What's in your make-up bag/pouch/kit that you couldn't live without at the moment? In fact, let's expand it to beauty products in general. What's making you super happy every time you use it?

My most recent one is my #44 Sephora brush. It's a bronzer brush, but I put on my mineral foundation with it and it's such GREAT coverage. I don't wear very expensive foundation at the moment, I'm using Neutrogena skin-clearing powder, which I'm pretty neutral about, but the brush is fantastic.

I'm also in love with e.l.f. products, which you can buy at eyeslipsface.com. Their packaging is a little flimsy, but they're great products at a great value, and they have lots of coupon codes and deals going on all the time. I love all of their lip glosses, their make-up brushes, and their eye-shadow pallets.

Finally, the hand-made organic soap I use, that I got at Whole Foods. It smells amazing and makes my skin soo soft and fragrant. Totally worth the price, in my opinion.

I forgot to add my urban decay eyeshadow primer! LOVE this stuff, keeps my eyeshadow in place for hours. I also have found that I use very little and it goes a long way.

Mascara in general...my eyelashes are very blonde so it looks like I don't have any and I look funny like that. I haven't really found a favourite mascara yet but have found lots that I liked.

I ADORE my cold cream for cleaning my face.

Honey for my breakouts works amazingly.

Mascara! Right now I'm using a mini tube of Benefit BadGal, but Maybelline Full 'n' Soft is one of my favorites too. The only other things I regularly wear are eyeliner and sometimes a little eyeshadow and highlighter. Never really anything on my lips except Burt's Bees, though, so I'd say just mascara.

- DiorShow Blackout
- Boccia BB Creme
- MAC Prep 'n Prime
- Samantha Chapman's brush line
- MAC tinted lip conditioner
- Too Faced Natural Eye pallet

VS Pro Airbrush FX Face primer. It's sunscreen. Doesn't feel like it though and it doesn't burn near my eyes.

Too faced natural eye palette
naked palette (urban decay)
falsies mascara (maybelline)
NYX milk shadow stick
bella bamba blush (benefit)
covergirl nature luxe foundation
mac 239 bruch

Bare Minerals foundation
Benefit "That Gal" primer
Mascara (currently Benefit's Bad Gal Lash, but I'm not particularly attached to it or anything)

I have other make-up, but those three are definitely my "must haves."

I just got my first makeup from the brand Pixi and when it first arrived I a bit dissapointed because the kits I ordered looked childlike. You know those kits of play makeup pre-teens get with tons of different colours that are awful quality? It reminded me of that...at first. But then I started to play with it more and I'm really enjoying the pre-done colour pairings that came with the Week of Wakeup Makeup kit. The lip colour are lacking in pigment but they are shiny so that's good. The eyeshadow is super-duper pigmented and there are lots of options there so I'm liking that at the moment.

I recently purchased Nivea's Rich Regenerating Night Care and it's a lovely night cream. It goes on very nicely and feels thick and smooth and has what smells like a citrusy scent, to me.

I'm been a lot more into nail-polish these days than I ever have before and I'm enjoying using Rimmel's French Tip Pro nail polish. It has a skinny pointed brush and makes french manicures easy even for people with unsteady hands like me! I also really love Essie's Cocktail Bling which was part of their Winter/Holiday collection. It's a matte grey/blue and I'd recommend grabbing a bottle while it's out there!

Mac shadesticks! MUST HAVE. I think they're discontinuing them, so I've been buying up all the ones I see on Ebay.

Mac's concealer in a pot and ELF highlighter under my eyes is something I wear almost every day now, the rest is optional.

Pur Minerals Eyeshadow & Bronzer in the summer kit (came with some good brushes too)
Almay's Dial up mascara
Avon's blush "crayons" if I don't use the bronzer
Burt's Bees Chapstick and I have a variety of cheap lip glosses
Sally Hansen's lipflation, but only if I won't be kissing anyone

Benefit Eye Bright- really highlights well and has no sparkle effect like many other highlighters

Mascara- I was recommended NYC (yes, that $3 brand) Show time which is great! It is actually quite similar to Dior Show

Liquid Eyeliner- really any type, at the moment I'm using NYC brand which works fine. I used Kat Von D's and it's not worth 10X the cost.

