Hey lovelies!
Lil' disclaimer before I get started - I bought all of these products with my own money!
If you've not heard of 'Wish' before, it's primarily an app that you can download on your phone (also a website but it seems smoother in-app) and you can buy products from there for insanely cheap prices. The catch is that they'll usually take a while to come so as long as you can wait 4 weeks for those pair of eyelashes to arrive, you'll be fine! Another reason people like to dismiss Wish is because sometimes the quality of a product may be quite poor - however if you're happy to pay £1 for something that would usually cost you £25, then you can't really complain!
'Cute' is the sister app of Wish, being solely focussed on beauty-related items - makeup, hair products, skincare, etc. I bought 3 items from Cute and 1 item (more fashion-related than beauty!) from Wish just to see how they compare. Everything that I bought was ordered before 10am on 6th August 2017.
The first thing that I bought was a false eyelash storage case, which I thought was really handy as I always lose an eyelash strip once I've thrown the box away, which ends up costing me quite a lot of money having to replace them after just one wear!
The actual storage case itself cost me just 95p with £1 delivery. The order was processed at 11:30pm on 6th August, so it was being prepared the same day as ordering. This cute little eyelash holder was the second thing to arrive, being delivered on 15th August, 9 days after placing my order and it being processed.
The first thing I noticed when I received the storage case is the quality of it. For ninety-five pence, I was expecting a really cheaply made product, but it seems sturdy and made to a high quality. The patterning is consistent and everything is symmetrical, with the black bow in the middle being firmly attached and not loose at all. The case opens and closes securely, with a hinge and clasp at the front to prevent it from opening unnecessarily.
Inside the actual case, there is enough space to accommodate 3 pairs of eyelashes (or 6 separate lashes if you're being groovy), as well as a bit of extra space towards the bottom of the case. I like to keep my eyelash glue here so it doesn't get lost - I use the 7g DUO lash strip adhesive (£5.99 - Boots) for size reference.
I found this product to be really useful when storing day-to-day lashes, and ultimately saves space on unnecessary boxes. I would have paid more than £1.95 (including postage overseas) for this particular item and can 100% recommend it.
The next order was a set of 4 eye brushes, which I really just got because the fluffy blending brush interested me - you can never have too many fluffy brushes in your life.
The four brushes cost me £1.90 with £1 delivery. Again, this was processed the same day as the order at just after 11:30pm. These arrived quite a few days later than the other beauty items, being delivered on 17th August, taking just over two weeks.
They arrived packaged in individual brush protectors, all inside one sealed bag. I was slightly surprised when I unpackaged them as the handles are quite a bit shorter than I anticipated - when comparing the longest next the Sigma E35 blending brush, the top of these brushes just about reaches where the handle and ferrule (the shiny part) meet.
Another thing I noticed about the bristles on all the brushes was their smell. The first thing that came to my mind was the smell of nail varnish remover, and although I don't think that's what the smell actually was, it was very similar. Regardless, I still tested these out! For the most part, they were like the pictures advertised - three of brushes had white bristles and one had black bristles. The only slight issue I had was one of the brushes looked like a blending brush, when it actually arrived as a pencil brush - other than this, everything was pretty accurate.
The first brush I tried was a fluffy blending brush. As you can see from the image above, some of the bristles towards the heel of the brush are actually a dark red colour, and since using this brush and washing it, more red has started to come through in more of the bristles. Despite this, it blends very well, places product evenly, doesn't really waste too much product, and, as a good comparison to the Sigma E40 (£12.50, Beauty Bay), is a brush that will definitely be used in my collection more often.
Next is the more concentrated blending brush. None of the bristles belonging to this brush had any issues with colour and everything was very soft. This brush was good at putting colour in my crease and keeping it concentrated on the areas that I wanted product to go. I believe that this is a good contender with the Morphe M441 (£5.50, Beauty Bay).
