What's your favorite affordable beauty product in your routine right now?
ColourPop Heavy Petal!
— Christine
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Essence blush! Any shade, theyre all beautiful and only £2.50 each!
Ulta Beauty eye primer and elf putty blushes
NYX butter gloss in Madeline.
Delight Naturals lip balm, currently in Red Velvet. I throw it on first thing and pat in the remainder by the time I’m done with the rest of my skincare routine, and it makes my lips perfectly smooth and soft for any tints to lay down well. It’s only $12 and change for half an ounce of product.
Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara. I have tried every other mascara out there….Chanel, Dior, Lancome….all the big brands. I even tried to MUCH overrated Maybelline Great Lash. I have no idea why anyone thinks it’s so great. It’s garbage. I always return to Voluminous.
I absolutely understand your thoughts on Maybelline Great Lash. I remember trying it ages ago, I was so disappointed. I had read in so many magazines how good it was. Garbage is the right word for it!
Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara. I have tried every other mascara out there….Chanel, Dior, Lancome….all the big brands. I even tried the MUCH overrated Maybelline Great Lash. I have no idea why anyone thinks it’s so great. It’s garbage. I always return to Voluminous.
NYX Proof It Waterproof Eyeshadow Primer. I never wear powder shadow without it.
Gosh – there are so many. Milani eyeshadow primer, The Ordinary Lactic serum, The Inkey List Retinol Anti-Aging serum, Sephora single eyeshadows, Wet n Wild Mega Glow highlighters….
Mariella, I posted a reply to your fabulous news regarding the arrival of baby Jemma (a beautiful name) and you may or may not have read this. I saw it much later than when you shared your exciting news.
Congratulations to your daughter and son in law, after what must have been a very difficult labour and delivery. I was quite appalled to read that your daughter had been sent home without her husband for the very first night with the baby. No wonder she was overwhelmed and upset. A few extra days in hospital for her would have made all the difference. I hope your son in law has recovered from his appendix operation and your daughter is feeling a bit better too. It takes awhile to get over a C-section, as I well know.
And how is bubba? I bet she is the cutest little darling on the planet!
Somehow I missed about baby Jemma, I’m sorry. Congratulations! I hope mom and baby are doing great now.
Nyx’s HD Finishing Powder. Cheap as dirt. Pry it from my cold, powdery hands.
E.l.f. Makeup Mist and Set in Original. I’ve been using it for the better part of a decade, and it works great (Bailey Sarian has said the ingredients are very close to MAC Fix+). It’s is only $8 USD for a large bottle,
The Milani Color Statement Matte Lipsticks in Matte Dreamy, Matte Beauty, and Matte Nude have become favorites, especially when I have to wear a mask for long periods during the day. They’re $6.99;USD.
I really enjoy the ELF Original Mist and Set too! My son picked it out as a present for me and it’s been a pleasant surprise.
I have a few drugstore staples including L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black waterproof, CP lip primer, Kiko Milano Holiday Gems Kiss of Light (the best drugstore glitter free pale cool toned pink highlighter for very fair skintones) and CP Luxe Lip Oil (the best lip oil I’ve ever tried at any price point).
Something that I sadly won’t be able to get a replacement for because L’Oreal DC’ed it: their Infallible Eyeshadow in Continuous Cocoa, which has been my best eyebrow powder ever. It’s waterproof and never smudges even when the air gets soupy and hotter than I can bear, my brows stay put!
There’s other A-Listers beyond that, though! ALL my The Ordinary skincare items that I use nightly, Essence Satin Love blush, anything by ColourPop that I return to on a regular basis, like Imperial Lux Gloss or Spare Thyme and Sunnyvale eye liners.
Plain ‘ol Carmex.
W&W highlighter in Awesome Blossom is one of my staple highlighters. It blends in perfectly with my skin tone. Gives me a nice glow. Cost about $5.00 It rivals some of my most expensive highlighters. I brought several backups.
A Cover Girl single eyeshadow in Brown Smolder, that I use as contour. It’s the perfect shade.
Essence Princess Lash False Lash Effect mascara, Wet ‘n Wild Photo focus eyeshadow primer, The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid and Carmex.
There are quite a few very affordable beauty products within my routine at the moment:
Maybelline’s Spice for Me and Mauve for Me lipsticks
ColourPop’s Gallop, Foolish, Tea Thyme and LA Lady lipsticks
Models Prefer Eyebrow Pencil
Designer Brands Centre Stage Mascara
Nude by Nature’s Primer
Flower Beauty’s Serum and Skin Illusion foundations….to name a few!
Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide hydrating moisturizer (cream), fragrance free. My skin likes this stuff, and I apply it very generously as a night cream, or as a daytime moisturizer if I’m not wearing makeup.
Colorful nail polish by Orly, OPI, Essie, and Revlon in various shades of pink and red, with Revlon Clear as a topcoat or all by itself.
Maybelline For Me Lipsticks, I have Ruby, Pink and one more but I can’t recall the colour and am too lazy to go upstairs to check. 😀
My CP brow pencil is surprisingly good, I will repurchase it.
I’m not one to buy drugstore makeup, not because I’ma snob about it, it just so happens that the makeup that I really like is generally high-end and not what others would consider to be budget friendly. However, I have a makeup kit that I keep fully stocked at the gym so I don’t have to keep packing a bag every time I go. In making my gym makeup bag, my friend told me to try elf cosmetics for some smaller items so I wasn’t keeping everything designer only. I’ve found that their brow pencils are thebomb.com. I like it better than any of the other ones I have, which is saying a lot because I’ve got so many others to pick from.