Charlotte Tilbury is one of Britain’s best loved beauty brands – but can be a bit out of some of our price ranges at times.
While the products work brilliantly, they tend to be rather expensive. So in a bid to get around this problem, many head to Primark to see if they can get cheaper alternatives.
The high-street store is known for “duping” designer products. But do they actually work as well as the real thing? A makeup artist made it her mission to find out.
Victoria Grace took to TikTok to apply a full-face of makeup using products from both Primark and Charlotte Tilbury. Even though she works for the luxury brand, she gave her brutally honest opinion. So which cosmetics would come out on top?
Moisturiser
Victoria started by moisturising her face, which is a great step if you want your foundation to look lovely and smooth on the skin.
In this stage, she compared the original Magic Cream with the Primark dupe. She said: “As you know, Magic Cream is amazing for your skin – it hydrates, it primes and protects. It’s just so nice, I love it.”
While the Primark one was lovely and glowy, it didn’t have the same impact when it came to making her makeup apply nicely. Victoria added: “The Primark side did not prime, did not protect, but it did hydrate; I’ll give her that one”.
The original Magic Cream costs £79 for 50ml, compared to Primark’s £6 offering.
Eye products
Next, she moved on to eyeliner, and she said that the pigment was not the “same” from each product. “It still worked well for the price of it,” Victoria admitted.
Then, it was time for mascara, where she said it “wasn’t giving anything” for her, saying she prefers “long voluptuous lashes”. She didn’t feel like the Primark mascara she’d chosen did the job – but again, she thought “it wasn’t bad for the price”.
Skin
Things started to fall apart a bit when the base makeup went on – as Victoria felt like “Casper the ghost” when she applied the Primark slap that made her look a lot paler than she’d have hoped.
She joked: “Now, the foundation made me realise I’m not as pale as I thought I was.” It was “meant to be a dupe of the Airbrush Foundation,” but sadly missed the mark.
Thankfully, the “concealer wasn’t bad for the price”. She was able to use this to warm up her face – and ended up looking pretty great if you ask us!
Contour and blush
These are some of Primark’s most popular beauty products – as they look a lot like items you’d find in high-end cosmetics stores.
Victoria continued: “Now this is actually what you’re here for – the contour wands.” She popped the original product onto her face, which had tonnes of pigment.
However, the product “disappeared,” and she had to “pack it on” the skin to get it to look as bold as she was hoping. Despite this, “the blush was actually quite nice and very pigmented”.
Powder
As a big fan of the Charlotte Tilbury powder, this would be tough to beat! However, she “rated” the Primark version, noting that it was actually a powder foundation, and that’s why it was “so pigmented”.
Victoria then finished off the look with some liner. She gushed the Charlotte Tilbury side was a “gorgeous shade” called “Hot Gossip”, but the Primark version looked pretty similar.
Final verdict
Victoria’s final face looked fabulous – and you can barely tell the difference between the two sides. However, it’s clear she preferred the Charlotte Tilbury products.
If you are looking for something cheaper, though, it does show that Primark can do the job!