Next, I used the shader brush and I found this was extremely good at packing product on my lid, where I wanted it. I also found it to be very good at putting product in my crease precisely as the shape of the bristles made it an exact fit in my socket. This brush reminds me very strongly of the Sigma E25 (£12.75 - Cult Beauty).
The last brush I tried was definitely my least favourite of the four. This was the brush that I believed to be a fluffy blending brush but realised it was actually a pencil brush. I was not keen on this brush as it reminded me of when you use a painting brush and you think it's clean, but once it's dried you realise you must've missed some paint because the bristles are rock hard and you can't use it to paint anymore. That's exactly how I would describe this brush. Despite this, I still gave it its fair chance. I found that it picked up product well, but it felt too rough and scratchy on my face, especially on the delicate skin around my eyes, so this particular brush won't be staying in my collection for long unfortunately.
On the whole, £2.90 (including delivery) for 4 brushes works out as roughly 73p per brush which is amazing considering they're comparable to Sigma and Morphe. I would definitely recommend three out of four of these brushes.
The last thing I bought from Cute was a set of beauty sponges. I currently use the Real Techniques beauty sponge to apply my foundation and concealer so I thought it would be interesting to see how such an inexpensive dupe compared.
This set of 4 beauty sponges cost me £1.90 (although you could get a set of 2 for £1) with £1 delivery. This took a little longer to process, 8am the following morning (7th August). They were the first to come, arriving on 14th August, so only 8 days after initially placing my order and just one week after my order was processed.
They arrived in a very thin and inexpensive plastic bag that was sealed. I was really surprised when they arrived to see that they were all the same style - from the photo advertising them on Cute, I was expecting two of them to be the classic BeautyBlender shape and two to be the easy grip style. Instead, I had received four different colours of the easy grip style - after testing them out, I was more than happy with this.
The colours were nice enough and the sponges didn't have any strange smells to them like the makeup brushes did. I had only ever used the original BeautyBlender shape of sponges before so I was excited to try a different type.
I got the sponge damp using water and then used the flat end of the sponge to apply my foundation. With the middle of the sponge being inverted, it made it so easy and effortless to tap and bounce it over my skin to apply my foundation. My foundation has never looked so flawless since using this sponge. I can't rave about how much I love it - it has definitely surpassed the Real Techniques sponge and I'm so glad I've got four of them to keep me in business!
I used the pointed end to blend in my concealer, it was so effortless around my nose and in the hard-to-reach places by my eyes. It also didn't apply or waste too much product so my base did not end up looking cakey or 'over done'.
£1.90 (including delivery) for all four sponges works out as roughly 48p per sponge - what an absolute bargain!!! Another product I recommend from Cute.
The final product, and only that I purchased from Wish, is these super cool pair of sunglasses! I'm getting obsessed with sunglasses lately, but only ever end up settling for aviator styled ones, so I really liked the style of these sunnies.
These funky sunglasses cost me £1.90 with £1 delivery. While this was the last order I placed, it was the first to be processed, at 10pm the same evening as ordering. Despite this, it was the last item that came, arriving 22nd August, resulting in me waiting 16 days.
I'm really disappointed because when these glasses finally arrived, they came broken! Apart from being damaged, everything else about them was impressive - they were exactly as advertised, their mirrored lenses were completely opaque when looking into them and I really like the shape of the frames.
I did contact Wish and I was offered a refund immediately, however I asked if a replacement could be sent out instead as I would really like to use these when I go on holiday next month! I decided not to wait another 2 weeks for them to arrive and delay this blog post so I unfortunately don't have any original photographs of these gorgeous sunnies!
The total amount I spent on all four products was £6.65 and the total amount delivery I paid was £4, which when taking into consideration they all come from different retailers, that's not half bad for worldwide shipping. I would 100% recommend Cute to buy all of your beauty must-haves as I am seriously impressed with everything I received. I feel unable to comment on Wish until I've received my replacement pair of glasses for the ones that arrived damaged, but I can say their customer service team is top notch!
Have you ever bought anything from Cute or Wish, and if so, did you love your items just as much as I did?
Thanks for reading,
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