My 10 Fave "Drugstore" Beauty Items

Here's a list of my 10 favorite "drugstore" beauty-related items. I say "drugstore" because a couple of items can only be purchased at Walmart or Target. So let's get to it...

#1: Softlips

Mmm, Softlips. They're priced under $3 for a two-pack and come in Vanilla, Cherry, Strawberry and Raspberry, as well as a few limited edition scents and flavors such as Coconut Cream, Peach Mango, Sugar Cookie and Winter Mint. All go on clear and are flavored and scented depending on it's name. The untinted Softlips will moisturize and protect your lips with SPF 20, while the tinted shades - Bronze, Rose, and Pearl - have a citrus scent and flavor, and have SPF 15. I like them better than Carmex.

MY PICKS: Vanilla, Coconut Cream, and Cherry

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#2: Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Color Comfort Lip Color

These lipsticks go for about $9.99 but they are worth it! They're so creamy, moist, and pigmented, and contain sweet almond oil, grapefruit extract and cocoa butter. I usually skip lipgloss when wearing these because I feel that it's not needed. These lippies are paraben-free and come in 21 colors. My only gripe is that there isn't a nude, beige color.

MY PICK: Rosy Brown - a creamy brownish-pink.

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#3: Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Blush

It's so hard finding a pressed blush that's talc-free and oil-free, especially in a drugstore - I think this is the only one. These are wonderful for those with sensitive, acne-prone skin, but any skin type can use these blushes. Price: ~$11.99 in drugstores.

MY PICK: Pink Glow, a matte peachy-pink that would look nice on most people.

Click here for more swatches and a review

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#4: Revlon ColorStay Eyeliners

When they say ColorStay, it's no joke. I have hooded eyelids and used to have a problem with eyeliner smudging onto the middle of my eyelid, but since I've discovered these, it's not a problem. They come in 8 colors (I'm missing Navy) and they have a pull-out sharpener at the other end. I only wish it also came with a sponge tip smudger at the end. Price: ~$7.49 at drugstores.

MY PICK: Black Brown, not as harsh as black but still friendly for brown-lovers.

Click here to see my video with a dry rub and water rub test

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#5: Milani Single Eyeshadows

There are some good brands of drugstore eyshadow but Milani is probably the best because of it's awesome pigmentation and texture. You can find them at Walgreen's, some Targets, and at a few perfume shops in malls for around $4. Twelve colors are usually easy to find but there are some rare colors - like Almondine, Antique Gold and Taffy - that you won't be able to find in a store. Fortunately, Nonpareil Boutique has them all (24) while Cherry Culture doesn't.

The only color I have that I didn't like was Sheer Sand because if it's gritty, sandy texture. Maybe I just got a bad one.

MY PICK: Java Bean, a gorgeous warm brown that I use almost everyday.

Click here to see the 3 Milani shadows in my GoTo Palette

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#6: Studio Tools Medium Shadow Brush

This is the one brush you'll need if you're feeling a little lazy. You can pack on color onto your lid, line your lashlines, do your highlight and outer-v with this baby. If you hold the brush head vertically, you can blend and do your crease area or the area right above the crease. Hold the brush head horizontally for more precision and get shadow right into your crease. You'll find this brush at Target for only $2.49 and it's super soft. Get five of them!

Click here for my Studio Tools Brushes review

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#7: Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets

Are you getting shiny in the summer heat or are you like me and suffer from oily skin? These blue, flexible, plastic-like sheets sop up the oils on your face without smudging your makeup or adding excess powder, like some blotting sheets do. These are not papery and they don't make crunching noises when you use them. I usually fold them in half and put a piece of tissue or toilet paper behind them before blotting my face so I don't get sebum on my fingers. Price: $4.49 - $5.29

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#8: Dove go fresh Beauty Body Wash

I hate when body washes lose their lather after just washing the front part of my torso. Every shower gel that I've tried from a designer perfume line or from a drugstore brand just don't stay foamy. I still have to put a decent-sized glob on my loofah when using this, but the lather lasts for my whole body and leaves my skin feeling soft. This body wash comes in four different scents: Burst, Energize (has little beads), Refresh, and Cool Moisture. Price: $5 - $7

Another good thing about this is that it does not contain the evil Sodium LauRYL Sulfate, which is an ingredient that dries out your skin and hair. It does contain Sodium LauRETH Sulfate, but that is not as harsh as the other. Just remember that Lauryl ends in "l" like evil - that's how I always distinguished between the two.

