5 Life-Changing Products from the UK
By Adrienne, Scotland Contributor
Adrienne lives in Scotland, and she writes for The Sunday Girl, which is mostly beauty but with a little life thrown into the mix. She was born and bred in Scotland, still resides in a damp Scottish town, and jokes that she sees about three days of sunshine a year–but it’s a lovely place to live. She is currently attending university studying both English and French with hopes to become an English teacher.In her free time, she loves to shop and hang out with friends–and beauty blog when she can!
SleekMakeUp Original Palette
5 Life-Changing Products from the UK
I typed this post up with the though what local to me products do I reach for on an almost daily basis and what products would I wholeheartedly recommend without a second thought. Truth be told the list was rather large but I have scaled it back to just five must have products!
SleekMakeUp Original Palette (£6.49)
Most palettes come with a running theme, such as neutral, smoky, or brights but this 12-pan palette has nearly all the colors covered. The original palette has a vast array of shades from bright to neutral that will easily carry you from day to night all encased in a slim compact with a sizable mirror. Each eyeshadow is highly pigmented and mineral based. The black eyeshadow in this palette has to be one of the most pigmented I have ever stumbled across, and it can double up as an eyeliner if you apply it wet. It’s the perfect eye palette to keep in your handbag for any occasion!
Gosh Lipstick (£6.49)
Gosh lipsticks are all highly pigmented, come in a variety of finishes, apply with ease, and wear comfortably throughout the day without drying out the lips. I get around four hours of wear from each application, but I am a habitual re-applier so you may find you get longer from each application. Unlike some drugstore brands, these are not highly scented, which I know some may find offensive. My personal favorite shade by Gosh is Darling, as not only can it be worn as a nude milky lip shade, but I also find it works particularly well as a lip eraser if you apply, blot, and then apply your chosen lip color on top. Gosh are particularly good at launching limited edition shades for each season to coincide with runway trends. Another shade to look out for is Gosh Tropical Pink that looks just wonderful on all skin tones.
Accessorize Bronzer Duo (£6.00)
As you might have noticed, I like my products to work hard and have more than one use; anything that can double-up has my attention. Accessorize Bronzer Duos are baked bronzers that are very similar in texture and finish to MAC’s Mineralize Skinfnishes, only with a much reduced price tag. These are branded as bronzers, one shade in the duo tends to be far too light to do any bronzing and is best suited as a highlighting product, which makes it a multi-tasking product. You can apply the light shade as a highlighter, the darker shade as a bronzer, or sweep both shades together. My personal favourite is the Laguna shade that consists of a pink-toned bronze shade combined with a champagne toned section.
Check out two more life-changing products and photos!
Eyelure Girls Aloud False Eyelashes (£5.19 and up)
If you live outside of Europe, chances are you won’t have heard of Girls Aloud. To enlighten curious minds, they are a British pop group whom are more known for their personal lives than music but don’t let that put you of. The eyelashes with their branding happen to be some of the best out there! Available in five different styles from natural to full-on glamour, there is a pair for everyone and each occasion. The lashes are well-constructed, and if you take care of them properly, you will be able to reuse them a few times without the lash losing its shape. Each pack comes with an individual vial of lash glue that is resealable, which is perfect for touch ups on the go. They are extremely comfortable to wear as they are lightweight; I often forget that I am wearing them. I have naturally straight eyelashes, which don’t hold a curl at all, so to perk up my eyes I often rely on the Nadine style that works really well both day and night.
Fashionista Custom Palettes (£4.00)
This is a very recent discovery of mine that has quickly become a firm favorite. Fashionista Custom Palettes are palettes that allow you to combine eyeshadow and blush refills inside one sleek palette. Personally, I hate weighing down my make-up bag with more products than needed, so I really like the clever and functional idea of having a palette that allows you to combine different products. At first, I thought the whole concept was more of a novelty, but I can vouch that the eyeshadows and blushes are wonderful quality. Each is well-pressed and pigmented and come in a vast variety of shades and finishes. The palette itself is well made; sturdy and slim with a large mirror housed inside. I personally favor the double baked eyeshadows and matte blushes, but there is a shade and finish for everyone’s preference.
SleekMakeUp Original Palette
GOSH Darling Lipstick
Accessorize Bronzer
Eyelure Girls Aloud False Eyelashes
Fashionista Custom Palettes
Nice list, but the GOSH-brand is a Danish brand – not from the UK
You are right 🙂 but it sadly isn’t stocked in many countries and oddly Superdrug list it as their own :s that’s why I included it in with the other brands. Thank you for your comment though 🙂
Aww love these products ♥ I hope the Accessorize bronzer will soon be availabl here too, it looks so pretty. Never heard of the Fashionista Custom Palettes, they seem to be so interesting. Definitely need to look them up on the internet.
Adrienne is so lucky to live in Scotland, it is indeed an amazing place to live in. I was in Edinburgh in 2006 for a wedding and I loved it and I can’t wait to go back of course!
