Happy Thursday and happy spring break (if you go to my university) everyone! Damn – it has been two whole weeks since my last blog post. I am so sorry about that. I know I went from finally achieving two posts a week to zip, but at the same time I had ZERO inspiration for blog posts during that time (also, I had a birthday! ❤︎). My favorite time to blog is when I have a conversation with one of my friends about a specific topic, and it inspires me to write a whole blog post about it because I just have so much to say.

And that is exactly what happened! Tuesday night, a friend tagged me in a facebook post asking about what makeup items should be in a beginner makeup kit, and a while back another friend told me that I need to start from the first step of a makeup routine starting from skincare then move up for absolute beginners. Those two conversations had me laying in my bed that night thinking about what I would honestly recommend to a beginner, or just someone who wants to branch out and try new things.

In the above mentioned facebook post, a lot of people were recommending specific (expensive) products that they love, but might not even work for my friend and her skin concerns. Not to mention, I’ve been on a crazy Kimberly Clark Anti-Haul kick (which everyone needs to go watch) and have been thinking a lot about how badly we get wrapped up in product hype and buy things we don’t need and will end-up sitting on our vanities forever (for more on this, check out my most recent Eyeshadow Palette Mayhem post).

All that being said, I am going to lay out item by item what I think should be in a starter makeup kit, give suggestions for brands or specific items (mainly drugstore/affordable), and just break it all down step by step with my own personal thoughts.

***I also want to give a small disclaimer – in my “My Style” page I break down my skin concerns, my style, and also my stance on being cruelty free: in case you haven’t checked it out, I am currently in the process of transitioning fully to CF, but I still have lingering products in my collection that I am either trying to use up, could not donate, or haven’t found a replacement for yet. I do not exclusively preach being CF on this blog (I believe it is a personal choice), so I may recommend non CF products (I will also include alternatives) just based off my own experience using them before my switch, and also because being CF might not be a concern to everyone who reads this, and I ask for respect for my recommendations for this reason.***

Skincare

An important part of your makeup routine should actually not even be makeup at all, it should be skincare. Your skin is your canvas, and at the end of the day, your makeup washes off but your skin stays, so you need to invest in it. Here is, in my opinion, the essential skincare items you should have:

• Moisturizer

Everyone, EVERYONE, should have a moisturizer. This should be what you put on your face the second you get out of the shower and dry off before you move on to anything else. If you have dry skin, get a moisturizer that is a little more heavy duty, if you have oily skin, try a water-based gel moisturizer (you may be thinking, I have enough moisture, why moisturize? but actually adding a moisturizer can help balance out your skin and help it to stop making access oil), if you have redness, dark spots, acne or acne scars, aging concerns etc. there are moisturizers on the market that target all of these problems.

I have oily skin, so I like gel moisturizers. I also like to alternate products just because sometimes I get break-outs, and sometimes randomly my skin will dry-up and have dry spots??? Anyway – because everyone’s skin is different, I am not going to recommend specific products, but I will say to think about what your skin concerns are, and shop with those concerns in mind.

• Serum

A serum is going to be heavier than a daily moisturizer and is meant to have specific benefits that seep deep into the skin. Mainly, they tend to be anti-aging. I started using a serum after my older sister asked me what serum I used, to which I responded “why do I need one, I am in my 20s”, to which she then replied “that’s why, because your skin is still young”. This was a very good point, I wear a lot of makeup, I tug at my skin, I use harsh masks and treatments – I need to invest good things into my skin so I can keep it as healthy as possible. Serums tend to be very expensive, but the drugstore is definitely upping their serum game, so just like a moisturizer – go for a serum that targets your specific skin concerns (for me, I like intense moisture and ones to even out my skin tone), and the best way to use one is to apply before your moisturizer or night cream as needed (heavier skin products go on before the lighter products so they can really sink in). I am listing it second, though, because you might not want to invest in too many products, so I would recommend a moisturizer first above all else.

• Eye Cream

Just like a serum, eye creams also tend to be EXTREMELY expensive. I don’t really like to go crazy with my eye cream, so I tend to stick to drugstore brands like Burt’s Bees or Elf. I like to put a lighter one on in the morning that is moisturizing (how many times in this blog can I say “moisture” eww), illuminating, and de-puffing, but at night I like a much heavier anti-aging oil-based eye cream. It’s good to invest in an eye cream because not only are they formulated to be safe around the eyes unlike a basic face serum, but it’s good to keep that area of your face nice and moisturized to help eye makeup apply easier. Also, as I said, I tug on my eyes a lot because of how much eye makeup I wear, so I need to do some literal damage control at the end of the day. But also, like with the serum, you may not want a whole cabinet of multiple products, so I still think the moisturizer is the winner of these three things if you only grab one kind of skincare product.