I love Dove! Their shampoos, conditioners, and body bar are also great.

MY PICK: Burst, a fruity scent of nectarine and white ginger.

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#9: Garnier Fructis Anti-Frizz Serum

I have thick, wavy hair and I always use this after straightening or curling my hair to get rid of fly aways and frizzies. If you don't like strong, citrus scents then you'll hate this but I think it smells great. This is a lighter oil than Baby Oil, which some people use in their hair. Now, there is a trick when using this. Do not pump a full pump into your hand and glob it onto your hair because then you'll look greasy. Pump half a pump's worth and rub it between your hands. Then, apply this little by little starting from the ends of your hair and fingercomb it upwards until you get your desired results. It's also best to section off your hair when applying this oil. I don't apply this near the roots of my hair because it will weigh it down. Since my hair is so static-prone, I still need a bit of hairspray afterwards. Price: $4.79 - $6

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#10: Pure Ice Nail Polish

I've only seen Pure Ice at Walmart so I don't know if you can find them anywhere else. These polishes are only $2 each and they come in a wide range of colors and finishes that will please everyone's tastes.

I once bought two bad bottles where the formula was horrible, only because someone at the store played around with them and didn't screw on the tops tightly. I hate when people do that. So if you get a bad bottle, don't let that discourage you into trying another one.

MY PICK: I love all the colors! Their creme and shimmers are great but, beware of their chrome/metallic formula.

Twinkle, a beautiful orange-coral with gold shimmer, kind of like a deeper Nars Orgasm. (That sounds nasty)

Coral Reef, a lovely pink-coral with small flecks of silver glitter.

Click here for some of my Pure Ice swatches

UPDATE: I bought another one of Pure Ice's chrome/metallic colors because the first one I tried - First Time, a mint green - applied horribly and the color would slide off my nail; I thought I just got a bad bottle since all the other colors applied so well. But after trying out another one called Outrageous, a pretty pinkish-lilac chrome, the formula was the same. It slides off your nail the more you stroke it with the brush. But I found if I applied it thickly, and brushed it on very lightly with no more than 3 or 4 strokes, then I could work with it. You also have to let it dry well before applying another coat. They have some really pretty chrome/metallic colors but stay away from them because of the formula. What a shame since their cremes and shimmers are great!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

<3

The EASIEST Depot Ever (Revisited)

After easily depotting Revlon ColorStay Quads- see the original post here- I thought the Revlon Matte shadows probably would require the same method. And yes, they do!

What you'll need is just a PUSH PIN- or anything small enough to fit in a tiny hole, like a safety pin or the back of an earring- and you don't need any alcohol. You might need a paper towel to remove the sticky, gooey glue so that it doesn't get on your hands.

But first of all, the swatches....

They're pretty pigmented over a good base but I sometimes don't like the texture of these matte shadows. See all the chunks leftover when I swatched the blue one? But, at least they're matte.

~HOW TO DEPOT~

1. Peel the sticker off the back to find the hole in the upper left hand corner.
2. Open the case cover and place the push pin into the hole and start pushing gently.
3. That's it! The eyeshadow pan should lift up pretty easily. Remember, you don't need any alcohol to dissolve the glue; this glue is different than on most eyeshadow pans.
4. To remove the excess glue on the back of the pan, use a paper towel to grab most of it off. I tried dissolving it with alcohol but it does not help; it just leaves a sticky, tacky residue.

Then you can just label the pan with a Sharpie. Make a CD palette by placing magnetic sheets you get from the craft store onto the bottom of the CD case (after removing the insert that holds the disk in place). Then, just stick the bare eyeshadow pans onto the magnetic sheets and bam, you got a homemade palette. DO NOT PUT MAGNETS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE EYESHADOW PANS because then it will not stick very well to the magnetic sheets in the CD palette. Yeah, the magnetic sheets don't stick to themselves very well; metal will stick better so leave the pans bare.

Gosh, I just love Revlon for making it so easy to depot something!

If your doing these in bulk, you might not have to peel the sticker off the back anymore. You can just "feel" for the hole.

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The same method applies to Revlon ColorStay Quads. Again, you can see the original post for that if you click here.

See the four holes on the left side? You can just "feel" for them with your push pin and poke through the sticker. Start depotting.....easily.


~The ColorStay Swatches~
(All swatched over Scandalous Eyeshadow Base)

Twelve of my depotted quads. Click to enlarge and see the names for each.

