While my love of luxury skincare knows no bounds (my current skin routine totals an eye-watering £669) when it comes to makeup I’m a little more restrained with my product choices. One might say that when your makeup application skills are as basic as mine then it makes no sense to splurge on fancy formulations anyway, but I’d argue that my love of high-street makeup actually comes from the fact that there are so many affordable products out there that rival the quality and results of their more expensive counterparts. So why spend more when you really don’t have to?
Case in point: Maybelline. As a teenager, it was pretty much a beauty right of passage to own something from this iconic high-street brand—most notably, of course, their Dream Matte Mousse Foundation which definitely earns a spot in my throwback beauty hall of fame. And with over 100 years in the beauty industry under their belt, there’s no doubting that Maybelline know a thing or two about formulating a great beauty product. However, when a brand is so weaved into the fabric of our early beauty experiences, it’s no surprise that in recent years I’ve overlooked them in favour of more exciting new launches and buzzy Instagram brands.
Mica Ricketts wearing a full face of Maybelline makeup products. Recently though, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic and decided to revisit some of my classic favourite beauty products to see which ones still deliver. Honestly, there were so many Maybelline products that I realised I still reach for on a regular basis as well as plenty of others which I have rekindled my love for. Ahead, keep scrolling for the 15 best Maybelline products that I still rate today.
This is second best-selling mascara in the whole of the UK and it’s the one that I’m wearing in the photo above. This mascara creates that fluttery lash look that I love and the kind of height that’s reminiscent of a professional lash lift.
Not content with second place, the number one spot for Britain’s best-selling mascara is also a Maybelline formula—their Lash Sensational. It has an innovative brush that uses 6 different lengths of bristle to coat even the smallest of lashes with pigment for a fanned-out finish.
I recently tried a whole bunch of long-lasting lipsticks and this was one of my favourite affordable options. It provides up to 8 hours of smudge-free colour and I can attest to the fact that it really does stick around.
Don’t be put off by the name: I first tried this concealer in my early 20s and I loved it just as much then as I do now, in my 30s. And I’m not alone—this is the number 1 best-selling concealer in 20 countries worldwide and it has so many 5 star revews. It’s creamy, pigmented and genuinely covers up dark circles but I love using it on blemishes too.
This brow tint has really come into its own this last year when salon visits have basically been off the table. I’ve always been quite intimidated about at-home brow tints but this gel formula is easy to apply and peels off to reveal neat, filled-in brows that last for 3 days.
It was our beauty contributor Shannon’s review of this new Maybelline launch that got me intrigued after it was being hyped all over social media at the start of this year. I have to say though, it it’s length that you’re after then this mascara really does deliver. I wouldn’t be surprised if it knocks one of the other cult mascaras off the top spot soon.
I’ll be honest, I thought that Dream Matte Mousse had put me off matte foundations for life but then I tried this. Despite it’s name, I actually don’t think it’s that matte—more of a velvety, healthy-skin finish with a decent amount of coverage. If you aren’t into majorly dewy skin then I’d really recommend giving this a try as it’s brilliant affordable formulation.
It’s been nearly a decade since this unassuming lip balms were being hyped up by basically every beauty YouTuber on the planet. In fact, I remember stocking up on them on a trip to New York as they hadn’t made their way onto British shores yet. While I’d pretty much forgotten about them until recently, this is still a very decent lip balm for roughly the cost of a takeaway coffee. This one also contains SPF20 and has a subtle peachy wash of colour.
Much like the aforementioned lip balm, this was another cult early-noughties product which I still stand by today. If, like me, you can rarely be fussed to apply eyeshadow then I can’t recommend this enough. You just dab your finger into the pot and glide it across your eyelids for a low-maintenance wash of colour. This shade, Socialite, is my favourite for its easy-to-wear sheen but you can get matte colours too.
This brow pencil is so good. The angled tip makes it easy to quickly apply hair-like strokes of colour to any sparse patches and the rounded spoolie creates that cool, fluffy brow look that’s everywhere right now.
I’m often a bit dubious about multipurpose foundations but despite its multiple claims this lightweight formula from Maybelline delivers on all fronts. It’s lightweight in texture yet has decent coverage, contains SPF 50 so your skin is protected from the sun and its enriched with antioxidants to protect skin from pollution. If you live in the city and are in the market for a new foundation then you really can’t go wrong.
No matter what base products I apply on top, if I’m wearing a primer then I’m going to make it a radiance-boosting one. This one is really good and rivals some of my more expensive favourites. It’s enriched with pearl powder particles to even skin tone while brightening your complexion to leave skin illuminated without looking shiny. Trust me—it’s really very good.
In case I hadn’t already made it obvious, I am incredibly lazy when it comes to applying eyeshadow. This, however, makes it easy. So easy in fact that you just need to unscrew it then use the built-in applicator to slick it over your eyelids. It has a cream to powder texture that is surprisingly pigmented and doesn’t budge.
To include three mascaras in my Maybelline favourites might seem excess but what can I say? This brand know how to do mascara. This is an update on one of my favourites from my teenage years and it’s still just as good at delivering dramatic, thick lashes.
This is a really good dupe for one of my favourite high-end highlighters but at a third of the price. It has the perfect amount of pigment and bucketloads of sheen and just makes my whole complexion look way brighter than before I applied it. Up next, a celeb makeup artist just told us how to avoid these makeup mistakes.
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