Remember when Collection 2000 was a crummy budget line that nobody but your granny used? OK maybe I’m being harsh, but there’s no denying that C2000 have turned their image right around in the last few years. Their colour range and packaging are now vying for Rimmel and Boots 17’s low-budget cheap-and-cheerful crown. They’ve revamped everything, with the exception of their cheap prices. And with times as they are, that’s a highly attractive strategy.

Their latest addition is Lasting Perfection, a range of foundations and concealers that claim to last through 16 hours of wear.The foundation comes in a surprisingly weighty and sturdy glass pump bottle, and the concealer is in a tube with a doe-foot wand. There are 6 foundation shades and 4 concealers. It’s a pretty narrow range of pale shades, but with a good spectrum of warm and cool casts within that selection. The foundation retails at 5.38, the concealer at 3.91, and for these prices I wasn’t expecting miracles.

But… I purchased the concealer, and so far I’ve been delighted with it. It has a creamy, easy to blend consistency and the wear is excellent, plenty of cover to get you through the working day and into the evening. I’d go out on a limb and say it’s comparable to MAC’s Select Moisturecover in consistency and coverage. I’m not much of a foundation wearer, but if the quality is similar I’ll definitely be picking up a bottle of the foundation for special occasions.

Verdict: Top marks for this outstanding bargain!

What’s more - you can currently win £700 worth of Collection 2000 products by entering the contest on their website

A while back, I ordered the Pixi Smoky Eye Beauty Kit online, from discounter Brand Alley. Or at least, I thought I did. It arrived this morning, looking smaller and much more purple than I had imagined.

There seem to be two products made by Pixi with the same name, both masquerading as a smoky eye palette. One is green, has a double ended brush sitting in the compact and 8 deep jewelled shades. That was the one I ordered. Voici:

Then there is a smaller purple one, the size of a credit card, which has 6 eye shades and two pans of primer/concealer. There is also a brush included, but no space for it inside the palette. That’s the one that turned up on my doorstep. Behold!

But, you know, a palette is a palette and maybe it’s good to save on some handbag real estate. The primers might be really great. So I decided to keep it and do a review.

First off, the colours:

There’s a matte black, a deep shimmery green, a shimmery plum (with a surprising and very dominant base colour of brick red), a cooler deep shimmer mauve, a shimmer royal blue, and a shimmer gunmetal/taupe colour.

There’s also the two-ended brush, which is wonderful quality. One side is a soft eyeshadow blender brush, and the other is a beautiful gentle push brush.

As the choice of brushes suggests, this palette can be used for full-on smoky eyes, or for statement eyeliner. I think I prefer the latter, and the royal blue in particular is an incredible eye-popping shade when worn this way. Some of the colours, particularly the brick red/plum, just look way too intense when applied all over the lid. The effect is less “smoulder” and more “bruise”. Or “insomnia”.

Despite lacklustre reviews on Makeup Alley, which I think are for the green palette, I found these shadows very pigmented with a decent staying power, especially when combined with the primer/concealer; I still can’t work out which it’s meant to be. It comes in two shades, which suggests concealer to me - presumably you blend the two together to match your skin? (Provided you are very pale and Caucasian that is, if not, tough, apparently.) It’s decent enough stuff, a little oily-feeling though. I wouldn’t trust it to hold a smoky eye in place solo, I’d want to draft in a more heavyweight primer like UDPP or Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

Overall, this is a sweet little pocket palette that would make a decent addition to your stash. However the fact that the included brush doesn’t fit in the palette makes its use pretty limited as an on-the-go product, unless you are very deft at applying and blending dark shadows with your fingers. Which is no easy task, especially on the top deck of a London bus. I can attest to that.

A few days ago I announced my intention to use and review some of the curly hair specific products gathering dust in my drawer. Summer’s a good time to do this, since walking around with naturally-drying wet hair doesn’t necessarily result in instant pneumonia and icicles hanging from one’s forelock.

So - Curls Rock Shampoo, Conditioner and Curl Amplifier. There are more products in the range (Curl Booster and Leave-in Moisturiser, I believe) but this trio is what I’ll be assessing for you today. Click through for a firm but fair appraisal - and a picture of my “rocked” curls.

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Barry M’s cool, kitsch mint green nail polish was a love at first sight thing for me. The colour brings to mind summer sundaes and sugary treats, but with a novel twist on the pinky-purply pastel norm. It set my sights on it when it was released a couple of months back. My covetousness was helped by the fact that it costs a mere £2.95, and that I got it as part of a 2 for £5 deal.

Application is a pretty average experience. The consistency is a little watery, although for this price, I’m not going to complain. With three coats, the colour achieves a satisfactorily opaque finish.

This is a shade that definitely needs a base coat - otherwise you risk a post-removal yellowy tint from the green dyes, and which looks anything but lovely. My solution is to put a coat of a pure white polish underneath. This protects your fingertips from staining and also adds a more opaque dimension, cutting down on the number of coats you need.

The end result is bright, but not garish, and pretty true to the shade you see in the bottle. Drying time is a bit of a drag - best to add a couple of coats of quick drying solution such as Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri topcoat over the finished nails.

Wear is good - I clocked up five days before I started seeing chips. Maybe due to the number of coats?

All in all, it’s a great shade at a great price, with watery consistency being the only let-down. I’m happy with it for now, but if a more expensive brand released this shade in a more creamy, opaque consistency, I’d definitely trade up.