Makeup

(I am going to be listing products in the order that I, personally, put them on my face ❤︎ )

• Primer

Primer is kind-of in weird limbo between skincare and makeup in my opinion, because it can help target skin concerns but also helps makeup apply better and last longer. Primer should be the second step in your makeup routine after moisturizer (+ serum/eye cream etc. if you use those things). Like the name suggests, a primer is going to prime your face for makeup like how wall primer helps paint apply. Yet again, this is something I would not feel right recommending specific products for because everyone has different skin and therefore different skin concerns. Personally, I have two things going on, oily skin and large pores, so I have two separate primers that target those things. If you have dry skin, you might want a moisturizing primer, or if you if you have red skin, you might want something that helps with color-correcting etc. Again, you can definitely get good primers at the drugstore, and I would highly recommend Nyx Cosmetics for some affordable products that target a range of skin concerns.

• Foundation

This is hopefully the last blurb where I say “I don’t want to recommend anything specific” because I’m sure it is getting annoying, but obviously it is yet again something that is going to vary based on your skin concerns and your skin color. Just like moisturizers and primers, shop for your own unique skin type. I like medium to full coverage, mattifying foundations, but you might like a light-coverage BB creams with hydration. There are great drugstore foundations out there in the world, so please do not feel pressured to buy a $40 dollar foundation, especially as someone just starting out. You really need to get-to-know your own skin first. Sometimes you might just have a few errands to run so you might need a foundation that looks great but only lasts a few hours, or maybe you’re like me and have 12 hour school days so you need something that’s going to stay on your face like glue. Sounding like a broken record, but different concerns = different products.

• Concealer

Okay, I lied, concealer is yet another thing that can change depending on your skin concerns and what you want to use concealer for. A lot of people use concealer to highlight areas of the face, some people just want to help hide the dark circles under their eyes, and some people want to conceal problem areas like spots or scars (hence the name “concealer”). I am a glasses wearer, so I like light-weight concealer to help hide dark circles that would otherwise be magnified by my glasses, but I also need a heavier concealer close to my natural skin tone for concealing.

A good tip if you have a lot to conceal, try applying concealer before your foundation! Also, again I honestly believe there is no reason to ever by a high-end concealer when the ones at the drugstore are so damn good. My two personal favorites are the Ulta Beauty Full Coverage Concealer and the Nyx Cosmetics HD Wands. Before I went CF, my favorites were the Maybelline Fit Me and Instant Age Rewind.

• Setting Powder

A setting powder, like the name suggests, is going to help set your liquid makeup so you can apply powder products like blush/bronzer/highlight more easily, and help your foundation and concealer from (hopefully) looking cakey/dry and just overall last longer. If you’re oily like me, a setting powder can also help mattify your skin while also blurring pores/fine lines. Again, definitely not something you need to go shell out a crazy amount of money for when the drugstore has great options. Once again, for a beginner I am going to recommend Elf, both the loose HD powder and the pressed HD powder depending on your preference. Also, I like to keep a compact of Elf powder in my purse to touch-up my face when I feel oily throughout the day. Before I went CF, I also really enjoyed the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder.

I  recently invested in some more expensive powders (cover fx and kat von d) though, but I had used samples, gone into the store and played with the testers, and really decided these might help with my oily skin and my long makeup days at school. For some more info on where to start off buying high-end products, please check out my Drugstore Vs. High-End post!

• Eyebrows????

Eyebrows are actually kind of hard to talk about because eyebrows are basically sacred and everyone does theirs differently. This is actually why the topic of eyebrows is getting its entirely own post in the upcoming future (by massive request) because they are so tricky. Like I said, everyone does them differently, and I personally like to use pencils but some people like pomades, other people like fiber gel, some people just use powder etc. At the very least – invest in a spoolie and a pair of tweezers. More on eyebrows to come in a future post!

• Bronzer/Contour

This is actually a topic I wanted to make a whole separate post on too, because bronzing and contouring is a weird and somewhat challenging world to navigate. In summary, a bronzer is used to help warm-up the face and and give the illusion of a sun-kissed tanned appearance, while contouring is used to strategically create shadow in areas that create dimension in the face – it deemphasizes some areas of the face while emphasizing others.

