Beauty on a budget

The Primark Beauty Collection - a high street success?

Who’d have thought that Primark would have their own makeup and beauty range?

We were dubious too when we heard. When the products were launched, we couldn’t make our mind up if they were serious beauty bargain competitors, or just another imitation brand with poor quality products wrapped in pretty packaging.

For months we’ve stumbled up on great reviews in fashion magazines such as InStyle and Cosmopolitan, but we wanted to wait a while for the hype to die down before we made our purchases. We couldn’t wait any longer, there is simply no better way to find out if a product truly is great, than to buy it and give it a go. So here’s what we discovered.

Primark Blush/Bronzer Duo – The Happy Couple
Bears resemblance to Benefit’s “10″ Blush Duo
Most people can get away with buying and using a cheap blusher, so it was a no-brainer that we would try Primark’s Blush/Bronze Duo. To our surprise, The Happy Couple’s quality of pigment and bronzing sheen was not bad at all – and if we were to give it a score out of 10 it would receive a 5 (which is acceptable for a product that is under £4). In comparison to its leading Benefit competitor (priced at £23.50), it does however lack staying power… re-application was needed up to three times throughout the day. So, on average this product wouldn’t last as long as Benefit’s products do, meaning you would need to purchase more of it on a regular basis. But it’s worth bearing in mind that for the price of every one of Benefit’s 10 Blush Duo, you could buy four or five of Primark’s The Happy Couple.

Primark Face Primer – Prime Of Your Life
Feels a bit like Benefit’s “That Gal” Priming Fluid
A new craze has taken the world and high street by storm… it’s called priming. This time ten years ago, you rarely heard about makeup primer, it was an unknown substance that only makeup artists used and it wasn’t readily available on the high street. But now we wouldn’t dream of wearing foundation without priming first, absolutely not! No. Not ever. So imagine our expressions when we saw Primark’s Prime of Your Life… our faces truly were a picture – our jaws dropped completely and the product swiftly made its way to our basket. We longed for the product to live up to its expectations. For us, this one certainly did.

Like Benefit’s That Gal, Prime of Your Life comes in a very hygienic little tube that twists to squeeze primer out of little holes at the top of the tube. It keeps clean and allows for less waste, which is great. The primer glides on to the face quite nicely and creates a smooth even base for your foundation. After foundation was applied it helped with even-coverage and added another dimension to foundation, once it had set. This one for us, scores a whopping 7 out of 10. It costs only £3.50 in comparison to Benefit’s £20.50, it truly is a beauty bargain buy! (We did, however cheat a little and used slightly more expensive foundation afterwards as there wasn’t one available from Primark when we made our purchases.)

Primark Face Highlighter – Bloominous
Quite similar to Benefit’s “High Beam” (although the packaging is considerably different)
Face highlighters are a wonderful little tool to highlight your best features – your cheek bones, your eyes or your brow bone, but Mad About Makeup are yet to find one that isn’t a pricey investment! Touche Éclat by Yves Saint Lauren is a whopping £25, Benefit’s High Beam is also an expensive £18.50 and there are so many others that are well above £15. So we did wonder… would Primark’s Bloominous at only £3 be too good to be true?

Obviously, Bloominous isn’t as good as its steep competitors and was never going to be, but it is still effective enough to score a 6 out of 10 from us. If used in the right way and on the right facial and body areas it does have a similar effect to that of Benefit’s High Beam. It helps create shine in areas you need to shine, and lightness where things need to be lightened up a bit. The only fault we found was that it does need re-application, but for £3, we couldn’t ask for it to perform and last as long as most.

Primark Mascara – Whip Lash
Almost mimics Benefit’s “BAD Gal Lash
We’re mad about mascara, so for £2 we chucked a couple of Whip Lash Mascara’s in to our basket to give them a try. This was the cheapest Primark product we purchased, so our expectations weren’t very high for this one. Well to our amazement, this £2 mascara was fabulous! It volumised, it stayed on all day and came off easily with face wipes or eye makeup remover. It also had a rich black pigment, dare we say it… it’s just like Benefit’s BAD Gal Lash Mascara. It scores a 7 out of 10. Who says you need to pay fortunes for a good mascara? We normally do (quality is normally depicted in the price), but on this occasion we think you should bite the bullet and buy this. And ladies, if you don’t like it, it’s only £2 spent. We think you’ll love it!

Well, well… well! Overall, we are very impressed with Primark – we guess all the magazines were right, the beauty products from Primark Beauty really are as good as they seem. Pop in to your local Primark and find out for yourself.

Have you tried a Primark Product?
Would you like to tell us what you think? Leave us a comment below, together with your email address and we will feature it in our product reviews.

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