Ok, this first pic has nothing to do with cosmetics but I AM OBSESSED with the sock bun. It’s a bun. That you make with a sock. There’s a sock up in there, y’all. (And about six bobby pins.) I am NEVER WEARING A PONYTAIL AGAIN. (Maybe exaggeration.) BUT SERIOUSLY! If I can do it, anyone can! And this was my FIRST ATTEMPT! Sadly, it was also the best one. I am actually getting WORSE at the sock bun the more I practice. But bobby pins make it all better, so no worries. I learned how from this tutorial here. I wear my hair up a lot in the summer because it is heavy and hot, and I LOVE that this method is so pretty, keeps it off my neck, and is easy to do. YAY!
And now on to the makeup. Ever since my decision a couple of weeks ago to go out in search of the best drugstore makeup products (and the worst, I suppose), I’ve had a lot of F-U-N trying out my frugal finds at the drugstores. Here are some of my faaaaaaves so far.
Almay Intense i-color shadow duo
I got this little baby on a sweet deal thanks to the CVS Beauty Club and I loooove it. It’s a soft shadow – more cream than powder, so no primer required. The colors together really made my eyes pop. Gotta say this is a real winner and I’ll probably try it out in another color combo, too!
Next up is the makeup bargain OF MY LIFE up to this point: This little liner:
e.l.f. glitter eyeliner. ONE DOLLAR!!! Amazing.
This e.l.f. glitter eyeliner was $1 at Target. ONE DOLLAR!! I was totally skeptical but I ADORE it. ADORE. I know Emily will be a-rollin’ her eyes at this, but I couldn’t stop looking at my eye makeup all day long when I wore this! I’ve pretty much had to stop myself from wearing it every day. It’s like the sock bun of eyeliners! Here it is on:
Glitter eyeliner. How have I survived 35 years without you?
Next up:
Fergie makeup. I bought FERGIE Wet ‘n Wild makeup. Because I GOTTA FEELING…that Big Girls Don’t Cry or their makeup might run!!
No, seriously. The real reason I bought the Fergie makeup is because I’ve been looking for a drugstore highlighting powder. I don’t go a day without my highlighting powder on my cheekbones, so I needed to find me a “street” brand (oh, I kill myself!). The Fergie makeup was buy one get one 50% off at Walgreens so I got a lipstick, too. It rang up at just $1.74, HOLLA! A truly Fergalicious price if you ask me.
The verdict on the Fergie products? I really like them BOTH! I think the highlighting powder is great. I DO have to use more of it than my usual, so I don’t think it will last nearly as long, but it was half the price, soo…and the lipstick? I think the color (“Fergie Daily”) is a little to light for me, but I LOVE the way it wears. Really lasts a good while. I will probably buy another color the next time I catch them on sale!
(Side note: aren’t you glad I didn’t say anything about my humps in my Fergie references?)
Here’s how my face and Fergie got along together.
Fergalicious?
Ok, so…those are my new faves! Have you tried any of these? Let me know if you do or have!
Gueessss what friends? The past couple of weeks I’ve been getting my shop on at CVS in a big way. And not just for my usual cheap diapers and free razors. I have decided it’s time to be unfaithful to my long-term makeup love, Mary Kay. Why? Because I am really loving doing this #doyourmakeup thing on Instagram every day, and I want you to play along. So I am going to the drugstore to show you what cosmetics you can get for dirt cheap, and how to use them on your pretty face. It’s time to combine my love of coupons with my love of makeup. And so it begins!
Now I can get inexpensive makeup with coupons and sales at all the drugstores, but I like shopping my original coupon love CVS for makeup because of the CVS Beauty Club. When you sign up, you earn $5 Extra Care Bucks for every $50 you spend. And that’s $50 before coupons, so you can actually spend a lot less that $50 after coupons and ECBs! Not to mention $3 ECB on your birthday! Plus, you also get great coupons from the magic coupon machine when you scan your card if you are a Beauty Club Member. Which you’ll see in my latest deal!
This past week I headed out to CVS to get started on my drugstore makeup project. Here’s what I got first time out:
I also got a 2-liter of Mountain Dew – not pictured, k? And it was for a group gathering, not for my own use, I SWEAR! When I got into the store, I scanned my CVS ExtraCare card on the Magic Coupon Machine, and out popped not only a coupon for 25 cents off a 2-liter of Mountain Dew, but one for $4 off of a $12 cosemtics purchase. Don’t mind if I do!
I got:
Physicians’ Formula mineral powder foundation $13.29 (I didn’t have any coupons, this hurt, but I knew I would get back 7 ECB for it)
Revlon eyeshadow quad clearance $1.99
Mountain Dew 2-liter 99 cents
total = $16.27
Coupons I used:
-$4/12 cosmetics purchse from the CVS coupon machine
– 25 cents off Mountain Dew
Total with tax was $13.17 and I got back 7 ECB for the foundation! And, I earned $13.29 toward my $50 beauty club goal. ( I started with a few dollars toward my goal, maybe $11 or $12, I can’t remember exactly.)
I used the Revlon eyeshadow and the Physician’s Formula foundation to help create these two looks for my #doyourmakeup posts:
I really like both products for the price. I feel like I have to use more of the PF foundation that I do of my regular, but with the 7 ECB I got back, it was less than 1/2 the price. The Revlon eyeshadow – 4 colors for $1.99 – well I cannot complain about them for that price. Once again, I had to use more of the product than normal. I like they way the colors wore, they stayed on all day (of course I did use eye primer!!), but they didn’t blend as well as I would like them to. However for $1.99 I will not complain!
