Review: Poundland's Make Up Gallery

If you haven't noticed by now, my blog is dedicated to reviewing bargains! I, like most of us these days, don't have the cash to splash out on expensive skin care and beauty products, so I have to try and make the best with what I've got.

This week I've gone extreme bargain. On a trip to Poundland recently, I saw their now quite extensive Make Up Gallery range. I'd read other blogs about how some of the products were worth buying, so I thought why not give them a go myself. I've already got a highlighter from there which isn't the best but does the trick just about, so I wanted to explore other products.

I picked up two - a concealer and a lip gloss. The first I'll review is the concealer - Hide and Chic in Ivory.

It's a typical lipstick-style concealer, which is what I like using the best as they tend to give a thicker coverage. I must admit that I thought it would be a lot more oily than it actually was, although I'd probably not recommend it for extremely oily skin (I have combination/oily skin). 

I liked the consistency when I tried it on my hand and was impressed at the coverage. I was pretty pleased with the shade as well (it doesn't look a match on my hand as my hands are naturally a lot redder!). So now, to the important bit, testing it on my problem skin.

At the moment, my skin isn't great, and I have a few blemishes and redness so it was probably quite a good time to test it. I started out with my using foundation, Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Foundation, as my base. 

As you can see for some reason I've got a puffy left eye (not sure where that's come from!) but I also have some darkness under my eyes, and some redness underneath the bottom of my nose.

I was immediately impressed! 

You can see the coverage particularly on my eyes, and it's covered the dark circles fairly well (the puffiness I don't think it can help!). It's also added some brightness to under my eyes so I looked immediately slightly more awake! It's also covered the blemishes under my nose. 

It worked really well with my foundation and was easy to apply. I found it was really smooth and I liked the relatively heavy coverage. For a £1 concealer, I'd definitely buy it again and would recommend it. I didn't find it too oily like I was concerned about, and in fact I think the final finish is fairly matte.

Now on to the lip gloss - Shine On, and I got the shade Cherry Pop. 

I'm not normally a lip gloss fan but I wanted to try something a bit out of my comfort zone, but sticking with a shade I would normally go for. I thought that looking at the bottle the colour would be quite intense, so I felt optimistic. 

When I tested it on my hand however, I started to feel more disappointed. You can already tell the colour isn't as strong and vibrant as to what it initially looked in the bottle, although you could tell it was certainly high shine. In terms of that 'gloopiness' (a technical term there...) that lip gloss can often have, it didn't feel too bad when I applied to my hand. 

As you can see, while the colour is okay, it's certainly not as opaque as it looks in the bottle. It's got a lot of shine to it, which was different for me to be wearing, but my partner commented on how nice it looked so that was a bonus. I was disappointed it wasn't a stronger red but for £1 I suppose you can't complain too much. 

All in all, the lip gloss didn't too it for me. I went out wearing this and had a coffee and it came off almost immediately, so the lasting power isn't good either. I'd say if you're not needing to eat or drink, and you're okay with less intense colours, then you could pull this lip gloss off, and for £1, it would be a great thing to have in your handbag, but it wasn't for me personally. 

I loved the concealer so much though that I'm not disheartened about trying future products from the Make Up Gallery range at Poundland, and I may have to visit a store soon and see what else they have on offer. I'd recommend trying the range for yourself, and it's a great way to try different colours and shades in products without worrying about spending a fortune. 

Have you ever tried some proper beauty bargains? What did you think of them?