As most of you will know I love high street makeup! It makes up most of my makeup collection and I couldn't be without high street makeup brands! But however much I love it, it isn't without it's faults. So in today's post I thought I'd celebrate the amazing-ness that is high street makeup as well as sharing with you a few serious gripes I have with high street beauty brands.
What I Hate About High Street Makeup
Disgusting, disgusting testers
Testers are a necessary part of makeup stands. It's often what makes you decide on a product or it at least what allows you pick the correct shade. However after hundreds of fingers delving into testers they aren't going to be the most hygienic of places. The solution would be for the testers to be sanitised on a weekly basis at the very least, but nope! We get none of that. This not only makes the stands look a bit gross but it's also beyond unhygienic for customers and really shouldn't be allowed... in fact I don't know how it is?! This is such a pet peeve of mine and don't get me started on how I feel when I see someone applying a tester directly to their face or heaven forbid their lips?!
Testers are a necessary part of makeup stands. It's often what makes you decide on a product or it at least what allows you pick the correct shade. However after hundreds of fingers delving into testers they aren't going to be the most hygienic of places. The solution would be for the testers to be sanitised on a weekly basis at the very least, but nope! We get none of that. This not only makes the stands look a bit gross but it's also beyond unhygienic for customers and really shouldn't be allowed... in fact I don't know how it is?! This is such a pet peeve of mine and don't get me started on how I feel when I see someone applying a tester directly to their face or heaven forbid their lips?!
Crazy prices of new products
Remember the day when foundations use to be under £5? I do! Yes, ok I realise with the price of inflation everything has to go up, but seriously to me £12-14 for a single high street makeup product is crazy! Brands now offer much more '3 for 2' deals and introductory prices due to this but still it's easy to come out of Boots with only a few products and be £50 down, hell it's easy to spend £100+ on makeup in one go! This is why I look to discount websites such as Fragrance Direct and Xtras more and more. Maybe I'm being a bit scrooge here but I honestly think the high street can't get anymore expensive!
Already open packaging
Seriously how frustrating is it to open up a new product at home to only discover that it's been used? I've had this many times and each time it makes me on the verge of being rage-ful. A few brands such as Barry M, the new BD range at Tesco have the right idea and fully seal their product. This is the total solution and even though 5% are still opened (who are these people?!) at least you can see that they are and pick another sealed product. A few brands go half way and 'seal' their product with a bit of tape on the side of the lid/opening, but again this is just pointless! Only last week I had to walk away from a Revlon stand as all 10+ Lip Lacquers had be used. This surely loses the brand money and really can be corrected!
The quality and hygiene of reduced products
The above leads nicely onto my last 'hate'. So what happens to smooshed up, tested products? They go in the "reduced to clear" bin of course! Because everyone wants a bit of E. coli, right? Seriously though, the state of products I've seen in reduced bins is disgusting and I don't say that lightly. Of course they may not be put it there in that condition but surely it should be part of a sales assistants job to clear out products that are beyond saleable condition and sanitise the rest of the products. Sadly I think a lot of young girls may be the ones delving into these reduced bins for a bargain and really these used products should never even be on sale in the first place.Though this is the fault of stores/shops and not the individual beauty brands.
What I Love About High Street Makeup
Amazing quality products
High street beauty brands certainly know how to produce high quality products! Yes, we may find some products don't work for us and brands sometimes do come out with a range of bad quality products, the Sleek matte lipglosses spring to mind, but on the whole high street beauty brands offer amazing quality products. That for the most part are as good as high end brands, albeit the luxury packaging. Standout brands for me would be Bourjois, Maybelline and L'Oreal. I'd love to know which high street beauty brands you love?
Constant new products and brands
Each week it seems a new makeup range is launched or an exciting new brand. In fact I tend to find I can't keep up even as a beauty blogger! This means constant new products to lust after and a huge selection to choose from. Also recently brands such as Makeup Revolution and Essence have been offering up new exciting products almost weekly. This makes beauty shopping always exciting and fresh!
Beauty points!
Ahhh, you have to love Boots Advantage Card and all the others out there. If you're beauty obsessed then a points card can be a great thing. With money-off vouchers and deals they can save you a lot over the course of a year, plus if you save up your points you can treat yourself to something amazing! With my last lot of Boots points I treated myself to a lovely Philosophy gift set that I wouldn't have normally purchased due to the price. Love beauty cards!
High-end dupes
Beauty bloggers really have made 'dupes' a thing but it's a fact all high street brands model their products on higher end products. When shades and textures are spot on to much higher products it's pretty great! I've found Bourjois foundations to be very similar to Chanel foundations but then again they are owned by the same people. And only recently I found an amazing dupe for MAC Orchid lipstick with Gosh Velvet Touch 'Temptation' Lipstick, which gives a huge saving of £9.00. I've love to hear what your favourite dupe discovery is?!
On the whole the high street is pretty damn amazing but if only brands would work on their hygiene standards!
What do you love and hate about high street makeup? I'd love to know!
Fee xo.
