Show & Tell Tuesday- My Beauty Routine

 Welcome to another Show & Tell Tuesday linkup.

Today's assignment is to talk about my beauty routine. If you'd like to see my cleansing routine, I talked about that here.

Source

I love Sephora! It's my favorite place to browse, try on new colors, get samples, and pick up items I've decided are totally worth it. I also love that most of the staff have GREAT advice and tips. 

My beauty routine is broken up into two categories. Everyday and Full Makeup. Everyday makeup is whatever I can slap on with little thought and requires products that perform reliably every single time. When I do spend the time to do full makeup it involves a lot of contouring and blending and possibly wiping it all off and starting over hahaha.

Let's talk about makeup! 

I'm just going to go in the order I put my products on. (After cleansing of course!)

This is my favorite product EVER. I use this every single day. Rain or shine. In fact, there is really no point in me even putting on eye shadow without this. It will just converge into a greasy mess in the crease. Almost immediately. It's not pretty.

Next Foundation. I love Makeup Forever HD foundation. It's the real deal. Don't mess with the others! Just go to Sephora and buy it. That is all. 

Except, right now, I'm not using foundation. Right now it's summer and humid and a million degrees in the shade, so I use tinted moisturizer. The NARS is awesome. This is a little sample size I got at Sephora and right now it's a bit more coverage than my Almay so it's gotten booted to the summer Full Makeup catagory. For everyday, I'm using the Almay. I think it doesn't call itself a tinted moisturizer, but coverage wise I would say it falls right in with a good BB cream/tinted moisturizer. I love this smart shade stuff! So quick, so easy, and because it blends perfectly you don't have to be super precise about the blending.

Random tip: These two products (eye primer and foundation/BB cream) work best if you give them a minute to set. So, this is where I usually brush my teeth. I know you needed to know that! :D

The next item isn't a makeup product- it's brushes. I have (too) many brushes. 

Even though I have many, these are the four I grab and use everyday. 

They are all from Sephora. (L-R: PRO Precision blush 73, medium shadow 14, crease 10, mineral powder 45)

First stop for actual color is eyes. I don't really know why, but I do my eyes first. Does everyone do this?

I always start with eyeliner. You may not do this step first but, remember the greasy crease? That's why my eyeliner goes on first. This way I can use my eye shadow to set it and keep it from transferring (usually) to my top lid. Yes, I know I could use a separate eyeliner brush to apply a similar dark shadow to do the setting OR I could use liquid eyeliner but, for everyday, that's just not going to happen. So, my allover lid color does the job for me as long as I remember to apply eyeliner first. 

I have many but my favorite, hands down, is the Revlon ColorStay brand. They just don't have fun colors like purple and green and navy so I branch out sometimes.

Now for eye shadow. I have a confession. I have never met a palette I didn't like! Hehehe. I do believe these are all from Sephora and mostly, they are their brand.

This is the one I am using currently. I call this size my 'travel palette' even though I use it all the time. What I love is that if I need to grab and go, I can just grab this, add some mascara, and done. It has a mirror, shadow, blush, and lipstick. (And some useless, but good in an emergency, brushes)

It fits in my hand AND they are like $10! (*sigh*swoon*). 

I play with them all, but my two current go-to colors for everyday are the third (swept all over, it's matte) and the seventh (above the crease for me, it's shimmery).

So, now I leave the eyes and skip to face, cheeks & lips. Then I go back and do mascara.

This is the powder I use. This way I don't have to change with the seasons or worry if I get more tan. It works year round.

It has a bit of a learning curve. It SO light, it flies in the air like baby powder and you DO have to kind of hold your breath when you put it on. But, you get the hang of it pretty quick. Plus, it lasts forever!!

Blush. I have two colors. A pink one (Left- Sweet Ginger N7-8), and now this nice peach one in my current palette. I'm gonna have to take that and color match it before I use it all up because I really like it! 

Lips. For all day coverage I have been using the CoverGirl product for awhile but I just bought the Revlon Colorstay (Ultimate Suede 010) when Evie needed a 'rosy' lipstick for the play and I have to say-- I like it a LOT better. 

My go-to regular lipsticks are Clinique Almost Lipstick (Black Honey)- I never got over my Black Honey phase!!, NARS Satin Lip Pencil (Rikugien) and Clinique Different Lipstick (Tender Heart)- the perfect neutral lip. I only recently got the sample of the NARS so I can't review the full size product but I plan to buy it when I run out.

Finally, I put on my mascara. I tend to forget mascara lately, so I've been just keeping one in my purse and doing it at a stoplight or when I get where I'm going. 

My favorite is the Make Up Forever but ONLY in the sample size (grumble, whine). When you buy the full size, the brush is crazy huge and not even usable really (I'm not the only one. When I returned the full size, the saleslady said they get that one returned a lot for that very reason). So, since I ran out I'm liking the L'Oreal and the Wet n Wild. They are actually almost identical right down to the brush. 

Here's the whole everyday routine:

Now, let's talk about Full Makeup. This takes quite a bit more time and I would never do it everyday. I actually still go out a lot with NO makeup on, especially on the weekends. Crazy?! Perhaps it will help you to know that I didn't grow up in the South. Also, I was taught this: 

If I do have extra time, the first thing I would give attention to is my eyebrows. I bought this cute little kit by Anastasia at (you guessed it) Sephora. It came with a brow gel and TINY tweezers but mostly I just use the pencil. Mine is medium brown. 

Next, I would use highlighter/concealer. These are YSL Touche Eclat. I have #2 and #3. 

Here is how they look vs. my skin tone. #2 is the highlight and #3 is the concealer. At least, that's how I use them.

 Another option for highlighting and concealing is this palette (Make Up For Ever 5 Camouflage Cream Palette No.2). It is worth the investment as it is more versatile and will last you much longer. It just isn't as quick and you have to warm the product up a little in your hands. I pull this out when I know from the start I am doing full makeup vs. the YSL product, which can go on at the end very quickly to touch up. 

To take my blush up a notch, I'll add this cream blush with shimmer. But, only for evening.

  

Years ago I watched a You Tube video about contouring and she said to pick up a blush that was too dark for you (It HAS to be matte, ladies!) and that has been the single best makeup tip I have ever gotten. I don't know what they are selling all over the place these days with the crazy contouring craze but, honestly, all you really need is a too dark MATTE blush. Mine is Cocoa C8

You can see it totally looks like a dirt smudge on my face. But, blend baby, blend! And it will just disappear. Tip: get yourself another blush/blending brush to use exclusively with your contour. Just trust me.

 Finally, full evening makeup usually gets the red lipstick treatment. These are three of my favorites. They are all creamy or glossy and very forgiving. (Top-Bottom NARS Satin Lip Pencil Cruella, Fresh Sugar Cherry, Make Up For Ever Rouge N9). Again, the NARS is the newest and least used so far, but is a perfect consistency- right in between a lipstick (the NARS) and a gloss (the Fresh Sugar). 

Here are the Full Makeup products:

I haven't done any of the hip beauty boxes but I do get the Walmart one that's only $5 each season. It usually only has one full size makeup product. The others are usually shampoo/body wash (hotel size) and sometimes other smaller Sephora-type samples. But, there are usually coupons in the box for the full size products and it's just fun to get mail right? Target has one also, but theirs is not a subscription. You have to just catch them when they are available and they often sell out. (I admit, Target's IS better but I missed the last one).

That's my Show & Tell Tuesday Beauty Routine.

What do you do the same? What do you do differently? Do you love any of the same products? Comment below. I'd love to hear what you are loving so I can try it too!