My top 5 products under £3!

I've been thinking of doing this blog post for a while now, but I wanted to make sure that the products I've included are products I actually love and use myself that I think are brilliant for the price. As a student, I know how it is when you're feeling a bit tight with money, but hopefully this blog will help fellow makeup lovers to update their makeup bags without spending a bomb in Boots.

The first product on this list is naturally my NYC liquid eyeliner. I first saw Suzanne Jackson on sosueme.ie review this and apparently Megan Fox uses this eyeliner. As someone who is not a big fan of liquid eyeliner, I can safely say this is one of my Holy Grail products. I use this nearly every day. I find it so easy to create the perfect cat eye flick, as although it is a brush. it's shaped like a pen rather than a nail polish (if that makes sense.) I'm still on my first tube but I know this is a product I will buy over and over again. I put the price as £1-£2.49 as I bought mine from Superdrug for £2.49 but then saw it appear in Poundland.

My Miss Sporty Dr Balm is another goody found in Poundland. I was going to put my Maybelline Babylips on here, but I've decided I like my Dr Balm so much more. I love the taste and the formula feels more nourishing than Babylips. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Babylips, I just think for £1 cheaper, I would probably go for Dr Balm. The one thing I will say is that I'm not sure if this product contains SPF whereas Babylips does. Again, this is £1.99 in Boots/Superdrug but I got mine in Poundland.

Of course, I had to include an MUA product in this blog post. I recently bought an MUA eye primer after using up my Smashbox one and for the price, I think it's brilliant. Of course, it's not going to be as good as my £15 high end one, but for £2.50, I can't complain at all. Eye primers are new to me and I can't believe how much difference these make to my makeup.

I literally bought my Collection 2000 Lasting Colour lipstick a couple of weeks ago, and I've already made my mind up that I love it. I chose the shade Queen of Hearts, a deep bright red that's very similar to my No7 Love Red lippy, but there are 11 other shades to chose from. This lipstick has SPF 15, so if that's something that's important to you, you don't have to worry about that. I will be adding more of these lipsticks to my collection, I like them that much.

The last item in my list is the L'Oreal Colour Infallible eyeshadows. I have two of these at the moment, and I love them so much. You may see this product in the list and think that they're £5.29, £2 over my £3 limit. But I don't buy mine from Boots/Superdrug. I first discovered them on Fragrance Direct for £1.50, which I think is amazing. I know with the postage it would actually make the product £3.50, so unless you're buying other stuff, it would push it over the £3 limit. The other option is Ebay. On Ebay, you can find these for around £2.20 (depending which buyer of course) with the postage included, still a lot cheaper than the shop price. The only bad thing about buying this product from these sites, is the lack of shades.

So here's my list :) I hope you saw something you'd consider buying and I hope I inspired you if you want to give your purse a bit of a break.

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Poundland Haul

This post may seem a bit weird considering in my last blog I was talking about a high end brand, but recently I've found myself heading into Poundland to see what they have to offer in their beauty aisle. I only started buying beauty products from Poundland in the last 3 months or so- I've always known they sold beauty stuff but always thought it was the cheaper brands or brands I've never heard of and it put me off. However, after seeing a blogpost (and I have no idea whose blog this is, I read it about 3 months ago as I was just googling stuff) and seeing someone else's Poundland haul, I decided to take a look at what they have to offer.

Everything I have bought has been over the space of a few weeks and has been from 3 different Poundlands. Annoyingly, they never have the same stuff. But here's a quick run through of the goodies you could potentially find if you happen to head into one :)

Skin Care

I always have a pack of baby wipes handy - I use them for everything. If I'm feeling lazy, I will use them to remove my makeup. I even use them when cleaning my room to remove any marks on my floor or to wipe down a shelf. I probably go through a pack a month, so I tend to pick some up in Poundland every few weeks to keep me going.

I picked up this mud mask after wanting something to do one evening, however, it's not very good. I think I have quite tough skin but this made me irritated and sore and I probably won't use it again.

Hair Products

I love looking at the hair stuff in Poundland, you can usually find well known brands, some relatively expensive, like Aussie, and try out some of their stuff. I will say one thing though - Even though the product appears cheap at £1, you should look at the amount of product you get, as some bottles in Poundland are often smaller than if you get them from Boots or Superdrug and it works out more expensive. However, if you simply want to try a product out, they go ahead. I haven't followed my own advice here, as I didn't check whether a product would be cheaper anywhere else before buying it, but as I bought 2 of the products to try out, and 1 because I was in a hurry and had no time to go anywhere else, it doesn't matter too much.