When I actually wear makeup, I love my Kat Von D eyeshadow primer. That stuff keeps my eyeshadow on all day (and I have a really bad habit of rubbing my eyes).

Bumble and Bumble surf spray- got this for Christmas and oh man. I have to make myself not use it every single day and use up the whole bottle!

Boots bergamot body butter- They sell Boots brand stuff at Target now! So exciting If only they sold Barry M eyeshadow in the US I would be in heaven.

MUFE Lab shine lip gloss- sooo pretty and smells like peaches Another thing I have to make myself not use every day.

Sephora brand nail polish- they come in great colors, and even I can make my nails look good with that brush!

NYC (same cheap brand pointeisflying mention haha) lipstain- I got this in a gift bag from my "secret buddy" at dance and it is actually amazing!

Booster from NaturaleBeauty- I got this in a set from Ross of all places, when I was looking for a new mineral foundation, and I love it. My friend and I named it, "perfect skin in a box," and actually the whole set was really good. It's sort of mineral veil type thing that you put on over foundation and it looks amazing. I tried looking for it online though, and I think it's discontinued, which is tragic, as I only have a bit left

Nailpolish, nailpolish, and more nailpolish!! Any brand will do, just depends on what colour I find! My nails are currently painted the cutest shade of purple, and IT SMELLS LIKE GRAPE! I keep smelling my nails, which sounds kinda creepy, but DUDE! It's like grape hubba bubba!

Make up wise, at the moment I mostly just use eyeliner and mascara and some lip gloss, but I have a whole collection of Lime Crime bright coloured eyeshadows, which I use on occasion when I feel particularly cheery.

I LOVE my Body Shop Body Butter, I got a new one for Christmas that smells like strawberries, it's soooo good!

-Urban Decay Naked palette
-Benefit brow gel (LOVE!!! I just started using powder on my brows about 6 months ago, and this + powder looks awesome and lasts all day!)
-Laura Mercier mascara

I just re-started my make-up bag and I bought everything new and high quality so I have been really excited every morning to play with my new make-up. I realized that More expansive brands are most of the times a lot better than the drugstores ones and they make a huge difference.


The product I am most happy with so far is my benefit blush in Dandelion. It's just the right shade, it smells good, it stays on. Definitly worth 30$.

Also... good brushes. They really help a lot.

Mine lately have been:

*black liquid liner - I haven't found one that is my favorite yet, but right now I'm using an Almay one
*the new Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eye shadows
*Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed
*Black Gel Liner (I use the Maybelline one)
*Urban Decay eye shadow in Flash (looks so good smudged under the lower lashline)

SaraTheGrouch wrote:

Mac shadesticks! MUST HAVE. I think they're discontinuing them, so I've been buying up all the ones I see on Ebay.

Just FYI, an excellent dupe for Mac shadesticks are the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils. They are a fraction of the cost, have a larger variety, and work much better. And this is coming from a self-proclaimed MAC collector.

--Clinique City Block in SPF 25. I use it because I'm religious about sunscreen and my face cream doesn't have any in it. This is a physical sunblock (as opposed to chemical), so it doesn't irritate my skin, and it acts as a nice primer for makeup.
--Nars concealer stick. Nice coverage where needed.
--Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Correcting Powder. I'm into mineral powders for their low irritability, but every one I've tried is too shiny or not the right colour for me (I am extremely, extremely pale). This one looks weird in the compact, but the pink gives a bit of colour, the beige conceals and the green tones down redness in skin. Works great.
--I use a variety of fun eyeshadow colours depending on mood, but right now for subtlety and simplicity I love the fat Nars eyeshadow pencil in "Hollywoodland." It's a shimmery champagne colour that looks nice in the corner of the eyes.
--Unfortunately it seems to have been discontinued, but I loved Kat von D's blue mascara -- it was electric blue and rather dramatic, but super fun.
--For lips, right now I love Smashbox's lip gloss in "Starlit," which is a shimmery red that you can pile on for deep colour or blot for a berry-stained look.
--Finally, at night I apply a thick layer of Nip & Fab's "Lip and Nip balm" which is super thick and kind of petroleum-jelly like, but helps with my very dry lips.

