I put together a beginner’s starter kit with all the best drugstore makeup on the market!
Today we are talking about the best drugstore makeup. I love wearing makeup! It’s one of my favorite parts of the day because I get to take time for myself to look my best at all times. I love both drugstore and high end makeup. Today we are just going to focus on the best drugstore makeup because I know makeup can get pricey! I have very dry skin and it’s very sensitive so I wanted to walk you through which I think are the best and hopefully you can find similar results.
Primer
Before you apply your makeup, skincare is SO important! Make sure you have a good skincare routine so you get all the makeup off from the previous day. Then, your makeup will lay better on your face. I’ll talk about my regular skincare routine in another post. (You can read about my previous one here!) Along with skincare comes primer. It also helps your makeup lay really nice on your skin. The best drugstore makeup primer is the Physician’s Formula Spotlight Illuminating Primer. This is a really good dupe for the Becca Backlight Primer that I’ve talked about before. It gives me a really good shine on my face and helps me look glowy and natural.
Foundation
After primer, foundation is next! It can be so hard to find a foundation that works well with your skin but this is some of the best drugstore makeup I found. The best drugstore foundation is the Maybelline Fit Me Shine Free and Balance Foundation. It gives me a really good matte finish and inside it’s both cream and powder so it helps lay on my face without moving throughout the day. I wear the color Porcelain because I have no tan at all, but I love the way that this looks on my face. It looks super pretty in pictures, because it doesn’t have added SPF. If you wear foundation that has added SPF, you will have flashback whenever you take pictures so keep that in mind next time you go to buy foundation. It helps to give me a really good matte finish on my face and it’s really buildable so if you want more coverage or less coverage this is a good foundation to start with.
Brows
After I put on my foundation, I usually put on my brows. I haven’t really found a drugstore brow powder that I love, so if you have any recommendations, let me know! But, I have found the best drugstore makeup brow gel! I love the Pixi by Petra Brow Tamer. This helps keep my brows in place all day long so they’re not all askew. I really like clear brow gel because then I can use the powder that I want. If I have a colored brow gel, then it adds more color and then sometimes they end up looking unnatural.
Eyeshadow
Eyeshadow can either look really good or really bad. I like to use ones that are buildable and have a lot of pigment. The best drugstore makeup eyeshadow palette is the collaboration between BH Cosmetics and Carli Bybel. This palette is beautiful! It has a ton of pretty colors and it just stunning. A lot of these are really pretty for any skin tone. I love that there’s a good mix of shimmer and matte colors.
Concealer
After I put on eyeshadow, I always pop on my concealer. I don’t know what order you put makeup on, but this is the order I prefer because if I mess up with my eyeshadow, I can always wipe it off and put my concealer on without having my eyeshadow fall onto my concealer. The best drugstore makeup concealer is the Makeup Revolution Conceal and Define Full Coverage Concealer. It does a good job of highlighting under my eyes and not making me look super tired. I wear the color C2 but there’s a huge range colors that should be perfect for each and every one of you. Honestly, I reach for this concealer more than my high end concealer sometimes because this gives a really good nice matte look while still looking beautiful and natural on the skin. I would warn you though that a little goes a long way. Honestly, I usually just use a dot. That’s all! It goes on really creamy and hydrating. You want it to dry without it being super wet on the face.
Bronzer
Now, we’re on to bronzer! The best drugstore makeup bronzer is the Physician’s Formula Butter Bronzer. It smells heavenly! If you want to escape to a tropical beach, just smell this. It smells soooo good! I love the way that it smells and sits on my skin. It’s a super light powder and very buildable. If you need more color or more coverage, it’s really easy to add more layers as you go. Remember: you can always add but you can’t take away so I like that it goes on just a little at a time.
Blush
Now, we’re on to blush! I couldn’t decide which one was the best drugstore makeup blush so I wanted to share a couple of them.
Essence
First is the Essence Satin Touch Blush. This is a really good blush and it’s the cheapest out of all of these at $2.99! I wear the shade Satin Love and it’s really flattering for a variety of skin tones.
CoverGirl
Another blush I love is the CoverGirl TruBlend Blush in Light Rose. This one is really pretty because it has a light sheen to it which helps it look like more natural looking skin. This is a really light color so if you do have a darker skin tone, I definitely recommend looking at their other color options but I love this formula.
