Using Every Last Bit

We all know that nice quality makeup is friggin' expensive. Here are some tips on using every last bit of it to stretch your dollar a bit further. I happen to be running out of my liquid foundation and powder right now at the same time. I've been using a crappy brush for about the last week or two to carefully scrape every last drop of my foundation out of the bottle. I kind of need a bent angle brush like this to get that curved part near the top.

You just swipe that across your face and blend in rather than use your fingers. Yes, I look dumb. But I seriously have kept from needing to get out a new bottle of foundation for almost 2 weeks and that's nothing to laugh at because at $10.49 a bottle, or $1342.72 a gallon,  it isn't cheap! ( yes, 1 gal = 128 fl oz and one bottle is 1 fl oz)

 Once it is all blended, it doesn't look as dumb:

Now powder is trickier because it gets all crammed into the corners. I've been tediously using my kabuki powder brush to get this out:







Here, I crushed up the remaining powder with the end of that same brush I used to get my liquid foundation out:

Once it's pretty pulverized, you can gently dab your normal kabuki/powder brush in and apply as usual.

See? Applies as normal.


Pro Tip: don't put your shirt on until you are done with your makeup. This keeps you from having powder on your shirt. Same goes for brushing your teeth.

And looks better in natural light.











You can keep doing that, gently dabbing til the pulverized powder is slowly all used. The only problem I find with that is sometimes the larger chunks get stuck in your powder brush and then fall out when you apply it to your face (if you don't tap it out before going to your face) and that is not using all the product! Remember, you are trying to get all the mileage you can out of your makeup.

And thusly, I present this "re-constitution" idea. Get out the highest percent rubbing alcohol you can find. The highest I can find is 91% at CVS. I'm sure Walgreens has it too but meh, whatever you want to do. Step 1 is to crush those pieces down super fine:

Then pour a little bit of alcohol in. Not too much to drown it, but enough to saturate it. To me, this looks like my cat's wet food.

Then mix that slurry really really well.  I'm using the end of that brush, but have used tweezers before.

The goal is to get it all in the middle so you can use your powder brush on it later. So scrape around the sides the best you can. Admittedly, tweezers are better at getting into the corners.

Now let it dry for 24 hours. Here it is after about 12 hours:

It'll crack, that's normal. It'll crack more the more alcohol you put into it.

This same alcohol technique can be used on powder eye shadows (more on that in another post)!



I'm sure you've melted your lipstick at some point, don't laugh at it. The same technique applies when you are running out of it too. You can get a ton more applications of lip stick if you are just willing to get out a brush to put it on. To be fair, too, it usually gives you a nicer lip line anyway to use an angled brush or just brush in general. No photos of this because I only really wear lipstick when I am going out to the bar and I don't have any application photos of that yet.

Well, I hoped this will encourage you all to get out your brushes and start scraping the last remains of your makeup out. You'll be surprised how many applications you'll get out of something you otherwise would have just tossed in the garbage can. I've been doing this for years now. Not just because it saves money, but sometimes you don't always have a back up waiting and you have no time to run to the store.

My Stash: eyes!

So this is a post showing what's in my stash. My plastic bin has four drawers. This is the second (and most used) drawer:

This drawer is actually packed full and is hard sometimes to get in and out of. It has only eye products. Eyeshadow, liner, fake eyelashes, and eye tools.  Yes, I have a metric crap ton of eye makeup.

Let's take a look at what's visible in this pic:
Fake eyelashes - along the top. Various brands, a lot of Ardell & Andrea.
Urban Decay Vice Palette - middle right. Is stacked on top of the Naked and Naked 2 Palettes.
Tokidoki Robbery Tin - bottom right. Its actually filled with various small round Urban Decay (and others) individual eye shadows. The 3 palettes it came with are just sitting on the bottom under it.
Black & white flowery bag from 31 Gifts - bottom left. Filled with big round individual eyeshadows. Mostly Ben Nye, Urban Decay, L'Oreal, MAC, Makeup Forever. Under it is a bunch of L'Oreal HIP shadows & liners, some select Cover Girl quads, Sally's Beauty 99 cent shadows, random other shadows
Red Zipper, black & white stripe bag from Sephora - Eye Pencils, sharpeners, Stick eyeshadows, Eyelash curler

I'll more than likely show this whole stash over a period of time since there is so much product in this drawer.

Lipcare

I recently bought this lip butter by Nivea and let me say it is AMAZING! It smells delicious, moisturizes my lips, and leaves them supple and smooth. I love food smelling stuff and this is delicious smelling. Doesn't taste delicious. But you aren't supposed to be eating it.

I don't recommend leaving any tins of lip product in your hot summer car, so this is more of a home item. I leave it on my desk!

