Products that I cannot live without!
CLEANSER-
Product: Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel
Description: A gentle, non-foaming gel that gently removes makeup, dirt, and oil from the skin without drying it out.
Price: 8 oz.- $12, 16 oz.- $20
Best suited for: All skin types. Especially good for sensitive, Acne prone skin.
Selling point: I
have extremely dry, sensitive skin and this is fantastic because it
gets rid of all of the makeup and dirt, and clears my skin from acne
without drying it out. I find that it works the best if you smooth it
over your damp face first and leave it there for like 30 seconds to a
minute and then work it into your skin with your hands or a Clarisonic.
DAYTIME MOISTURIZER-
Product: Origins VitaZing
Description: Oil free daily moisturizer that gives you a slight sun kissed glow and evens out skin tone.
Price: $35
Best suited for: All skin types. Fantastic for both dry and oily skin
Selling point: looks
fantastic on all skin tones (although if you are extremely pale like me
you will have to blend down the neck) and gives darker skin tones a
wonderful glow and can counteract ashiness. You can also use it alone as
your daily foundation. (there is also a full review for this on another blog post)
LIQUID FOUNDATION-
Product: Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua
Description: A medium to light coverage foundation that blends perfectly into your skin.
Best Suited for: Dry to combination oily skin (I would not recommend this for someone with super oily skin).
Price: $45
Selling Point: This
is the most natural looking foundation I have ever tried. This
foundation is great on my sensitive skin and it does not dry/break me
out. It also does not fade or oxidize throughout the day. Only downfall
is that it does not come in a wide variety of shades. (there is also a full review for this on an earlier blog post)
POWDER FOUNDATION-
Product: Mac Mineralized Skinfinish Natural
Description: A baked mineral pressed powder foundation that gives a light/ medium coverage and a natural luminous finish.
Best Suited for: All
skin types. It does not break out sensitive skin as other mac face
products can. if you have very dry skin I would use it over a liquid
foundation or a tinted moisturizer (something like Origins VitaZing) and
then use a rolling motion to pat the foundation on your face as to not
irritate dry skin or flakey patches, which is the same for all powders.
Price: $29
Selling Point: This
is a fantastic powder foundation that can we worn alone or used as a
finishing powder over a tinted moisturizer/foundation. It gives an
extremely natural finish and you cannot tell that you are wearing
anything when it is on the skin. Like other mineralized products, the
more that you buff it in to the skin, the more coverage you get (however
as stated before, I would not recommend anyone with extremely dry skin
or flakey patches on their skin to do this buffing motion as it can
irritate the skin. I also wouldn't recommend this buffing motion when
using it as a setting powder over another foundation, as it can disturb
the foundation underneath making it look uneven or cakey) I use it with a
soft buffing brush to blend it in.
UNDER EYE CONCEALER-
Product: Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat
Description: A correcting and brightening under eye concealer that hides dark circles and gives a radiant glow to the skin.
Best suited for: All skin types. This is especially fantastic for more mature skin because it does not sink in to fine lines and wrinkles.
Price: $40
Selling Point: Although
rather expensive, this product is well worth it. It is by far the best
under eye concealer and it gets rid of the dark circles I constantly
have as a result of being a sleep deprived college student. I use shade 1
which is pink tinted and acts as a corrector and a concealer as the
pink tones in the product counteract the blue tones in my skin. It is
extremely creamy and as stated above it is especially good for more
mature skins as I have found that it does not seem to settle into fine
lines and wrinkles. This is a holy grail product for both my mother and I
and we have extremely different skin types. This product also brightens
as it conceals making you look awake, refreshed, and like you've had a
full night of beauty sleep.
EYESHADOW PRIMER-
Product: Nars Eyeshadow Base
Description: An
eyeshadow primer that makes shadows brighter and more radiant, as well
as keeping it in place all day without it fading or creasing.
