Hello you beauties!

Today I am bringing you a Top 10 for under £10 post, which is great if you're on a budget. There are many products that I own that are under £10 so this post is going to be difficult for me, but I am sure I can give you some really great recommendations!

1. Make-Up Revolution Flawless Eyeshadow Palette (£8)
    I swear by this palette. You get 32 shades for only £8, which means you can create a massive variety of looks with just the one palette. This is going to last ages and this is why I think it is great value for money.

2. Maybelline Master Brow Pro Palette Kit (£6.99)
    Until just recently, I have never really been bothered about my eyebrows. But then I started to care, and I used pencils. I really struggled with those, so when I found this palette, I was keen to try it. It's great value for money, easy to use and I would really recommend it.

3. Rimmel London Stay Matte Finishing Pressed Powder (£3.99)
    I think anyone interested in beauty understands the importance of using a good finishing powder, but sometimes it's hard to find one. I used to use a loose powder from the brand Natural Collection (RRP. £1.99) but honestly, I have never really had much luck with this brand's products. So I found this Rimmel London one, and I actually love it! I use the shade 'Transparent' because I personally find it to be the safest, and it definitely does it's job. I would definitely recommend this product, and I know a lot of other people would too.

4. Nivea Daily Essentials Regenerating Night Cream (£4.35)
    After taking my makeup off at night, I always find that my skin feels too dry. So I've been searching for the perfect night cream, that is also affordable. From my previous posts, and future posts to come, you will notice that I absolutely love Nivea products so when I found this night cream, I thought I would give it a try. This is the closest I have found to perfection so far, and I would recommend that you all try it too.

5. Zoella Candy Cream Softening Body Lotion (£5)
    I am a sucker for body lotions. You all should know I love scented products, and Zoella's products have always managed to impress me with the amazing scents. I bought this alongside the Zoella Scrubbing Me Softly Body Scrub (RRP. £7) and the scents work perfectly together, and leave your skin feeling amazingly soft. However, this is from her Tutti Fruity range, which will be discontinued soon, so buy it while you can! I will be stocking up very soon.

6. Nivea Daily Essentials Extra Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover (£3.49)
    I have to admit that I am guilty of using wipes to remove my make-up, and I know I shouldn't but sometimes I am lazy! So when I saw this eye make-up remover for such a low price, I thought I would buy it to try it. And it is amazing! It is so easy to use, and so quick to use too! It causes no irritation and has no annoying scent to it.

7. Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara (£7.99)
    I am extremely fussy with mascaras. I always find they do not add enough volume, or they clump too much. However, I have always been very impressed with Maybelline products, especially their mascaras and brow products, so I was keen to give this mascara a try, especially hearing all the good things said about this mascara from other people (such as Zoe Sugg). It does add volume - it really makes your eyelashes stand out and hardly ever clumps. While it is not a perfect mascara, it is great if you want a decent product without breaking your bank.

8. Rimmel London Lasting Colour Colour Rush Intense Colour Balm (£5.99)
    I always find that Rimmel London make-up is so hit and miss. There are products that I love (such as their foundation and pressed powder) but so many more products that I hate (such as their mascaras). I cannot remember why I decided to buy 4 of these colour balms, but I did and they're actually pretty good. They apply well, and the colour stays for ages. When it says intense, it really does mean intense! The colours that I own are way too bright and 'out there' for an everyday look but I have saved these colour balms to use on special occasions/nights out.

9. Nivea Daily Essentials Hydration Primer (£4.99)
   Everyone knows the importance of a good base for your make-up. Again, this is a Nivea product so I knew when I bought it that it'd probably be impressed. And I am impressed. Not only does this primer create a brilliant base for make-up (even better if applied over a spritz of setting spray), it also moisturisers your skin, so there is no chance you will be left with the feeling of dry skin once applying your foundation. I would definitely recommend this product.

