Hey ladies!
Today, I wanted to talk to you a little about my makeup routine and a recent makeup haul from Ulta. A little fact about me… I am a major makeup junkie. I’ve been dreaming of becoming a makeup artist for a long time, but the makeup artistry education options where I live are pretty limited. So for the time being, I’m just a self-taught makeup fiend.
I’ve been buying MAC for years now and absolutely love it. However, if you’re familiar with the brand, you know it’s a little pricey (although I will say it lasts literally forever and the quality is phenomenal). If I could afford it all the time, it would definitely be my go-to, but I recently started researching less expensive options to fit into my budget for regular wear. After reading a ton of articles and watching a handful of YouTube videos, I finally chose to give NYX and L’Oreal a shot. The prices are pretty reasonable (Ulta often has BOGO 1/2 off on both brands), they offer everything you need to complete your entire look and you can find them at just about any drugstore from what I’ve seen which is really convenient.
I decided to start from scratch and do a complete makeup overhaul. I’m talking new brushes, new sponges, foundation, powder, bronzer, highlighter, everything. I guess I went a little overboard, but I was running low on almost everything and Ulta was having a big sale so of course I had to stock up.
I went with sponges and a new brush set from Real Techniques. They were also on sale and BOGO 1/2 off which made them both pretty cheap. I’ve never used sponges before, only brushes, but I wanted something that would help blend my makeup better and not leave it feeling cakey on my face.
I also picked up some Nivea Men’s Sensitive Post Shave Balm and Maybelline’s Baby Skin Pore Eraser. You’re probably wondering why I have men’s shave balm.. Seems really weird I know, but from what I’ve read, it is an excellent makeup primer! Who would have thought? I will be sure to let you guys know how it works for me. I’ve never used the pore eraser either so I’m curious to see how it works with my skin.
Somehow, I got lucky (or maybe cursed?) with having thick dark eyebrows. I don’t have to fill them in, but occasionally they’re a little out of control so I bought this Essence lash and brow gel mascara (pictured on the right below) that is supposed to keep them in place. A friend recommended it to me so I’m hoping I finally found a solution to my unruly brow probs. I also got yellow and green concealer from NYX. The green is supposed to neutralize any red spots on my face and the yellow is for any other problem areas like zits or dark under-eye circles.
I picked up two different kinds of liquid foundation as well. Both are L’Oreal, but one is from their True Match collection and the other is from the Infallible Total Cover collection. I wanted one of each just to try and see how well they held up on my skin (I have slightly oily skin) and see which one I liked best. I tried blending them with the back of my hand before I bought them and they were both a perfect match. I was really impressed with the variety in skin tone selection they had for each.
I also picked up all new powders from NYX. I got powder foundation, matte bronzer, finishing powder, blush and highlighter. Each powder cost me less than $10 (plus the BOGO 50% deal!) which was so much cheaper than what I would normally pay for MAC powders (those usually run about $20+ each). I can’t wait to see how these look on my skin! I’ll go into more detail on these powders in part two of this post soon.
I didn’t pick up any eye makeup (for now) other than eyeshadow primer since I still have a ton of MAC and Naked palette shadows. I’ll share some of my faves of those another time.
I am super excited to play around with all of these new products and see how they work for me! I’ll be posting some before and after pictures as well as my review of all of these products soon so stay tuned 🙂
I’d love to know what some of your favorite drugstore beauty brands or products are. Drop them in the comments below!
Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Ashley
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