Starter Makeup

Simple Beginners Makeup Collection

If you're just starting out with makeup, you really don't need a lot, and none of it has to be high end. Of course, if you want a lot, or you want it to be high end, that's totally fine. But most people who are just starting out don't want to spend a huge amount, and they usually would be overwhelmed by too much. So I've put together what I think are the very basics, all at drugstore prices. I have not included brushes, but I will most likely do a seperate post on good, inexpensive brushes.

For the face, I would start out with a primer, a foundation or tinted moisturizer, and a concealer. Even the primer isn't a requirement, but it can help your makeup last longer. All three that I chose happen to be from Maybelline. You may also want a powder to set your foundation and concealer with, but some people skip this step. I would choose a powder over a primer if I had to choose, though.

If you have brows that you're happy with on their own, then feel free to skip this step. I personally am not in love with my brows, so I just use an inexpensive brow pencil from Essence. I don't feel the need to use anything expensive for my brows because this pencil works great for me.

As for eyeshadow, you only need two or three to create a simple but put together look - a crease shade, a lid shade, and, if you want one, a highlight shade. Wet' n' Wild makes some great single eyeshadows, so I chose those. You could also go with an inexpensive neutral palette, such as the Makeup Revolution Essential Mattes.

Blush is a great way to bring some color to your face after applying foundation. This specific blush is super pigmented, so you only have to lightly tap your brush into it to get enough color. Always make sure to blend your blush well for a more natural look.

As for eyeliner, all you really need is one black one, but you may want a colorful one for more fun looks, and a white one for your waterline, if that's your thing. You could get three separate ones, or save some money by getting some two-in-one liners. These NYC liners are great for beginners. I find pencil liner to be easier to work with then gel or liquid, although if you want a liquid liner, NYC makes a great black one. As for gel liners, the black one that Essence makes is great as well.

The Lots of Lashes Great Lash mascara was probably my first ever mascara, and I still occasionally repurchase it when I don't want to try a new mascara and want something that I know will work. A coat or two of this will give you lashes that pop without looking too unnatural. If you want your lashes to look a bit more voluminous, try the Covergirl Super Sizer. I'm not big on lengthening mascaras, so I don't have any to recommend.

For your lips, all you really need is a nude or pink lipstick that will go with almost any eye look. I like the e.l.f. lipstick in Flirtatious. They also make quite a few other colors, and for only a dollar, you can probably afford to get a few so that you have more options. Lipstick is my favorite makeup item, so I have a lot to chose from, but at the most you only really ever need four - a nude, a pink, a red, and a fun color like purple or orange for more out-there looks.

Lastly, you will want a couple of tools. You'll probably want a sharpener for your eyeliners and your brow pencil, and for beginners who are more prone to making mistakes, an e.l.f. makeup remover pen is a life saver. You'll probably also want an eyelash curler, but if your lashes naturally have a lot of curl to them, you don't really need one right away.

10 under 10

Top Ten Under $10

Some people swear by drugstore makeup, and I am one of those people. Although I do own some high-end makeup, I feel that you can almost always find something just as good at the drugstore. There are a few exceptions (I have yet to find a lipstick I love as much as the Tarte LipSurgence Power Pigment in Flush), but for the most part, the drugstore can be just as good, if not better. That's why I wanted to feature ten of my favorite makeup products that are under $10 USD. I'll admit, I had trouble choosing just ten, because I have so much great drugstore makeup, but these are ten of my favorites.

My first favorite - and probably my most favorite - is the Makeup Revolution Iconic 3 palette. You can buy it here for $7.00 USD. There's also an Iconic 1 and 2, which are both great, but this one is my favorite because it's full of pinks and golds, which I absolutely love. All but the lightest shades are super pigmented, and even the lightest shades aren't bad. This is probably my favorite palette of all time, as well as my current most used. I feel like you could create a great look on any skin color with this palette.

If you're always smudging mascara like me, you'll want this. It's the e.l.f. Makeup Remover Pen, and it's only $3.00 USD if you get it here. The one annoying bit is that if you want it to last a long time, you have to clean the tip right after you use it to keep it clean. Otherwise, it's fantastic, and I use it anytime I need to clean up my winged eyeliner or a mascara smudge.

