I was sent a few newbies from Essence and Catrice the other day, the Catrice goodies impressed me the most and this is me pointing out two winners.

First up, how much do we love a good blush trio? Catrice Blush Artist shading palette (R79,95) serves up three pretty hues that can be worn on their own or mixed together with a few sweeps of your blush brush.

For the record, as a pedantic, OCD-riddled person, you should know that writing those stupid smooshed together names where caps get to do the Macarena right in the middle of the word caused a bit of a blood pressure spike. But I’ll get over it ‘cos these colours are pretty, pretty, pretty.

This blush’s staying power is pretty good and if you apply it over something it can stick to, like a primer or foundation, you’ll find it stays the whole day.

Something else you might like? Essence have whipped out a line of 2-in-1 eyeshadow & liner sticks (R53,95) that are very reminiscent of Clinique’s Chubby Stick shadow tints but at a snip of the price.

Due to the creamy nature of these guys, they blend and build like a boss but I’ve found that if you use them on your lid on it’s lonesome it’s going to end up creasing, especially if you’ve got an oilier skin type like me. However, if you use a good primer (hello there Urban Decay primer potion!) they really do stay put.

The paler shades in this line (there are six in all) are great to use as an all-over-the-lid wash when you want a look that’s slap-on-and-go but I’ve found it also plays nicely with whatever you layer on top of it. If I didn’t already own ten million thousand eye shadows and happened to spot the warm brown shade in store, Go Bronze, I’d probably stick it in my trolley. In fact, maybe I will regardless…

Love, love

Leigh