Half Highend vs. Half Drugstore Makeup

This is quite a popular idea on YouTube to see how well drugstore makeup keeps up with its highend counterparts by doing one side of the face using only drugstore and the other half only highend.

While I love a few luxury pieces in my collection, I’m a big supporter of affordable makeup so I was really rooting for drugstore! I also tried to feature as many brands as possible in the post! Hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the finished look. See if you can guess which side is which and keep reading to see the results!

Brows

Makeup Revolution Brow Pomade (£6) vs. Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade (£19)

These are the only two brow products I have that are really comparable, though it’s worth noting that the MUR product is in the shade ‘caramel brown’ and the ABH is ‘medium brown’, which is significantly darker. I used my L’Oreal Brow Artist Plumper gel to try and make them match better.

NYX Control Freak Brow Gel (£6) vs. Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel (£23)

I do love my ABH brow gel, but the NYX one does pretty much the same job. I’m not a fan of the huge mascara type wand but I can live with it for a product that’s £17 cheaper!

Winner? I’ll give this one to highend. ABH dipbrow applied nicer for me and the MUR pomade made my brows look a little waxy before I added the gel.

Eyes

Makeup Revolution x Soph palette (£10) vs. Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette (£45)

These two palettes don’t initially look all that similar, but I was forced to do something a bit different with this since my luxury palettes are few. I decided to create a shimmery purple eye with matte brown transition shades, since both palettes had the right shade selection.

Winner? Although I adore MUR, their formula is probably never going to rival the higher end palettes. I was able to create a similar look on both eyes but the Coloured Raine palette required less work to build up the colours so I have to give my vote to highend!

Mascara

Essence The False Lashes Mascara Dramatic Volume Unlimited (£2.80) vs. Dior Diorshow Pump n Go Volume Mascara (£25.50)

I think this is my cheapest vs. my most expensive mascara but I’ve said in the past that they’re similar in terms of their wet formula that tends to clump my lashes.

Winner? While I get mixed results with the Dior mascara and I don’t really get on with the Essence one at all, I think this probably wasn’t the best test I could have done since I have so many amazing drugstore mascaras. No vote on this!

Foundation

Revlon ColorStay Foundation (£12.99) vs. Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation (£30)

I pitted my old favourite Revlon against newcomer CT. The Revlon one is quite a few shades darker but my skin seems to adapt to just about any shade in the right spectrum anyway and the CT one does oxidise.

Winner? I’ll give this to drugstore. I love the finish of CT and how buildable the coverage is but I don’t think it’s anything special and it oxidises on me.

Concealer

Primark PS…My Perfect Colour Concealer (£2) vs. Maybelline Age Rewind (£8.99)

I don’t have a highend concealer, so I tried to find my cheapest and most expensive for the purpose of this post. I’ll skip awarding a winner for this one since they are both affordable products!

Powder

Rimmel Stay Matte (£3.99) vs. Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish (£33)

My last bit of beauty blogger fave Rimmel powder against my new luxury purchase. I used this to set my under eyes and around my t-zone.

Winner? I really didn’t want to award this to highend since you could buy 8 of the Rimmel powders for the price of just one CT powder but it just is better and looks less dry and cakey on my skin.

Bronzer

Bourjois Bronzing Powder (£7.99) vs. Benefit Hoola Bronzer (£24.50)* 

I only have the mini version of the Benefit bronzer so it is harder to use my normal stippling brush and compare.

Winner? Hoola was much more pigmented but I don’t always favour that in a bronzer. I find it can fade quickly on my skin too so I have to give this one to drugstore!

Blush

Make Revolution Blush (£1) vs. Zoeva Luxe Color Blush (£8.50)

I’m not sure I’d consider Zoeva highend but it’s certainly pricier than my MUR blush and I think the most expensive blusher I own.

Winner? I’d like to give this to drugstore, but that Zoeva blush is still great, it’s just not anything better than my £1 blush.

Highlight

Primark PS…Pure Glow Kit shade Glimmer (£5) vs. Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter Champagne Pop (£32)

I couldn’t find a highlight that was quite the same shade as my Becca one so I opted for the closest I could get with this Primark glow kit.

Winner? Based on which I actually think is better and lasts longer etc., the Primark one didn’t have much chance against Becca but I still think that glow kit is amazing for the price!

Lipstick

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick More to Adore (£6.99) vs. Clinique Long Last Lipstick Watermelon (£19.50)

This was a challenge since I only really have this Clinique lipstick that qualifies as highend. You might notice that the Maybelline one doesn’t quite match up but I think I made it work!

Winner? When I put these to the test, they both disappeared from my lips after eating and drinking so I cant judge on that. I think drugstore has to win by default though since there was nothing special about the Clinique one.

So I did also mean to test out Huda Beauty’s new primer for this post but I completely forgot! Anyway, on to the results!

What do you think? Did you get it right?

I think that, although I did opt for highend overall, you can save yourself a lot of money and get products that are just as good from the drugstore!

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