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Beauty Fashion

The College Girl's Guide On What Makeup You Should Spend Your Moolah On

Sometimes, us makeup lovers have a budget. We need to pick which expensive products to get because we can not afford them all.

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The College Girl's Guide On What Makeup You Should Spend Your Moolah On
Chloe Black

There are some people that like to put a full face of makeup on every day, and I'm talking about full coverage foundation with even more coverage concealer. That, too, also use to be my life. Throughout this process, I tried a lot of different products, trying to find the best products for myself. Through this journey, I have also spent a lot of money, and I want to help some people decide on which products are better to spend more money on.

Now, starting with the first step to everyone's routine, primer. This step for people that put on full faces of makeup is crucial. Some of my favorite primers are Fenty Beauty's Pro Filt'r Instant Retouch Primer, NYX's Angel Veil, and NYX's Drop Primer. I think that if you have a good primer, then your makeup will stay longer. A lot of people rave about Benefit's Professional primer, as much as I have wanted to try this product, I have not, so I am not going to talk about it. Out of the three I mentioned earlier liking, Fenty is the most expensive at $34. This product can only be bought at Sephora. Sephora is a prestige makeup store and only sells the more expensive brands like Fenty Beauty. For full face makeup, I think Fenty is the best one for the job. I love the blend and the quality, it is like silk for the skin. The NYX primers I mentioned are also good options and only leaves a little hole in your pocket. Both being around $17, I believe that these are good alternatives to Fenty's primer. NYX brand can be found at Ulta.

I will say, though, that the drop primer will not hold up as well for the full makeup faces as it would the lesser faced makeup lovers. In my everyday routine, I use a primer alternative because my daily makeup routine is really minimal. Instead of primers, I use Neutrogena's Age Shield Face Sunscreen. This is great for my makeup routine because it helps my problem and the sole purpose I stopped putting on a cake face every day, Acne! The sunscreen helps to get rid of acne scars on my face and, obviously, helps me not burn in the sun. It is SPF 110 and sunscreen, in general, helps keep your skin looking younger longer. This is also good just to put on and go out the door, I just use it as a primer because I put on makeup on top of it.

Next step is Foundation. Now, I have tried plenty of foundations because I've always been curious about so many different foundations. The best ones, in my opinion, are Too Faced Born This Way, NYX's Total Control drop foundation, Maybelline's Fit Me, and NYX's full coverage foundation.

I heard really good things about Morphe's new foundation, but I haven't gotten it to try out yet. Too Faced foundation is great in my opinion, It's worth its continual hype. It can be found at Ulta and Sephora for $39. It is expensive, but I believe that this is worth it for makeup lovers. NYX's foundations are found at Ulta both for around $10. The drop foundation is good for the summer and I have heard is a good foundation for acne prone skin because of it's thin product.. the full coverage is the opposite, being complete full coverage and is great to hide imperfections. Both are great foundations for the cost. I would not consider these alternatives to the Born This Way foundation, though.

Maybelline's Fit Me foundation can be found at Walmart for around $8. I normally go for this foundation when I'm struggling to match any of my other foundations because this product is good at blending colors. I use this foundation in the summer because their tanner colors suit me better than their pale. It is also pretty good at not melting off my face when it's hot. Right now I use none of these foundations and I use BareMineral's Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream. This is a tinted moisturizer and it's very breathable for my skin. It's noncomedogenic and I'm probably going to be wearing this all summer instead of taking my chances with foundations. Since wearing this, I have gotten little to no breakouts on my face and my skin has literally thanked me for it. My skin has it's own glow back and I don't even need to put highlighter on for that. I do however use the NYX Drop Foundation as a concealer because of the thin product. The two blend well together.

Speaking of Concealer...

In the concealer category, I believe I have found my match. With that being said, I don't have an opinion on a good amount of concealers out there. I basically only have two to talk about that I like and that is, Maybelline's Fit Me concealer, and, of course, Tarte's Shape Tape. Shape Tape is a world favorite and because of this concealer, I stopped looking for others. It can be found only at Ulta for $27. Totally worth it, in my opinion, the formula is great and conceals perfectly. Maybelline's concealer is an okay alternative. It does cover, but this concealer is better used with a thinner foundation. This can be found at Walmart and costs $6. It doesn't cover as much as Tarte's, but for the people who don't use a lot of makeup anyway, it will work just fine and the price is fabulous. I use this with my everyday routine when I want to cover a pimple, however, since my skin has gotten better, I haven't been using it at all. After concealer, I normally set my face with powder, so this is the next category.