THE NEUTRALS

The 1st, 2nd, & 4th colors in the Coffee Bean quad are matte. All the other colors in every quad are shimmers. Warm tones...
Cool tones...

THE COLORFULS

(I redid this swatch so it's different from the original)

Steel Impressions is available at Walmart, if you can still find it.
I told ya it was the easiest depot ever! =)

I Took the Plunge Into Liquid

Since Maybelline discontinued their Great Wear liquid foundation, I have not used another liquid makeup...until now. I still remember the name that was the perfect match for me and didn't break me out- True Beige. I even kept the bottle that is somewhere in the closet and it's probably all nasty.

I thought I'd take a break from my mineral foundation (Everyday Minerals) and give liquid another try. So I picked up Revlon Colorstay liquid foundation in Warm Golden (#310) for combination/oily skin.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

• 1 ounce for about $12.99 at drugstores
• Contains SPF 6 (Titanium Dioxide 7.3%)
  
• Two formulations: Combination/Oily skin or Normal/Dry skin
• Available in 20 colors ranging from fair to dark
• Patented SoftFlex formula
• Transfer resistant

• Active Ingredients: Titanium Dioxide (7.3%)
• Inactive Ingredients: Aqua (Water, Eau), Cyclomethicone, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Butylene Glycol, Boron Nitride, Dimethicone, SD Alcohol 40B, PEG/PPG 18/18 Dimethicone, Nylon 12, Tribehenin, Isododecane, Polyisobutene, Sodium Chloride, Cetyl PEG/PPG 10/1 Dimethicone, Bisabolol, Serica (Silk Powder), Tocopheryl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate, Malva Sylvestris Extract (Mallow), Lilium Candidum Bulb Extract (Lily), Lactobacillus/Eridictyon Californicum Ferment Extract, Cymbidium Grandiflorum Flower Extract, Serica Soie (Silk), Alumina, Polydimethylsiloxane/Polymethysilesquioxane Copolymer, Ethylene Brassylate, Methicone, Trisiloxane, Sorbitan Sesquiolate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, May Contain (+/-): Mica (CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, 77492, 77499)

Warm Golden (#310)

(All pros and cons are based on my personal opinions & experiences)


PROS

• Great oil control- I didn't even need to use blotting sheets all day, just an occasional blot with a tissue. Being an oily gal, I was amazed!
  
• Very minimal color transfer- When I blotted with a tissue there was hardly any color transfer
• Medium to buildable coverage
• Seemed to be waterproof
• Long-lasting- Didn't wear off throughout the day
  
• Oil-free- See ingredients above. Also contains silk powder, vitamins A & E.
  

CONS

• Couldn't find a good color match- Their tones are not yellow enough for me. (See the swatch below) The blob looks yellow-toned but when blended out you can see it turns pinkish.

(Swatched heavily on the inside of my arm- one of the lightest parts of my body)

• Dries quickly- You have to work on a small area at a time and blend quickly.
• Hard to remove- The only thing that removed the swatches was my eye makeup remover. Facial wash, liquid soap, shampoo and baby wipes did not take it off! I used facial wash and a soft cloth to wash my face and it seemed to come off. The swatches required more effort to remove.
• Strong, sweet alcohol scent- Can be bothersome
  
• Broke out- After the second and third times I used it, I noticed a few new breakouts. I got one blemish on my forehead where I rarely ever break out so I attribute that to the liquid foundation.
• Messy to work with; no pump; clean-up was horrible- People say loose mineral makeup is messy but oh my gosh, this was SO messy. I used an empty jar (see below) to pour my makeup onto and used a stippling brush to apply. It took 4 cotton balls of eye makeup remover to clean my brush and another one to clean the jar (used as a palette). There's no way I can leave that makeup to dry on my brush and jar all day but I don't have to time to clean up after getting ready in the morning. With my mineral makeup, I don't have to wash my brush until a whole week.

The leftover, stuck-on mess

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite the list of cons, if you can find a good color match and if you don't break out, then it can be
MAGIC IN A BOTTLE.

ALTERNATIVE USE: Since I don't want to waste $13 plus tax, I tried it as an eyeshadow base and it works pretty good. It creased on me half way through the day. I haven't tried it over TFSI yet but that would probably help with creasing.

Hope this helps! =) I'm sticking with mineral makeup =P

The Easiest Depot Ever!...In a Magnetic CD Palette

See my pretty CD palette? YAYE! It's actually the second one I've made because the first one was for some depotted Ulta eyeshadows which I need to make a post on. But I depotted 6 of my 8 Revlon Colorstay quads and they were the easiest things I've ever depotted...easier than Milani singles or Ulta Singles!