OOH! Bergamot body butter? I LOVE the smell of bergamot. I had this sandalwood bergamot body wash that I found at CVS of all places, and loved loved loved it, but then they discontinued it. Will have to stop at Target to see if I can't find this stuff.

I feel so weird saying this, but I have never heard of eyeshadow primer until recently. One of the blogs I read mentioned it and how amazing it was, and now a lot of you are saying the same thing! I'm definitely going to have to find some, I could definitely benefit from it. Can anyone recommend a decent brand that's pretty cheap? Maybe something from Wal-Mart or Walgreens...I have a budget crunch at the moment but I will probably invest in something later!

/hijack

Right now I'm loving Maybelline's Falsies mascara. I have always loved that stuff! I recently had to buy a different brand because Falsies was SOLD OUT (!!!) and was not happy. Needless to say I went back the next day to buy it because Rimmel was not doing it justice haha.

Neutrogena's Pink Grapefruit cleanser is amazing...it cleared up my skin really quickly, but it DOES dry my face out really badly. I only use it about two times a week now because it is so drying, but I love it.

Krystal wrote:

I feel so weird saying this, but I have never heard of eyeshadow primer until recently. One of the blogs I read mentioned it and how amazing it was, and now a lot of you are saying the same thing! I'm definitely going to have to find some, I could definitely benefit from it. Can anyone recommend a decent brand that's pretty cheap? Maybe something from Wal-Mart or Walgreens...I have a budget crunch at the moment but I will probably invest in something later!

/hijack

I like Urban Decay. Clinque is good too (and probably cheaper than Urban Decay) but I prefer Urban Decay. I haven't seen or used a drug store one...but they probably have them! I've been using eyeshadow primer for at least four years, btw.

^Yes, I think the Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP in the "beauty blog world") is one of the most famous eyeshadow primers out there.. I don't use it personally, but it gets tons of fab reviews on this side of the pond.

- Clinique Almost Powder MakeUp: it's in fact a powder, and works beautiful even on my deathly pale skin
- Sleek Eyeshadows palettes: I love the "Oh So Special" and the "Monaco". Sleek products are pretty cheap, but work suprisingly well. I don't know if they are availiable in the US, thought, as I bought mine in the UK. Their Blushes are also worth a try (I love "Rose Gold", which is kind a NARS "Orgasm" Dupe).

And: EcoTools brushes. Not that expensive and working wonderfully. So soft!

Body Shop Nutriganics skin care. It's really light (I don't like heavy creams) but still feels moisturising going on my skin and I haven't had any reactions to it.. no itchiness or tightness.

MAC Paint Pot in Painterly. The most amazing stuff, brilliant as a "primer" style base under shadows as it evens out the skin tone, it's water resistant and makes it all last longer. Use it every time I do makeup for dancing.

Face Atelier Foundation - love it. Just gives such a nice finish. I have used it on a lot of other people as well and it just seems to work on anyone. <3

1. MAC Fluidline with the Sephora #15 angled eyeline brush
2. Bare Escentuals - Light foundation, mineral veil
3. MAC Mineralize Satinfinish foundation with the MAC #187 brush
4. Chapstick
5. Urban Decay primer potion - original and Sin (champagne color)
6. Neutrogena healthy volume mascara
7. MAC concealer (Select Moisturecover)
8. Benefit: BeneTint and Hi-Beam
9. Cetaphil facial cleanser and moisturizer
10. The Body Shop: aloe toner