Whilst I enjoy a bit of luxury beauty, I am finding myself reaching for more high street make-up than ever before, as I don’t often find that I can justify a luxury price tag when there are so many decent budget options on the aisles of Superdrug and Boots. Of course there are exclusions, but these are usually one-off products rather than entire ranges. One of my absolute favourite high street brands is GOSH – I find them exciting, innovative, high-performance and always extremely thorough in their seasonal offerings: just look at the GOSH SS17 releases to see what I mean!
I’ll start with the bright and enticing lip launches, of which there are two: the Liquid Matte Lips which are, as you might’ve guessed, matte liquid lipsticks, plus there are five new shades joining the existing Velvet Touch Matte Lipsticks. One thing that can always be relied on with GOSH is extremely good quality for the price point, which is so well demonstrated in the Liquid Matte Lipsticks that are pigmented and matte, yet comfortable to wear and easy to apply. There are 8 shades and they are £7.99 each.
I wasn’t overly taken with any particular shade in the original line-up off the Velvet Touch Matte lippies, so I’m very happy with these new ones which contain some great pink shades. If you’re unsure which matte formula to go for, I’d say the Liquid Matte Lips are better for a statement, whilst the Velvet Touch lipsticks will ease you in, and can be subtly applied and pressed into the lips if you fancy more of a matte stain. These are also £7.99 each.
There are *so* many new eye launches – honestly this is going to an essay if I don’t pick my words carefully, so I’ll give you a quick overview of what’s arrived, starting with the liners. The Giant Pro Kajal (£7.49) is the big boy in top right of the picture and is designed for creating soft and smudgy lines, plus you can use it on the inner rims for serious definition. Bottom left you have the Double Pro Liner (£10.99) which has a a liner at each end including the aforementioned Kajal giving you the best of both worlds – Tightliners will definitely be a fan. There are also a couple more shades of the Infinity Eyeliners (£6.99) and a really interesting mascara, the Volume Serum Mascara, which is the first (that I know of) high street mascara that’s suitable for wear by those with lash extensions. It can also be worn by those of us without any extensions and it has two different comb styles on the same brush for creating different effects. It’s £13.99.
The GOSH Eye Xpression Palettes are tapping into the joyful 2017 trend of paring everything back and focusing on just a few choice colours that work together and will still offer a variety of looks without overwhelming the user. There are three variants available, each of which contain a selection of matte and shimmery shades. There’s the smokey greys in Thunderstorm, the everyday neutrals in Back to Nature, both of which are pictured above, and the final shade combination is Urban Nature, which contains muted jewel tones. These are £8.99.
I would struggle to pinpoint exactly which launch I’m most excited about from this collection, but edging marginally ahead of the rest are the CCC (Contour, Cover, Conceal) Sticks which are brilliant, multipurpose sticks in a creamy formula and six shades – Light, Medium, Dark, Very Dark as well as Vanilla Highligher and Golden Highlighter – which can all crossover into each others roles; for example, the concealer shades can easily be used to contour and the highlighters can be used to blur and lighten in the same way a good quality concealer might (*cough* Touche Eclat *cough*) and I really think multi-use sticks are going to have a bit of a moment this year. These are £9.99 each.
Finally we have pretty pops of colour courtesy of the Lumi Drops which are extension shade add-ons to the original Lumi Drop highlighters we got last year, and these are £7.99 each. Honestly, it is a very good thing that I do what I do as I would absolutely have spent a fortune on these new launches and it’s a true struggle to recommend what to go for as it’s all fab. I love the new matte lipstick shades but I also think the liners are practical investments the CCC Sticks are just crazy handy, so it’s very hard! I will say the Superdrug currently have a Buy One Get One Half Price promo across all GOSH, so if you see anything you fancy, I’d head over now. Check out everything here – link.
*PR Samples
