My Holy Grails
After a year of constantly clicking through the Sephora website and YouTube beauty guru review videos, I have finally come to my holy grail makeup products. It is very important to know, however, that my holy grail products might not be your holy grail products; we all have different types of skin. My skin, for instance, is a combination of an oily t-zone with dry cheeks that is also very sensitive and acne prone. But if you're like me, these are my absolute go-to makeup products.
1. Foundation: tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour full coverage foundation SPF 15 & Maybelline Fit Me! Matte and Poreless foundation
I've been using this foundation both during the day or at a late-night event for about a year now. The small amount of SPF provides a fine amount of sun protection without giving a white-casted face in any pictures. It's a thicker, more mousse-like texture, but it glides on the skin perfectly with a foundation brush or Beauty Blender. It's not 100% full coverage for my bad acne scars and hyper-pigmentation spots, but with a little concealer on top it's perfect.
My drugstore go-to has got to be Maybelline Fit Me! Matte and Poreless foundation. It leaves my face matte, but not flat, and this simply feels like my skin on my face. It's completely lightweight, yet gives good and natural coverage that doesn't make my face oily after 12 hours. This has been my everyday foundation.
These two foundations have never broken me out (which is a living miracle) so I highly recommend these products for acne-prone skin!
2. Concealer: Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer and Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer.
I use the Age Rewind to brighten my under eyes in a triangle shape past my under-eyes and the Radiant Creamy to spot fix my acne scars and face blemishes. The Radiant Creamy is thicker, so if you use it under your eyes be sure to set it with good powder (I use Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in Translucent) or else it will crease. The Age Rewind is wonderful because it's lightweight, affordable, gives amazing coverage, and the sponge applicator creates a very flawless yet natural look. Just don't forget to get a shade lighter than your skin tone to brighten up the under eye area!
3. Eyeshadow: Naked3 Palette, Too Faced Natural Matte Palette, Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar Palette.
I can't live without these three palettes. Well, first off, no one can live without at least one of Urban Decay's Naked palettes. I love the Naked3 because I think that the pink and grey tones give a very feminine look for my skin tone. I use it for any date night. A good drugstore dupe I hear is Maybelline's The Blushed Nudes Palette, but I think the shades are far less pigmented. The Natural Matte Palette is my everyday palette. Even when I'm using one of my other three I always use the Natural Matte first as a base. This contains the most buttery, creamy shadows that blend beautifully. The Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar is great for a more stand out daytime look. I particularly love the two larger highlight shades. Plus, who wouldn't want to open a makeup box and smell chocolate??
Becca is known to have the best highlights and the world is right. When used with anything from your fingers to a fan brush, these two shades are perfect to give subtle highlight to the tops of your cheekbones, brow bones, corner of inner eyes, nose bridge and cupid's bow. It's creamy yet it blends very naturally into the skin. Opal is a paler shade than the peachy gold Champagne Pop, but they're both nonetheless all year products.
The lip liner is the perfect, natural base for your lips. You could line them to fake a plumper lip look, for completely fill them in for a "my lips but better" color. If you pair this on top of Gerard Cosmetics' Kimchi Doll it's perfect for the daytime! While I'm obsessed with the nude lip trend, my top nude lipstick is the Melted Lipstick from Too Faced. Its sponge applicator makes it easy to apply and the sponge is angled so that you can still create your precise edges. It's the perfect nude!
Enjoy!