Contouring and Highlighting: drugstore products

Wow I haven't done a makeup post in such a long time but I've been really busy doing other things... Ok so I've just been doing really boring makeup and stuff lately and neglecting this section but that is ok because here they are: my favorite products for HACing from the drugstore. HACing is highlighting any contouring if you didn't know. 

We've all seen those crazy photos on instagram like this one. Obviously that is unrealistic for the average day or even the average special occasion. That being said, on a day when I want to contour, I just go under my cheek bones and on my temples. Its of course up to you where you want to contour. I highlight under my eyes every day because I have the worst under eye circles and need some serious concealer and highlighting to combat that. (ps if you want to hear more about what I use to cover my dark circles I do have a post up. You can click this link here to view that)

Any way let's get on with what I use. 

This is the Fit Me foundation from Maybelline. I love this because it is a stick foundation with an oil absorbing core so it won't get greasy and will help with oily skin. They make this is about a zillion colors so find one that is darker than your skin.

Just realized that I have another Maybelline product here but I happen to really like them so there. If you haven't heard to the dark circle eraser by now, are you living under a rock?! Joking but this is a concealer buttttttt, they also make this particular shade which is a brightener. The combination of the color and the spongey tip make this perfect to highlight under the eyes. 

Finally for actual face highlighting, I use this. Its the elf shimmering facial whip. Again they make this in a few colors so find something that compliments your skin. This stuff smells amazing and has just the right amount of super-fine shimmer to add a beautiful glow to your skin. 

The best under eye concealers

Oh my god I have the worst under eye circles ever. I’m layers deep in eye cream, corrector, concealer, foundation, correcting powder, setting powder, etc and you can still see them. I have made it my life’s mission to find the best under eye concealers. While I still haven’t found one to completely cover them, these are the absolute best and will work for any normal person.  

1.First up is the Mac pro long wear concealer. It really will last forever. It isn’t cakey or too thick. Mac has a huge array of colors to choose from. If you have super dark almost black-eye darkness this won’t cover them but it will cover anything else. I like to use this over a corrector to make it last long and much my skin. ~$19 at MAC

2. It cosmetics bye bye under eye does exactly what it says. You can say ‘bye bye’ to your under eye circles.
They only offer 4 shades. This has such amazing coverage.
 Its very very thick so a little bit goes a long way.
I’m mac nw 25 and found the color neutral medium perfect for me.
My only complaint is that the light one seems to only match paper.
$24 on amazon

3. Ok this is a crappy concealer so, why am I including it? Because it’s amazing at brightening and highlighting under the eyes. If you put on some of the highlighter over your normal concealer, it will really brighten up the area. If you don’t have very bad dark circles and just want something to brighten and make you look a little more awake this is the way to go. They offer 3 shades and it can be found in most Target stores or online at their website. 

4. Such a cult favorite. Benefit erase paste. They have three shades in light, medium, and dark. Each one is orange toned to help cancel out blueness. This is more of a corrector rather than a concealer but it still works wonders. I have strayed away from this but still keep coming back to it. It costs $26 from Sephora/Ulta

5. Maybelline the eraser is really getting popular. They make a few types of this. There is the under eye eraser, the dark spot eraser, the eraser foundation, and the eraser brightener. This one is the under eye one. As you can see from mine, I removed the little spongey applicator. Doing this allows you to waste SO MUCH less product and its generally more sanitary. This has some really good coverage and I would recommend it if some of the others are too expensive for you. ~$7 from drugstores.

Best ELF products: eye brushes

This is the yet another part of my favorite ELF products series. You can check out the other parts of this series by clicking here

From Left:

1. This is a brush from the studio line. It has an angled tip. Its stiff yet still movable. I find this great for highlighting with eyeshadow or doing one color all over the lid. Its also great for contouring smaller areas like the sides of the nose. My favorite use for this is to set my under eye concealer. 

2. This brush is so tiny I don’t see how you could possibly use this for concealer. Its really stiff and has a rounded tip. I have probably 3-4 of these. I have one use it to line my eyes with gel liner. Another is to smudge eyeshadow under my lash line. Another is used to fill in my brows and I’m sure my dog is harboring the other somewhere. This is my absolute favorite eye brush.

3. Finally the blending eye brush. This isn’t the softest and I don’t use it to blend eye shadow. I think this makes a great pencil brush to pack color into the crease. This one you could live with out but I included it because I use it. 

Best ELF products: face brushes

I love ELF. Almost all of their products are either $1 or $3. There brushes are some of the best. They're all so soft and absolutely great. Here are my favorites.

▷1. Powder brush. This is such a great brush. Like the name suggests, you can use it to put on powder but, I find this great for buffing in liquid foundation. I've had this for years and it doesn't disappoint. The flat top is perfect for really creating a smooth looking surface. 

▷2. Stipple brush. It can be used with both cream/liquids and powders. I use it for foundation, cream blush or if I want to wear just powder. This adds a sheer wash or color or product. 

▷3. Blush brush. This is a good one for either powder blush or powder contour. This is a flatter brush that comes to a point. 

▷4. Complexion brush. Can you tell I loved this one? I bought this around the time that ELF created the studio brush line. My dog has chewed the handle and the paint has chipped. I really can't say why I haven't just picked up a new one; it costs $3. This brush is so great. It so so soft and again its flat. You can use it for powder or bronzer or anything at all. If I could only recommend on brush it would be this one. 

