The £5 Face – Poundland Makeup Review

The £5 Face – Poundland Makeup Review

I’ve planned on reviewing the Poundland ‘Makeup Gallery’ line since it launched last year, but every time I’ve been in the stands have been picked over and I’ve not been able to get a good range of products, until now.

I’m in two minds about this range, in one way I think you can’t expect too much when every product in the range is £1, but in the same breath with brands such as Makeup Revolution and Collection setting the bar so high for budget products, that I do end up with high expectations regardless of the price. So my Poundland Makeup Review felt from the get go that I would probably be disappointed.

makeup-gallery-poundland-review

I decided to get as much of a ‘full face’ of makeup for £5 as I could. This line doesn’t have absolutely everything, at least in the store I was in – there was no brow products and the shade selection for foundations was 4, there’s no such thing as primers to name a few missing items. I picked up, a foundation, bronzer, eyeshadow, mascara and lipstick, I’ve been trying them for on and off for over a month to get a real feel as to how they perform – and hopefully tell you of a great new discovery.

Gorgeous Flawless Foundation in Nude

 poundland-foundation-review

The foundations were a bit difficult to judge what shade might be right, so I went off the name, rather than picking a colour that would suit. Almost straight away after putting onto the skin it oxidized and went from being an okay shade to making me feel like an orange. I found it hard to get a nice even coverage with this, always finding it to come off patchy. Trying with a beauty blender, buffing brush and fingers, I felt like i had to keep caking layers on, and ended up feeling cakey too. Within hours this had mostly worn away and was making my skin feel very greasy and looking shiny. For dry/normal skin you might like this if you’re looking for a sheer cover, but I would avoid otherwise – I have a bit of redness in my cheeks which is covered by an average foundation, this doesn’t cover it at all.

Bronzer – Matt Light

poundland-bronzer-review

I decided to pick a bronzer over a blush as I feel like they’re a product which are harder to get right. Considering this is ‘light’, I don’t think anyone who is super pale would get along with this, it’s very orangey in tone, I don’t love the tone – but it also just doesn’t stay in place very long either and doesn’t have a lot of pigmentation and applies sheer. For me paired with the rather orangey foundation, I wasn’t a fan with a more orange tone paired on top!

Eyeshadow in Grey

poundland-eyeshadow-review

This was the item from the range which I was most excited to try as I really loved the look of this shade, being a grey with underlying taupe hues, it seemed a bit different to your average run of the mill shade. Unsurprisingly all of the range of the eye shadows are a shimmer formulation, the easiest formulation to get right. These apply nice and evenly, although do sit a little on the sheer side when applied with a brush, you really have to heavily press the product on to get good pigmentation. Without a primer these were terrible, lasting only an hour before they were virtually gone, with a primer it held up better but not all day.

poundland-makeup-gallery-review-eyeshadow

Plump up the Volume Volumising Mascara

poundland-mascara-review

I don’t know why but I was expecting the brush to be a bit chunkier than this, there isn’t much to report on this brush, nothing about this looks out out of the ordinary. The wand appears to get quite a lot of product onto it, but that just doesn’t translate to the lashes, it doesn’t create any volume what-so-ever. I’ve said before a mascara can sometimes take a week or two to come into it’s own, and this has been why I’ve held off on this review – giving it 2 months of going back and forth – this is still as terrible as day one – not volumising at all, whilst the pictures look okay, I have long lashes already it added nothing to the party really!

poundland-mascara-eyeshadow

All About the Pout Lipstick in Raspberry Smoothie

poundland-lipstick-review

This is probably the best product out of the bunch, it has great pigmentation although the formulation does feel a little drying. the finish isn’t my favourite as it has a slight shimmer to it which can’t really be seen in the tube – which is okay, but does make it feel a little dated like a semi-frost lipstick. I don’t mind this, but I would never reach for it in my collection, it doesn’t last very long at all, and never feels like it sets into place, it always feels like it’s slipping around.

poundland-raspberry-smoothie-lipstick-swatch


Annoyingly this photographs better than it looks in real life, hopefully you can see the shade difference in the foundation – initially it looks like a perfect match when dotted on my skin, but you can see the shade difference between my face and neck!

poundland-makeup


Makeup Revolution is a brand which has shown how to do packaging design even on a budget, where as these do feel, flimsy and cheap. I don’t feel ashamed pulling out a £1 Revolution lipstick from my handbag , but I did feel like I was pulling out a kids toy with this range.

