Maybelline have a good history of making bestseller mascaras. Great Lash is cheap, it's good and it does exactly what it says on the tin... Even if that 'tin' is so brightly coloured that you practically need sunglasses just to glance at it.

The brush is pretty bog standard. (Not bog brush. Don't apply your mascara with one of those, please. Imagine the germs, not to mention the panda eyes.) It's fibrous, not a 'show-off-y' plastic one and the shape is pretty standard too. As you can see from the third picture, I've compared the wand with Max Factor's False Lash Effect. The MF one has plastic bristles, as opposed to Maybelline's traditional fibre ones.

If you prefer a chunkier wand, you might be better off with a different product. Although, this would be great for coating your lower lashes, even if you don't use it for anything else.

There aren't even weird or science-y boasts about this product and with some of the stuff that cosmetics companies come out with nowadays, maybe that's a breath of fresh air?

Now I will admit that I did suffer from a little bit of smudging under my eyes after a few hours. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know how much I despise smudgy mascaras... It wasn't too bad and seeing as the mascara's so cheap, I'm willing to let it off. I even managed to get away without suffering from the dreaded 'clumpiness', which is brilliant for such a budget mascara.

Great Lash retails for £4.99 and it is a little smaller than your average mascara tube... Size isn't everything, after all. You can pick it up in drugstores and probably even the odd supermarket too!

*Ooh, shiny new mascara alert.* You know me, I'm incredibly picky when it comes to mascaras... So will this self-professed 'wonderful' mascara live up to my high standards?

If you're a fellow zit-face like me, you'll relish the opportunity to try products that boast about their spot-killing capabilities. Does this product live up to my ridiculously high foundation standards? Read on and find out...

This is a new makeup bag that I picked up a few weeks ago for £5.99 in TK Maxx. I really liked the peachy colour and the size means that I can easily fit plenty inside, but it also fits inside most of my handbags (of which there are many...)

I'm not into alternative medicine or anything like that; before the science community pick on me. This genuinely works for me. I'm a bit weird and I can't swallow tablets at all, so when I get a headache I either have to opt for drinking something containing soluble paracetamol or use 4Head.

It contains menthol, so it feels all cool and tingly on my forehead. It genuinely works for me and I don't know whether that's just the placebo effect or whether it's the ingredients, but I'd definitely recommend this if you struggle to swallow tablets! 

I love this. I think I've mentioned it before? Or at least, I meant to. I carry Carmex with me wherever I go and I even use it as my overnight lip balm. It's brilliant.

I cannot recommend it enough. This version of Carmex (the tube one) also looks quite shiny on your lips, so it's a really nourishing alternative to gloss. It's cheap and you can easily pick it up in Boots/Superdrug or supermarkets as well.

I got this after Christmas in a reduced gift set. It normally retails for £17.50, which is a little out of my price range if I'm honest, so I jumped at the chance to get a select few Benefit goodies for a fraction of the price.

It's a really good concealer, but I use it sparingly because I want it to last as long as possible. It's that good and I'm too much of a cheapskate to splash out on concealer at that price on a regular basis. It is marketed as an 'industrial strength' concealer, which is exactly what you need on those days when you've not had a great deal of sleep.

When I do use it, I tend to solely cover those pesky under-eye circles with it, on top of my Collection Lasting Perfection concealer. (Yeah, it takes a lot to shift my dark circles...)

There are also two different shades in this set, but I only use the lightest one... Or else I'd look a bit daft with a pale face and orange-under-eye-circles. Wouldn't I?


This is such an understated product. I got one in a beauty box a few months ago and loved the finish of the product, but wasn't that keen on the purple-y colour, so I went and bought one in a pinkier shade.

It's just like a lip balm, but with wonderful selection of colours available too.

I went to London the day before my birthday (2nd Aug) and ended up wandering round Harrods eyeing up various pieces of makeup that are ridiculously far out of my price range. I'd normally be very reluctant to spend a whopping £15.50 on lipstick, however I thought I'd give myself a birthday treat... It is a girl's prerogative to buy expensive makeup, after all.

I bought this in the beautiful shade Coral Bliss. I always seem to be drawn to coral lipsticks, it's weird. Or, I'm weird... But we already knew that.

This lipstick applies with ease and stays on for ages without an additional coating product like Lipcote. It's also moisturising and doesn't really dry my lips out like a lot of lipsticks do, which is a huge bonus!

(I only just managed to stop myself from splashing out on some Chanel Lumiere foundation... That genuinely took ALL of my willpower.)

I have talked about this before in my May Favourites. So I'm not going to go into loads of detail, except for saying that I always like to carry mascara with me out and about, just in case my eyelashes need perking up.

I bought a couple of packets of these a few months ago from Home Bargains. They were only a pound, I think. These are wonderful for those days where your skin's on the oily side or when it's hot and your makeup looks hideously shiny, then starts sliding off. You just pat them over your face to take away the shine.

I have used a handful of various brands of blotting tissues over the years and some of them actually add powder to your face instead of zapping the oil out; like these ones do. I prefer to get rid of the oil rather than have extra product like more powder applied to my face, so that I don't clog my pores up.
I love this. It's not pricey at all and I always carry it with me just in case I end up with the dreaded frizz. This tiny version costs £2.19 for 10ml. Even if I use it every day, it seems to last ages. It's definitely worth trying out and the size means it's really easy to carry around with you.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that a couple of months ago, I reviewed Max Factor's Whipped Cream Foundation in shade 40 Light Ivory. Which you can find, by clicking here.

I remarked upon the fact that it was a tad too dark for my very pale skin. I also remarked that it would be SO good if Max Factor created a lighter shade, and lo and behold, my prayers were soon answered.

I stumbled across a new lighter shade of this foundation on Fragrance Direct (a budget beauty and fragrance website, for those who aren't aware); which was 30 Porcelain. You'd think though, wouldn't you, that this would be ever so slightly lighter? However, to me, it doesn't really appear to be.

30 Porcelain. I thought Porcelain was really white? Not... Orange?

40 Light Ivory. It doesn't look Ivory-coloured, does it?

You'd think that Ivory and Porcelain would translate as just off-white, wouldn't you? But a great number of cosmetics companies seem to continue churning out '50 Shades of Orange' under the guise of 'Porcelain' and 'Ivory'.

I'm gutted. I applied it yesterday and realised quite quickly that I looked like I'd been tangoed... Just the same as with the Light Ivory. If you compare the two pots, they look like the same shade, or at least, uncannily similar.

Boots and Superdrug don't sell the new Porcelain shade, which puzzles me. As I said before, I really like this foundation and I would seriously consider adopting it as my main foundation if Max Factor got their act together and created noticeably lighter shades.

Left: 40 Light Ivory, on the Right: 30 Porcelain.

They look so similar. I can see a slight difference in colour, but only very slight. I'd say that 40 Light Ivory looks 'brown-er' whereas 30 Porcelain looks a bit 'pink-er'. Either way, they're both too dark for my skin. The above photograph actually makes the two shades look more distinguished from each other than they do in real life.

The foundation normally retails for £9.99 and when I bought it last week, Fragrance Direct were selling it for £5.99. I really like the texture and finish of this foundation, so I thought by finding a 'paler' shade which might actually match my almost deathly pallor, I'd struck lucky. Perhaps not, eh?

Have you bought this foundation? Have you found the two shades to be the same? If so, drop me a comment!

Thanks for reading!
Katie
x