I prefer gel eyeliner over liquid or pencil, and my favorite black eyeliner ever is the Essence Gel Eyeliner in 01 Midnight in Paris. You can buy it here for $3.99 USD. I use it with an angled brush to get a nice thick wing. I wouldn't recommend using an angled brush for a thin wing, but I almost always prefer my winged eyeliner to be super thick and easy to see.

As for foundation, my go-to is the Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless foundation in 110 Porcelain. It costs $7.99 USD if you get it here. I would recommend this to people with normal skin for sure, since that's my skin type and it looks great on me, and probably to people with oily skin. However, if you have dry skin, matte foundations in general might not be for you. Once you set it with powder, it looks totally matte and it makes your pores practically invisible. Of course, this won't be the case for everybody, because everybody has different skin and preferences, but for me this is absolutely great.

When it comes to my brows, I'm honestly not the best. I only recently started filling them in, and I rarely have the time to get them waxed. However, they look ten times better when I use the Essence Eyebrow Designer Pencil. I'm in the color Blonde 4, which you can buy here for $1.99 USD. Even the blonde isn't an absolute perfect match for me, as my eyebrows are quite grey-toned, it still looks pretty good. It's not too creamy or too waxy, and you can use it three or more times without sharpening it.

If you want voluminous lashes, you need the Covergirl Super Sizer mascara in black. I have yet to try very black or black brown, but I would assume those are great as well. You can buy it for $7.49 USD here, and it's probably the best drugstore mascara I've ever tried. That being said, if you prefer length over volume, this may not be for you. I'm happy with my lash length, so I really prefer mascara that gives me lots of volume, like this one does. It claims to give you 400% more volume, and I'm not sure if that's true, but it certainly gives a lot of it.

Please ignore my fingers in this picture, I had to hold the lipstick so it wouldn't roll away. This is the NYX Butter Lipstick in Pops, which you can get here for $5.99 USD. The formula is super buttery, just like the name suggests. I only own this color, but I would assume they're all about the same formula. It's a pretty brownish nude, and I think it would look good on almost any skin color.

This is the Wet' n' Wild MegaLast Nail Color in Private Viewing, which you can get here for $1.99 USD. For the price, it's outstanding. It only takes a couple of coats and it lasts as long as two days on my nails, which is actually quite a long time for me. Most polishes chip on me within a day, so I assume it would last longer on people with better nails. The color is also a nice neutral that would look good on anybody.

This is probably my favorite black liquid eyeliner, although I haven't tried a whole lot. It's the NYC Liquid Eyeliner in black, and it's only $2.77 USD here. It is a bit more expensive at other places, but nothing more than about three dollars, which is a steal for something this good! I find it difficult to use it for winged liner, but I'm honestly not that great at winged liner with any liquid eyeliner. I've hear other people say they find it easy to do winged liner with, so I think it probably has something to do with skill and a bit of natural talent with eyeliner, which I do not have. But for everyday normal eyeliner, this is great! It doesn't smudge or crack throughout the day and it's pretty easy to remove.

The Essence clear Lash and Brow gel mascara is absolutely fabulous for brows. You can get it here for just $2.99 USD. It keeps my brows in place all day long without feeling all weird and crunchy, and it comes off super easily with a makeup wipe or makeup remover. Mine's wand looks a bit gross, but that's just because I put it on after using a brow pencil, so some of that comes off on the wand and makes it look a bit icky. That's the only downside, though, and I think that any clear brow mascara would do that eventually.

Project Ten Pan Update #1

Project Ten Pan: Lip Balms Update #1

For this update, I'll only be featuring products I used up a significant amount of. Also, I won't be updating my other project pans until next week because I have yet to make significant progress on any of the items in them.

I used up a lip balm! This balm was fantastic, very smooth and moisturizing, and it was only a dollar! I totally plan to re-purchase it when this project is done. I rolled it up all the way for this picture, and as you can tell, you can't see any of it above the tube. When I finish up a few more lip balms, I may dig out the rest that is still in the little plastic bit that holds the lip balm and use it up entirely. However, for the purposes of this project, I will consider it finished.

