Introduction

Hi guys,

For the first post I thought I'd better introduce myself and let you know what to expect in future posts :-)

First of all, I must confess something, I've never written a blog before, nor have I really read one as such! But I thought, while I'm saving up for a video camera to actually make videos for YouTube, I'll give it a go!

So, basically, I've been into make up for a few years now. My friends think I own tons of make up, whereas in reality I haven't got loads!

The reason for "Beauty on a Budget" is:

1) I live in a very small town, no department stores and a very small Boots, so unless I go out of town I haven't got much readily available to me, and shipping costs can sometimes be way too much to pay! I'm more of a 'buy one at a time so I can't see exactly how much I'm spending on make up' kind of girl :-)

2) To be perfectly honest, I haven't got much money. I'm between jobs at the minute, and even when working, I don't wear make up everyday due to my strange skin tone (more on that later). It's more of a going out at the weekend and see how many people I can shock with bright colours type of thing for me!

and 3) I've never been into brands as such, I think there's perfectly good make up available at a lower price than MAC, Nars, Bobbi Brown etc. Not that they're not nice to have of course, and if I had the money, who knows?

My make up collection is mostly eye shadows in every colour imaginable, except many browns. I don't do neutral.

I have Revlon Colorstay foundation, Urban Decay Primer Potion, L'Oreal Studio Secrets primer and MAC brushes. If you achieve a good base, and have the best brushes, you can make your make up look awesome no matter what the brand.

My skin tone has a yellow undertone which is fine, but I have very noticeable red patches all over my face. Not rosacea, just broken capillaries which has been passed on via all the women on my mum's side of the family, we've all got it and I won't lie, I HATE it. You have no idea how many products I've tried to cover it up/eliminate it completely. Up to now I've found nothing that works which makes it very hard for me to achieve "flawless skin" which so many of us strive for. I know I should try and enhance what I've got, but it's hard to find blush, contour or even lipsticks to complement my skin tone. At the moment my face routine comprises of Revlon Colorstay foundation in Buff, along with L'Oreal Studio Secrets anti-redness primer. It's ok, definitely the best foundation I've ever tried, but not sure if I notice a big difference with the primer or not. I probably won't be buying it again if I don't notice a huge difference. My next product to try is the Clinique redness relief. And yes, I know I have contradicted my Beauty on a Budget title already however, I've tried the cheaper alternatives and so far, nothing. The colour of my skin is also the reason why I don't bother with make up everyday. While you'd think I'd be the first person to try and cover it all up after what I've said, I go redder and redder throughout the day. If I get hot I go red, if I go cold I go red, and it makes my foundation visible. Although I've recently discovered that Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer under my eyes kind of changes the focus of my red bits to my cheeks which looks slightly better.

By the way, all of the above products mentioned will get reviewed in full :-)

So yeah, back to to my make up collection. I am the very proud owner of the 120 colour palette available on eBay. If you don't own one and you're interested in make up, GET ONE NOW! They are incredible, I use mine almost every time I wear make up. Definitely worth every penny, there's every colour you'll ever need in there.

I have recently discovered Make Up Academy (MUA) available at Superdrug, and every product in that line is £1, which when I first heard of it sounded too cheap and therefore poor quality. How wrong I was! MUA will be my 1st review and I'm expecting a delivery of the rest of the eye shadows tomorrow (fingers crossed) so keep an eye out for that.

Other brands I use frequently include: 17, Natural Collection, Rimmel, W7, Barry M, GOSH, and Collection 2000 to name a few. Almost everything I buy is from Boots or Superdrug and occasionally bought online from discount beauty websites.

Well that's it for now, long post to start with, apologies for that!! In the next few weeks expect posts on essential products, reviews on MUA, Natural Collection, Cien nail varnish remover and Revlon Colorstay foundation along with anything else I may think of!

Thanks for reading (and well done if you got this far!)

xoxo Lisa