Maybelline Baby Skin instant pore eraser review

Maybelline Baby Skin instant pore eraser is the newest and biggest thing to hit the drugstore in a while. This is a not exactly a primer but some say it is comparable to Porefessional from Benefit. I have heard mixed reviews on this product so I decided to pick it up myself.

This has been around in other countries for a while and here is the states, we have been wondering if it was real or some sick joke. Well it's real.
Baby Skin has been hard to find but I found it in Walmart for $5.94. Already its a really inexpensive alternative to other.

The first thing I noticed about this is that it's oily. This didn't bother me on my face though. However, I felt like I needed to wash my hands right after using this. It doesn't feel as bad as say cooking oil or anything like that but it still wasn't great. This does take a bit to work it onto the skin but once you do, you're left with a very smooth looking and feeling texture.

This is what it looks like if that tells you anything.I was hoping that the would feel like the Ultra Smoothing Primer from Sephora brand which is one of my favorites but it was must greasier.

I put this on mostly under my eyes and on the rest of my face, but since I don't wear foundation, I thought under my eyes would be the best test. I used this then my normal routine. I was using this more for the priming results than pore reducing results.

*photo was taken around 12:45*

This did make my under eye area look a bit smoother and some how just better than normal. It almost looked airbrushed or photoshopped(minus the really bad lines I have but that's a whole other story.) (also I didn't edit the photo at all.)

Now for my face; it looked really smooth and if you don't have and skin issues that you want to cover, this would be really great for you to wear on its own.  Of course since this doesn't have color it won't do anything to help that.

I really can't explain it but in that photo, my eye area look smooth almost like I used a retouching tool in editing which i normally have to to

*taken at 9:30ish*

So, as you can see, this area looks a little less smooth. These two photos have different lighting (one natural, one taken at night with lighting) but it doesn't make that big of a difference. I can tell in person that after about 9 hours of wear my skin wasn't looking as perfect and smooth. That photoshop-in-real-life effect isn't quite as apparent though it still looks pretty good.







Overall I do like this. It makes your skin look smooth but i would suggest it for light makeup wearers or those who just want their skin to look smooth and almost perfect yet still natural. If you come across this, pick it up and try it out.

Benefit They're Real mascara: worth the hype?

Benefit released a mascara called "they're real" and everyone went insane. People rave about this like no other product. Finally, I decided I wanted to pick it up but $23? What if it sucked? Then I cam across the $10 mini size of it and it was prefect. This promises to lengthen, curl, separate, lift, volumize. It's basically going to do everything.

The wand is a normal mascara want but there's something different: the tip of it is a spiky little ball thing. It allows you to get every single lash. They say that you should use it both horizontally and vertically. 

The long part will zig zag through your lashes while the tip can be pushed up through them. 

This is one of my problems. That little tip pulls some much mascara out of the tube that if you don't wipe it off your bound for a giant mess. This isn't really a huge problem though, it still work after you wipe off the tip which most people do. 

I did curl my lashes before I applied this even though they claim it will curl. No curved brush though so I doubted that. With only a full swipes trough my lashes they were long, thick, and standing straight up.  I have decent lashes on my own but look at them. I love long lashes. I would wear drag queen style fake lashes every day if I could. 

Now, this mascara doesn't exactly make them look fake to me but no mascara in the world does. Fake lashes just have a certain way about them that no mascara can duplicate. 

Here's where this mascara falls a little short in my case: it really stays on. Like forever. It will not flake at all. This is all good right? Well yes, until the nighttime when you're trying to get this off. This may be my problem though because I normally take off my makeup with just a makeup removing face wash. I'm pretty sure a makeup remover or wipe would get it off. 

While this mascara does do pretty much all of those things that it claims to, I don't know if its worth spending the full almost $25 on. There's plenty of great drugstore mascaras from the drugstore that do this all as well. That being said, my eye lashes look awesome. I would for sure recommend trying out the mini version first. 

UPDATE: i have had this for almost 3 weeks now and notice that its getting dried out.

NYC Big Bold Gloss review

I want to start this off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of lipgloss. I normally like either matte lips or natural lips. Secondly I got this is my varsity Voxbox from Influenster. You can join Influenster by going here. The site is perfect if you blog or vlog or post anywhere about anything. You fill out questions that can qualify you for free boxes full of goodies related to you. I've gotten 3 so far. However this is not a site where you just get a bunch of free stuff. Getting a box is kind of rare but it's worth it. 

Anyway this gloss. I got the color "pleasant plump pink". The gloss claimed to plump your lips, last for 5 hours and be light weight and non sticky.

First off, pulling out the applicator, I see that it is a like a normal lipgloss except its huge. This didn't really present any sort of problem but it felt like it was a bit cumbersome. Because of this, you do get a lot of product out at once. I found myself having to wipe it off and waste some product.

When I put this on, it burned. More than the average plumping gloss tingles. Most plumping glosses feel a little bit tingly but this hurt. The sensation went away pretty quickly though. 

I don't really feel like plumping lip glosses actually work because I have never seen one that works. Naturally I didn't feel like this one plumped my lips either. Here's some pictures.  You. An decide for yourself if it worked. 

I think that lipgloss adds a highlight to your lips that makes them look a little larger over all anyway. As you can see, like most glosses, this one is pretty sheer.

Overall I didn't hate this but I probably will not repurchase it for myself. If you're looking for an every day lipgloss then this may be for you. If you're looking for huge volume in your lips and good color payoff, skip this one. I give this 3/5 stars.

You can find more information about this product Here.