This is the lip balm I keep in my bag for use throughout the day. I've used up about a quarter of it, but part of that is because the top got messed up and I had to cut a small amount off so it would be useable again.

Here is the watermelon Starburst LipSmacker I've been using compared to a mostly unused starwberry Starburst LipSmacker. As you can see, I've used up a fair bit this past week.

Here is my medicated tangerine EOS compared to an unused EOS. I didn't use that much this week, but I did use it a fair amount.

I've used up a ton of this Nivea lip butter! This should be finished within about a month. I use this at night before bed and whenever I feel like my lips really need some extra moisture.

Top Winter Lip Balms

My Top 3 Winter Lip Balms

In the winter time, most people's lips get more chapped than usual - and in my case, they can get pretty bad. Super chapped and cracked lips can be painful, and for somebody who likes their lipstick to look smooth and nice, it's just plain annoying. This winter, however, I've started regularly using lip balm for the first time, and my lips are in better shape than ever! So I wanted to share my top 3 winter lip balms for people who struggle with chapped lips like I do. Just keep in mind that if you wear lots of lip balm, you should also use a lip scrub every few days to get rid of dead skin on your lips.

I'll start with the balm I use during the day, the medicated EOS in tangerine. Make sure to get the medicated one, as the normal ones just aren't very good, at least not in my opinion. It's great for repairing chapped lips. The balm (well, more like a butter, but I'm including it anyways) I use before bed is the Nivea lip butter. This is the most important one for me, since it stays on overnight, therefore giving me moisture for the longest time. The balm I use on the go is the Chapstick moisturizer lip balm in raspberry creme. It smells lovely and protects my lips from the cold air while moisturizing as well. All of these lip balms are relatively inexpensive, and all of them are well worth their prices! I hope everyone reading this has a great winter full of smooth, hydrated lips.

Pampering Routine

My Sunday Afternoon Pamper Routine

Saturdays and Sundays are my days off, and I use that time to kick back and relax. I've started dedicating my Sunday afternoons to pampering myself a little bit to prepare myself for the upcoming week.

   I start off at somewhere between noon and three with a hot shower. I wash my hair and face, as well as exfoliating my face, arms, and occasionally legs. Sometimes I'll also take a bath and use some nice smelling bubble bath, but I'm very impatient so baths aren't usually my thing unless I'm really sore. One I get out of the shower, I throw my hair up into a towel to dry a bit and moisturize my face. I have very short hair, so by the time my moisturizer has absorbed, my hair is dry enough to take out of the towel. I let my hair air-dry the rest of the way throughout the afternoon and evening. I'll usually put on a face mask after that and watch some beauty YouTube videos while I wait for it to be ready to wash off. My favorite at the moment is the Freeman Dead Sea Minerals Anti-Stress Mask. I don't think it actually reduces stress, but it certainly feels nice and improves my skin! Sometimes I might paint my nails, and at some point I'll use a lip scrub and moisturize all over with a Bath and BodyWorks lotion.

Project Pan

Project Pan ROULETTE!

I've seen some YouTubers doing this variation of a project pan, and I thought it looked fun, so I decided to do it too. Because I'm just doing it for fun and not to get rid of products, I will be allowed to buy new products during this project pan, and I have no time limit. The concept is you put a bunch of restrictions for one specific item in a bowl and pick out ten. For example, if I picked out "a haircare item" then one item would have to be a haircare item. If the next restriction was "a foundation" then the next item I picked would have to be a foundation. I'll pick a new product restriction and a product to go with it whenever I finish a product. The project will be done sometime after I finish at least ten products, either when I get bored or I have picked every restriction. Without further ado, let's get started!

These are my restrictions! The only one I'm unhappy with is "a product you dislike," the rest should be pretty easy, especially since I'm allowing myself to pick out deluxe sized samples and products I've already started using.

I've recently been making my own lip scrubs, but I decided to use up a store bought one for this. There's still quite a lot of product left, but I use it frequently so it shouldn't be difficult.

