Kick Arse Red Lips: I Heart Drugstore Makeup Tag

I have enjoyed watching lots of the 'I heart drugstore makeup' videos on YouTube recently and as I have been using a lot more drugstore makeup myself recently, I thought it would be fun to do my own.

I know most UK beauty bloggers have adopted the term 'drugstore' but if you are unfamiliar its basically just an American term for high street. Cheaper makeup brands you would find in Boots, Superdrug etc.

1. What is your favourite drugstore makeup brand?

Maybelline. I bloody love Maybelline, I love how American it is (Maybe shes born with it, maybe its Maybelline!) From the days of those stick foundations when Sarah Michelle Gellar was cover girl I can honestly say it is the one of the few drugstore brands that genuinely excites me. I will always be attracted to the Maybelline counter first and their products are amazing quality. Their mascara's are amazing, their dream lumi touch highlighting concealer beats every high end concealer I have tried and they consistently release new and exciting products such as the colour tattoos. Long wearing cream eye shadows, which equal MAC Paint Pots in terms of pigmentation and wear time. I have two of these in the shades On and On Bronze and Permanent Taupe.

I also think Maybelline has a fair price point, unlike my runner up for this category, Revlon. Now I love Revlon but their prices here in the UK are verging on MAC prices.

Maybelline 24 hour Colour Tattoos: On and On Bronze (left) Permanent Taupe (right)

2. What are your favourite face, lip and cheek products?

Face:

I don't know if this counts as cheating by having numerous face products, but I make my own rules ;)

Foundation

There are 2 drugstore foundations I can honestly say I love and one is a very recent purchase.

No7 Instant Radiance Foundation - This foundation is a beauty! When No7 reformulated their foundation line I absent mindedly swatched this on the back of my hand. It was only when I got home and saw what a beautiful finish it had left that I drove back (later in the week, I'm not that tragic) and bought it! This truly does give you instant radiance and with an expanded colour range you're bound to find a shade that suits you.

L'Oreal Lumi Magique Light Infusing Foundation - This is a very new product to me but I have worn it almost every single day since I got it and I think its beats a lot of higher end foundations I own. Like the No7 this leaves my skin with a lovely glow but also a good amount of coverage,

Concealer

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer - I rave about this enough but this is an amazing under eye concealer. It was in my top 12 of 2012 makeup products and I truly love it.

L'Oreal Lumi Magique Highlighting Pen - Like the L'Oreal foundation this is also new to me but again I had to feature it because its amazing and rivalling my beloved Maybelline! Compared to the Maybelline I would say this has less coverage but more highlight, good if you are a fan of the Kim K look.

Powder

Maybelline Fit Me Powder - A really good powder that has a nice amount of coverage and controls oil, everything you want a powder to do basically. Plus I love the packaging.

Lip

Again I may have cheated by having a few different options here but its for your benefit I promise :)

17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in "Belle" - These lipsticks by 17 are amazing, they have recently repackaged them so they no longer come in this, some might say slightly childish bright blue bullet. The lipstick itself is amazing and I own almost every shade, they are that good (and cheap!) Belle is my favourite as its a really beautiful, natural nude. These lipsticks are more like a glossy balm, so they feel amazing and leave a lovely finish. The only downside of this is their lasting power.

Revlon Lip Butter in "Candy Apple" - I think we can all agree that we love Revlon Lip Butters! Candy Apple is my favourite, its a sheer, glossy red that I wear when I want to feel like Zooey Deschanel!

Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick in "Plum Jam" - Not a big Soap and Glory fan, just going to put that out there but this gloss stick is amazing, more specifically the colour is amazing I love it!

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lip Liner in "Spice" - One of my favourite ever lip liners, I use this to fill in my whole lip and it looks deeevine!

Left to right: Belle, Candy Apple, Plum Jam and Spice

Blush

Blushes and eye shadows are where I really feel drugstore makeup falls down. Its hard to find a decent blush in the drugstore that has any pigmentation at all, or is any other colour then a very generic pink but these two blushes are fighting back!

Sleek Santorini Blush - An amazing bright, bright pink. This is something I would expect to see from NARS, A-maaazing!

Topshop Neon Rose Blush - I did debate if I could include Topshop make up in this tag, but I don't see why not as its on the high street! Topshop along with Sleek are the only brands that stand out in this category for me so I felt I had to include them. Neon Rose is a gorgeous bright coral and I love the cream to powder finish of Topshop blushes, it makes them very long wearing.

3. Least favourite product?

This is going to be controversial but its the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder. I just don't get why everyone raves about this, I don't get it at all! For a start it claims to be transparent but its not, it leaves my skin cakey and very dry looking. One last point, I absolutely hate the packaging. Sorry, NOT SORRY!

4. What is the best makeup bargain?

Miners Tin o' Tints! I am obsessed with mine, again it was another product that I featured in my top 12 of 2012 and I haven't lost any love for it. Tin o' Tints are little tins of tinted lip balm, I have the colour Cherry and I think it is beautiful! I seriously love this colour and if I could have my lips permanently tinted this way I would do it! For £2.99 you can't go wrong! Miners is now sold online and I really recommend you give these a go.

5. What is your favourite underdog product?

I struggled with this question and a lot of the products I would have used such as the Tin o'Tint I have already used for previous answers, so I'm going to go with Topshop nail varnishes. Now I'm not saying for a second that no one ever talks about Topshop nail varnishes but I don't think they get enough recognition for how good they are. My favourite nail varnish brand is OPI and Topshop is easily comparable with them. Topshop nail varnishes beat 99% of Essie nail varnishes hands down and they come in a huge array of current, on trend colours. If you could only pick one, make it Celestial!

AWOL (Left) Celestial (Right)

6. A drugstore product that is overpriced?