Catrice The Giant Extreme Volume Mascara

We all know Catrice as a much loved budget high street brand with, by all accounts, some damn good products. But I just never seemed to get into them for some reason! This may be all about to change. I popped into Health Express in Tallaght (on payday coincidentally...uh oh) and they had a huge chunk of their Catrice stand Half price, all stock that's soon to be removed from the line apparently. Naturally I picked up a few bits.....for science!

I picked up their BB cream, a blush, liquid eyeliner and this mascara, which, if I'm to be completely honest, is a bit of a revelation.

The Giant promises bold, dramatic lashes with a nice chunky brush designed to each every lash from corner to corner. Normally with a mascara that offers you the sun, moon and stars it falls at at least one hurdle, but I am SO impressed with this mascara I've practically been forcing it on people.

I found it gave me amazing volume, with fantastic length and separation. It didn't clump and built up really easily. I wore it all day yesterday with no touch up's and while my lashes looked a tad limper by the evry end of the day, I found practically zero flaking!

With one coat The Giant gives beautifully full daytime lashes, but not being one for subtlety I've been lashing it on in 2-3 coats. I'm pretty upset that I didn't discover this little ge much earlier. If it's being removed from the line permanently and not being replaced with a very similar mascara I'll be pretty much heart broken.

I can't remember exactly how much I paid for The Giant, but I'm not talking much more than €2. Even at full price it's an out and out bargain!! It hands down beats some mascara's I've paid €10-15 for!

You'll have to excuse the bandy photo's, I'm currently working off an old phone and the camera is just able for anything! Oh how I miss my Samsung :(

Seventeen Stay Time Foundation

Love love love love love!! I'm actually surprised by how much I love this foundation!

A few months ago I bought Seventeen's Miracle Matte foundation and was so disappointed by it t hat I kinda swore off their foundation for good (everything about that foundation was  bad, it oxidized really obviously, was streaky and blotchy, just...ugh). However during my last little excursion to Boots I couldn't resist the lure of a bargain and picked up their Stay Time foundation for €4. It was strange, in one Boots it was €4, but the Boots around the corner were still selling it at full price......

Anyhow, I really wanted to LOVE this foundation, as I'm very fond of Seventeen as a brand, their eyeshadow's and Doll'd Up mascara are some of my absolute beauty staples! I can happily say that I'm incredibly happy with it, it knocked my, admittedly quite low, expectations outta the park.

Stay time promises to be a full coverage (yay) that will stay flawless on your skin for 25 hours. While I've yet to test the 25 hour part, I can vouch for the rest. I need a full coverage foundation, this comes out of the bottle quite thick but spreads really easily and evenly (I applied it with a Blank Canvas F20 foundation brush). My skin tone is immediately more even and any imperfections are really well hidden with this foundation, so much so I've little need for concealer. It does dry with a bit of a shine so a finishing powder is always necessary if you like a matte finish. It's definitely very long lasting, I applied it early yesterday morning and it still looked fresh when it was time to scrub it all off, it even survived a little early evening cat nap. One of my favourite things is that it doesn't oxidise at all so you don't start with a flawless base and end up 3 shades darker by the time you finish your make up.

I picked it up in Porcelain and I'm white as a ghost so it's really good for fellow palies! I'm so very impressed with this foundation, so much so I'll be popping back up to see if I can bag another bottle for €4! If not, I'd happily pay full price for it (which is coming up as €4.79 on the Boots website as it's just that good. But I've a horrible feeling they may be discontinuing it.... which would just be typical!