Powder is powder, It sets, it stays, and it gets everywhere. I have used plenty and haven't gotten in trouble with any. I have the noncomedogenic option being Laura Mercier's loose setting powder, but I haven't tried it yet to rave about it. The one I use right now is the Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder. It can be found at Walmart for around $7. Some people hate this, and some people love it. WIth my daily routine, I use this and don't witness a problem. I would recommend giving it ago because, in my opinion, the powder is there to keep your makeup from falling off. So, any powder pretty much does for me.

Next, I am going to talk about contour and bronzer. I am going to talk about these together because they are used differently, but I have seen plenty of people use the same products interchangeably.

For bronzer, I like the Hoola Bronzer by Benefit. It gives everyone there nice little tan and no matter what shade I am, the medium shade fits me. It is $30, however, the mini version is just enough product for me and it goes for less. I can't find the price on that one, but it is definitely more affordable! I recently got the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer which I will be trying it during summer, but can't put an opinion on it. I have heard some good things, though! For contour, I will start with the Anastasia Beverly Hills contour powder kit. I liked this palette a lot because of how practical it is. It has three shades of contour, a highlight shade, if I remember right, a banana setting shade, and a normal setting shade. You only need one palette for everything which makes packing very easy. This can be found at Ulta and at Sephora for $40. This is not my favorite contour product, but the highlight shade is so pretty, so for the product being a contour kit, I had to talk about it.

My favorite contour product right now it the Tarte ParkAve Princess Chisel Palette. It has four contour shades with a banana setting powder and a skin-toned powder. Within the contour shades, there are two more cool toned and two warmer shades which makes it so easy to combine colors and make it your perfect match. The product blends well and can be toned down after placed (just in case you make a boo-boo). I looked on Sephora and Ulta and did not find it online their sites, which is a big bummer. It is still sold on Tarte's site for $45, but for it not being at Ulta and Sephora I probably won't buy it again. I will most likely go fishing for another palette to try out when I'm finished with this one.

For blush fans, I don't have much for you. I'm sorry, but I didn't use to be a blush fan, so I haven't tried a lot of products. I don't have any high-end products to share, and I also don't have a good source to talk about any other products out there. I started to like blush because it gives a nice middle ground between contour and highlight. The blush blends the two together pretty well. In my opinion, I like the cheaper blushes, I can put as much product I want on my brush and I won't look like a doll after. As long as you find one that is pretty on your skin tone, I think you're golden.

Speaking about highlighter, this is so hard!

There are all kinds of good highlighters out there, there's Liquid highlight, glittery highlights, glossy highlights, and powder highlights. In my opinion, it's hard to find a bad highlighter. The worse I've found is just me not blending out the product enough on my face and it became patchy. My favorite liquid highlight is Makeup Revolution's in the shade Champaign. I have heard wonders about the Iconic London Illuminator Drops, but Makeup Revolution is cheaper and is good quality as well It is $9 and can be found at Ulta. My favorite powder highlighters are Anastasia's Sun Dipped Glow Kit, and of course the Anastasia Kit I mentioned earlier. The Sun Dipped Glow Kit is sold at Ulta and Sephora for $40. Right now for highlight, I switch between RMS Beauty's Living Luminizer and NYX's Dew Stick. The Living Luminizer is at Sephora for $38, it is noncomedogenic which is great. It is a face gloss and looks so natural and pretty on the skin. The Dew Stick I could not find on Ulta's website anymore so I have nothing on that. It is a natural finish like RMS Beauty's, it looks a tad more tan and less actual highlight, but for the price difference, it is a good match.

As much as I would love to get into eye makeup, there are way too many products out there that are wonderful. I would be taking too much time, so we are going to go to mascara. This is a key step for the people that don't put on lashes all the time. For me, I love Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara and IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara. That's a mouthful. They are both $24 and can be found at both Ulta and Sephora. For mascara, I think these are the best contenders for making your lashes pop. Maybelline does have plenty of good options as well, and they are sold at Walmart for easy access, but I don't think they go quite to par with the other two.

The best step of all is setting spray and this product has to be good in order to keep your makeup in check. I recommend Urban Decays All Nighter Setting Spray. It is found at Ulta and Sephora for $32, and there is a cheaper travel size option. Another one of my favorites is Morphe's Continuous Setting Spray. It is a cheaper option for setting spray, being $16. It is at Ulta and I think if anyone were to spend more money on a product I would say spend it on foundation and setting spray. They are the most valuable steps, meaning that if these two go wrong, there is no saving the makeup.

All in all, makeup isn't necessary for anyone, but I hope that my opinion given my credibility and love for makeup has helped anyone debating on what makeup to get.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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