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Sunnykm Avatar

Lumi foundation by Loreal. I wear it on weekends and it feels like Kin Foundation by Bobbi Brown. For comparison during the week I wear Cle de Peau foundation!

trina kolander Avatar

I must agree with colourpop eyeshadows. Amazing quality for only $5. You know how most brands have a few colors or items that don’t perform as well. no brand is perfect. so far i have not come across one shadow that didn’t provide fantastic pigmentation, i don’t have them all. You know they just came out with cheek color! I think 20 shades.

Katherine T. Avatar

*Revlon Ultra HD Lip Glosses. I have 8 of them now, and with BOGO 50% off, they are about $7.50 each. Many of them are so pigmented, creamy, and shiny that they can beat the pants off of HE glosses that cost 3-5x more.
*Wet N Wild Bronzer in Reserve Your Cabana. It was on sale for like $3, so I picked it up on a whim. Most bronzers look way too dark, warm, muddy, or orangey on my fair to light medium skin. IMO, this is too light to use as a bronzer, but it is so sheer and natural looking that I can dust it all over my face to get rid of the pasty winter dullness, and it has SPF 15 as well. And the pan is so huge that it could probably last me 10 years.

Nancy T Avatar

Even though I haven’t bought any yet, thanks to your reviews on them, I would also have to say the ColourPop Super Shock eyeshadows. Based on what I’ve seen, I need to start collecting these because the pigmentation is just phenomenal! As for anything I have bought at a bargain and loved, th Revlon HD lipglosses! But I didn’t exactly find them all on my own, but because I saw your reviews and swatches of them, I was sold on them, and they are really nice and pigmented, and very comfortable too.

Alla Avatar

The last one that I didn’t get because of rave reviews (eg the Maybelline Mattes or the Wet n Wild Colorlast lipsticks, both of which are amazing but which I knew about because of the hype before I ever tried them) is the Nyx Push-up Bra for Eyes. It’s a double-ended pencil with an all-purpose ashy brown on one end and a creamy matte pink on the other, and I think I’ve used it to fill in and highlight my brows every day since I bought it.

artemis Avatar

seabuckthorn is very good 😀 smells yummy, too. i wash my face with a gel from a local brand here that contains it and it’s great, doesn’t dry my face out, I also take some omega 3 capsules that contain this oil among others.

Mariella Avatar

Quo (the Shoppers Drug Mart house brand) makes the most amazing “beauty blender” type sponge AND a konjac cleansing sponge. These only cost $5 each. I have the originals of both of these products and can totally attest to the fact that there is virtually NO difference between the original and the much more budget friendly versions.

Mariella Avatar

I should have added “in terms of performance”. The Quo makeup sponge is deep purple and a slightly different shape and the konjac sponge is flatter – not the domed, half-sphere shape of the Boscia one but there’s simply no lack of quality in how they perform.

Katie Avatar

Definitely agree with you on the CraVe PM moisturizer. I use all Paula’s choice products as well and the PM moisturizer works very well with my 2% liquid BHA at keeping me moisturized at night. However, my skin is very dry right now due to pregnancy, do you happen to know of a hydrating daytime moisturizer that won’t break me out?

Georgina Avatar

Wet n Wild Fergie reflect shimmer palette in Hollywood Boulevard.
It’s amazingly soft and silky, it leaves a beautiful glow and it was only $6.00!!!!
Couldn’t be happier.

Jennifer Avatar

Silk Naturals Lipsticks – their formula is really comparable to mid range to high end brands but for only $5-6. The small size definitely keeps the price down but I actually appreciate that since it’s easier to build a collection and less nerve wracking if your purse swallows a shade.

LMM Avatar

Definitely Colour Pop! I have to agree with you on that one. The shadows as well as the lip pencils/lipsticks – I am really impressed with the pencils in particular. I want to order some summery colorful eyeshadows once it warms up outside too!

ellie Avatar

Etude House Play 101 pencil in #50.
It’s a creamy black brown eyeliner pencil that does not smudge on me!
(I do not like black eyeliner.) You can find them around $6 – $7 on e-bay.
Dept. store’s quality at drug store’s price.. Don’t we all want that?

Carla Avatar

I guess my most recent budget beauty “find” was Milani’s Brilliant Sine lip glosses.
They’re really almost like a poor woman’s Clarins Gloss Prodige.
I especially love “Red My Lips,” because it’s that difficult-to-find-in-a-gloss true bright red.

Rachel R. Avatar

Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream ($5.99). The texture and look reminds me of Too Faced Melted Lipsticks.

E.l.f. Studio BB Cream in Fair ($6), and e.l.f. Studio Maximum Coverage Concealer – Oil Free in Porcelain ($3).

Rachel R. Avatar

I think the soft matte lip creams last even longer than theMelteds. I think they don’t transfer as much, either. The butter lip creams are even more like Melted in texture and look (more of the shine, of course), but I think they transfer a little more easily. They still last really well, though. I really like both Nyx products.

Heather F. Avatar

Thank you for the helpful comparison! I’ve been lusting after the Melteds, but they’re kind of a budget-buster (and don’t come in many office-friendly colors). Guess I’ll be adding the NYX matte lip creams to my wishlist!

xamyx Avatar

Maybelline Fit Me! foundations; both formulas work beautifully on my drier skin, and the 110 shade is neutral & pale enough, which is a rare find in any price range.