So in the picture above the names of the quads starting from the top left corner going clockwise are: Sultry Smoke, Steel Impressions, Spring Moss, Blushed Wines, Lavender Meadow & Priceless Metals. And yes, it's magnetic. I used my peel and stick business card sized magnets that I got in a pack of ten at Joann craft store. I used three but had to trim off one of them to fit the inside of the case perfectly. If you want a straight line, especially when trimming the origami paper, use one of those cutters with a slide blade that's used for photos and other crafts. You can see the excess magnet on the left side of the palette. It's that gray strip.

I brought the edges of the origami paper up both sides so that it has nice decorative edges and on the spine I wrote the name of my palette. I decided to call it "Revlon Colorstay 1" in case I want to depot my other quads, plus I always get more anyway.

Here's the back view. As you can see, I used two different designs of origami paper for the back and for the inside bottom. I decided not to make a front label so that I can see what's in there. I like it that way better. You can also write the names of the eyeshadows on top of the CD case cover with a Sharpie if you wanted to. I just used Scotch Tape to adhere the paper to the CD case and I made sure to use two big strips on the top and bottom since I knew this palette would be heavy. Yup, it's pretty hefty with 24 pans in them. I recommend DOUBLE-SIDED Scotch tape for the best hold and appearance.

I used business sized peel and stick magnets. You need 3 of them but you'll have to trim one of them down a little. (This is a pic of the other palette I made)

And if you decide you want to take some with you for travel, 7 pans will fit perfectly into a depotted NYX trio case. All you have to do is peel and stick another magnetic sheet to the bottom of that and voila, you are ready to go.

This is how I depotted them. All you need is a push pin and nothing else. If you turn it on it's back, there are 4 holes on the left side of each quad. The first two quads I did, I peeled off the stickers and then I realized I didn't need to do that! I just had to find the first hole on top and poke through the sticker. Once you find the first one, then the others are easier to find since they're lined up in a straight line.

Here's the front view of a depotted quad. See the four little holes on the right side?

Here's the push pin I used. You can also try using the back of an earring.

The g00iest, stickiest, creamiest, most annoying glue ever!

Sorry I don't have a pic with the shadows being pushed up the palette (UPDATE: I added a pic). Once I got started, I just did all of them. LOL. But behind each shadow pan is a circle of glue near the middle of the pan. It's a different kind of glue where you don't have to melt or dissolve with alcohol. It's really sticky, creamy, and gooey...kind of like the consistency of peanut butter and if you get it on your hands it's a mess. I used a paper towel to scrape it off the back of each pan. I found that alcohol didn't really help in removing the excess from that back and it just left a tacky mess. And you need only to apply little pressure with the push pin since the pans lift up so easily.

I swear these Revlon Colorstay Quads are the easiest things in the world to depot. It's like Revlon knew we would like the option of depotting since they put those four little holes in the plastic. Now why can't every company do that? Hmm, maybe they do! I'm going to start peeling off the backs of my drugstore eyeshadows to check. LoL =P

If you make this palette, this would be the optimum hold for eyeshadow or blush pans WITHOUT magnets because some magnets do not stick very well to these magnetic sheets. If you want to make one for eyeshadow with magnets on the bottom of them already, try using a metal sheet to glue on the bottom of the CD case like the kind you find at the bottom of an e.l.f. compact.

Have fun depotting your Revlon Colorstay Quads and making you own CD palette!! <3>


*UPDATED PICS*

I made two magnetic CD palettes! Yaye! My pride & joy.

Quad names clockwise from top left: Blushed Wines, Berry Bloom, Lavender Meadow, Sultry Smoke, Steel Impressions (@ Walmart only) & Spring Moss

Quad names clockwise from top left: Priceless Metals, Copper Spice, Coffee Bean (matte except for the 3rd color), Sterling Rose, Nude Elements, Sandstorm
Swatches to come!...
See swatches here.

I made a palette for my first four Ulta eyeshadows which are such good quality! They're huge too. You get about 3.6g or something and they're really creamy and pigmented. I got these on a BOGO. They used to be $6.50 each but now they're $7.00. What's up with that? But it's still worth it. This was the first CD palette I made. You can fit up to 9 Ulta eyeshadows in this baby.

Clockwise from top left: Cashmere, Golden Olive, Plum Smoke & Rose Dusk