I’ll be frank with you - there is no stone I leave unturned when I’m looking for a bargain, and never more so than when it’s a bargain of a beauty-product nature. I was thirsty the other day, and rather than pay £1 for a bottle of Evian, I nipped into nearby LIDL to get a 19p no-name-brand spring water instead. And while I was there, I thought I’d see if they had any beauty items worth nabbing.

Lo and behold, I found 400ml bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner at just £1.45 each. They had a mixture of new and old versions, so I picked up the “2nd gen” conditioner in “Hello Hydration” (that’s the blue coconutty one), and for old times’s sake, a bottle of the old pink rose-scented “Silk’n'Shine” shampoo.

A journey back in time was soon to commence…

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Whew - welcome to the new domain. I’ve been so busy fiddling with it I almost forgot to post. I think I thought I was a web designer. A really really bad web designer.

So - The mighty Primark, “cheap and cheerful” as my mum calls it. Maybe not so cheerful if you’ve been keeping up with media coverage. (Worker exploitation and child labour allegations. A big problem, by no means exclusive to Primark, the whole high street is full of unethically sourced clothing. But I’m here to talk about the makeup today.)

Primark has stocked a line of makeup called “Opia” for a few years now. It’s very cheap, naturally. It’s not the greatest quality, but there are a lot of colours available so it’s probably an attractive option for teens and the budget-conscious. They also have some bath and body products with packaging that’s very similar to the infinitely-more-lovely (and more expensive) Philosophy range.

Now it seems, Penneys (Primark’s parent company) are driving further into the cosmetic market with a new range of funky-looking slap bearing a kind of 50s pop-art theme reminiscent of Benefit’s look and feel.

There’s concealer, eyeshadow, liner, mascara, blush, compacts and lipgloss, all with a kind of Lichtenstein look to them. They have cute tongue-in-cheek names too, like many of the expensive cult brands.

I got as far as the till with a handsome looking “9 and a half winks” black mascara, before checking the product information on the back. There’s something missing - and it’s a line that goes something like “Product and ingredient not testing on animals”.

If that information is missing from the product information, it’s probably because animal testing has gone on. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t want to risk it. I put the mascara back. It was £2.

They did have some nice handbag-sized mirrors though, which (unless I’m missing something) are pretty certain to be cruelty free.

EDIT - I’ve done a little research on Beautiful Colour Cosmetics there, and found the policy documents of Swallowfield, who produce the range. There’s a clause in their Ethical Policy - well, here:
“b) There must not be any testing or commissioning of tests of finished products or raw
materials on animals.”

So it seems they don’t test the products or the ingredients on animals after all, which is a happy result. Still, glad I checked!

Stila’s recent brush with death has led to a lot of bargains appearing online. It’s like when Pout went kaput, only with a happy ending. Aww. Whatever the story, the quality of the items is undisputed, so it’s definitely worth keeping your weather eye out for Stila treasure.

Today, BeautySpot Cosmetics have a limited number of Stila cheek colour pans on sale. They are being offered at the extraordinary price of £2.95 each. AND - if you buy 4 or more, you get a free silver 4-pan palette to house them in.

There are only a handful in stock, so get there quick to avoid disappointment!

Apologies for the break in posting guys. Here’s a brief update with some breaking news. It’s not strictly beauty related but I reckon you might be interested. Instore tomorrow and until the end of this week, Marks and Spencer will be staging their 125th anniversary celebrations with a remarkable promotion. It’s called “Penny Bazaar”, in homage to their roots as a penny-goods stall. As the name suggests - goods for a penny.

For three days only, you can pick up items for just 1p each from the special anniversary display. Sadly we’re not talking dresses, coats and bottles of champagne, but there are some sweet-looking items on the list including jewellery sets, knickers, luggage tags and men’s ties. Customers will be limited to 5 items each, and I believe they’re expecting some mighty queues and throngs! Stake out your store early and you’ll also receive entry into a prize draw to win £12,500.

“This is money” has the full list of goods. Marks and Sparks haven’t publicised this on their site, but an email announcement went out this evening to their mailing list.