10. The Body Shop Born Lippy Pot Lip Balm (£2)
      The Body Shop is one of my favourite stores ever. I received my first one of these products as a gift alongside miniature body wash and body lotion (all in the satsuma scent) and since then have purchased one for myself. The pots offer a generous amount of product, and the scent is very strong yet not too overpowering. In the pot, they're coloured with links to the scent (e.g. the satsuma one is an orange colour and the strawberry is a reddish colour). I love these lip balms and for such a cheap price (and they're usually on a 3 for 2 offer), they're something you cannot say no to!

So that was my top 10 for under £10 post! If you want any posts like this in the future then let me know, specifying exactly what you want and I will try my best to sort it out for you.

Thank you!!!

Hello you beauties!

I am back again with another haul for you all, and this time it is an Avon haul! Now, I haven't bought any products from Avon for years, so when I was offered the opportunity to, I had a look in the catalogue straight away. Over £30 later, here I am bringing you this possibly long haul!

First things first I treated myself to a cute little silver ring with an 'L' on it (for 'Lauren' which is my name if you do not know), which wraps itself around your finger with a little heart at the bottom. It's so lovely and fits perfectly and for only £3, I was happy to buy it.

I then purchased the 'Planet Spa Sleep Serenity Pillow Mist' in the scent Camomile and Lavender. I have been searching for a product like this for months, and was so happy when I finally found one for only £2.25 for 100ml. This really does help to relax me, and I feel like I have slept loads better since I started to use this spray.

The next product is a nail art pen-like item. I have never really been adventurous with my nail colours, usually just sticking to one block colour. So when I saw this for only £1.50 I thought I would buy one to try new things out. I am looking forward to finding the time and patience to create amazing patterns on my nails!

I then bought an eyeshadow pencil in the shade 'Flipping out pink', which cost only £4. I decided to buy this as I've heard many great things about eyeshadow pencils and I thought this colour would be great to use as a highlighter on the inside corners of my eyes.

Next, I bought 3 eyeliners, which they called 'Glimmerstick Flick Eyeliners'. I bought these in the shades 'Ebony' (a black), 'Hazel' (a brown), and 'Mulberry' (a purple) for £3 each. I don't use eyeliners a lot, as I find them fiddly and time consuming to use, but I genuinely think I will find these easier to use and in such great colours, I can create any look, thin and thick lines galore!

I then bought an 'Ultra Colour Lipstick' in the shade 'Pout' for only £4. This is a great nude shade and is highly pigmented. I have been able to use this with a variety of outfits/looks. I also bought the 'Ulta Glazewear Lip Gloss' in the shade 'clear' just to put on top of my lipsticks for added gloss/shine, and this only cost me £3.50.

Finally, I bought the 'Big and Multiplied Volume Mascara' which cost me £5.50. This promises to 'fan' out your lashes and therefore make them look even more full and volumious than ever, and therefore suggesting you will have no problems with clumping. This product is not as good as I expected, but it is definitely worth the money I spent and is better than a lot of mascaras I have used before.

And that's it! The end of my Avon haul. Not as long as the previous haul, despite the fact that I did buy quite a lot in this haul!

Can you believe it is almost the end of May!? Just one more blog post after this and then we'll be in June. June 1st, to be exact, I will be posting my May monthly favourites, which is not only the 1st of the month, but also a regular uploading Wednesday. 

I will be back in a few days with another post for you all.

Thank you!!

Hello you beauties!

Well, you'll never guess what I've been up to... I've been out shopping again! But this time I actually went into the shops rather than looking online and I honestly love this experience sometimes - it's often just so satisfying walking out of the shop carrying a bag full of products you treated yourself to with your hard earned cash!

So this may seem a lot - hence the title - but I did buy this all over a couple of weeks, not just in one day!

First I went into Tiger, which is honestly now my favourite non-beauty related store ever! I didn't buy much from here, just a Makeup Organiser for £3. This is very handy... It has 9 slots within it to store your makeup, so I use it for my favourite lipsticks and lip crayons and place it next to my jewellery box. This is definitely great value for money. 

