Mascara: So you will probably know by now that I LOVE mascara, so this is the hardest choice for me to make, but one really stands out and that is Maybelline’s Lash Stiletto.  I am in love with this product, it doesn’t totally give me the thickness that I want and it smells a bit funky, but the amount of length that it gives is amazing! That coupled with the fact that it doesn’t clump or give you spider eyes makes this my favourite mascara of all time! (Too see full review please go to the mascara section of prettyhead).

Foundation: I didn’t know how to choose between No 7 Stay Perfect foundation and Maybelline’s Dream Satin Liquid, but after a long hard think I am going to go with the Dream Satin. This provides amazing coverage and the reason that it is my favourite is because of the price, £7.00 in the shops (and a lot cheaper on eBay), means that you are getting a great quality product for an affordable price, which in this economic climate is very important! It provides great coverage, is quite moisturising and lasts for a long time, everything that a foundation should be!

Eyeliner:  Ok so my winner in this category hasn’t been reviewed yet on prettyhead but it will be soon, I think Elizabeth Arden’s eyeliner pot (half blue half black), is amazing. It comes in a little tub, rather like lip balm, and you use the eyeliner brush provided in the set to apply. I paid £6.50 for it on eBay and it costs about £14 new, but I believe that it is worth every penny!

Lips: I would not be without Rimmel’s Shock Gloss, it hasn’t yet been reviewed on here, but it is awesome! It comes in 5 shades but clear is the best and it is super shiny, makes your lips look amazing! I love the applicator as well, instead of a little sponge on the end of the stick, it is a brush, which feels really nice against your lips as you apply. At only £3.99 in Superdrug Rimmel’s shock gloss is a bargin!

Skin: As far a skin care goes there is a clear winner, No 7 protect and perfect beauty serum! It is quite pricey but hey if it works (and scientists say it does!) then I would pay anything!

Hair care: Now this is where I have to cheat and pick 2, anyone that has read my hair care reviews will know that I swear by Pantene conditioner for dry and damaged hair, however a few months ago I discovered a little miracle. Dove’s heat defence therapy spray, designed to protect hair during heat styling, however it made my normally curly/wavy hair rather straight with just hair drying alone! This meant that I had to spend less time straightening and therefore managed to save my hair a little from the damaging effects of straightners. Also my hair held its style all day and all night and then the next day too! I am a huge fan now and have been converted from TRESemme!

So there you have it, those are the products that I love and couldn’t live without, there are loads more, including Barry M dazzle dust, but with so many colours I wouldn’t be able to pick just one! If you have a list of fav products you would like to share, feel free to email me at Faye@prettyhead.co.uk and I will do my best to put yours up here asap!

But anyway, I was very keen to try the mascara out and so at the first opportunity I gave it a go (which by the way is a bad habit to get into as you end up with loads of mascaras on the go at once and they all end up drying up, resulting in a loss of money and mascara!) The first thing that I noticed was just how huge the brush was; it looked like a bumble bee! Boots claims that this mascara can give you up to 7 times more volume, with its specially designed brush that gives 360 degree coverage to your lashes, but it really didn’t do this for me. Even thought the mascara had never been used before it seemed to be quite dry, with there not being much mascara on the brush.  This might have been because it was a sample size though as other reviews I have read for the full sized one suggest that you get far too much mascara on the brush and end up with a clumpy look. For me however I couldn’t get much mascara on the brush and the brush itself was far too big which made application very difficult. Not only was it hard to use the brush to give the lashes a full coating, but it was difficult to keep it neat and I ended up with mascara on the skin all around the eye area.

I normally like to have a dramatic lash look and can normally achieve this using most of the high street brands of mascara I have used, however with this slightly more expensive one even after 3 coats my lashes looked pretty much how they did before I started. The mascara didn’t add any length or volume to my eyelashes, but it did make them look quite feathery which is a lot nicer than being clumpy.

I would recommend this mascara to anyone wanting bridal make up or a natural makeup look. However anyone who likes to make a noticeable improvement to their lashes could well be disappointed by this mascara.

Pros: Doesn’t clump

Cons: Brush is too big, resulting in less coverage and more mess and it doesn’t actually improve the look of my lashes in any way, shape or form.

Mascara is like kryptonite for me and even though I didn’t need any I went out and bought myself a tube for £7.82 from Superdrug. There were three shades to choose from, absolute black, disco blue and brown remix; I opted for the absolute black and I guess that this was the most popular shade as I have noticed that it is often sold out. The mascara comes in a rather funky looking tube, which is black, shiny and silver and has a picture of an eye with long, luscious lashes. Bourjois claim that this mascara is tested on clubbers and not only does it offer extreme volume, but it also gives lashes a shiny finish.

I saved the mascara to use on my next night out and I actually couldn’t wait to put it on and see if it made my eyelashes look as gorgeous as it made my sisters. So I unscrewed the lid and pulled out the wand and I have to say that I was rather shocked by how much mascara comes out on the wand, there was far too much and I had to try and scraped some off which resulted in a right mess! The wand itself is sort of flat with very soft bristles; it is easy to get the mascara onto the upper lashes without too much trouble, however trying to put it on the lower lashes was a bit of a nightmare. I think this is because the wand was quite big and your lower lashes are smaller than the upper ones, meaning that not only do you coat the lashes, you also coat most of the skin in the surrounding area! The mascara really clumped my lashes together, worryingly though I think that this is what it is meant to do. In the end to try and get my eye lashes looking a bit more normal I ended up using the wand from another mascara to separate them a bit. Even after I did this my eyelashes looked very clumpy and I ended up looking like I had about 4 lashes on each eye! I tried to capture this in the picture (brown eye), you can see how four or five individual lashes are separate at the root but get stuck together further up, resulting when face on, in me looking like I had two spiders attached to my face.

