Best Dupe make up for fancy brands like Merit, Hourglass and so on?

[fudgy]

After not having worn make up in many years I was thinking of getting some for Christmas for occasional use. I was looking at brands like Merit, Lisa Eldridge, Glossier and Hourglass but it strikes me as a bit silly to jump into very expensive make up when I am not really sure what I am doing.

I am 49 but do have good skin so no real wrinkling yet and no brown spots so just want a sort of skin tint, some cream blush, a lip pencil, maybe some lipstick or a tinted balm or gloss, some very natural mascara in a dark brown (tubing perhaps), eye liner maybe?

I want a very natural no make up make up look just to look a bit more polished for face to face meetings. I was tempted by Lisa Eldridge as she has identical colouring to me but again it's a bit pricy to start with.

I have heard that the l'oreal plumping tinted serum rivals some of the premium skin tints but I'm not sure where to start with the other products.

Any advice?

Morphe in Superdrug is cheap and amazing - fantastic pigments in the eyeshadows. DD says Elf is great too, plus has good animal testing creds

There is a new range by Sarah Creal specifically aimed at our age OP. It is the same price bracket as Lisa Eldridge though and I haven’t bought anything yet.

other options would be Ilia. Rare Beauty.

Lisa Eldridge and Victoria Beckham make the very best eyeliners for our age.

Victoria’s mascara is very natural and wears well. Ilia’s is the one I use, it’s a bit heavier and I wear glasses so need that!

Ilia skin tint leans pink. Lisa Eldridge bases are good and buildable, I’ve never found the right shade though.

Not exactly answered your question re Dupes, but hopefully given you the confidence to treat yourself to a few nice things!

BTW for a luxurious and long lasting tint of sorts, I highly recommend Chanel's Les Beiges cream gel bronzer. It is £50 but goes on beautifully with fingers and lasts forever.

Are you near a Sephora and SpaceNK? Honestly if you can afford it and as it sounds like you don’t need much I’d go for Ilia (SpaceNK), Lisa Eldridge (SpaceNK), Merit (Sephora) and Rhode (Sephora), but go in store if you can and try first.

I really rate the Ilia Lip Sketch Crayons, LE Seamless Skin Tint, Merit The Minimalist, Merit Brow 1980, Merit Lip Blush Lipsticks and Rhode Pocket Blush. I really like the Merit blush but they don’t last as well
as the Rhode. I’m early 40s and these are my staples (along with a few Violette FR Bisou Balms).

@curious79 Thanks those brands seem affordable for a bit of play about so I will go in to superdrug and see if I can pick some bits up and keep the Chanel gel bronzer for when I'm ready to spend a bit more!

@Tortephant Thank you for all that information I think I will buy some cheaper stuff just to get a feel for putting it on again and maybe to try and workout what shades work for me. However I once I know what I'm doing I probably would spend a bit more for better quality.

@user593 I am close to a a mall that has both a Space NK and a Sephora so I will go and have a look. I'm not even sure what my shade is I am very pale with a slight olive undertone and I've always struggled to get the right shade but I do hear things are better for pale olives now!

L’Oréal true March tinted serum is great, very similar to Chanel.

I’m currently using Essence tubing mascara and it’s fine if not a bit sloppier to apply than Clinique. Maybelline does one too

Elf Coreshine lip tint is a Clinique dupe

Nyx and Elf for eye liner and lip liner

I’ve stopped buying expensive makeup now because the prices were getting silly and drugstore makeup is just as good really. High end is only really worth it when you want a specific colour or it’s something that you will use everyday so the cost per use is low.

@CraftyNavySeal Thank you for that! I do need to consider how often I'd wear it. The last time I bought make up I got some Liz Earle Make up and I wore it so infrequently that it all went bad before I have half way though it!

Ilia won’t work for you then. Lisa Eldridge will.

@Tortephant Thank you! I was hoping that Lisa Eldridge having similar colouring would mean she had something to suit me!

I’m a pale(ish) neutral olive and have similar issues finding a good match (also sales assistants always go for far darker colours than they should to start assuming olive = dark) but I found a good match in LE and The Minimalist.

You can do an online (or in store) session with Trinny and they’ll tell you what colours work for you. They’ll setup an account and using ‘match for me’ whenever you buy something it will show the colours that suit you. It costs £25 (I think) but you get that off your next purchase.

I think you can also book a makeover in space nk?

Have a look at Revolution, I really like their budget makeup, some of it is dupes for Charlotte Tilbury, they have a glowy Halo face highliter like flawless filter and they also have a brown tubing mascara which is great and easy to remove.

There are so many decent drugstore brands now that unless you want a specific colour lipstick or similar, I wouldn’t rush straight into high end or you could make some expensive mistakes! I used to be a complete make up junkie, but over time scaled it right back and now use almost exclusively drugstore - Kiko is great if you’ve got one near you for dupes of Laura Mercier/ByTerry cream eyeshadow sticks, for example.