Hi everyone,
I’m very excited to write my first post here and my first review, with hopefully many more to come. Please see my About page to find out a bit more about myself and the blog 
Last week my blusher that lasted me nearly two years ran out, so I decided the time has come to start picking up a few different shades and start experimenting. I also happened to need a new mascara this week, but being the end of the month I didn’t exactly have a big budget. I saw Rimmel had a 3 for 2 offer in Superdrug so bought their Volume Flash X10 Extreme Black mascara, which is on the cheaper end of their mascara range at £5.99 (I was previously using Collection 2000′s Does It All 5-in-1 mascara which I absolutely loved, but it didn’t last very long and they didn’t have a good selection of blushes). I also picked up their Lasting Finish Soft Colour Blush in 010 Santa Rose and 050 Live Pink. My sister helped me pick out my first blush but this time I was on my own, so I chose the colours by purely guessing which ones would suit my fair skin.
Volume Flash mascara claims to give you up to ten times more volume instantly. The first thing I noticed when I opened the it was that too much product came out on the wand for me, so I had to wipe as much as I could off on the inside of the tube. The wand consists of simple bristles all the way round like a pipe cleaner, but they are very soft so I found it hard to get between the lashes. As a result my lashes stuck together a LOT, even after wiping the excess product off, but there wasn’t too many clumps considering how much of the product came out. I assume this is because the bristles on the wand are so fine and the product is quite thick that the mascara gets stuck between the fibres so you can’t manipulate or separate the lashes properly. However, a massive plus for me was the colour – I know all black mascaras are essentially the same colour, but maybe because of how much mascara is in the brush as you use it, it really did seem extra black and it looked great and widened my eyes without wearing eyeliner or eyeshadow. 
I’m not a fan of spidery lashes so I don’t really like the look of the mascara up close, but it really stands out from further away. I have fairly small eyes so always wear liquid eyeliner but I was really pleased with how it looked on it’s own. I’d say this is more of a lengthening mascara, as because my lashes couldn’t separate I couldn’t get a sense of the volume! Compared to some other mascaras it does give more length rather than making lashes look fuller. I’m hoping that when the product dries out a bit it might be easier to use, but overall I think the cheap wand lets this mascara down.
My blushes on the other hand I LOVE, and will definitely be trying more! They are £3.99 each at Superdrug at the moment, and as they were in the 3 for 2 offer I got one for free – result! Firstly, I love the design of these products with the union jack pressed into the powder and their crown logo in the plastic on top. At first I thought they were a bit small but after trying them there is no problem getting the powder evenly on my brush and I think it’s great that they don’t take up much room in my make up bag. The packaging is pretty sturdy apart from the clear plastic on top, which feels like it could break if you sat/stood on it by accident so be careful where you leave them. But for that price you can’t really complain anyway. In the picture below, Live Pink is on the left, and Santa Rose on the right.
Santa Rose was the first colour that stood out for me as I normally use beige coloured foundation and it looked like a warm, natural colour that would match it well and also look nice with a tan! The colour is quite hard to describe, I’d say mainly peach but with a hint of pale rose pink, but it could also pass for coral/peach if wearing a bronzed look. It’s also not completely matte and has teeny tiny glitter particles in it, so it doesn’t look glittery on, just slightly glowy. I’d say it’s medium/high pigmented as you only need a tiny dab on the brush and I only needed a quarter of what I put on compared to my old one, but it blends in easily on top of my foundation and stays on brilliantly the whole day. 10/10!
Bright pink blushes have always looked scarily bright to me but I’ve seen plenty of tutorials where it comes out looking much more natural on skin. Live Pink is a good colour for an evening look but is not so bright that you couldn’t wear it in the day either. As you can see it also has a subtle glitter to it which isn’t noticeable when it’s on. This one again has great pigmentation and is really easy to blend. Like Santa Rose it stayed on all day, and as I caught glimpses of myself in mirrors all day I realised I’d been converted to pink blush!
I don’t have many Rimmel products so which ones would you recommend?
Wearing Live Pink blush with Volume Flash Mascara