The Guest Blogger: March (spring)

So, a new season, a new blog...hopefully I can give you, the teenage girls out there who need money saving alternatives; and easy application ideas; to get that fresh faced feel this spring.

As a fellow teenager, I know how tricky achieving that perfect median between ‘not looking like a ten year old wanna-be’ and ‘applying too much make-up like the girls on Towie’ can be. Therefore I have come up with a simple solution that has not only seen me through the changing seasons of nature and make-up, but also enabled me to apply enough make-up so I can still achieve the looks I see in the magazines- just without applying that much make-up and using Photoshop in the process…Don’t worry, I’m not going to be one of those people who go on a bit too much about stereotyping, but just a quick pointer: the people that you see aren’t really who they are in ‘real life’. But anyway, back to that solution I was telling you about- basically, what I do is look at a lot of pictures on Pinterest (if you haven’t got this, I highly recommend! I have my whole life planned on there, however sad that sounds…) and in fashion magazines such as Look- my personal favourite- every time I see a make-up look that makes me think “I want to copy that”, I use my brain to its full advantage: instead of being all ‘sciency’ and thinking logically, I just think of alternative ways I can re-create this look on myself, by using the products I already have. Easy, right? But, if you’re in a situation when you really don’t have any products that could possibly complement each other to look like a personalised version of what you see, you may have to go to the last resort; plan B- go shopping.

Not like shopping is a bad thing (if you absolutely loath shopping, I don’t suggest you read on), as I have been in this situation many times myself, and has always felt nervous every time I hand those golden coins of vanity over to the impatient cashier across the life or death boundary, that is, the till. But I sincerely recommend not shopping for make-up online, unless you a) have already tried the product in a store, or b) your mum has a discount card that can only be used on the website…so instead, take a trip down town (hopefully not to prison though, shop lifting is not part of the solution) and test out some products in Boots, Superdrug or even House of Fraser so you can find the product you have really been longing for. However, there’s always that possibility, a very likely possibility, that you will purchase more than you went in for, as all will power during those deciding seconds of “Do I go for the 3 for 2, or 50% off?” goes completely out the window. So, if you can hold on for a few days, weeks, or months (worse-case scenario) whilst you wait for the big bucks of a few pounds to roll into your purse, I recommend doing a spring make-up haul to spruce up your cosmetic collection. And I think you should look out for a few of these essentials, which I wouldn’t even miss:

Garnier BB Cream Special Combination to Oily skin (£9.99) 

Maybelline Dream Terra Sun (£6.49)

Illamasqua Gleam Cream in Aurora (£20)

Rimmel London Brow This Way Eye-Brow gel (£3.99)

Urban Decay Eye shadow Primer Potion in Original (£16)

Naked 2 Palette (£37)

MAC Sized to Go False Lashes in Black (£10)

Eyeko Eye-Do Liquid Eyeliner in Brown (£15)

Autograph Ultra-Rich Colour Twist-Up Lipstick in Pink Parfait (£9.50)