Supermarket Beauty: Lidl Mascara and George Blusher

When I was younger supermarkets were the ultimate place of misery. I remember when my mum would pick me up from school and then, out of nowhere, she'd turn into the Morrison's car park and my whole world would come crashing down. A slightly dramatised recount of my childhood but you get the gist. I still find supermarkets so boring when I'm accompanying my mum on a massive food shop but now I can strut (aka walk) down the makeup and beauty aisles and have a browse and all is well until I can't find my mum and panic sets in (yes, even at 18).

The first item comes from Lidl and is the Volume Mascara by Cien which is Lidl's own beauty range. The mascara is £1.99 and caught my eye as the packaging reminds me a lot of a L'Oreal mascara I own which sent me into oooh mode. My ooohing was heightened by the size and shape of the large brush, however, the formula lets this product down for me as it is very wet and seems to separate my eyelashes without adding any extra volume. It is one of those mascaras that takes a lot of work in positioning your eyelashes how you want them with the brush and I even had to get another mascara wand to make them look how I wanted. Regardless, I used this for about a week straight to get a better idea of it and it doesn't flake or smudge underneath my eyes which is a really big bonus and it is a true black shade. Each person has different preferences when it comes to makeup and so if you already have quite thick eyelashes this mascara might be ideal but if, like me, you want fuller lashes this probably isn't for you.

There is also a waterproof mascara available from Cien as well as lipsticks, foundation and a BB cream all of which are priced at £1.99 as well as a range of moisturisers and other beauty bits. It doesn't look like Lidl stock their makeup online but next time you're willingly, or unwillingly, going there it's worth having a look at their range because for such cheap prices you could find a really decent product that works for you.

Next is a blusher I picked up in Asda from their own makeup range, George. I did a blog post last month about George's under eye concealer, which I lurveee, and I also own a few nail varnishes that are pretty good so when I saw an offer where many items were £2 each or 3 for £5 I picked this up. I built up that 3 for £5 offer just to let everyone down and say I got one thing, I must have had my sensible head on for the day. Anyway, there are 4 compact powder blushes available of which I bought number 4, Sorbet, and are usually priced at £3. The blushes are available here online at Asda and also in store.

Sorbet is an extremely subtle peach shade that I'm personally not a fan of as it takes a lot of application to build it up and make it visible which I find can be quite frustrating. The swatch above was after 4 swipes of the blusher and the pigment shows up less when used with a brush however, a lot of people enjoy a subtle blush so this isn't a fault of the blush but is worth noting especially if you have a darker skin tone as I'm not sure how well this would show up on you. When testing it on my finger it does seem to be quite a shimmery shade however, once on my cheeks the shimmer doesn't translate which I like and the lasting power is really good and compares to other blushes I own from more well known makeup brands.

I think it's so fun buying makeup from different places and not just the usual places like Boots or Superdrug as you can find a real bargain however, this time, I find the Lidl mascara and George blush to be just ok. The mascara I feel could be marketed more as a lengthening mascara while the blush is good but is a personal preference of me wanting a bit more colour and pigment and not down to the fact the makeup comes from a supermarket rather than a company specifically based around makeup. If you've tried any makeup from a supermarket let me know as I will be willing to try it out.