That was Friday…Saturday Huggies came out with a new coupon so I turned my 7 ECB & three $3 off Huggies coupons into a sweet diaper deal. Iended up w/ 3 jumbo packs of diapers for $16 & change and got back 10 ECB.
Although I long for the day when I no longer have to change diapers, I will sort of miss getting sweet deals on them!
Also, while I was there, the Magic Coupon Machine printed me ANOTHER $4/$12 cosmetics purchase coupon AND a $4/$10 CVS skin care coupon. AND!!! CVS had also emailed me a $5/$25 beauty purchase coupon.
WHAT!?!?! It’s like the coupon perfect storm up in here! So on Sunday, a new CVS ad started! This is for the current week. I took my plethora of Beauty Club Coupons and my ECB for the diapers and I got my shop ON:
Not pictured: CVS cotton balls, CVS Sunscreen, and a 2-liter of Coke. I had a photo of everything but my too-smart 2-year-old deleted it and the other items had already been put away or used. OOPS.
FYI, makeup is not the only thing that qualifies toward Beauty Club purchases. Hair care and skin care do, too, but I’m not totally clear on everything – I need to study up.
Anyhooz, here is what I purchased with those fab coupons:
CVS Cotton balls $2.99 (I use these to remove my mascara every darn day)
-$4/$12 cosmetics purchase from the Magic Coupon Machine
-$4/$10 CVS Brand skin/sun care purchase from Magic Coupon Machine
-$10 Extra Care Bucks from my Huggies the day before
-$6.68 25% off coupon I had emailed to me and loaded onto my Extra Care Card
*here is where I am a little confused* I had a “load to card” coupon for 25% off. In the past, these have not worked on “sale” items which included items eligible for Extra Care Bucks. But this time, it did take $6.68 off ! I was pleased! I’ll take it!
Total = $4.51, it was $6 even with tax!!! And I got back 3 ECB for buying $10 of CoverGirl, 4 ECB for buying $10 or Revlon, and 3 ECB for buying $10 of CVS Brand Skin/Sun care.
And I earned more $$$ toward my $50 in beauty purchases. (The amount doesn’t update on your receipt until your next purchase, I don’t think.) It’s a fantastic deal and I was thrilled!! Once again I had 10 ECB to go and spend this week!
Mama likes!!!Earning my CVS Beauty Club ECBs, getting there quickly!
Here’s a look I created for #doyourmakeup using all the new products I bought at CVS Beauty Club over the last couple of days. You can click here to go to my Instagram stream to get the breakdown of how I used them:
Ok, THEN, I decided I needed some neutral eye shadow and drugstore eyeliner and blush so I went back to CVS AGAIN. Those Extra Care Bucks were burning a hole in my pocket, what can I say? And when I got there, the magic coupon machine presented me with:
TA-DA! My $5 in Extra Care Bucks! Apparently that previous shopping trip put me over $50! See how you can spend very little using coupons and Extra Bucks and still get your reward for spending $50? WOOT! I also got a coupon for $2 off a Maybelline item. I had one of those from my last visit as well, so I decided my new items would be Maybelline!
I chose these little beauties (see what I did there?)
All these items were on clearance.
CoverGirl Exact Eyelights in Majestic Hazels $4.89
Maybelline Fit Me! Blush in Rose Blush, $2.99
Maybelline Line Stylist eyeliner in Onyx $4.25
Maybelline Line Stylist eyeliner in Espresso $4.25
total =$16.38
coupons: -$4 two $2 off Maybelline coupons from the magic coupon machine.
=$12.38
-$10 Extra Care Bucks from previous purchase
=$3.53 including tax! And I still have y $5 ECBs from the Beauty Club, plus I just earned more towards my next reward. And, I used those products in addition to some of the others I got on my earlier trips to create this look:
I must say I ADORE the CoverGirl eyeshadow quad. I just used the champagne & the browns. They look great, blend wonderfully, and stayed on all day. Same must be said for the Maybelline eye liner in espresso (haven’t tried the other one yet.) It stayed on SO WELL! Impressed! The CoverGirl LashBlast 24 hr mascara was also a huge win. Love it, and it STAYED ON! I think drugstore makeup has really improved in the last five years! The Maybelline blush was just ok. A little matte for my taste. I guess I like my blush with sparkle.
Allright, I know this was the longest post ever. Thanks for sticking with me! I am really enjoying the drugstore makeup hunt and I love being able to save so much $$ on it!
What are your favorite drugstore beauty products? Where do you shop for them?
I do a lot of different things with my eye makeup, but one thing I always do every day is wear eye makeup primer. Two reasons: it keeps your shadow and liner on longer and it shows allows the true color of the product to come through without being affected by your skin tone. It’s a product I can’t live without! Recently I’ve been using this L’Oreal Paris Magic Decrease primer and I love it. Less than $10 at the drug store, and it’ll help you get the most bang for your buck out of your eye shadows. Don’t believe me? I’ve put together this two-minute video with a demonstration to show you what I mean! Check it out, and don’t forget to check me out under the hashtag #doyourmakeup on Instagram and Twitter. Hashtag your own daily makeup and join in!
Got makeup questions or tips? I’d love to hear them! Leave them in the comments!
Next up is the makeup bargain OF MY LIFE up to this point: This little liner:
