Can a £4.50 lippie from Asda ever be as good as your favourite pricey brand?
Would you buy your blusher along with your bananas? From budget homeware to catwalk- inspired accessories and wardrobe basics, supermarkets have long been branching out to make your weekly visit a one-stop-shop for everything you need.
But now they are hoping shoppers will go one step further — swapping their l’oreal compacts and Mac mascaras for own-brand make-up.
last month Asda became the latest supermarket to launch a new and sizeable — 156 products — range of cosmetics, hot on the heels of rivals Sainsbury’s and Aldi, which have also launched new collections in the last year.
Britain’s biggest retailers are betting that today’s savvy shopper demands of her moisturiser only the same as she does of her milk: great quality at an affordable price.
The question is whether supermarket slap is any good? We waded through hundreds of powders and lipsticks to determine whether these bargain products can hold their own against the beauty behemoths we know and love. The results may surprise you . . .
Asda: George Cosmetics
Price range £2-£6 FeATuring everything from foundations to contour sticks and liquid lipsticks, the collection has apparently been ‘benchmarked against some of the best brands in the market, while avoiding unnecessarily high prices.’
The packaging hits all the right notes — matte black, reminiscent of the rather more expensive MAC compacts, with rose-gold accents similar to high- end brand Charlotte Tilbury.
The colours and textures are designed to appeal to all ages and scare no one. You won’t find extreme shades or intense pigments here. it’s make-up for women who aren’t bothered about heavy coverage, but like a flattering glow.
Snap up: The Blush Queen Blushers (£3.50) have good colour pigmentation and melt into skin; the Smoky rose shade will make anyone look healthier in the flick of a brush.
The gel effect nail Polishes (£3) are another steal. They come in a variety of shades (try nocturnal, a rich burgundy) and are no less hardy than your High Street favourites.
Avoid: At £2, they may be cheaper than a deep-pan pizza, but the colour pay-off of the eyeshadows is a little underwhelming. ditto the illuminate under-eye Concealer (£4.50). it’s so sheer it won’t tackle more than a radiant 16-year-old’s ‘dark’ circles. Brownie points for the hydrating texture and brightening sheen, though.
Sainsbury’s: Boutique Cosmetics
Price range £2-£8 deSigned as a capsule make-up collection, the range includes lipstick, powder and nail polish, but no ‘trend’ items such as contouring powders. Sainsbury’s enlisted the help of two make-up artists to ensure ‘long-lasting formulations, high pigmentation and easy application’. And they’ve succeeded: the quality and shade range are comparable to High Street staples such as Maybelline and Max Factor.
Snap up: i’m not usually a fan of huge mascara wands because they stop you seeing what you’re doing, but the Speaks Volumes Mascara (£7) has a big-lash formula and staying power that makes the fiddly application worth it.
Avoid: Again, the eyeshadows (£4) are somewhat unimpressive compared with the melting powder textures that are offered by existing budget make- up brands such as Barry M (sold in Boots and Superdrug).
Aldi: Lacura make-up and skincare
Price range £1.69-£7.99 CASHing in on the vogue for limited- edition, sold- out and waiting-list everything, lacura make-up comes as a ‘Special Buy’ collection that’s only around until the stock has gone.
The most recent release boasts colour- correcting sticks and BB creams. Both the skincare and make-up ranges are inspired by high- end or High Street best- sellers, from l’oreal Paris to la Prairie.
Snap up: The Cushion lip glosses, £2.99, deliver some serious staying power and opaque colour. They come in three neutral shades that hark back to the early-nineties supermodel era.
in the skincare range, i’d plump for the nivea tribute act Q10 collection rather than the la Prairie-lookalike Caviar creams. it has active ingredients including co- enzyme Q10 (an antioxidant the body uses for growth and maintenance) and the day cream provides a subtle golden glow.
Caviar products are £5 more expensive than the Q10 range, but their impressive-sounding caviar extract isn’t a proven or reliable anti-ageing ingredient.
Avoid: The Mineral Powder and Brush (£3.79), a powder foundation which has more talc than mineral powders. The brush is scratchy and the container too small, resulting in more tinted powder on my jeans than my face.
Tesco: Cosmeticderm and Scosmetics Oil Control skincare
Price range £2.50-£7 THe name and design of Cosmeticderm products imply a doctor- led brand. But it would be impossible to develop medical-grade anti-ageing formulas at these prices. instead, this is good-quality, calming and soothing skincare using ingredients including niacinamide (a soothing B vitamin) that tackle dryness, redness, or angry skin. There’s also a welcome absence of cheap and redundant fillers like mineral oils and alcohol.
The big letdown is the fragrance. All the products smell of washingpowder — and perfume, as far as i’m concerned, has no place in skincare as it’s one of the biggest irritants for sensitive skin. The Scosmetics oil Control has the same problem with fragrance, but is non-stripping and non-drying, with sophisticated oil-fighting, pore- refining and hydrating agents. Top value for oily skins.
Snap up: The Scosmetics Face Scrub oily Skin (£2.50) is only lightly scented and, more importantly, it’s plastic microbead-free.
Avoid: if you’re sensitive to fragrance, Cosmeticderm Hydrasensitive Face Cream (£ 7) is a misnomer.
Lidl: Cien skincare
Price range £0.59-£3.69 THe Cien skincare range features a variety of products — from face wipes to hand cream. But the big sellers in the line-up are the three ranges of face cream — Q10 antiwrinkle, Cien Vital and Cien gold. All three are decent moisturisers — just don’t expect dramatic improvements in signs of ageing, especially when all claim to offer uV protection but refuse to declare their SPF level, and whether it is broad- spectrum. Major points docked for that.
like Aldi, the basic day and night creams (Q10 anti-wrinkle) bear a striking resemblance to nivea. At £1.69 to nivea’s £9.99, lidl’s offering is far cheaper, but it contains more perfume than it does anti-ageing ingredient coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10).
Snap up: Vital regenerating night Cream (£1.69) is aimed at the over-45s and contains a decent amount of CoQ10.
Avoid: gold Cell regenerating day Cream (£3.69) is the most expensive product in the range because of the addition of a smidgen of colloidal gold (tiny particles suspended in liquid). Sounds glamorous — but, as yet, there is no proof that gold does anything whatsoever for skin.
Waitrose: Pure skincare
Price range £2-£5 Pure jumps on the clean-andgentle bandwagon with a range free from all the most contested skincare ingredients, such as sulphates, mineral oil, parabens, and irritants such as fragrance and colourants. The products have impressive levels of plant oils and active extracts and textures are nourishing but light.
This is the kind of skincare that, if used consistently from your teens, will keep you looking great for your age. in fact, i’d happily use any of this for maintaining skin health. if you’re suffering from sensitive skin or redness, i’m sure a few weeks use of a Pure cleanser and serum would make a significant difference.
Snap up: The Hot Cloth Cleanser (£5) is a lovely alternative to liz earle’s beloved Cleanse & Polish (which is three times the price).
Avoid: The Comforting Serum (£5) is perfectly good — but if you expect a gel, which is the standard texture for serum, you may be confounded by this light cream.