Boutique: New Make-up Brand Exclusively at Sainsbury's

This September a new exciting make-up brand has been launched by Sainsbury's, named 'Boutique'. Boutique, designed to provide 'a bit of fun and an affordable treat while doing the grocery shop', has been created and trialled by a collective of professional make-up artists. It includes nail polishes, lipglosses, lipsticks, eyeshadows and accessories, and I was lucky enough to test some of these products.

In early 2011, Sainsbury’s approached Jo Saville and Sophia Price, established make-up artists, who with a wealth of beauty product experience helped create the perfect collection of colours which marries high pigmentation, easy application and brilliant staying power. As a result of this, when blind product testing was carried out by 58 industry professionals, the outcome resulted in over 90% of the beauty panel recommending Boutique.

From left: 'Under the Thumb', 'Beyond the Pale', 'As Good as Gold', and 'Over the Moon'.

Boutique Nail Polish: £5

Boutique Eyeshadow: £4

Boutique Lip Gloss: £6

I'll start by reviewing the lipglosses. The colours were much richer than I'd expected. I don't usually wear lipgloss as I held the assumption that they were designed for just making your lips look shiny rather than adding lots of colour, but with these products I was pleasantly surprised. There is a strong pigment to these lipglosses (apart from the clear one; 'The Coast is Clear', which I haven't included a picture of for obvious reasons that it doesn't add colour and only adds shine) and I especially like the bright red one which is pictured above and below. Another quality I liked about these glosses was that they didn't sink into the cracks of my lips, which I sometimes find happens with lipsticks.

- 'My Lips are Sealed' - lovely plum colour

- 'Dusk Til Dawn' - a nice natural pink

- 'Don't Gloss me Around' - a rich red

'Don't Gloss me Around'

'My Lips are Sealed'

Now onto the eyeshadows! They were quite glittery so are ideal for a night out, a party, or fancy dress. Now, just to explain, I don't usually wear so much eyeshadow in the pictures below, but I did this to make it easier to see the colour and shimmery quality it has, also because it's hard to see my eyelids with my eyes open.

Eyeshadow Swatches from left: 'Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining', 'In the Limelight', 'Brownie Points', 'Grass is Always Greener', and 'Put on the Slate'.

These photos are taken with flash to catch the shimmery quality of the product. The main colours used were 'Grass is Always Greener' on my eyelids and 'Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining' around my eyes.

 Also below I am wearing the red lipgloss, 'Don't Gloss me Around.' Sorry for the slightly scary look!

And finally we come to the nail polish, which I was really impressed with. I love the fact that you only really need to paint one coat and it has a shiny, smooth finish with intense colour, and only takes one or two minutes to dry. I often get annoyed with nail polish, sometimes painting three or even four coats just to get an even finish, but with this product I easily achieved nails that looked and felt lovely and smooth. Also, I clumsily smudged a corner of the plum colour on one of my nails but to my delight I simply re-painted the corner and it blended in smoothly with the rest of the nail and didn't make it bumpy.

An example of how you only need one coat of this polish is below. As you can see the two images look exactly the same.







- One coat of polish

- Two coats of polish

Overall, I think what Boutique have done especially well with their make-up is the strong pigment. Their products have really intense, rich colours and because you don't have to layer on the product to achieve this they will last a long time, therefore proving to be great value for money. Have you seen this new brand in Sainsbury's yet and will you consider trying it?