Beauty Essentials and Beauty Regrets with Drugstore Junkie!

I'm doing a collab post this week with the very sweet and lovely Katy from the Drugstore Junkie Blog. I first came across her when randomly clicking through bloglovin one day and instantly loved her blog. We have very similar taste in make up and write similar posts so I thought it would be fun to do my very first collab with her!

We decided to write about 3 products we cant live without and 3 products we regret buying as all girls will have those staple go to products they can always rely on and we all have the beauty blunders where we go crazy in the local drugstore and buy everything we can get our hands on and some will inevitably end up in the bin for begin completely rubbish. I have done this many a times.

To start off both of our 6 beauty essentials are;

Katie: At the top of my beauty essentials list has got too be my Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. This is the best thing for chapped lips. For years I swore by Cherry flavoured carmex and I found this about a year ago and couldnt understand how I had never come across this! I like to put it on at night when my lips are feeling particularly dry or chapped and they are so smooth by the morning! Would recommend to everyone and you can find it cheaper on allbeauty.com! 

Katy: My top beauty need is a boring one which most people have it is the Mac Studio Fix foundation in a shade NW15, I've never ever found a foundation which matches my colour so well and has such a good coverage as I have some discolouring on my face which I hate. Also it lasts ages! I never ever throw it away without scraping every last bit out with the pump tube it might be more expensive than drugstore at £25 (if you order online with p&p) but you can't beat it. 

Katie: Garnier's Micellar Cleansing Water is a product I find myself obsessing over when I run out. I always repurchase it when it gets below a quarter full now so i never have to worry but when I first used it, when I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about, I ran out and really noticed the difference when I had to go back to wipes for about a week (naughty me).
This lovely product just gets rid of all my makeup and all the muck that ends up on your face, I especially love it because it doesn't have a scent!

Katy: This is quite a recent discovery! The W7 In The Buff eyeshdow palette I don't think I can express my love from this if you love neutral shades and long lasting pigments but don't want to spend £38 on the Naked 2 palette this is for you and they range between £5-7 depending on where you buy it! I love the shades and its actually left my MUA palettes in sulking in the drawer, I reach for this everyday without fail!

Katie: I had to include Lancome's Grandoise mascara. I have spoken about this twice before so I wont't drone on about it but as I've said before its the best mascara I have used. I got my first one at Christmas and just repurchased a new one so it lasted pretty well! As a beauty enthusiast I managed to save all my Boots points from buying way too many Barry M nail varnishes and Rimmel concealer sticks I was able to afford the £27!

Katy: My last one is my favourite at the moment and its Mr Blanc whitening stripes these are amazing! I've even subscribed monthly I noticed a difference from day one and so did my boyfriend. I think they are so cheap compared to some whitening stripes which do nothing! These are £20 a month or they do different amounts for different prices.

And our 6 beauty regrets are:

Katie: No7 is such a disappointment for me and I will have a rant now... 

The brand as a whole is a complete let down and overly priced (sorry if you like No7). When I was looking for a new foundation one day I thought it would be nice to go to my nearest No7 counter and try their skin match device thingy. This was before I tried any of their products and to be honest I wish I hadn't. 

As I had been to the gym before I went my face was still quite flushed (I look like a beetroot when working out) so the very nice lady offered to do the skin match on my neck instead of my red cheek. The device done its thing and somehow assumed my skin matched the palest shade that they stocked. 

I am nowhere near as pale as the shade but the lady still pushed that I only buy in that shade so I felt pressured to get it! It ended up being the Essentially Natural Foundation in the shade Calico. It's terrible colour and consistency wouldn't blend onto my face properly and looked streaky and felt sticky. I will never buy or use anything from them again.

Katy: My beauty regret is the Schwarzkopf POWDER'ful volumizing styling powder. First of all this didn't work for me at all, all it did was matte my hair up and made me have to wash my hair every time I used it, it gave me some volume but really it went greasy and went flat again. This  wasn't cheap either it was near the £5 mark at least when I bought it. 

Katie: Another massive let down for me was the Rapid White Express Whitening Strips. These are a 7 day whitening process but I have had it in my dresser for the last 18 months. As I drink a lot of tea and coffee I thought i could do with some whitening strips just to brighten my teeth. I was excited to use them and they seemed easy to use but as soon as I applied the strip to my teeth I could immediately taste what seemed like a whole roll of aluminium foil in my mouth. They are meant to dissolve within 5 minutes and you shouldn't let your lips or gum touch the strip. After about 8 mins of sitting looking possessed by some teeth whitening demon it was obvious the metal tasting gel wasn't dissolving and I ended up spitting it out. I cannot describe the vile taste enough for you to understand not to buy these!

