A FULL FACE FOR £8?
I have always been intrigued by Poundland's own brand make up, Makeup Gallery. I often shop in there, and I have always browsed but never thought such cheap makeup would work on my worlds-most-difficult skin. I do however, use their nail varnishes which I love, the colour pay-off and application is excellent, and only £1 per pot! So, I thought I'd give their makeup a test. I didn't have extremely high expectations, but I have been looking for cheaper makeup to use just for every day touch ups for when I don't want to wear much makeup or I'm not leaving the house and just want to feel a bit face fresh.
These are the products I bought and will be testing out. I decided not to delve into the blushes or eyeshadows or different coloured liners, maybe at a later date if I'm impressed with this lot. I do like the packaging, simple yet not cheap looking and a good monochrome scheme (who doesn't like monochrome?). It's all labelled clearly and I don't have to rummage for hours in my makeup boxes for these because they do stand out against the other products.
FOUNDATION IVORY 1
I hate to start this test/review out on a bad note. But, I would avoid this product like the plague. It promises to give you a 'flawless matte finish'. First of all, the texture was very moussey and it felt like I had to more product on my hand to pick it up with the brush/beauty blender. The application was near impossible. I first used a foundation brush, which was just placing the product on my face. So, I tried a beauty blender and the beauty blender was just wiping the product away, rather than blending. This did mean I had to use a lot of product to at least try and get some coverage, but it still came out very patchy and awful looking. I have used Ivory shades before, so I assumed this would be ok. It was not. It was so yellow, it looked like I was wearing the worst fake tan. Or I was a Simpson. I'm not sure if I'm just way too pale, or it really is so yellow. My last point on this foundation, is I like a nice smelling foundation, it feels much nicer to put on your face. This product had 0 smell. This may not matter to most people, but it did let me down a little.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? No. Not even in an emergency. Never.
CONCEALER IVORY 1
This concealer does have a very good colour, it doesn't match the foundation in my opinion, but it is a good colour for me. It does have a very hard, stodgy texture and was quite hard to blend because of the texture, so it felt quite cakey. It does have good coverage, but it did crease quite quickly underneath my eyes as you will see in the close up picture a bit further down.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? I would. But I would not replace my normal concealer with this.
POWDER TRANSLUCENT
The first noticeable thing from using this powder is the lovely powdery smell. Bonus points for that! When applied, the powder is really soft and smooth, and lives up to the promise of a "shine-free finish". I have since just worn this powder on it's own on a non-makeup day just to get rid of a bit of shine on my face and it worked really great. It's also very light weight so it didn't feel like there was anything on my face. The only downside I noticed is picking the product up with a brush, it isn't quite compact as other powders so it does create some fly-away product. But, it is only £1, so I can live with this.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? Yes, I will even re-purchase and perhaps use this for when I test the baking method.
BRONZER MATTE LIGHT 1
I have never actually used a bronzer this light. I really like deep browns for my bronzers, but as I said I was looking for every day, more natural makeup. This is a really good colour, and is really buildable so it's good for all types of pale people. This bronzer is quite blendable and also has good coverage. I have used bronzers which need quite a lot of product to even show up or not be patchy, it held up ok against these others. Unlike the translucent powder, this had no fly-away product at all, so I think it will last a while.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? Yes, but it will not replace my normal bronzer.
EYEBROW PENCIL BLONDE 3
Whilst using this product, I thought it was quite good. It was easy to control the shape of my eyebrows and was a great colour. Looking at pictures of my eyebrows after using this, it looks a little patchy, even after blending it with a spoolie brush, and even though it seemed waxy enough to keep stray eyebrows under control, it wasn't. On non-makeup days, I prefer a lighter eyebrow than normal, and it did achieve this for me, but it took longer than my normal eyebrow routine.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? No, I think I will always prefer powder eyebrow products.
LIQUID EYELINER BLACK
I didn't have high hopes for this liquid eyeliner. In my experience with liquid eyeliners, the cheaper ones are normally the worst, the formula or the brush, or both. I first noticed the brush is very small, but it is very thin so I thought it would do a good job. The only downside of the small brush is it doesn't hold a lot of product, so I had to keep dipping it in the pot. Aside from that, it is one of the best liquid eyeliners I've ever used. It is so easy to apply and it dries much quicker than my normal one, so I wasn't sat there for ages with my eyes closed whilst it was drying. The brush is so thin that I was able to create perfect flicks. But, no matter if it was a £100 liquid eyeliner, I always make mistakes with my eyeliner because of my clumsiness. However, it it has been the most easiest liquid eyeliner to remove mistakes with a wet cotton bud, but it still held in place and wasn't easily smudged through every day life.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? Yes, most definitely. It may be my new liquid eyeliner!
MASCARA BLACK
Again, I wasn't expecting much from this mascara. It has a standard mascara wand and even though it is called "volumising mascara", how many times have we purchased a *voluminising mascara* and it has done nothing? However, I was so pleasantly surprised! It really does give my lashes so much volume! My top lashes are so very short, I have such a hard time with mascaras, I normally end up wearing falsies. But, to counter that, my bottom lashes are fantastic. No cockiness intended. The wand gets right down to the root, giving you the volume needed and is also very easy to layer. The formula is really nice and not clumpy as I have found with cheaper mascaras, this means it separates your lashes really nicely and you get no clumping in your lashes too.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? Yes, definitely. It's my new every day mascara!
LIPSTICK BLACK CHERRY
Of course, I had to get a purple lipstick. I like wearing bold or dark coloured lips over any colour, so I have more products to compare this lipstick to over any other colour. I was surprised to find a colour like this in the lipstick collection. I really do like the colour. But that is about it. I'm not sure if I'm just so used to liquid to matte lipsticks now, that I found it way too shiny and creamy, or it actually is. It definitely has no staying power, I only had to accidentally brush past my lips to get a big stain of purple. I'm not a massive fan of creamy textures on lipsticks, isn't that what lip balms are for? Because of the texture, it is really hard to define the lips with just the lipstick, it most definitely needs a lip liner with it. It also feathers an awful lot, I could see it feathering before my own eyes whilst applying it.
WOULD I USE THIS AGAIN? Maybe. I think if I paired it with a lip liner, used only a tiny bit and used some translucent powder over the top, it may be ok.
THE END RESULT
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