A bronzer is going to be a warmer, often orange-based color possibly with shimmer or glitter, while a contour powder is going to be matte, and a cooler-toned gray based brown to mimic shadow. Anyway, if you’re looking to get into bronzing and contouring I recommend looking into face palettes! For instance, Elf has great ones, so does Nyx, Physician’s Formula just came out with a great one that I want to get my hands on, Makeup Revolution at Ulta has some great ones etc. Ulta’s brand has a very beginner friendly palette as well. My favorite high-end palette is from Butter London, and is actually pretty amazing in my opinion, and has everything I could need to bronze and contour (and I even got it on sale!). The Kat Von D Shade + Light is pretty amazing for my skin tone, too, and is now refillable!

I personally tend to do my contouring and bronzing all in one step, with a matte bronzer like the Butter Bronzer from Physician’s Formula, but the more you experiment the more you’ll figure out what works for you and if you even want to bronze or contour at all. Also, depending on your skin tone and your undertones, certain products just aren’t going to work for you, and may make you look too ashy or too orange, you just gotta test things out.

• Blush

Blush is one of those things that I think you should actually own a few different colors in, just so you have options to match different eye looks. My absolute favorite, hands down, at the drugstore, come to us from Wet n Wild. They are so affordable and just honestly so good. Also, like I said with contouring, I would recommend also potentially grabbing a blush palette just so you get a lot of different shades in one purchase, and I really enjoy the blush palette from Nyx as well as the ones from Makeup Revolution. Actually, Makeup Revolution’s single blushes are also crazy good, but are HIGHLY pigmented, so go in with a light hand! Ulta brand has some great blushes I recently got into, but limited color options. Elf also has good blushes, but in my opinion they all tend to be kind of similar in color, their palettes are AMAZING though! Also, with all the Elf 4-pan palettes, you can actually pop out the little squares and make your own custom palettes, which is pretty awesome!

• Highlight

Highlighters are also kind of sacred (similarly to, but not as much as eyebrows), and everyone wants different things from their highlighter and has different skin tones, therefore calling for different products. If you’ve seen my instagram, though, you know I kind of have a highlighter problem (D=).  I have two modes, I either want soft “glow-from-within” highlights like my Lorac highlighters give me, or I want to look like an ethereal space alien and wear intense duochrome highlighters like my (current favorite) from Nyx or the awesome, but pricey highlighters from Makeup Geek.

Again, just like everything else, you do NOT need to go run out to Sephora for a crazy expensive highlighter, especially if you are just starting out, and especially because highlighters have become so trendy that every drugstore brand is coming out with their own versions. Nyx has a really great palette if you want to experiment with colors, Ulta has some of my favorite drugstore ones (especially if you are as pale as all-hell like me), I really love all the baked highlighters from Makeup Revolution (but overall the entire variety highlighters are awesome), and even Elf has some (okay) palettes (their baked highlighters are also okay, but you need to scrape off the top layer of product in order for them to work which is frustrating).

With highlighters, experiment, see what works for your skin tone, and figure out if you want to glow from within, have beaming cheekbones seen from outer space, or be a glowy golden goddess – but until you figure that out there is no need to break the bank. Ooo! A fun highlighter tip for beginners, also, is to use a really nice single eyeshadow as your highlight!

• Eyeshadow

Eyeshadow is extremely tricky, and I (again) recommend checking out my Eyeshadow Palette Mayhem post for a lot more info about just this topic. Everyone has different tastes in eyeshadow, and maybe you couldn’t care less about eyeshadow in general, but I’m just going to list some drugstore palettes that I honestly think are amazing quality and would be great for a beginner kit.

Nyx Avant Pop!
Elf Mad for Matte 1 & 2
Elf Prism Palettes
Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Collection
Any of Ulta’s Brand Palettes
Covergirl TruNaked Jewels, Goldens, Roses, & Nudes (not cruelty free)
Basically Anything From Makeup Revolution
Also Basically Anything From BH Cosmetics (not drugstore, but is now sold at Ulta!)

Side note, the Maybelline “Nudes” palettes (not cruelty free) used to get a lot of hype when they first came out, but they are honestly crap so please do not waste your money when everything mentioned above is, in my opinion, not just good “for drugstore” but just good in general (not even gonna link em!).

• Eyeliner

Eyeliner is another thing that is kind of tricky, some people don’t use it at all, other people find it very difficult to use, it comes in all different forms and everyone has a preference for what they like best. I really think you can’t go wrong with just a simple pencil liner and sharpener. I’m going to keep this short and sweet and just recommend my favorite eyeliner pen if you are interested in getting into liquid liner – The Physician’s Formula Lash Booster Pen.I used to use a liquid liner from Elf for years before I found the PF pen, and it’s okay, but not maybe the greatest if you are just learning so I won’t link it. Honestly, I am really not picky about my pencil liners either, as long as they are long lasting and/or water proof.

