I love accessible (meaning affordable) beauty products. I live for them, really. And the great thing is that there are SO MANY GREAT products you can get for a reasonable price. They offer superb performance and you don’t have to wince every time you think about repurchasing them.
Part of my motivation in sharing my love of accessible product is that there is this general perception in beauty that expensive means better. Hey, there are a TON of awesome products that are fancy and work really well. As a beauty product developer, I buy from the drugstore and Sephora. I’ve tried the $8 foundation and the $45 foundation. This is just part of my job. But the products I find myself repurchasing over and over often times are the drugstore products.
And these days, high end foundations can set you back $40, $50, and even $60 or more dollars. I use foundation pretty sparingly so a bottle will last me a couple of months, but still, it’s just crazy to me to be regularly spending that much money on my favorite foundation.
At my core, I believe you don’t need to spend that much to look good. You really don’t. Secondly, my money is a limited resource. My husband and I have SO MANY lofty financial goals. We are paying off his student loans. We are saving as much as we can for a home one day. And I know our goals are similar to those of other folks, for sure.
Since money and time are limited resources, of course you want to use these resources wisely. And you can absolutely love beauty products, look great, and still meet your financial goals. My mission here on this blog is to showcase these great products so you aren’t wasting your time and money. And believe me, I know how to identify and evaluate great products since I do this for a living as a product developer!
Maybelline Fit Me! Matte + Poreless Foundation (in Classic Ivory) ($7.99) is an example of a great product that is under $10. It offers build-able medium coverage with a beautiful, soft matte finish. I apply it with my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge ($5.99) and it is very easy to blend out to achieve a natural yet perfected complexion. It also wears well with my oily combo skin throughout the day which is a much added bonus. I simply set it with MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural ($34) (a product that is not necessarily cheap but I love) which helps with overall longevity.
If you have oily combo skin like myself, and struggle with pigmented acne scars and hyper pigmentation, I highly recommend this product!
NERD TIME: In this section, we can nerd out together. A major part of my job is looking at ingredient lists (IL’s) and quite literally dissecting them. Nothing gives me more pleasure than picking up a product, flipping it over and looking at the ingredients 🙂
INGREDIENTS: Aqua/Water/Eau, Cyclohexasiloxane, Nylon-12, Isododecane, Alcohol Denat., Cyclopentasiloxane, Peg-10 Dimethicone, Cetyl Peg/Ppg-10/1 Dimethicone, Peg-20, Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Phenoxyethanol, Magnesium Sulfate, Disodium Stearoyl Glutamate, HDI/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Titanium Dioxide, Methylparaben, Acrylates Copolymer, Tocopherol, Butylparaben, Aluminum Hydroxide, Alumina, Silica, Glycerin, [+/- May Contain/Peut Contenir, CI 77891/Titanium Dioxide, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499/Iron Oxides, ] D166390/3.
A number of the ingredients (Water, Cyclohexasiloxane, Isododecane, Alcohol Denat., and Cyclopentasiloxane) are extremely lightweight and will essentially dry (and evaporate) without leaving any heavy, oily residue. This combination of lightweight ingredients helps with BLENDING. You have the pigments dispersed in extremely lightweight liquids so you can blend out the pigments evenly over your skin, without having a super heavy, cake-y feeling or appearance after the product dries. The third ingredient, Nylon-12, is a powder ingredient that is likely added to provide the additional matte effect. It is known for filling in pores and adding “optical blurring” benefits. No wonder I love this product so much!!!
What is your favorite drugstore foundation? Or do you prefer higher end foundation?
xo megan