Makeup Basics

I normally wear makeup on a day to day basis. I like having a nice looking complexion and being ready at all times for social interactions and photographs. I have serious under eye circles and some acne issues. You may choose to or not to wear makeup as little/as often as you want for other reasons.

Here's my daily use makeup bag:

And here is the contents Left to Right:
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer
L'Oreal Line Intensifique (now Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliner)
L'Oreal True Match Corrector
Tweezerman Tweezers
Prestige Pencil Sharpener
Crappy Cheap Toothbrush
Bonne Bell pencil eyeliner (discontinued)
Cheap Kabuki Brush
Avon Wash Off Waterproof Mascara
Sephora Advanced Lash Booster Mascara
Sephora Smoothing Primer
L'Oreal True Match Powder
L'Oreal True Match Liquid



Start with washing, drying & moisturizing your face. I let my moisturizer soak in while I brush my teeth. Now, on a normal day, I'd just wear: Liquid makeup, concealer, powder & mascara. I don't use the other stuff unless I want to amp it up (eyeliner, eyeshadow) or wear it all day and then into the night (then I'd use the Primer). You don't need to use makeup to become someone else every time. I get a lot of compliments about my skin/complexion and half the time people don't realize I wear makeup every day. By not going overboard every day, I still look pretty natural. I mostly wear makeup every day to correct my flaws and enhance my natural beauty rather than to look like a clown/street walker. Though... more makeup has its time and place.


Choosing your brand and color takes time sometimes. I used CoverGirl liquid as well as powder as a teenager and really found it was giving me terrible break outs. I also used Almay for a long time because it didn't give me breakouts, but it didn't match my color very well. Although Almay Clear Complexion Concealer is still great to cover zits (not under eye circles or other imperfections! JUST zits!). And I also love Almay's Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover Pads (I swear by them!). I liked Palladio's Wet to Dry foundation (I didn't use powder over it) because it made my skin smooth and pale. But it dried my skin out over time and honestly it was too pale for daily use. It was great for the bar though! Oh, that's a tip by the way. If you find a makeup that is a shade too dark or too light, just don't wear it in the day light. Don't throw it away and waste your money! Use it when you go to the bar!

Anyway, in the case of daily wearing makeup, less is more. I use just enough liquid to cover my flaws. Apply with your clean fingertips. Then dab your zits/scars/undereye circles with a bit of the concealer. This will all take time to get skilled at and the more you do it, the better you get at it. A couple of tips: Make sure to go past your jawline and into your neck a bit as well as towards the ears and hair line. I emphasize this because you don't want to look like you are wearing a mask. L'Oreal's liquid lets you build your coverage as needed. So if you see you didn't cover as much as you wanted, work on the other side a bit and then return to the spot to build up more after it has dried a bit.

Finish off your face with a light dusting of powder makeup. I am using a lame kabuki right now but will use it till its dirty and frayed. Previously, I was using Essence of Beauty's Stand Up Powder Brush (from CVS) for years. The bristles finally started coming out of the handle and I couldn't glue it back. Also, I wash my face brush maybe once a month with anti-bacterial soap. It could probably take it once a week if I wasn't so lazy. But this is an important step if you have acne-prone skin. It helps lessen the amount of bacteria you are spreading around.

My two problem areas are covering zits and under eye circles. I found the best way to cover them is as I described above: first liquid makeup, then concealer, then powder. This sometimes doesn't cover enough so I go back over my flaws with another layer of concealer and then use the powder sponge that comes with the powder to just cover those spots. That seems to work like a charm and doesn't make your whole face look cakey.

Mascara is amazing. If I were only allowed to wear ONE makeup item, it would be mascara. It makes a world of difference. I recommend waterproof if you have greasy skin. Also if it is humid or raining out, you anticipate tearing up at all. From crying, having contacts in, going somewhere smokey, basically I recommend waterproof all the time. I will wear non-waterproof to indoor events with controlled climate. The Avon waterproof I my mom gave me is quite nice. It has a nice brush, nice and dark black, lasts and makes non chunky lashes. The sample Sephora is alright. Same as above except I wish it was blacker and it dries and flakes off a little too much for me to want to actually purchase it. My normal brand is Maybelline Great Lash Blackest Black. It ruins washcloths and really necessitates an eye make up remover, but I love it. If you mess up, use a Q-Tip to fix!

That's it for daily-wear. I don't like blush, lipstick, eyeshadow, eyeliner or fake eyelashes on a daily basis. Maybe one of those things occasionally is fine, but every day is too intense for me. If you look at my very first post, I am wearing my daily wear makeup plus pencil eyeliner.



Eyeliner, eye shadow, use of face and eyeshadow primer, fake eyelashes, lipstick and blush will all be addressed in another post. Hope this helps your basic makeup needs!