Best Suited For: All skin types
Price: $19
Selling Point: Although
I feel that face/ foundation primer is completely unnecessary,
eyeshadow primer is a must, and this product is the best at keeping your
eyeshadow in place all day without it fading,smudging, or creasing. It
also will make anything that you put on top of it brighter and more true
to the color in the pan. This is especially great if you have oily lids
because it is absolutely fantastic at not making eyeshadow crease, or
if you just want your shadow to last all day.
EYELASH CURLER-
Product: Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler
Description: Honestly the worlds greatest eyelash curler.
Price: $20
Best suited for: everyone!
Selling Point: This
eyelash curler conforms perfectly to the eye so there is no tugging or
one side being more curled than the other. It curls so much better than
any other eyelash curler I have ever tried. If There was on a desert
island and I could only have one thing (other than sunscreen, because I
burn like a crazy person!) It would be this eyelash curler. The only
downfall is that Shu Uemura no longer has any stores in the US, so you
would have to order it from their website.
CLARISONIC-
Product: Clarasonic Mia
Description: A
rechargeable face brush with a rotating brush head that buffs off
makeup, dead skin, dirt and oil from your face and body making your skin
soft, supple, and radiant.
Price: $119, ( the original, which is basically the exact same, it is just slightly larger and it has 3 speeds is around $225)
Best suited for: All skin types, they have different brush heads depending on your skin type and what your needs are.
Selling Point: Although
this might not technically be a product, this is something that I could
not live without and this product saves my skin. I use it both in the
morning before I put my makeup on, and at night in the shower to take
all of the makeup, dirt, oil, and built up skin off of my face. This is
an absolute must have for people with acne prone skin. I can immediately
tell the difference if I do not use my Clarisonic even for a day
because my skin will break out and become dry and flakey. I use this
with the Mario Badescu Enzyme cleansing gel, and it is a miracle worker.
I would recommend the mia over the original, just because it is
basically the exact same thing ( I find that I only use one speed on the
original anyway) and the mia is less expensive. The only thing "better"
about the original is that it beeps after like 30 seconds to tell you
when to move to the next section of your face (forehead, cheeks, chin,
nose....). They have recently come out with the Mia 2, and they might
have this feature, however I am not sure.
I
fell absolutely in love with this product when I first tried it about a
year ago. VitaZing is a fantastic oil free moisturizer that starts out
white, but then as you rub it into your skin, it reacts with your
natural pigmentation and turns into the perfect tint for your skin
giving you a beautiful sun kissed glow. It will even out your skin tone
and I feel that it also really helps reduce some of the redness that I
have around my chin. I was a bit skeptical at first because I am so fair
(I have a hard time finding a foundation pale enough for my skin) and I
was worried that this would make my skin look orangey or like I had a
bad fake tan, however I was pleasantly surprised. If you are as fair as I
am (Mac NC 15 or paler) you are going to need to blend it down your
neck to make sure that you don't have any harsh lines but it truly is a
beautiful product. I think that it goes on best with my hands ( just
because I feel that it is faster), although I occasionally will use a
stippling brush to apply it. In the summer when I have a tan and my skin
is looking better I generally use this as my regular foundation because
it evens out my skin tone and you can't tell that I am wearing anything
on my face at all. In the winter when I am paler, I generally wear this
as my daily moisturizer and then set it with a light pressed powder
such Mac Mineralized Skinfinish Natural, or if I am going for a more
full coverage look I will use Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua, both of which I
highly recommend.This product definitely doesn't break me out, and if
anything I think that it actually makes my skin become clearer.This is
also fantastic in the way that although it does have an SPF of 15, it
doesn't seem to have the casper effect in photography (when wearing a
foundation with SPF, flash photography can make it so that wherever you
put your foundation looks about 5 shades lighter than it looks in real
life which is never a good look!). This product also has a really
pleasant almost minty sort of smell. I would definitely recommend this
product, and if you have an origins store near you, it is definitely
worth going and testing it out.