Next, I had a wander over to the Yankee Candle store. Now... I have a bit of a problem. I have, like I do with makeup, a small addiction to candles. And by small I mean massive. I have a box packed full of candles, and I can't even fit the lid on properly. I really should be getting down these first, but that didn't stop me from buying 4 new candles while at the Yankee Candle store. I bought a votive holder (for £3.99) and 4 votive candles (at £1.80 each), in the scents 'Black Cherry', 'Midsummer's Night', 'Pink Dragon Fruit' and 'Mango Peach Salsa'. These are very spring-like scents and I am extremely excited to try these out. 

Then I went to Boots, and oh boy it was hard to control myself in there! There were so many beautiful beauty products that I wanted to buy but I had to limit myself. I only bought a few things over three different visits which is very surprising for me, as I usually go to Superdrug for most of my beauty items instead (as I find it is usually cheaper as Superdrug often puts on more deals).

On the first occasion, I bought the Seventeen 'Define&Conquer' contour kit in the shade light-medium for £5.99. These powders are highly pigmented and therefore great for contour (as was the creator's intention). I have only used it a couple of times now, but this product works extremely well. I would definitely recommend it to you (bonus, the packaging looks like NARS products). The second and final item I bought during that visit was another Seventeen product (as the offer was buy one get one half price), so I bought the Seventeen 'Clear Definition' mascara which, as you can guess, is a clear mascara. I mainly bought this to use on my brows once my Maybelline brow mascara actually runs out. I also use it on my bottom eyelashes and also after I have curled my eyelashes and it holds them great. Full price, this item costs £4.69 but due to the offer, I only paid c.£2.35 for this product.

The second occasion was much more exciting, if I'm honest. I had a £10 voucher to spend, so this time I was willing to buy some products from brands I don't usually buy from. The first item I picked up was an Essie nail polish in the shade 'Sunday Funday' which when it's in the bottle I would describe it as being a corally pink colour, but on my nails it looks almost neon pink with a hint of glitter in it. I do love it though, and this product costs £7.99. The second item I picked up was a Revlon ColourBurst Lacquer Balm in the shade 'Demure', and this also costs £7.99. This is a brilliant pink colour and it has an amazing scent of mint to it (possibly my most favourite scent ever!). I usually use this product to create a natural look (it has amazing colour pay-off) and I would definitely recommend this product to you.

My third visit shows a clear trend between my visits. I seem to only ever pick up two items during my trip to Boots, but that means I can build up my make-up collection slowly but in an affordable fashion. On my third visit. they had a buy one get one half price offer on all Maybelline products. So the first item I picked up was the Maybelline 'Master Brow Pro Palette' in the shade 'soft brown'. This product has a wax, powder and highlighter, and I am excited to try it out. I am only used to using the Rimmel London eyebrow pencils so I wanted to try out something new, and for only £6.99 I thought this was perfect. I only paid £3.49 for this product, however, due to the offer. The second product I picked up was the so 'raved' about Maybelline 'Lash Sensational mascara', the waterproof one,  in the shade 'Black'. I have heard so many great things about this mascara, especially from Zoella, and I was keen to try it. I haven't tried it yet, but when I do try it, I will let you know my opinion. This product cost me £7.99.

Now, onto H&M. I only ever seem to buy one thing - face masks. But they're a great price and with a great range of scents...it is easy to love these masks.

During my first trip, I bought 3 of these face masks at £1.99 each. I bought the scents 'Dead Sea Minerals', 'Manuka Honey' and 'Kiwi and Watermelon'. The 'Kiwi and Watermelon' was a self-warming mask, which I wasn't a huge fan of and I probably will not buy this one again. The scent was quite nice though and it worked pretty well. The 'Dead Sea Minerals' one was to soothe tired skin, but this is not the best for sensitive skin as it caused a mini-breakout on my skin so I will not be buying this one again. My favourite was the 'Manuka Honey' one, which had a great scent and it actually seemed like you were putting honey on your face. It worked amazingly well on my skin, and it was a peel off mask so I found it easier to take off at the end. I loved this one so much that I bought another one during my next trip...

On my second trip to H&M, I bought 2 more face masks, in the scents 'Manuka Honey' and 'Tea Tree', again at £1.99 each. Both are peel off masks, but of different scents. I have not tried the 'Tea Tree' one yet, but I am excited to try it. And of course, as the 'Manuka Honey' one is my favourite, I decided to buy another one as a treat.

