Compromising with your wallet…part deux

My previous saga details the reasons why I was inspired to discuss the differences between drugstore quality and department/specialty store quality of cosmetics, so I’ll spare the introductory details and jump right into it. Last week I spoke generally about skincare and this week I’ll dive into the cosmetic cosmos of color!

Eyes are the window to the soul (<-- insert cliché beauty idiom here) so let’s focus there!

Mascara: Let’s face it…there are some FANTASTIC options out there in drugstore land for mascara. If you have to save some pennies, save some here. These are my top two favorites HANDS DOWN: Maybelline Full n’ Soft; great for volume building and the lashes are left feeling soft and pliable, rather than stiff or flakey. This is the mascara I lived and died by before I was converted to my all time favorite: Dior Show. My other favorite drugstore mascara is Cover Girl Lash Blast Volume Blasting Mascara. This little guy’s brush is comprised of stiffer rubber bristles to build and build long luscious lashes. It took a few coats to get the ‘full’ effect, but I definitely got full plump lashes. I was pretty darn impressed with this little man. I will say (my disclaimer) to bear in mind that mascara works differently for everyone. One person may LOVE a certain mascara and the next person may try it and it doesn’t perform the same at all. Everyone has different lashes and different preferences.

Pencil Eye Liner: ahhh…I am remember the good ole days when I had to hold my eye liner over my lighter to melt the wax, giving me about 15 seconds of pliable soft liner to work with before it hardened up to its original crust. If you want a soft, workable, smudgeable eye liner that won’t drag your eyelid skin half way across your temple when you put it on, go with a specialty/department store brand. But no worries!! You don’t HAVE to drop $20 on an eyeliner…c

heck out the Sephora brand nano liners. They are soft, blendable, adequately pigmented, come in 20 conservative colors, and are (ready for it?) only $5!! My other favorite eye liners are Stila Kajal pencil, too faced lava gloss liner, and Urban Decay 24/7 glide pencil (waterproof!!)

Eye shadow: Like eyeliner, a great eye shadow needs to be soft and full of pigment. There is really only one drugstore brand shadow that I would classify in that category. If you haven’t tried out L’Oreal HIP pigments, I would encourage you to give it a whirl. Beyond that brand,

stick with the higher end brand shadows. To get the most value, look for palettes; they always give you way more for your money. My FAV palette for the moment is the Kat Von Dee Ludwig Palette at Sephora. It is only $35 and you get 8 great sized, full pigmented, super soft, sultry, shadows. That breaks down to less than $4.50 per shadow a deal

you can’t find at the drugstore! I promise, you’ll LOVE them! If you are looking for single shadows, there are too many amazing ones to count. (I will tell you that I can’t live without my Make Up Forever matte shadows.)

Eye Shadow Primer: There is really no point in putting on eye shadow if you don’t have a great silicone base primer underneath. Those of us who are allegiant to this product cannot live without it. I won’t even bother putting eye shadow on myself without this magical marvel underneath; it truly makes that big of difference. Would you paint your fence without priming it first? Sure, the paint would show up, but the paint would not perform as well as it could, having to contend with the color and texture underneath. So prep those peepers with a great primer! It keeps your shadow on ALL day, keeps your shadow from creeping around, creasing up your lid, AND you don’t use as much shadow by giving your shadow a surface to adhere to. There are a lot of options out there and us primer prissies are so particular about our primer preferences (I couldn’t help myself ); here are the top picks: Urban Decay primer potion, Too Faced Shadow insurance (lasts a really really long time), Paula Dorf eye primer (my 1^st love), and Smashbox photo finish lid primer. Using a primer will make all your wildest dreams come true. That’s how exciting this product is; and that’s a promise!