I’ve also been loving the WnW Fergie Take On The Day Mattifying Powder. Again, I do have dry skin, but I have larger pores, and this blurs them without sucking the moisture out of my face. I like a powder to allow other face products to apply more smoothly, but it can look too cakey; this powder allows me to still use one, but because it’s basically a silica powder, it doesn’t look dry/flat.

Laua Avatar

I have become a lip product addict, I am not even sure how it happened. I have everything from high end to low end and everything in between.

I reach far more frequently for my Nyx soft matte creams and my holy grail color WNW megalast lipstick mauve outta here which is by far my #1 lipstick for both performance and color and it cost me 4 bucks up here in Canada. 4 bucks!!

Anna Avatar

NXY eyeshadow in rust (exact dupe for mac cranberry and beautiful), Wet in Wild lipstick in stoplight red (Very close to MAC Ruby Woo which is my all-time favorite lipstick), Wet N Wild Eyeshadow in Crème Brule (close to MAC Blanc Type), Milani baked blushes, City Color Cosmetics Lipbalm in Fire. Looking for a drugstore dupe of MAC Studio Tech NW20

Lydia Avatar

Great question! So ColorPop is my next adventure. I get so tickled when i find something budget friendly that works. In a magazine somewhere sometime I saw a lip look several nude shades of lip pencil with a clear gloss. So looking around I found that the maxi-lip plumper was in the UD Revolution lipstick. The same maxi-lip is in nyx lip plumper…yay.
I bought the clear nyx gloss and do a customized contoured nude lip with a little plumping action. So, yeah, long story short….nyx clear plumping gloss!

Brooke Avatar

Hard candy glamoflauge concealer. Works so well for tough blemishes. Revlon lipsticks. I love them, you need to re apply more often than some but I like to keep my lips fresh anyways. Burts beeswax Chapstick.

miekogirlie99 Avatar

Kevyn aucoin on hautelook 😀 was disappointed with the eyeshadow quint but the little duo is amazing! LOVE! and the tinted moisturizer was defective (all separated) so if i squeezed out product it would literally shoot everywhere 🙁 but i tried what i could anyway & it was SO nice. too bad it was defective. can’t wait for it to be on hautelook again!

Cas Avatar

I got the Milani face powder for 75% off a couple of months ago during CVS’s beauty clearance. Literally can’t wait for my Josie maran powder to run out so I can start using the Milani one full time. It’s amazing uhhhhhhhhh

Susan Dowman Nevling Avatar

Not exactly a beauty product but a body moisturizer. My husband got me a bottle on Anilactin because me skin is so dry in this weather. It has lactic acid which exfoliates while moisturizing and has helped tremendously. It seem we stay in s in ngle digits and -17 last night. These are the actual temps. Wind chills make it – 35 or worse.

Genevieve Avatar

My NYX Sunkissed blush and bronzer mosaic – it was 30% off so I picked it up for $12
Maybelline Colour Sensational lipstick – at half price – Revival Red – fabulous colour and creamy texture – $8
Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation in Light Porcelain – 30% off in Target – $10
So I have been really lucky lately.

michelle Avatar

It’s a tossup between the NYX wonder pencil and the Prestige BrowPerfection pencil. The NYX pencil is great for concealing tiny marks easily. The brow pencil is pigmented, easy to use, and has a spoolie. They’re both handy on the go.

Melissa29 Avatar

I love wet n wild megalast lip color in raivin’ raisin. I try to stock up on this lipstick when I find them. It is the perfect muted purple shade for me to wear to work. It’s super cheap, $1.29 or even 2 for $1.00 in rite-aid or walgreens. Lots of colors to choose from but raivin’ raisin is my shade. 🙂

Nicole O. Avatar

nyx’s intense butter glosses !

i’m not much of a gloss girl , (nor have i tried the regular butter glosses) but i had to try these when i saw how pigmented they were .

i was pleasantly surprised at how smooth they are . they’re thick , (which i like since that means they have a longer lasting power) but they’re not sticky .

i currently own 4 shades: chocolate crepe , toasted marshmallow , tres leches & berry strudel & i love them all .

i plan on getting a few more colors next time there’s a sale .

artemis Avatar

I guess Nyx Butter glosses, Sleek Glossed (tho it’s discontinued now 🙁 it’s the most hydrating gloss i ever had…pfff, i read their new ones aren’t that good). I wish I had these Colour pop shadows everybody is raving about over here 😀 I’d try some.

Alecto Avatar

I would say ColurPop anything. I’m a little sad that I didn’t wait a few days for their blush release (actually, I didn’t know about it until after) because I had been searching for a very long time for a matte, true orange blush that wasn’t $21 (I’m looking at you, MUFE). Anyway, finally, after months, I stumbled across La Femme blushes and got their version. I’m really happy with it, but I don’t know much about La Femme and I feel some affiliation with ColourPop now … great marketing, apparently!

Tam Avatar

There have been so many amazing beauty finds, which makes makeup all the more enjoyable, but I digress. My latest beauty budget jackpot purchases have been Milani Moisture Matte lipsticks.

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