Katy: Okay so this isn't a bad buy for £1.99, it's the Natural Collection Eyeliner. It's perfect if you want to experiment with eyeliner but I overall prefer felt liners, I think they are so, so much easier to apply as they are literally like a felt tip pen. I can't fault this at all though because it's £1.99 I just don't like the application and after getting into make-up I've found different brands I like. 

Katie: My last regret (although I could go on but must refrain) is the Schwarzkopf got2b Texturizing Salt Spray. I love the oil from this collection but the salt spray just didnt agree with my hair. Where it says beach matt it really means "MATTE" like matted hair, like really bad matted hair. I bought this for my holiday last year forgetting how my hair battles  with sea water as it is, I'm shocked at myself for wasting £5 on this. It is still full!

Katy:

My last beauty regret I've had for maybe even longer than a year or so, it should really go into the bin but it's here anyway before it does. It's the 2true Bronzing Powder this is only sold in Superdrug and it was when I was really getting into make-up on a cheap budget I can't remember how much it was but its literally orange on my face and does not blend whatsoever, I wish this brand was good but it honestly isn't, nothing I've bought from this range has ever been any good.

Katie

&

Katy

x

Find me elsewhere:

Twitter- twitter.com/katie_hp

Instagram- instagram.com/katie_hp/

Facebook- www.facebook.com/katie.harperpenman

Pinterest- uk.pinterest.com/harperpenman/

Tumblr- www.tumblr.com/blog/kmhp

Find Katy elsewhere:

Twitter twitter.com/katykader

Instagram instagram.com/katykader

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/kayteakadersyoutube

May Favourites

Last month I really did try to get a draft set up for an April favourites post but I just didn't get round to it, I thought instead that I would write a mid-may favourites as not to get behind on my blog.


Hair and Beauty Favourites

I have been obsessed with my Bobbi Brown Copper Diamond Shimmer Brick that I got from my sister at Christmas. I use a little bit of this every day to highlight my cheek bones and it gives such a gorgeous glow. Its even nice to use as an eyeshadow replacement for a golden goddess look! I get so many compliments when I wear this and really recommend it, trouble is it's a Christmas edition so they don't sell it any more! 

Speaking of golden goddesses, I am a fake tan fanatic much to my boyfriends dismay! I never like to look too dark though so whatever I buy I always get the light or medium shade, never go dark! This St Moriz Mousse is just the best! Its cheap, it lasts ages and gives me the best glow. I tend to reapply once a week and usually do it in the evening using a mitt, then I shower in the morning and all the residue washes away leaving a really nice glow behind.  I find if I use this method it wont give me splash marks if its raining or when I was my hands. The tan usually lasts a good 3-4 days.

This months hair favourite has been VO5s Strong Hold Hairspray. Where it is getting warmer outside I prefer to have my hair up in a bun instead of around my neck and shoulders and as I have a lot of layers I tend to get a lot of fly-aways and strands that fall out. This monster can of hairspray works wonders and keeps my hair in place all day long. It also brushes out really easily so I don't have to wash my hair that night and can wear it down the next day, I don't usually find that with a lot of hairsprays.

Favourite Food

I have been making sweet potato fries a lot recently. As well as being healthier than your usual french fries they taste so yummy! If you season them with a bit of spice and drizzle with olive oil before cooking they'll be crispy with a nice kick. I usually have these with chicken breast and veggies after I finish at the gym. I do want to do a recipe post on these in  the future but where I am moving house very soon all kitchen utensils are packed away and we're living off ready meals!

Favourite Book

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. 

   I picked this book up a few months back when there was a deal in WHSmiths. It was in the top charts so I thought I would give it a try as when I read the back it sounded very mysterious and exciting. The plot (without giving the story away) is a young woman, Nella (short for Petronella) moves to Amsterdam in 1686 to start a new life with her husband. As a wedding present her husband gifts her with a cabinet-sized replica of their home. Nella seeks out a miniaturist to help furnish this house but their creations seem to be predicting their future and somehow holds their fate. The book was gripping at times but the story overall was very slow moving, I personally feel the characters' relations could have gone deeper but all in all I did enjoy this book and it was a nice read.

Favourite Youtubers

I have been obsessed with watching Shaytards vlogs this month! They are just the coolest family and so entertaining. If you haven't watched any of their vlogs before I really recommend you do! Its about a family with 5 kids living their life vlogging every single day and they're completely mad!