Top 10 Makeup Brushes Under £10

 Expensive brushes are luxurious; beautiful to look at, feather-soft and often reassuringly weighty in your hand; but most of the time there are cheaper brushes that perform just as well, if not better.  A good brush is not scratchy and needs to be shaped just right to perform the intended task.  

Sure, if you have the money to splurge, go ahead, but I thought I'd run through my favourite affordable brushes.  I have a few higher end brushes and I reach for these ones just as often.

Read on to see the brushes I rate highly.

Best of the brand - Essence

Best of the brand - Essence

Essence is amazing, just saying.  For years I saw this wonderfully cheap brand on blogs and wished I could get my hands on it.  Just under 2 years ago the brand hit British soil when it launched in 4 Wilkinsons stores.  None of these were near me so I waited, impatiently at first.  I actually sort of forgot to keep checking and then a few months ago I went to my local Wilko, and lo-and-behold, there was a huge Essence display.  Hurray!  Since then I've tried out quite a few of their products so thought I'd show you my favourites.

Whole face with one brand: Maybelline

Whole face with Maybelline

Maybelline is probably my favourite highstreet brand.  While their range isn't fantastic across the board, they do have plenty of stand-out products with the Color Tattoos possibly being the best and most-reached for in my collection.  I'm coming to the end of brands I'm able to do a whole look with, possibly just MAC and Benefit left to do, but I thought it would be great to do a more budget-friendly one...if I added up the price of all today's items it wouldn't be quite so bad as the others.

Without further ado, let me show you what I used.

Affordable makeup storage ideas

Affordable makeup storage ideas

I've been meaning to do a post on makeup storage for months, so here it is.  For those with a big collection that you've been working on for years, this post probably won't contain anything useful as you'll have already worked out what can work.  I thought this might be interesting for beginners who are looking for cheap storage ideas, as the acrylic storage that is super popular right now is quite expensive (though I recommend checking out the bathroom section of TK Maxx for some affordable options).

Firstly are these little jars from Tiger, which are intended for storing spices and the like. At £1 each you can't go wrong and they have a few different colours (lid) available.  I use one to store all of my lips brushes and one to store my Wayne Goss and Hakuhodo eye brushes.  In the past I've also used them for storing a few cotton buds in.

Topshop Contour Cream in Swerve

Topshop Contour Cream in Swerve

As I said two days ago on my post 'What difference does contouring make?', sculpting your face is a big thing right now.  With big brands releasing cream and powder contouring products-a-plenty, it's great to start seeing similar products coming from a high-street shop brand!  Topshop's Contour Cream really gives other brands a run for their money and makes contouring accessible for everyone...should they want it.

A Guide to Primark Mascaras

The 5 Primark mascaras

As far as I am aware, Primark sell 5 mascaras (plus occasionally a waterproof version of the Volumising Ultra Black).  I wondered how they differed in brush and formula so thought I'd give them all a go.  It wasn't too frivolous seeing at they 5 came to a grand total of £9.50.

I must say that I'm probably not the best person so road-test mascaras as I do have naturally great eye lashes.  They are long and have no problem holding a curl, plus it's very rare that they ever transfer down on me after the initial application and clean up.

Also, I should have taken photos of the mascaras without eyeshadow etc on but that would mean removing my makeup at least twice in a day and I have sensitive eyes so didn't want to do that.  So, sorry but you have to see past the rest of the makeup.

Everyday ELF

Just a short one today on my must-haves from ELF.  I have combination/oily skin so these Shine Eraser blotting sheets are invaluable to me.  After about 5 hours with most foundations I use one or two of these and then touch up with MAC's Studio Fix powder. £1.95 for 50 sheets.  I love glitter but I do not like washing glitter out of my brushes. Welcome Glitter Eyeshadow Applicator! Loose glitter sticks to the silicone tip like a dream and then I just press it on (usually over Fyrinae's Pixie Epoxy). It has made glittery looks so much easier for me, with less to clean up on my face and on my desk! They cost £3.95.
Two top brushes I use all the time, both £3.95  Their Blush Brush is soft and not too big.  I like it paired with a bright blush as I can control exactly where it goes. The Small Smudge Brush is great for precision pops of colour on the eyes but I also like it for applying lipstick. Last but not least is their Makeup Lock & Seal.  This can be used for turning powder eyeshadows into eyeliner but what I really like this for is for mixing with metallic shadows to boost their shininess, especially dabbed just in the middle of the lid to catch the light with every blink.  It works wonders on slightly powdery, glittery shadows like Urban Decay's Dust and Trick in the Naked 3 palette.

ELF is a great brand to turn to for basics such as these.  Their brushes can be a bit hit or miss but, when most of them cost less than £4, the hits really are worth it! I highly suggest checking them out, especially if you live in Cardiff. In the Royal Arcade is Europe's first ELF store.  So many things to swatch there and great customer service.

Rachel

Budget Brand! Revolution Haul

L-R Acid Brights and Matte Brights

When I heard about Revolution, a new brand being sold by Superdrug with prices comparable to MUA's, I wanted to try their products right away.  There is no counter in my local Superdrug (yet) so I ordered on their website and they delivered to the store in 3 days.