I also decided to buy myself a double make-up pencil sharper (for thick and thin pencils) as I do not actually own one and the fact it had a cover over the top to catch the sharpenings was more appealing to me as it meant I didn't have to find a bin every time I used it (or I could still use it even if I would struggle to find a bin). This cost me £2.99. 

Next I went to what is probably my most favourite store ever! Which, as you can probably guess is Superdrug (as I buy a lot from there now). They have a lot of offers on at the moment because of the 5 year anniversary of their health & beauty card (which of course I own) so I definitely decided to take advantage of it. With the L'Oreal Paris make-up, they had a buy one get one half priced offer, and I've always wanted to try out their products. So, their lipsticks all cost £6.99 each, so with the offer I paid £10.48 all together for both lipsticks, which is a brilliant steal! I bought the 'Julianne's Nude' lipstick, which is a brilliant pink shade that is extremely subtle which is why they classed it almost as a nude, and the other was called 'Sepia Silk' which is a very nice brown nude colour, which loves brilliant for a natural look. I love them both and they are very highly pigmented and help create a great look. 

Finally, I made my way over to Tesco. I know, not that exciting, but I love buying skincare products from there as I've found it cheaper than other places, especially for Nivea products, which are always my go-to skincare. First, I bought 2 boxes of T-Zone 6 Clear Out Nose Pore Strips. I have never used these before, but saw on Louise Pentland's YouTube channel (Sprinkleofglitter) that she recommended the Biore nose pore strips. These T-Zone ones, however, are much cheaper than the Biore ones at only £3 a box. These are great and work just as well as I expected them to. 

Next I bought some Nivea 3 in 1 Gentle Cleansing Wipes for dry skin. I always use these wipes and they're very great for my skin. I would definitely recommend them for dry skin as they don't dry your skin out even more, and for only £1.50 for 25 wipes, you can't go wrong!

I then bought the Garnier Soothing 2 in 1 make-up remover. I will admit to you all, I am quite 'naughty' sometimes and use my Nivea cleansing wipes to remove my make-up when I know I shouldn't. So I decided to buy this make-up remover to actually do things properly. I thought this was great for only £2.

Next I bought the Witch Blemish Stick for only £2.50. I have been having problems lately with spots and blemishes due to stress, so I thought I would try this product out to see if I can tame that a bit. I haven't had much success with these yet, but I will keep you updated. 

Finally, I bought a Tinted Moisturising Day Cream! I haven't owned a tinted moisturiser for quite a while now, but I feel like this will be better as the weather warms up rather than using foundation. It gives me that extra colour to my skin but is not as heavy as foundation. It is amazingly pigmented and is greatly moisturising. I always love the Nivea moisturisers and for the discounted price of £1.74, I did not feel guilty for treating myself. 

Wow! That was a long haul! If you've read down to this part, then you get 10 brownie points! It took ages to write it so if you did read it all then thank you very very much! Hopefully I'll bring you individual reviews of these products at some point. 

I'll be back on Saturday with another post for you (maybe this will be a sneaky little beauty box review for you!). 

Thank you!!!

Hello you beauties!

My name is Lauren and this is my blog... Instaura, meaning 'Make-up' in the beautiful Latin language.

Within the past couple of years, my interest in make-up and fashion has risen dramatically, and I love writing too, so I thought - why not make a blog!? It'll be fun and I hope that you all enjoy reading this.

I wear drugstore make-up so, whilst my make-up may not be the best, it is certainly affordable for those who are strapped for cash.

I have also started subscribing to beauty boxes so I will be bringing reviews of those every month :) I hope that persuades you to buy one or just give you something interesting to read.

Before I jump straight into my make-up and fashion posts, I will be giving you something to let you get to know me better. So I can be a friend, rather than just someone who writes blog posts behind a computer screen. But these will be the next couple of posts, not this one.

So I hope you will keep reading my posts as I continue to write about what I love, and hopefully what you love too.

Thank you!!