Make-up is a big passion of mine. While I am not skilled enough to do super creative looks, dipping into a new makeup palette tends to be quite exciting for me. One of the many great things about makeup is that it is extremely personal. What works for your friend and sister may not work for you. 

Personally, I favor the higher end makeup brands over the drugstore make-up. I believe it truly does work better. Others may disagree and have their favorite drugstore makeup brands. Again, this is just personal preference.

Everyone’s first step of their makeup routine is primer. My go-to primer has been and most likely always will be the Too Faced Hangover primer. This particular primer contains coconut water, which is great for hydrating the skin. I typically will let this “set” while I wet my blending sponge. Just that minute or two is enough for the primer to get less tacky and sticky.

My next step is the base, which I start with a color corrector. I recommend the Urban Decay Naked Skin color correctors.  The next step is foundation. If you are looking for a good drugstore foundation, I recommend Maybelline SuperStay Full Coverage. A great higher end foundation would be Urban Decay’s Naked Skin. This is my personal favorite foundation and I think it feels, looks and applies perfectly. Lastly for the base is concealer. I have tried many concealers, but my favorite is the Kylie Cosmetics Skin Concealer. It applies, looks, and feels amazing on the skin. It also has the great smell that the Kylie products are known for having. 

The next steps are where things get fun. For contour, I recommend using the Too Faced Cocoa Contour palette. If you don’t want the palette, I recommend using the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer. While this is bronzer, it works perfectly for contouring. 

Highlighter is one of my favorite makeup products and I have several recommendations. Some companies that sell good highlighters are Ofra Cosmetics and Anastasia Beverley Hills. One good specific highlighter is Too Faced’s Diamond Light Highlighter. I like highlighters that give you a nice dewy look and are blinding. This highlighter is good for that. 

There are so many eyeshadow palettes out on the market and opinions on them vary. Morphe is a great brand and they tend to do a lot of collaborations with people in the beauty world. In my opinion, I think this is a great way to get ideas of different people’s preferences and what they think is popular in the industry. Jeffree Star Cosmetics makeup palettes are beautiful, great quality, and they blend amazingly. BH Cosmetics has very beautiful and colorful palettes. These palettes are also great if you like sparkle as the palettes have beautiful metallics and glitters. The last eyeshadow brand I recommend is Colourpop. They have great quality eyeshadows and very creative ideas. My favorite thing about this company is they have “color-coded” palettes. 

My one and only mascara recommendation is PÜR Fully Charged Magnetic Mascara. It doesn’t make your eyelashes clumpy and ugly. They look almost like false lashes with this mascara.

Lipstick is the last part of my routine. Good companies for this are Jeffree Star Cosmetics and Kylie Cosmetics. They both apply well and last a long time. They aren’t drying on your lips and are lightweight.  

Setting sprays vary. Again, this one is personal preference but I have recently been using the Urban Decay All Nighter.