Ultimately for the slight extra expense, I’d rather get products from Makeup Revolution, there are still ‘misses’ in their range – but I wouldn’t give anything I tried from Poundland a proper thumbs up, and I wouldn’t go back wanting to discover anything again. Whilst I say the extra expense, single eyeshadows and lipsticks are just £1, mascara from £1.50  and bronzer and foundation from £2 – you’d still get the same items for £7.50 – and I think there would be less disappointment.

Have you tried anything from the Poundland line?

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16 Comments

  1. August 4, 2015 / 8:11 am

    I would never even try a Poundland makeup item since I’d be so worried if anything would happen to my skin but I am glad you just went and did it and gave such an honest review. It always feels weird buying really cheap makeup (regardless of the brand) since we expect it to be of a certain price.

    • August 4, 2015 / 9:20 am

      No reactions for me, although my skin isn’t particularly sensitive. If I didn’t blog I would never have thought about picking these up! I’ve heard that the new Poundworld makeup range is actually surprisingly good, although I don’t have one near me to try and pick up some bits! But I agree, even though I have 3 or 4 palletes from Makeup Revolution, everytime I look at new ones for £4-6 I question how good they are going to be (even though I know all the ones I have are fab!) xxx

      • August 4, 2015 / 9:56 am

        Oh right! I really hope you try the new range soon since I am eager to know if that is any good.
        I feel the same! I recently bought the MUA undressed palette which I have blogged only a little about in my summer haul. I have done a few looks with it which I will post very soon and I love it so much. I can’t believe I was able to get two for £6! It makes me so happy how the drugstore quality has improved and the prices are so affordable.

  2. August 4, 2015 / 8:19 am

    I love the colour of that eyeshadow, shame it doesn’t last. I’ve always been tempted to pick up some of the items but then chicken out getting the branded items for £1, like L’oreal nail vanishes and Appocalips. Amazingly the hello kitty pigments are really good I have a purpley neutral hello kitty pigment that amazing. Oh

    Its a shame they were all a bit meh, I think MUA, Collection and Makeup Revolution have spoilt us with good quality budget items xxx

    • August 4, 2015 / 8:53 am

      Yes exactly – they are generally hits within those ranges so you can’t really fault them. I’ve heard that the pound world range is better than Than poundland but I’ve not got one near me to check it out! Xx

      • August 4, 2015 / 9:54 am

        I will take a look into poundworld as there is one nearish me 🙂 For now I’ll stick to Makeup Revolution etc. you occasionally get a miss but they are few and far between, they are also workable misses you can still make some use of the product 🙂 xx

  3. August 4, 2015 / 12:42 pm

    What’s important is, even if it’s cheap, it’s of good quality. Makeup artists don’t really rely on the name. They work with what works. 🙂 ✽_✽ ❤︎ laineyloveslife

  4. kim.colette (@kcolette_)
    August 4, 2015 / 5:47 pm

    so good to see reviews of unbranded products! thanks for trying these out so we don’t have to :’)
    also really want to try some makeup revolution products now! had never really looked into the brand before… x

    • August 4, 2015 / 5:52 pm

      It’s certainly worth checking them out – dupes for the naked and Lorac pro palettes at a fraction of the cost (I’ve got rid of my naked palette as I can’t tell the difference between the two!) ship internationally too depending on where you are 😊 x

  5. August 4, 2015 / 6:19 pm

    You’re braver than I! I would not try any dollar store no name makeup, especially anything cream based like foundation, mascara or lipstick! An eye shadow, I might.
    The results do look decent in the photograph but I bet it didn’t wear very well.

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