I feel like I need to start this post with a disclaimer, I do not wear makeup every day. I do not have the time or the energy to put my face on every single day. Besides I think that after a straight week or two my skin would hate me so much it would go on strike and I don’t want to walk around faceless. Well that got a little dark, sorry. However, I do wear makeup frequently when I have to, I like looking nice but on days when it is about 100 degrees outside there is a point when it just becomes pointless to wear makeup that is either melting off, being sweat off, or clogging all of your pores because your skin is trying to breathe in the heat.

On days when I am outside and it is that warm I normally just stick with my No. 7 Tinted Moisturizer in the shade Fair, which is actually a little too dark for me most of the year but when I am tan it is fine. (Seriously, I went on a date in May and I wore that, concealer, mascara, and chapstick and it was fine.) Being outside most or all of your day means that you need to have something on your skin otherwise you could be doing significant damage to your skin in the long term.

On to my normal makeup routine though. I feel like a lot of these products are a repeat from my Makeup Bag Essentials post from a few months ago but I tend to keep the basic staples ready for my everyday look and add to it if I need to transition to a more formal or more fun look for the evening. (Let’s be honest, I don’t go out very often, I look forward to taking my makeup off at the end of the day.)

One of my friends refers to this as my “drug store” makeup because for the most part you could walk into a drug store and find most of the products that I have here, you could also walk into some Target’s and most Ulta’s and find everything that I am listing below. It keeps the price point down on most items and you could probably find dupes for the more expensive items (the foundation and concealer) in a drug store as well. This is for the most part also what I used in my 10 Minute Makeup Routine video on my YouTube channel. (Ignore the fact that it was like 20 minutes because I talk too much.)

Primer is a must for me and I use NYX’s Photo Loving Primer in Green because I have a red undertone to my skin because rosacea is a pain in the butt to have because I always look like I am blushing, I am not. (Only sometimes.) I have found that it is a pretty good more cost effective dupe for Smashbox’s primer also in green, I would not say it was a perfect dupe it is a bit more of a thinner consistency than the Smashbox primer but there is also a large price difference, the Smashbox version will run you about $39 for a 1.0-ounce size and the NYX version runs about $13 for the same size. So this product has been a staple in my makeup bag for well over a year now because I prefer a colored primer rather than a colored concealer.

 

Foundation is something that I have to be careful of when I buy it because I have to use products that are for the most part non-comedogenic which means it doesn’t clog your pores. Now for the most part I use more of the high end foundations, well they are probably more mid-range normally I switch between Too Faced and Urban Decay, my current favorite and go to for my every day is Urban Decay’s All Nighter liquid foundation on the shade 0.5. (The only reason I am not using my Too Faced foundation is because it is a shade too dark for me and it has a very yellow undertone and I cannot wear it, it makes me look a little ill.) I have used more drug store brands in the past and while I have liked them for short term wear for long term wear I find that many of them break me out so I tend to only use them for short term applications.

 

Concealer now the only concealer that I have ever used is Urban Decay’s Naked Skin in the shade Fair Neutral. I like using the same brand for foundation and concealer, maybe one day I will branch out to other brands but for now this is the concealer that I stand by for all of my makeup looks. Under the eyes, around the nostrils, and on any blemishes that I might have around my face, blending that all in with a blending brush so it doesn’t look too obvious against my foundation.

 

Eyebrows are something that I fill in pretty much regardless of what I am doing if I am wearing makeup, I didn’t do my eyebrows until I was out of college because no one told me that I needed to fill my eyebrows in so I didn’t have a nice blonde tint to my normally dark brown eyebrows. Now I used the ELF eyebrow products for quite some time and in a pinch I would go back to them because I prefer the gel and powder combination in the compact instead of in a pencil form. Now I use Rimmel Cosmetic’s Brow This Way in Medium Brown because I find that it is very easy to use, it looks nice and it doesn’t take a lot of time to apply it and still make it look good. This had been another staple in my bag for well over a year now, probably more like two or three because a few of the beauty guru’s I follow on YouTube suggested it at the time and I found myself going to three drug stores to find it.

 

Eyeshadow is something that some people I know don’t actually include in their everyday makeup because it takes too long but I do because it adds a pop of color to my eyes while still looking relatively natural. Normally I would go for less shiny or metallic shades but for simple looks I tend to actually like to have some metallic shades in the mix. Now for my every day look I tend to reach for my NYX Cosmic Metals eyeshadow palette, I use shade 1 all over my eyelid, 2 for the outer corner and underneath the eye below my lash line, 3 for the middle of the lid, and 1 again for the inner corner.

Mascara what can I say about mascara? I tend to have several that I like but only use a few and for the most part I tend to have more travel sized mascara than full sized even though the one I use most often is a full sized and that is NYX’s Worth the Hype mascara, as soon as this one came out it replaced my favorite and that was Urban Decay’s Troublemaker, now it is not an exact dupe but it still lengthens the lashes and I love it so much. Other mascara’s that make appearances in my makeup routine are, Urban Decay’s Troublemaker, Tarte’s Maneater, and Benefit’s Roller Lash because I love all of them for very different reasons and sometimes you just want to have your eyelashes make different statements and having a variety of mascara’s assists with that.

 

Lips are normally the final thing that I do in my every day routine, now for the most part in my every day routine I do not actually wear lipstick. Normally I use an eos or Burt’s Bees, this one is the eos crystal because it is clear it has a bit more shine and I tend to use this in the morning and reapply as needed throughout the day. I prefer none tinted products in many cases for an everyday look but if I am going to need to look nice after my day is over I will carry around a liquid lipstick around with me. Normally it’s something from NYX and in a more nude or pink shade for this time of year.

What are your favorite products in your everyday makeup looks?

-MJ