The V05 Volumising Spritz spray was one of the first things I bought. I love my hair to be big and bouncy so I decided to try this. Unfortunately it doesn't really do much, or not that I can tell anyway, so I simply use it like a hair perfume now. So if I've been cooking and want to head out, I'll just give my hair a quick spray with this to make it smell a bit nicer. My hairs naturally curly so spraying my hair allows me to scrunch up my hair to bring the curl back but I get the same effect with water. I was not impressed with this product.

I also got an Argan Oil hair mask, which I actually love. I've got a more expensive sample hair mask which I got free with a magazine a while ago and loved the feeling it gave my hair, so I bought this. Although it doesn't do quite as good a job, for £1, you can't complain. I will definitely buy this again.

The last is a conditioner. I bought the Garnier Fructis shampoo from Savers and I quite like it, so I just picked up another conditioner when I was in Poundland as they are the same price as the Saver's ones.

Nail Polish

One thing I've been getting into recently is nail polish. I'm quite lazy and can never be bother to paint my nails, and there was a period of about 3 months when I couldn't for work, but lately I've been building my polish collection up.

The first one I bought is an OPI Shatter Polish in black. My sister was actually quite shocked that I got this at the quid shop as she's a beauty therapist often uses OPI on her clients. I like the effect this polish gives my nails, it almost reminds me of leopard print.

The next one is a Graffiti polish, and I'm actually unsure of the brand. It may be Poundland's own creation, I'm not sure. Like the shatter polish, this is more for a nail effect than a polish on it's own and I painted this over black and loved it.

I recently bought the Sally Hansen polish and the Rimmel polish. I was just instantly drawn to the colours, although I haven't had a chance to wear them yet.

The last one in this pile is a Miss Sporty polish which actually came with a lip balm and some nail stickers. Yes, three products for £1! To be honest, I only bought this because I wanted the balm and although I haven't used the polish yet, I can't imagine I'll like it. It's a reddish brown colour.

Nail Tools.

I bought these items more because of how they looked rather than desperately needing them, but I think that's the case for most of the stuff I own. The nail files come in a pack of six and I thought they were so cute and quirky, I just had to have them. I love anything vintage/retro looking so these really appealed to me. I'm not a fan of these types of nail files, I prefer metal or glass ones but now I have enough to simply pop one in my bag, another in my dressing table, another by the side of the bed etc...

The second thing I bought was a little manicure kit. I was in desperate need for some nail scissors anyway so this gave me the perfect excuse to buy it. I think this is so adorable! I love the film Breakfast at Tiffany's so I decided I must have this. I think the quote is amazing and the little purse would be perfect for travelling, even if I do swap some of the things inside for slightly better quality items.

Makeup 

I left the best til last. I was surprised by how many brands like Rimmel, Revlon and Maybelline were sold in Poundland. I don't know that much about the products, whether they were discontinued or not, but I think some of the products are lovely all the same. I was also very excited to see that they sold some US brands like Hard Candy and Wet n Wild which you can't buy in the UK (unless of course, you find them in Poundland.)

I'll start with the US makeup first. I have 2 eye crayons and a baked eyeshadow by Hard Candy. I actually used the eyeshadow yesterday and I loved it. It reminds me of a Bourjois one I own, but obviously cheaper. I wasn't so impressed with the eye crayons. I found them difficult to use and they weren't very pigmented. Although I did use the darker purple one for a base so it wasn't a complete waste of money. The eye crayons were 2 for £1.

I also got a Wet n Wild blush which I'm also very happy with. It only takes one sweep of a brush to enough blush on there, in fact, sometimes there's too much so I have to tap it off. It's very pigmented and for £1, I couldn't be more pleased with it.

I have yet to use the Rimmel lip liner but I don't own many lip liners so thought I would buy this to try it out. It's a lot darker outside the packaging; it's more of a brown than a red.

The mascara is a Maybelline one and I was intrigued as I have never seen it before. To be honest, it's not a bad mascara, but it's not amazing either. It's brown rather than black so I would perhaps wear it at work if I didn't want a thick mascara look but I wouldn't pick it up for everyday wear.

Lip Balms

The last two products are lip balms. I love my Miss Sporty Dr Balm, in fact I think it's better than Baby Lips. The taste brings back some nostalgia for me as it reminds me of the first lipstick my mum ever bought me. The lip balm is orange and I think it tints my lips slightly, though doesn't stain them. If you're a fan of Maybelline Baby Lips or just love lip balms in general, I recommend heading over to Poundland to get one of these. In Superdrug they are £1.99 so you're saving money.

The second one I included in my February favourites and it is the Carmex lip balm. This stays on the table next to my bed and I was so happy to find it in the quid shop as I've been wanting to try this for ages.

So there's my haul :) Have you picked up any gems from Poundland recently?