I have to say that I was very disappointed as it looked so much better on my sister, whose eyelashes are not that much different to mine in shape and length. I even asked her to put it on me in case I was being stupid and doing it totally wrong, but the effect was the same. All I can say is that I will never buy this again, but it still looks great on my sister so I suppose it depends on the individual; as the two pictures show the result you get differs depending on the person, even when you are sisters!

Pros: Really looks good and gives a false lash effect on some people.

Cons: Gave me clumpy lashes which resulted in me looking like I had fewer eyelashes than I had started with. If it doesn’t work you have wasted nearly £8 and it would not be suitable for people wanting a natural makeup look.

I am a big fan of Maybelline mascaras and was first attracted to this mascara as it claimed to offer the false lash effect that I am constantly after but have never totally been able to achieve. I bought this from Superdrug for £6.99; however I have noticed recently that they no longer have it in there or in Boots so Maybelline might have stopped doing it. You can get this mascara quite cheaply on ebay still, I recently paid £2.70 for one which is the cheapest I have ever seen it. The mascara comes stuck to a cardboard backing and covered in plastic, which displays some information, but from an environmental point of view isn’t very good as it doesn’t help to protect or prolong the life of the mascara in any way. Instead of a brush, the applicator is a little comb, which seems to pick up a lot of mascara every time it is put back in.

Maybelline say “style your way to our hottest lash look, direct from New York City… The bold, open-eyed look! V-Shaped Lash Styler and silky-smooth formula gather and lift lashes for super thick lashes with up to 65% lash lift! V-shaped reservoir holds a lot of product to help build a bolder lash look. Wide teeth gather lashes into thicker groups. Separates lashes as it combs for maximum volume without clumps”.  Well I most certainly did not get a clump free effect; I applied as directed, not letting the mascara dry in between coats and all my eye lashes started to clump together into a nasty mess. I honestly looked like I had 2 spiders on my face instead of a nice fan of fake looking lashes and had to use the brush from another mascara to try and un-clump them. During this process I ended up with mascara all over my eye area, ruining the foundation and powder that I had already put on and meaning that I had to do that again as well as sort my eyelashes out, it was a good job that I wasn’t in a rush. I managed to make them look a bit less spider like (see pic) and from a distance they actually looked ok, but they felt really brittle and waxy. With the comb it was quite hard to coat my bottom lashes and I ended up poking myself in the eye. The mascara stayed on all day and there were no little bits of it flaking off near bed time, which is quite unusual for a mascara. It was quite easy to move with my regular make up remover, but I did think I noticed more eye lashes falling out than usual.

To be honest I really wouldn’t recommend this mascara to anyone as it really didn’t look very good. Instead of being a help I think the comb was a hindrance and I had to use a mascara brush to sort it out anyway. Anyone going for the natural makeup look should avoid this as you most definitely look natural.

Pros: Lasts all day and you get a good amount of mascara for your money.

Cons: Clumps, makes your lashes feel brittle and waxy and the comb makes it hard to reply.

I would recommend this product for anyone sick of having clumpy eye lashes. It would be good for anyone wanting a nice natural makeup look or for bridal makeup as it definitely will not come off if you cry! I would also recommend buying it cheaper on ebay – see box below, in case you really don’t like it, although I can’t see why you wouldn’t.

Pros: Lasts a long time, reduces clumping, gives a nice fan effect and a good dark colour.

Cons: Does not plump your lashes as it claims and the brush really hurts if you jab yourself in the eye with it!

I discovered this product after many different attempts of trying to make my eyes stand out, for longer on a night out. I found with most mascaras my eyes looked fantastic when I left home but by the time I was at  one of  the many weddings of the summer season,  my eyes had lost their sparkle and I looked like I  was mascara-less.  I steered away from Badgal lash by benefit as it had a hefty price tag of £14.50 but it is worth its weight in gold!

It lasts for ages, especially if you follow benefits advice of twisting in the bottle rather than pumping up and down to apply the makeup to the brush, it never clumps and makes your eye lashes appear longer and thicker to the point where I was asked if I was wearing eyelash extensions by other girls and complemented on my stunning and gorgeous eyes by a few of the best men. Of course part of that was due to my gorgeous eyes but it was absolutely aided by benefits fantastic mascara. With the help of an eye liner your eyes become the only place people will be looking on your night out.

I also found that this was perfect for day wear; it’s wonderful to just add with your foundation if you’re running for a serious day shopping or heading for the beach on your holiday and want the au natural look but like me way too scared to actually do it!

The brush is bigger than normal and with more bristles which allow the lashes to separate and curve with their natural contours. Benefit suggests that you apply to both sides of your lashes but I found this was not necessary as the bigger longer bristles coated all of your lashes in one swipe. For a more dramatic look apply a few layers to the very tip of the lash and do a slow side to side action to create   a wide fan appearance.

I did find however that it did had a tendency to rub  and give the panda look after 4-5 hours wear but to tackle this I put a layer of its sister version Badgal lash water proof on top.  However I also found that a clear mascara top coat did a good job it you’re on a tight budget. It then lasted all day and night and I had to re apply my other makeup around it, which is perfect for wedding makeup, where the last thing you need is to be worrying if your make up is in the right place.

Since I found this little black gem, which is available in larger Boots and Debenhams stores, it has become the core of my makeup bag only beaten by my foundation, where ever I am,  Benefits  Badgal Lash Mascara is too.