WHAT? WATT BROTHERS?

Yeah, Watt Brothers. They have make-up and skin-care and hair products and rain-coats and plates!
But I'm just interested in the make-up today (more on plates later...)

So I decided to hit my local Watt Brothers because on a previous trip I noticed they had Stila make-up which I thought was pretty great. Unfortunately there wasn't any there this time but there was a lot more premium branded products than I remember.

First of all I was quite surprised that there was Calvin Klein make-up, because finding designer brands in shops like Watt Brothers is very suspect. My only conclusion is it's there because no-one else wanted it. Which usually means it's not going to be very good. So I decided this would be a good opportunity to see if this was true or not.

I didn't want to try any of the face make-up because I decided this would be a waste of money, I don't like trying to find skin-matching colours and prefer to let a professional at a make-up counter do this.

I went for two nail-polishes, a candy pink colour called hint of pink and a a dark, shimmery red/black called Opus.

I showed this to my mum, she says it's childish. The woman tells it how it is. I have to agree, some people can pull this off in a quirky way but even if I could I don't want to wear it.

OOOH I loved this one. I am very impressed indeed. It left beautiful little black veins and it is such a vampy colour it's really perfect for winter. When I first applied it, it was really watery and looked kind of brown and you couldn't see of the shimmer I was disappointed. But I carried on and after a bad start it actually only took three coats to achieve what's in the picture. The pink colour took two.
My biggest grievance is how long it took to dry. Three hours later I managed to peel off all of Opus but I like it so much I'll be keeping my fingers in freezing cold water in between each coat next time, I don't mind doing the leg work for something that looks good.


The next branded product was a Revlon Beyond Natural Cream to Powder Eye Shadow in Prune.

I knew instantly that this probably wouldn't suit me as the colours seem a bit orangey which just doesn't suit my red face.

They do have a really nice shimmer though, but I didn't really notice the cream turning to powder on application, it just seemed to stay creamy, which is fine for me, I prefer that.

Bottom to Top: samples from palette clockwise, starting from top-right

I thought the palette was OK, I quite liked the bottom and top left colours, actually I really liked the top left colour it was much less golden and warm than I expected it to be and more an ivory sort of colour on the skin.

On the back of the palette it gives directions on what to use each colour for and where to apply.

Next there was a brand I'd never heard of, Wet n Wild, beautybenefits, BeautyBrilliance blush in plum. I know that for red faces like mine that you should use a blue toned blusher and this Plum colour has almost lilac undertones.

When I opened this I was really surprised it came with a brush and a mirror, pretty good of them and I only paid £1.99 for this!

When I first saw this I thought it was maybe like an own brand or something made specifically for Watt Brothers but it turns out it isn't. So, if you're on a budget you should really check out Wet n Wild. I'm actually certain you'll find something you like and it also apparently boosts hydration and has a powerful age prevention formula so it has it all for someone who's a bit tight on money.

This primer by technic is another brand I thought was Watt Brother's. But nope, although they don't seem to have a website. OH and does it look veeeerrryyy familiar??

Benefit's 'That Gal'.

I actually thought that it was benefit products at first and got very excited. Until I inspected further and realised that the product I was viewing was not called High Beam but 'Light Beam'.
I wonder if Benefit were angry or even know of this?

Well anyway, I did not like this at all. I've used several primers and this did not have the same texture or effect as any of them. I have never used 'That Gal' before but I don't think this is anything like it because it was such poor quality. It didn't make my skin appear nice and soft, it didn't even feel soft. And after several hand-washes I was still really glittery. Not good.

I think a few of these are pretty good to be honest, I paid less than £15 for the lot. However, I do know that most of it I won't be wearing because I own things that suit me better but sometimes you can really find something great in these types of shops. The one thing I will be keeping and I think wearing quite regularly is the Opus nail polish and the rest I'd really like to give away sometime.

What do you think? Have you bought this sort of make-up before? Is there any small brands that I absolutely need to try?

Have a nice night!