My Top 5 Drugstore Must-Haves!

I love drugstore products. Don't get me wrong, I do love going into MAC or visiting Benefit's make-up counter in Boots on a Saturday afternoon to see how much money I can spend there until I realise what that money could have been saved up and put towards. However, there are so many amazing products in places like Boots and Superdrug which are practically identical to the quality of high-end make-up for about fifteen pounds cheaper! These are just a few of my favourites; I have many more so it was extremely difficult to shorten my list down to my top five.

1. The first product is my all time holy-grail powder and that is Stay Matte by Rimmel. Powder was always one of the most difficult things for me to find when I was first starting to wear make-up. Some powders I tried had a horrible colour range so I would walk out the house completely orange and others used to wear off and go patchy throughout the day. Not a good look! Then I came across Stay Matte. I'd heard about it quite a lot on Youtube and I'm so glad I finally got round to buying it because I go back and repurchase these all the time. I've got mine in translucent - I never buy coloured powders as my foundation matches my natural skin colour almost perfectly so any added colour on top makes my face look cakey and orange; if I have used fake tan, I bronze my face up to get it to match my neck and the rest of my body. This powder is only £3.99 from Boots - a bargain considering how amazing it is!

2. Bronzer is my best friend and after hearing so many good reviews about the Bourjois 'chocolate' bronzing powder, I had to go out and buy it. My mum bought this before me so I'd previously used hers to see if I liked it. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you can buy this in two shades: 51 and 52. I have mine in 51, which is considerably lighter than the other one. This bronzer has quite an orange/red-ish undertone - if you are super pale, I wouldn't recommend this, as it can come up quite harsh. I have really pale skin so I don't wear as much as this unless I've done my fake tan. It also has shimmer throughout it so if you don't like that, this bronzer isn't for you. It's priced at £6.99, incredible for the amount of product you get. I usually use this to contour with and then go on to use my MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium Dark to bronze up my face, where the light would naturally hit it.

3. This next product is a new favourite for me: Scandaleyes Retro Glam by Rimmel. The brush on this mascara is immense! The bristles are longer at both ends of the brush and shorter in the middle. The way the bristles are set out ensures your lashes don't look clumpy and that the product is distributed nicely onto each individual lash. My eyelashes are quite long anyway but when I wear this, it does give a false-lash effect which I like because I don't think a make-up look is complete without full, thick lashes. Again, I bought this from Boots for £6.99. I tend to get quite a lot of product on the end of the brush so I do have to make sure I've wiped it off onto the inside of the tube otherwise things get a bit messy.

4. The second to last must-have drugstore product is the Collection Intense Colour Supersoft Kohl pencil eyeliner. My best friend actually gave me this because she didn't want it nor use it which I'm very thankful for because I love it! I have mine in 02 Birdy Song which is a dark brown. I don't tend to wear brown eyeliners although I have started to accumulate quite a few. I prefer to wear black eyeliner as it makes my eyes appear bigger and makes the colour of my eyes stand out considerably more. However, I love wearing this eyeliner to school because it's very subtle and not as harsh as if I was to wear black. The formulation is perfect; it glides on my eye so smoothly and it's very easy to blend despite being so pigmented! I wear this right in my lash line to create an illusion of thicker lashes. I'm not quite sure how much this was because, like I said, it was given to me but it probably doesn't cost much as it's by Collection but I do love this product so much!

5. I'm not quite sure if this last product qualifies as a drugstore product as you can't buy it in places like Boots in the UK. It is one of the Elf Studio line mineral lipsticks in Nicely Nude. A couple of weeks ago, I went online and ordered a ridiculous amount of makeup off the Elf website - I might do a top 5 Elf products post soon! Luckily, they had a half price off everything on there and I ended up buying sixty pounds worth of make-up for only £30! This lipstick is a gorgeous pink shade. It does have 'Nude' in it's name but this is a lot more on the pink side. It isn't highly pigmented but it does give a really nice colour pay-off. It can be blended out with a bit of lipbalm until it is quite sheer. It can feel slightly drying on my lips sometimes but mostly, it feels fine. It gives a matte finish which I like in a lipstick because I always put a bit of lip gloss over the top. I like to wear Elf's Plumping Lip Glaze in Wink Pink (£1.50) with it. When you swatch it, it has a subtle shimmer throughout it but it isn't noticeable when worn. However, it doesn't have an amazing lasting power and I have to top it up a lot during the day which I normally don't have time to do. This lipstick cost me five pounds - not too bad seeing as it is a gorgeous colour and you get a lot of product!

Another cheeky must-have I'm going to include (but unfortunately forgot to photograph) is Revlon's Lip Butters. I have one in 045 Cotton Candy which is a gorgeous, sheer baby pink. They are very moisturising and natural-looking so great to wear to school if you aren't allowed to wear anything bright on your lips. The Lip Butters come in gorgeous packaging and I can't wait to buy more. I don't want to write lots here because once I've bought a few more, I might do a big review on them so keep an eye out!

That concludes my top 5 drugstore must-haves! I do recommend going out and trying, possibly buying, these products as I do think they are worth it, especially for the low prices! Who doesn't love a good quality yet cheap make-up product?
If you have any of these, let me know what you think! Also, if you know of any more good drugstore must-haves, you'll have to tell me. :)