Milani
I feel like this blush is always in the best drugstore makeup posts but it’s for good reason because it’s seriously stunning! I use it all the time. It’s the Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso. It’s a gorgeous coral color and it has a sheen like the Covergirl blush I talked about before. I don’t want you to be afraid of orange or coral because it looks stunning on so many different skin tones.
Flower Beauty
This one is a new favorite! It’s the Flower Beauty Blush in Peach Primrose. It is gorgeous! It has a similar color to the Milani Luminoso one but this is a matte blush so it’s not as shiny as the other two.
Highlighter
I know I talked about this earlier but I wanted to go more in depth with my favorite highlighters. I love the highlighter from the Carli Bybel palette I talked about before, because it comes with 4 different colors and it’s good for a wide variety of skin tones. Usually, I gravitate towards using the pink or gold highlighters but I’m sure any of them would work.
My second favorite highlighter is the Makeup Revolution Vivid Baked Highlighter. This one looks beautful on the skin too. I would say though that this one isn’t nearly as pigmented as the Carli Bybel palette so if you get the palette you get a two for one, eyeshadow and highlighter.
Mascara
Like blushes, I couldn’t pick only one of the best drugstore makeup mascaras so I have three to talk about because there’s so many different ways that mascara can help your eyelashes and it’s just about your preference.
Flower Beauty
The first one is the Flower Beauty Lash Warrior Mascara. This one is really good for volume and helping your lashes look really full and beautiful. The Lash Warrior gives amazing plumping benefits and makes it look like you have more lashes than you actually do.
L’Oreal
If you want length, the L’Oreal Voluminous Mascara is my go-to. This one is beautiful and gives your lashes double the length I swear! I get compliments ever single time I wear this mascara. I was feeling a little adventurous and I actually got it in blus but it does come in more natural colors like black or brown.
If you want a little bit of both, you’ll want to try the L’Oreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes Mascara. Put on the white mascara first and then layer the black over top. Every time I wash these off they literally come off in tubes. It’s so easy to take off this mascara! If you have a hard time taking off this mascara, try this because it’s completely life changing!
Eyeliner
Honestly, I haven’t been big into wearing eyeliner lately but I do like both the NYX Epic Ink Liner and the Almay Eyeliner Pen. I can’t say a lot about them since I don’t wear it a ton, but when I do, these are the two I always reach for.
Lip Products
I am obsessed with lip products whether it’s liquid lipstick, lipstick, lipgloss, etc. In my purse, there’s probably 20 tubes of different lip products. I love lip products and I probably have too many, but can you really ever have too many? Maybe, but I don’t think so. I want to go over some of the best drugstore makeup formulas that I love.
NYX
The first one is the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream. I use the shade Stockholm. It dries matte but it goes on really creamy.
Maybelline
The next one is the Maybelline Vivid Hot Lacquer Lip Gloss. This is a mix of a liquid lipstick and a lip gloss, but I can’t say that this is a true liquid lipstick since it doesn’t dry very well but it does have a wide range of gorgeous shades that you definitely need to look into.
Milani
Next is the Milani Amore Matte Lip Creme. This is in the shade Adorable. I love this! This is the perfect nude lipstick and it comes in a ton of other pretty shades too. But, Adorable is my favorite!
ColourPop
I love the ColourPop Ultra Blotted Lip and Ultra Satin Lip. You can’t always find these in the drugstore but you can find these online. They’re not necessarily from the drugstore but they are drugstore priced because each one of these are between $5-6. That’s what makes them some of the best drugstore makeup! That is SO cheap when it comes to lip products and I use these the most out of all of them. I love the color Doozy in the Ultra Blotted Lip and the color Screenshot in the Ultra Satin Lip. Both of these are beautiful finishes. The Ultra Blotted Lip stays for hours! It stays all day long and doesn’t even come off while I’m eating. It’s a miracle! The Ultra Satin Lip is very beautiful too and is a good matte lipstick. I don’t really care for their actual matte lipstick since it dries out my lips a ton. This formula helps keep my lips hydrated with a matte finish.
Those are all the best drugstore makeup products! I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any other drugstore favorites that you love, let me know because I’m dying to try more!
XOXO Kayla
