Today’s blog post is a guest review by the lovely Helen from www.just-nice-things.co.uk
It is no word of a lie when I say that Asda has actually changed my life recently. They were on my radar solely as an annoying, buttock slapping advertising campaign on the tv, but recently, in a bid to try and claw back some cash, we have started doing our weekly food shop with Asda. We’ve been buying the same stuff as we did previously from either of the big two supermarkets, yet somehow, the Asda bill is under half what we were paying before. So, if we apply the same reckoning to makeup, I was curious to see what Asda could offer me here. I was curious to see if I could get high end quality for bargain basement prices, so when Sarah offered me the chance to test out a few items from the core range, I dutifully obliged.
We didn’t get off to a good start, George and I. The liquid liner looks the business. Personally, I’m not a fan of sponge tipped applicators for liquid eyeliner, but even if I was, this wouldn’t have worked for me, for the sole reason that it smells like a potting shed. Seriously, like compost. I had to set this aside as I feared for my skin. Maybe it’s organic? Who knows.
Unfortunately I struggled with the mascara as well. I just found it to be a bit too wet. I often find this with new mascara though so this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s rubbish. But I do know that it took an eternity to dry and that perhaps I’d have had better results if I’d left the tube somewhere warm for a few days before trying it out. It was easy to handle, and certainly had good lengthening capabilities but zero volumising, and it left marks on my eyelids from where it took so long to dry.
Oh dear. This isn’t going well at all, is it? Now we come to the bronzer. I have something similar by Bobbi Brown and so was really keen to try this out. Unfortunately there is so much glitter in this palette that I was just left with a wash of sparkle and not a lot else. It has zero pigment. I managed to use the lighter shade as an under-eyebrow highlighter, but when I swirled a brush over the rest of the surface, it only picked up the darkest shade. Trust me, I can be fairly experimental with my makeup looks, but a glittery brick-toned face isn’t one for me.
Well done if you’ve made it this far – there are some positives! Whilst I say that I can be experimental, this is generally restricted to eye makeup. I’m not a lipstick girl (as you can probably tell from my rather uncertain expression in this post). Gloss, certainly, but lipstick makes me nervous. So, when this brighter than bright lipstick landed on my desk, I didn’t really know what to do. It’s an interesting shade. Not quite red, not quite pink. It applied perfectly but I can’t help thinking that it was a tad greasy. However, the pigment in this is insanely good. After I’d wiped off the surface application, a bright hue remained on my lips for most of the rest of the day. Remarkable. I think you might have a better and less slippy result using this with a lip brush.
As far as I am concerned, the real jewels in this little selection are definitely the eyeshadows. Forgive the appearance of Truffle but the postman evidently played football with the package that Sarah sent me. A rich mid-brown, it applies smoothly, perfectly and with no issues whatsoever. It is a very, very good neutral, seen here with a dab of Nars Galapagos in the crease. Great for when you want a work appropriate look that doesn’t try too hard. It lasted all day with no creasing. Win.
My favourite item from the pieces I was sent was Gala. Initially, when this popped out of the parcel, my heart sank. Blue eyeshadow? Really? I was terrified of what the combination of red lipstick and blue eye shadow was going to do to me. So, imagine my surprise when this turned out to be pretty flipping amazing. It’s kind of odd, as in the pan, as you can see, it is the brightest shade of blue ever, yet on the eye, it appears more silvery. It sheers out quite nicely, although I would expect that this could also be used wet for a far more impactful look. I’ve used it here with Nars Lulu (a brown toned grape shade) and it is fantastic. I really loved wearing this look – for a bargain basement supermarket eyeshadow, it surpassed my expectations.
So, all in all, it’s a bit hit and miss. However, the George range is inexpensive enough to make a mistake from time to time. I’m certainly going to check out the rest of the eyeshadows soon. Now, if only George would bring back their awesome range of nail varnishes, I’d be a very happy blogger.
If you liked Helen’s fabulous and in-depth review then why not check out her blog, I personally have been a follower for ages, love it! xx