• Mascara

I know at this point I am sounding like a broken record, but mascara is also very unique to the person wearing it. Some people want length, others want volume, some like a spidery look, others like a crazy separated lash look etc. etc. etc. Anyway, before I went CF I pretty much always stuck with Covergirl or Maybelline, but now I am a huge fan of Essence and they actually make some of my most favorite mascaras I’ve ever used, CF or not.

Mascara is another one of those things that I really don’t truly think you ever need to shell out crazy money for. I know I’ve said on my instagram multiple times that Too Faced’s Better Than Sex Mascara is my all time favorite, and it is, but I am going to be 100% honest in saying I have never actually bought a tube before. I’ve gotten samples with other orders or gotten full size tubes as gifts with purchases, but I truly can’t bring myself to spend $20+ dollars on something that needs to be tossed in three months anyway, especially when an Essence mascara can give me the same results for three bucks.

• Setting Spray

We’re nearing the end here, folks! My final recommendation for a well-rounded makeup kit is a setting spray. If you don’t know, a setting spray is basically what it sounds like, you spray it on your face at the end of your makeup routine to “set your makeup” and to help it last longer. I really like setting sprays, because even if they don’t help makeup stay on my face longer, then at the very least they help kind of “melt” all my powdery makeup together so it looks more natural and gets rid of any cakeyness. There are also setting sprays that target specific skin concerns, I like mattifying ones myself, but there are also dewy setting sprays for dry skin as well. Some of my favorites come from Ulta, Hard Candy, and Makeup Revolution. Yet again, not something I’ve personally branched out into the high-end world for, but I know people go bananas over Urban Decay’s setting sprays.

• Lipsticks + Lip Glosses

Oh gosh, almost forgot lip products! Keeping it short and sweet, since this post is already ridiculously long, Wet n Wild, Nyx, Makeup Revolution, and Essence have great lipsticks for beginners! This is another one of those things I never really spend a lot of money on, because such great drugstore options exist. Also Wet n Wild and Ulta make my favorite glosses, but actually my  one most used lip gloss that is always in my purse is from Elf.

Other Stuff That Is Important!

• Eye Primer! This will change your eyeshadow game! Try one from Essence, or my favorite from Urban Decay.
• Glitter Glue – I’ve talked in the past about how glitter glue is good for metallic or foiled eyeshadows, and Elf actually makes my favorite one  (I have 3 back-ups of it!)
• Tweezers
• A Good Brush Set – This is an investment that can change your entire makeup game: Elf’s Studio Line is great, BH Cosmetics has some great ones, Real Techniques is my favorite at the drugstore, Eco Tools is also great, Royal & Langnickel is now at Wal-Mart, and, although they tend to be over-hyped, Morphe has some great brushes too.
• Makeup Sponges – Real Techniques makes the best (in my opinion),I practically hoard them.

Also, invest in good products to help take your makeup off at the end of the day. Do not just get makeup wipes, also invest in waterproof makeup remover, a toner, a good cleanser etc. Really take the time to get all the gunk out of your pores at the end of the night (then follow up with a moisturizer or night cream!)

Finally, one last skincare thing, grab a face scrub. If you exfoliate once or twice a week it is really going to help your makeup apply better, and my favorite is from Elf (very affordable).

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I think that is everything! I know I repeated brands over and over (Elf, Nyx, Ulta, Makeup Revolution etc) but I just really love those brands (especially for the price) and think they are not only great beginner brands but great brands, period. Also, I know my links were all over the place, but almost all the brands I mentioned are available in multiple places: Target, Wal-Mart, most drugstores, Ulta, individual brand websites etc., so shop where you love the most, or where you can get the best deals!

If you are planning at shopping from Ulta, make sure to wait for sales because all the brands I’ve mentioned almost always go on BOGO sales. For more info on how to save money building a collection, check out my How to Build Your High-End Makeup Collection post.

Finally, if there is any one topic you would like a whole blog post devoted to, such as a whole post for blush or something, let me know and I will gladly go into much more detail! Also, if you have skin concerns similar to mine (or not!) and want specific product suggestions for the topics I didn’t give suggestions for, please ask me about it!

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As always I hoped this helped or inspired you in some way, and thank you for the constant support for my blog, it means a lot! Love you guys!

-Lacie ❤︎❤︎❤︎