Very nice article! ♥
I hope you get them too 🙂 ah thank you i’m glad you enjoyed Edinburgh 🙂 Thank you for your comment 🙂
i love these products from other countries but chances are i’ll never be about to get my hands on them. I clicked on the gosh link and super drug will only ship in UK 🙁 ultimate tease!
That is such a shame 🙁 I always feel the same when it comes to US websites such as Sephora so I feel your pain haha! Thank you for your comment 🙂
I’ve heard of the Accessorize line in the UK and it reminded in packaging style of the Hard Candy mineral compacts.
It GOSH wasn’t so expensive at Shopper’s Drug Mart in Canada I would buy from them more. lol
I have to agree there is a lot of similarities with Accessorize and Hard Candy, particularly the cheek products…almost identical.
Ah that sucks but if you do ever give into temptation Gosh Electric Pink Blush is amazing!!
Thank you for your comment 🙂
GOSH frequently goes on sale at SDM (I’ve seen up to 20% off), so check your weekly flyer 🙂 I’ve bought a few of the GOSH nail polishes super cheap that way.
GOSH goes on sale there all the time, plus they resell damaged products (look for a clearance bin with lots of orange tags) for cheaper. Some are things that droppedd and shattered, others have a nick in the packaging or whatever.
awesome, thanks! I think the original palette is pretty good too, although I’m not great at using the bright colours 🙂 I’ll check out the lipstick and the bronzer too, they look fabulous! 🙂
Haha I am the same, I have a fear of bright eye shades! They look wonderful on others but on me yeah not so much haha!
Oh great 🙂 I hope you enjoy them!
Thank you for your comment 🙂
i cannot wait to make a visit into my town centre, first stop is superdrugs, for fashionista cosmetics and look cosmetics. and then tescos fo vivo cosmetics.
Oh great choices 🙂 you are so lucky having a Tesco that stocks Vivo. Enjoy!
Thank you for your comment 🙂
Ahhh I’ve always wanted to try Sleek products, but the 9-euro shipping kinda puts me off. If/When I travel across the strait (I live in Belgium) I’ll definitely lay my hands on some though! Thanks for the recommendations!
Ah I really hate paying for shipping too and 9 euros ouch! Glad that you can pick them up sometimes though 🙂 thanks for the comment 🙂
i love gosh darling and the accessorize bronzer duos!!
Glad i’m not the only one 🙂
I tried the Fashionista products and hated them! The quality was terrible in all of them except one eyeshadow which was absolutely beautiful so I get the feeling that they’re very hit and miss. Maybe I just picked a bad bunch!
Ohh that sucks 🙁 I have a stash of around 12 (some blushes and some eyeshadows) and only had difficulty with two shades (frost finish) so I really do wonder if you have been unlucky and got a bad batch! Thanks for your feedback though it’s nice to hear comments of different opinion 🙂
Long-time Sleek fan <3 My fave palette is Curious, wish it was LE as I'm hitting pan on most of the colours 🙁
I'm glad to hear that Fashionista palettes are good quality because I was wondering about them… Hmmm, like I really need to buy more palettes, lol
Um, meant to say wish it wasn’t LE.
I know what you mean the best palettes always seem to be L.E my personal favourite was safari but it died a death long ago haha!
The great thing about the fashionista palettes is you can mix n match blushes and eyeshadows but yeah i’m sure you don’t need any more haha!
Love Sleek! We also have Accessorize here but not the makeup line.
Ah that really sucks 🙁
UGH I always want sleek SO BAD!! One of my friend goes to london a lot so I asked her to try to buy one for me but she couldn’t find any 🙁 I reaallllyyy want to try their blushes! Maybe someday I’ll finally take the plunge on evilbay
sleek ships worldwide. I’m in the US and have had sleek delivered here and it comes incredibly fast considering.
They ship worldwide if that helps at all? 🙂
I’ve heard really bad things about sleek’s shipping though — that it takes forever or they mess up your order
I never liked Gosh. I find the lipsticks you describe super drying. They are very pigmented though.
Such good timing! I’m in the UK right now on holiday and I’ve been scouring the drugstores for all the nice things I can’t get back in the States. I couldn’t decide yesterday between the Barry M pout paints and the GOSH lipsticks. Are they of similar quality? I looked for Sleek’s natural palette too, but they were sold out so I think I’ll pick up the Storm one instead. Ended up just getting mememe’s poppy tint benefit knock off!
The idea of a densely pigmented nude as lip erase is brilliant! Wemay not have that brand here, but MAC lip erase is rare and darker than even my dark lips so what a great alternative. Your make up cred is solid with me girl- anybody can shop, but the mixing and alt uses mark the real hardcore.
Wonder what we have here that’s so pigmented…..
Great column BTW. I’ve heard of Sleek but never seen one.
really interested in sleek palettes now!! i would love to see some swatches.
I love those girls aloud lashes! I like the Nicola ones best, because of the way they feather out to the sides but are still not overly voluminous 🙂 Haven’t tried any gosh lipsticks before but I’m going to check those out.