I only have three or four mascaras, and this one is the most volumizing, so I chose it. It's from ModelCo and I got it as a gift from a family member. It's probably getting close to expiring, so I want to use it up before that happens.

After I use up the nude lip gloss in my Finish Five by February, I'll start on this one. I won't be using it right away, so it'll probably be a couple of weeks before I make any progress on this.

This has been sitting in my collection for a long time now, and I want to use some of it up. My goal for this product is just to use about half of it. That was I won't get sick of it and hate it forever.

This foundation is okay, but I prefer other ones, so I'd like to finish this one up. It's a tiny bit light for me, but it's still useable.

I use this eyebrow pencil daily anyways, so it shouldn't be difficult to use up. I'm in the shade blonde.

I only have two loose powders, and I wanted to try this one out more, so I chose it over the other one. It's brand new, but I still want to finish it entirely.

The reason I dislike this eyeshadow duo is because the colors just don't look that good on me, at least not the pink. Also, the pink barely shows up on my skin color. I just want to ht pan on both shades, not use them all up.

For my drugstore item, I chose a brand new lipstick. This is in the shade Mauve Outta Here. I just want to use enough that the top doesn't stick out when it's rolled all the way down.

For my skincare item, I chose my daily face wash. I use this in the shower and after I take off my makeup, but I'm going to try and use it every single day.

Empties

November 2015 Empties

I've been collecting my empties since pretty much right when I started this blog, which was back in early September. I've accumulated a ton, so it was time to post them here and throw them away.

I liked this shampoo, but I didn't love it, and I won't repurchase it because I have two more shampoos I need to try right now. It got the job done, but it didn't majorly impress me. It did prolong how long my hair color lasted a bit, but I like to change up my hair frequently, so there's really no point to me making it last longer.

I loved this dry shampoo! I have already purchased the full size. I just got the travel size to try it out, and it worked super well. Plus I like the smell!

I got this face mask off of ShopMissA for a dollar, and it comes with two treatments. It goes onto your dry skin and then it foams up and you massage it in with water to give your skin a deep clean. I loved it and would absolutely repurchase it.

I used up two of these sugar scrubs and I have already repurchased another one. They smell fantastic and they exfoliate really well. However, once the one I'm using is done, I might try out making my own body scrubs for a while to save money.

I finally used up a body wash! I love the Bath and Body Works "Paris Amour" scent and I have almost every product that comes in that scent. I actually have two more bottles of this, so I'll have to start using them up soon!

Although this isn't totally empty, it's literally about six years old. Ew.

I played with this when I was about ten or eleven and that was a long time ago so the fact that I still have this is disgusting.

Another thing that's technically not an empty, but I'm throwing it out because it's really old and way too dark for me.

I've finished off my beloved Hard Candy primer! I'm tempted to cut open the tube and scoop out what little is left because I love it so much. However, I'm trying out Nivea men's post shave balm as a primer, and that may replace this as a favorite.

Although I could probably scrape out the product around the edges and re-press it in the middle to get as much use as possible out of this, it was a bit dark for me, and even though I could work with it, I honestly just want to try out different powders.

This shadow is probably still usable, but the packaging is falling apart and I can't be bothered to attempt to fix it.

These palettes are incredibly old and not even very good, so I'm tossing them. I didn't even include them in my palette collection post because I literally never use them.

These pencils are all old, and two of them don't even have caps anymore. I don't need or want them and they're too old to give to friends.

All of these lip products are 3 or more years old, and that is disgusting. I forgot I had these and when I recently found them I was like oh god why are these still here ew.

The chapstick and the gloss are super old, and the posie balm smells icky to me, despite being pretty new, and it contained barely any product, so I decided it was time to toss all three.

These are old, so I was going to wash out the containers and re-purpose them, but the product is so sticky that it's impossible to get out completely. That's why I'm just throwing them away.

All of these are far too old to keep around. Using them just wouldn't be safe.

These glosses are new, and they look nice, but they smell DISGUSTING. They smell exactly like one of the things that the dentist puts on your teeth - I'm not sure exactly which one, but I think it's the fluoride. I can't stand the scent and I'm pretty sure everybody finds that particular scent unpleasant so I'm throwing them away.