives a lovely glow and dewy look, and a very reasonably priced (between £7.99 and 8.99 on different websites). I particularly like the light iridescence this creates on the skin, a very flattering light reflecting effect.
MINTED version is the Dior Nude BB Cream which gives a lovely glowing tint to the skin. This Dior cream is just beautiful and I love what this clever BB cream does to the skin. it creates fabulous skin and a great base for the rest of the makeup. It is an amazing product worth every penny!
(£ 30.00 at Boots.com).
No. 2 THE MASCARA
A complete essential and if I had to just take 3 items, it would be mascara, lip balm/blush colour and BB cream.
SKINT : A firm favourite Maybelline Great Lash (£4.99 at Boots.com) is a global best seller and is an excellent product. I also like Maybelline Mega Plush Volume and it’s fab brush design which really create lovely strong and thick lashes (£7.99 at Boots.com).
MINTED : The first one is Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara, an excellent product which gives full and long lashes in a sweep. (£ 21.00). My second favourite is YSL Baby Doll Mascara (£24.50) The colours are black, brown, blue and purple, the YSL Baby Doll mascara is on the premium side but it’s worth every pound as it creates a fab lush lash effect.
No. 3 THE BLUSHER
SKINT : My favourites are Bourjois Cream Blush in Nude Velvet (£5.99 at Boots.com), Bourjois Little Pot of Blush in Rose Frisson, there a large selection of lovely colours(£ 5.99 at Boots) and Barbara Daly cheeks to cheeks in Nude (£ 5.00 at Tesco). These colours are all very pretty and give a lovely soft healthy glow.
The minted selection are Chanel Le Blush Creme in Inspiration (£ 27.00 at Debenhams) and the genius Bobbi Brown little pot of rouge for lips and cheeks in Rose (£ 18.00 at John Lewis), a very clever multi tasking product with a wonderful range of colour and a great texture.
NO.4 THE EYELINER PENCIL
SKINT : My favourite eye-liner pencils are Maybelline Master Smoky long wearing shadow pencil (£5.99 at Boots.com) and Bourjois Effet Smoky eye pencil (£5.49 at Boots.com). They are both very easy to use and to do several effects from Sixties style eye to a dark smokey eye with their smudger. It’s much easier to use than a liquid eyeliner, perfect for the makeup beginner with the eyeliner pencil as it is easy to create a perfect cat flick, a smudged line or a soft shadow of colour on the lid.
MINTED : Chanel Le crayon Eye Precision Definer (£ 17.00 at Debenhams) is a great eye lining pencil with a good selection of colours, long lasting, soft and easy to apply. My second favourite is Stila Smudge Waterproof eye color (£14.00 at beautybay.com). These Stila pencils are waterproof and crease resistant shades. They are long lasting with a multi-use gel formula. Smudge Crayon Waterproof Eye Colour can be used as a tinted primer, eye shadow or eye-liner.
NO.5 THE COLOURED TINTED LIP BALM
A must for the makeup bag, apparently women re-apply lip balms 30 times a day, really…I guess that figure might be true. I certainly use them continuously. I have a nice collection of lip balms which I pick up whenever I travel, it’s a bit of an addiction.
SKINT : I love Smith’s Minted Rose lip balm (£5.00 at houseoffraser.co.uk), a cult classic, adore the old fashion packaging, the flavour, colour, it is just perfect! Another nice product is Burt Bee’s tinted lip balm (£ 5.99 at burtbees.co.uk).
MINTED My absolute favourite is Korres lip butter (£ 8.00 at asos.com), with 6 colours, I love this lip balm, it really works and the colours are great, Wild rose and Quince are absolute must and it lasts forever. I also would recommend Kiehl’s tinted lip balm, I am not sure where to find it in the UK at present as it wasn’t on the Kiehl’s website (only found the No.1 version, no tint) but if you can get it from US sites
No. 6 THE CONCEALER
SKINT : First is MUA pro councealor kit (£ 3.50 at Superdrugs), with 3 shades including a highlighting cream, I bought this one for my little daughter and was very impressed by it, for this price I cannot fault it, I wasn’t expecting much but it does work very well. The other one is Rimmel Hide the blemish (£3.99 at Boots.com), a good cover-up, better on blemishes than dark circle and at a pretty good price.
MINTED : They are Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer (£18.50 at bobbibrown.co.uk), great texture and excellent range of colour. My second choice is the excellent Clinique Airbrush concealer (£ 18.00 at clinique.co.uk). A great tool to remove dark circles under the eye, light and soft texture, it really does the trick!
So there it is a pretty good basic, space saving mini makeup kit !
AM x