I will always remember my first 'proper' makeup purchase. Having spent years investing my pocket money, part time earnings and later my student loan on an array of brightly coloured and carefully selected purchases, it was a moment when I left behind being a child and finally felt like a fully fledged grown-up. I was spending a whole £16.00 on a lipstick and it came from Clinique. The delicious scent, intricate metallic casing and iridescent shine left a tingle up my spine; I was so keen to keep this precious commodity for as long as possible I barely used it, meaning to my pain it eventually dried out and had to be thrown away. To me, that's what premium beauty is all about: a moment in time that draws out emotions and leaves you feeling special. It's sometimes worth paying over the odds for a lipgloss if it makes you feel like a princess every time you use it; importantly it's as much about the packaging, the scent, the sounds and smells as it is about what's inside. Over the years I've become as likely to gush over a £30.00 bronzer than I am a £2.99 nail varnish, but that's because I like to treat myself to little moments that remind me how far I've come and how hard I've worked since that very first Clinique lipstick purchase. However, in recent months I've felt myself becoming increasingly disengaged with a lot of high end beauty brands in favour of their much more affordable counterparts. Not only are they sometimes more enjoyable to write about, but you seem to ge...