I gathered all my makeup empties for one post. This is a good mix of higher end and drugstore brands. A few holy grails, and a few major fails.
Urban Decay All Night Setting Spray
This is my third bottle of this stuff. I really like it and it is the best setting spray I have used. It does exactly what it says it is going to, and it holds up to the horrid heat and humidity we have here in the south. I will say, I saw that Glam Glow has a setting spray that I want to try, has anyone used it yet? I want to know if I should stray from this favorite or not??? I am sure I will repurchase this again at some point.
Essence Lash Princess
I know I am in the minority on this, but I hate this mascara. For the price and all the hype it gets, I was soooooo excited to try it!!! So many people compared this to Better Than Sex and I am here to tell you it is not. It flaked on me and smeared throughout the day. I really had to work with it to get it to look good. I would just rather pay for the real thing. Such a disappointment.
Mally Volumizing Mascara
I hated this mascara. It is a high end price and it sucks pretty bad! There are so many mascaras out there, please don’t waste your money on this. It was too wet when I first opened it, I had to put on numerous coats to see anything and it dried out pretty quickly. Just no.
Maybelline Volum’ Express The Falsies Mascara
This is one of my go-to drugstore mascaras. For the price, it works pretty good and doesn’t smear. I tend to grab this or Loreal’s Voluminous.
Clinique Chubby Lash
I actually really loved this one!!! I received it in a Clinique gift with some other items and didn’t expect much from it. After a use or two I was hooked and it became one of my favorite mascaras to use. My ultimate favorite is Too Faced Better Than Sex, but this is a close second.
Make Up For Ever Smoky
This was just ok for me. There was nothing special about it and not worth the high end price.
Clinique Acne Solutions Foundation
I picked this up in Fresh Alabaster. The color was good, I would say this is medium coverage. I think this was a little too dry for my skin. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. Perhaps if you have oily skin, this would be a great option for your. It tended to cling to my dry patches. For the price, it is great. Much cheaper than the other high end brands.
Estee Lauder Double Wear
This is my holy grail foundation that you will find in my collection at any given time. This has the best coverage and is true full coverage. The color is a perfect match for my skin, which is so hard for some reason for me. I wear the 1N2 ECRU. I definitely feel like using a make up sponge like the beauty blender or real techniques version is the best application. Every now and then I will stray and try something new, but this is my absolute favorite. The only other one that compares for me is the Lancome Teint Idole which is up next.
Lancome Teint Idole Ultra
This is the only foundation I have found that comes even close to the coverage and match of Double Wear for me. I wear the color 230 Buff (W). This is another full coverage foundation that applies best with beauty blender type sponge for me. This is just a couple dollars more than Estee Lauder, but sometimes Lancome wins for me because of gift with purchase. If you are looking for a full coverage foundation and have a hard time matching in other brands, give this or the Double Wear a chance. And let me tell you, these both hold up to Alabama humidity. And that is saying something!!! It is a steam bucket down here most of the year.
Wet n Wild Cushion Highlighter
So I grabbed this at Walgreens one day when I was picking up a few things. The color of this is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I love love love it. However, that is where my love for this baby ends. The packaging ruins the product for me. They did a piss poor job on the packaging. It is such a pain to open and close. The little applicator sits on top of cheap peace of plastic that separates it from the highlighter cushion. The lid never screws on properly and therefore left the product to dry out way too quickly for me. I know I only paid $5.99 for it, but when you are using high end products and then you grab this thing…you just get angry lol. If you are looking for a cheap option to dive in to the world of highlighters, like I said, this is absolutely gorgeous on. But it isn’t worth it in my opinion to deal with the crap packaging.
Rimmel BB Cream
For a BB cream that you can grab at a drugstore for under $10, this stuff is amazing. The coverage is closer to medium and the color light works just fine for me skin tone. This is a 9 in 1 and has some benefits and some SPF too. My absolute favorite to use is the Lancome Skin Feels Good Hydrating Skin Tint Healthy Glow SPF 23. But if you are looking for more affordable option, this would be the way to go.
Real Techniques Sponge
I will admit, I have spent $20 on the Beauty Blender. It was when it first came out and one of the Sephora girls used it on me and I was blown away by the application. But spending $20 on a makeup sponge that needs to be replaced every three months makes me want to blow something up. No thanks. You can grab a two pack of the Real Technique sponges for $10 or less and get the same. exact. results. I am all about you get what you pay for when it comes to most things. But let me tell you, RT stepped up their game big time when they made this product. As you can see in the picture, I cut open my RT sponge (the orange one) and another knock off beauty blender I bought at Nordrstrom Rack for $2.99, and they both do not completely absorb your make up. Which is what the real Beauty Blender claims they are good for. Save you money and go with RT!
Have you used any of these? Let me know what some of your recent favorite finds are!
