Simone Gannon: Six good beauty buys under €25
There has never been a better time for budget beauty . Some of the best formulations I’ve tried in recent years have also been among the most affordable, and I love nothing more than discovering an excellent product that doesn’t cost a small fortune. These are the latest budget beauty launches that have caught my eye. Each one is €25 or (significantly) less. Hildun Beauty Power Precision Peptide Mascara First up is one of our own. Hildun Beauty has launched its first mascara and, according to founder Suzy Griffin Dunne, it’s been several years in the making because she wanted to get it exactly right. Available in two shades, Noir, an intense black, and Pecan, a rich brown. Power Precision Peptide Mascara (€25 from hildunbeauty.com) has a unique curved wand that grabs every single lash from the root – no clumping or flaking in sight. It’s also formulated with peptides to strengthen and condition the lashes and, importantly for me, comes off easily with warm water. Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation I’ve always had time for Rimmel foundations and remember using them fondly when I was younger. For me, they struck that perfect balance between affordability and a genuinely good formulation. Match Perfection Foundation (€13.49 from Boots) has been around for a while and it’s a goody, but now it’s even better. The brand has just launched a new and improved version with an expanded shade range, aloe vera to help hydrate and soothe the skin, and SPF20 – all while delivering lightweight medium coverage and a softly blurred finish. It’s still very much a budget buy, too. The Ordinary Lacto-PDRN 4% + B9 Lifting and Tightening Eye Cream PDRN (a DNA-derived ingredient extracted from salmon sperm) has been absolutely everywhere in skincare recently. But The Ordinary being The Ordinary, it has managed to bring this much-discussed ingredient into the budget category, albeit by using a vegan alternative. Its new Lacto-PDRN 4% + B9 Lifting and Tightening Eye Cream (€10.20 from Space NK) is designed to target firmness and dehydration and help improve the appearance of fine lines around the eye area. It’s a pleasure to use too. Rhode Pocket Pearl Blush Rhode Pocket Blush has been a bestseller since it launched a couple of years ago, and now the brand has shrunk it and added shimmer in collaboration with Alexandra Leclerc. Pocket Pearl (€21 from rhodeskin.com) comes in three miniature, metallic shades: Gemini, a shimmery baby pink; Monaco, a rich shimmery terracotta; and Monet, a caramel-hued shimmery apricot. They’re extremely cute, and at €21 each I can see them disappearing into handbags everywhere. Kash Beauty eyeshadow palettes Yet another considered launch from home-grown brand Kash Beauty. A collection of four new eyeshadow palettes with shades you’ll actually use. There’s Baked Basics, Pearl Veil, Golden Heat and Moon Dusk, with a mix of rich mattes and shimmers in each. As ever, the colour payoff is excellent, the shades are creamy, beautifully pigmented, easy to blend and long wearing. And at €22 a palette, they’re an absolute bargain. LanaiBlo Professional Hairbrush Collection An arguably obvious next step for LanaiBlo, known for its phenomenal professional-level hairdryers, was to launch its own range of styling brushes – and it has done exactly that. The Professional Hairbrush Collection (from €22.99 from lanaiblo.com) encompasses three styling brushes – small, medium and large – each with a flexible shape and ceramic-coated barrel to give you control, versatility and even heat distribution – helping you achieve the style you want and hold it in place for longer. Better yet, each one is priced between €23 and €25. This week I’m reading ... Flawless by Dr Sam Bunting Straightforward, no-nonsense advice and tips from one of the most straight-talking skin experts in the industry, Flawless by Dr Sam Bunting (€26 from Amazon) is, as she says herself, “not a book about doing more. It’s a book about doing the right things”. That means the right ingredients, the right concentrations and, most importantly, how to figure out exactly what your skin needs and build an individual routine around it.