Superdrug has had the 2True range in their stores for, oh, years now. They’re a budget beauty brand on a little stand usually tucked away at the back. All items in the range are priced at the same £1.99 each and they’re permanently on a 3-for-£5 multibuy promotion.
I have had good success in the past with all the 2True products I’ve bought. I like the nail varnish, particularly shade 42, I really rate the waterproof liquid liner, and the plumping lip gloss and the concealer are good subs for more expensive versions. For the price of one Collection 2000 item you can get 2 or 3 of these and they represent comparable quality – good news.
Feeling up for a challenge, I took my 5 pound coins along to Superdrug to try something new.
From L-R (above) I picked up 2True Colour Drench Lipstick in Shade 1, 2True Crystal Nail Polish in Shade 2, and Glitter Eyeliner Dazzlers in shade 10.
First up – Eyeliner Dazzlers. Shade 10 is black, and in the tube it looks like a black or black-ish liquid with occasional silver sparkles. I picked this up because I’ve noticed a proliferation of black-with-something eyeliners around and I thought this would be cheapie way of seeing what those are like.
In the swatch above, I’ve drawn a question mark with the liner because that pretty much describes my feelings about it. Look closely (below)
It’s a clear liquid with loads of black glitter and a tiny bit of silver glitter. I don’t get it. It’s not incredibly shiny black glitter, it’s just black bits quite sparsely populating a clear liquid. It looks like something that’s not quite mascara smudge, not quite eyeliner. I think this would work fine if the glitter were actually glitter, or a colour or anything? But it’s not so *shrug*. I’ll try some things with it and get back to you.
Next up, Crystal nail polish in Shade 2
This is a different story 
An absolutely brilliant polish for the money, pretty brilliant anyway actually. It’s a nice tall bottle so as it’s used the liquid will stay deep enough to cover the length of the brush. The colour is bright and shiny and the sparkle within it is not shimmer, not glitter, but utterly sparkly in a slightly mesmerising way. It’s really pretty, making my nails look dainty somehow.
It takes two coats, dries quickly, and shines and sparkles in a superlative fashion
It looked pretty good for three days, and probably would have lasted a couple more if I hadn’t removed it. Not bad for £1.99!
The third pick is this actually-really-swish-looking lipstick. For simple packaging I find this to be pretty glamorous and desirable.
If you have a lot of similarly packaged lipstick tubes in your collection you’ll know how useful the above modification is – a clear window in the cap so you can see what shade it is. Obvious but brilliant! Well done, that brand.
It’s called Colour Drench Lipstick and this is Shade 1 – seems they don’t go in for shade names much. I understand that, call me anything you like as long as you call me is it? Fair enough!
Swatched, you can see what they mean by Colour Drench, this lipstick screams with pigment. I’ve deliberately done both a built up swatch and a more haphazard swipe. This lipstick has a quick melting, almost thin texture, which gives a pink stain on light application or wearing off, and an intense red when built up. This is cool (blue) red with a lot of pink in it.
When worn (above) it’s very bright Look At Me pinky red. It is fairly thin and melting in texture on the lips as well as when swatched, so it needs the slightly old fashioned friends of lip liner to prevent bleeding at the edges and blotting to prevent transferring. Even blotted, it still transfers a bit, say, if you plant a kiss upon your beloved’s cheek, you can enjoy the delightful kiss-print upon his face until he next encounters a mirror. Very vintage, very lipstick-on-your-collar, very funny!
Some people find lipstick that may smudge or transfer unwearable, and I sympathise, this stainy-pigmenty-melty formula would not be for you. Other people find lipsticks that smell are unwearable too, and they’ll miss out on this little gem too because it does smell. It’s got that plasticky fruity scent that plastic fruit would have if it had a scent, that some cheap lipsticks have. It fades a bit but you do notice it for a while. I quite like the scent which is sort of nostalgic, not unpleasant, just undeniably there.
For all it’s flaws, which are basically just anachronisms, I like this lip colour a lot. The colour payoff is massive, and it’s flirty and fun and a great BRIGHT shade for my skintone. It if was more than a couple of pounds I might ask for more from it, but at 3-for-£5 I’m not going to complain.
So… 2True – I say they’re well worth investigating for the price. The waterproof black eyeliner (not reviewed here) is still my favourite product in their range, with the Crystal nail polish now coming in second, I may get more of those especially since they are limited edition. I am completely at a loss as to the point of the black glitter liner (answers on a postcard…?) but the rest all stand up fine. I haven’t tried any of their powder products (shadows, blush, powder, etc) if you have, let me know what you think of them in the comments.
Thanks for reading everyone! Sorry I’ve been a bit slow with the replies to comments, I’ve been busy, but I will get to all the messages I’ve been sent, I promise <3