Four Top Quality & Affordable Makeup Brands in South Africa

Recently, I seem to be drawn more and more to store brand beauty and makeup products and I'm beginning to realize with each day how misguided we are in terms of the make of products that we keep in our private collections. Most makeup artists and even prospective clients turn their noses down at anything other than Mac and Kryolan....myself included. Truthfully speaking, in the past few years, I would not have even considered swatching ANY other brand except Mac. After spending thousands of rands on brand named items, I became a lot more disillusioned in my beliefs as I encountered items that did not meet my expectations and which left me totally disappointed and regretful that I had spent so much on them only for it to be tossed at the back of my drawer never to be used again:(

Now I get an unusual high when I get 2, 3 or even 4 products for the price of what I would normally pay for just 1.

Here is a list of store brand makeup or beauty products that you should seriously consider experiencing. It's definitely worth the try... Being a once upon a time self confessed, die hard Mac fan, I can safely state that the products that I have tried and liked are comparable in every way...quality, duration of wear, pigmentation, texture and application.

My 4 top favorite affordable, quality makeup brands in SA.

The first brand that makes my list is:

Essence Cosmetics

I love the fact that the Essence range is extensive and well thought of it includes everything that you
would ever need- from eyebrow stencil kits to trios and quad eyeshadow palettes. Whatever I have
tried thus far has exceeded my expectations and I honestly cannot figure out how this awesome brand had escaped my makeup radar. They can be purchased at Clicks and The Hub stores.

WOW Cosmetics

Super, super cheap range of quality products catering for all ages and skin types. Here again, the range extends from makeup brushes to eyeliner stickers and ANYTHING else in-between. Am LOVING the range of lipsticks(have 19 colors out of the 30 some odd shades in the moisture range). The gel liners are TO DIE for. I have just placed an order for 12 of their single eyeshadows. Oh, and did I mention their range of eyelashes??? Need I say more??? I didn't think so....! WOW cosmetics is available in Durban only through private agents at the moment. There possibly are a few pharmacies that stock them but I am not really aware of which ones.

NYX

A brand boasting an extensive range of makeup goodies as well. The color range of their eyeshadows and lipsticks are endless and what I especially like about this brand is that they are often introducing combo editions that keeps their fans waiting and guessing. They are a little higher priced than Essence and WOW cosmetics....with good reason I suppose. There are a lot of NYX eyeshadows whose colors very closely resemble Mac eyeshadow shades so if you are finding that Mac is not within your budget range, check out our Mac/NYX dupes. Their quality also is something worth raving about. The only place that I have seen NYX products is at Clicks.

Catrice Cosmetics

I have very recently discovered Catrice whilst browsing through a local Hub store. I am simply taken by their eyeshadows and they are priced from R39 for 2gr of product. I was very attracted to the
texture and pigmentation of their products and will be posting reviews of my purchases in a few days. Their prices are so reasonable that you can have the luxury of experimenting with many of their products without feeling guilty. Catrice is a 'sister brand' to Essence cosmetics and are available at Clicks and selected Hub and Dischem Pharmacies.

So far, these are my 4 favorites that top my list and I'm hoping to add more along the way. If you know of other worthy products, give me a shout out so we can share them with the rest....

Review: NYX Jumbo Pencils

I am generally not the type of person who buys makeup on a whim or without constraint. If its a color that is missing from my collection or if its a real deal and I find the color attractive, I may spend but not without the 'should I, shouldn't I?'...lol. But that doesn't mean that I have never splurged on makeup in a moment of weakness. Having been an ex e-bay shopaholic, I had once made a purchase of ALL the NYX jumbo pencils after watching many makeup gurus using them. I made a bit of use with the pencil in Milk but the rest was tossed away at the back of my draw and was soon forgotten. After doing the review on the NYX eyeshadows, I decided to dig up these long forgotten babies from their hibernation and give them a chance to impress me once more.

I have mentioned previously that I am a die hard Mac fanatic, and anything not Mac always slipped under my beauty radar. Having said that, I also realized that not all products in a brand range will be definite hits....u will get a few misses amongst them, be it Mac or be it Rimmel. I also learned that if you give a product a chance, you are sure to find items that are worth much more than what you've paid for them and which you will find yourself really treasuring. One of those products are the Essence range of Long Wear cream eyeshadows that I've reviewed recently and another is the NYX makeup range.

I have swatched my long lost beauty budget friends and the results were quite pleasing. Check out which ones were a hit for me and which I would give a miss....

Pros

After swatching all of the colors that I own, there are a few colors that I would definitely be making more use of. I found that they were astonishingly pigmented and the texture of the pencils were creamy and very blend-able. They were easy to apply with no tugging and pulling of the skin like most shadesticks or pencil eyeshadows. It is soft and glides evenly without much pressure. Most of the colors had a radiant shimmer to them especially the darker shades. For me, the big plus is that it doubles as a sticky base when you need something for your eyeshadow to grab onto. Also, if you have a very sheer shadow which is not well pigmented and you want to deepen the color, these will be an excellent buy. I found whilst washing it off in between swatching that it did not come off easily with water and soap and that I needed a cotton wool ball soaked in hand wash with a pressured rub to wash them off. For me that's a quality we all want in an eyeshadow or base. 

Cons 

The only problem I foresee with these is that creasing is a possibility especially if you have very oily eyelids. I for one would not want to wear it as an eyeshadow on its own but for those that donot have a problem with oily lids and creasing, it provides a foolproof application and may be a good buy for those mornings where time is of the essence and you need a quick slap of color on your lid. Some of the lighter colors applied were very sheer and looked somewhat blotchy- so watch out for that if you intend buying one of the light, pastel shades. To overcome the problem of creasing, make sure you blend it out well try not to apply it past the lid crease. The other problem I foresee is sharpening the pencil. I would suggest placing it in the fridge for a few minutes to harden before sharpening to prevent it from breaking. 

Overall for me, this is a win . The colors that I loved were Horse Raddish, Pacific, Bronze, Baby Blue, Black Bean, Milk, Gold, Rust and Hot Pink.