Are you Blushing?

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

To me blush is one of the forgotten beauty products. It is something you don’t need to have but when you use it, it can bring your whole make up look together. Blush is also something that can bring your face back to life when having a little color. Since Blush is not a extremely needed product it also doesn’t have to be something you spend a lot of money on. I have found and tired many blush products that work just great and are under $5! My personal favorite would be E.L.F cosmetics blush in ‘mellow mauve’. It is only $3! Looking online I noticed this E.L.F blush could even be a dupe for NARS ‘orgasm’ blush that cost around $20. Blushes should never cost that much! Another blush from E.L.F would be more of a summer shade. It is a nice bight pink/ coral called “Candid Coral”. All these products are worth testing out yourself since they are so cheap with such a good color pigmentation.

Tips on how to apply:

1) once you have finished the rest of your makeup, one of the last things you want to do is add blush.

2) the proper place to add the blush is on the apples of your cheeks, near the rounded part.

3) a tip to add the color throughout your face would be to add a bit on the tip of your nose.

4) always remember to have a light hand when applying you can always add more but you cant take color away once it is on.

Eyebrows on Fleek

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

When it comes to eyebrows the latest trend is to have them filled in with sharp lines. There is even a slang made up for having your brow looking prefect, “on fleek”. Brows can be tricky to make them look on-point but with some practice and the right product it can be easier. A way to make them look more natural is to have a light hand of filling them in and using a makeup wand to brush through them. When you brush through them it helps prevent them from looking like they are brushed in or too heavy.

A highly raved product among the beauty community and makeup fans everywhere is the “Anastasia brow wiz”. This high-end product is double ended. One side has the colored wax that is used to fill in the eyebrows. Then on the other end is the spooley that is used to brush the brow hairs down and in the right direction. I agree this is a really nice product but it cost $21. A dupe for this product is the “NYX Micro Brow Pencil” that is half the price of the Anastasia product, it cost $10. The “NYX Micro Brow Pencil” has the exact same double ended pencil and wand as the “brow wiz”. It last all day with no smudges. It comes in eight shades for many different hair colors.

Bronzed Beauty

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

Summer is just around the corner and if you are like me, I am still as pale as the winter snow. To get ready for the warmer weather I think it is nice to add a little glow to your makeup look. Adding bronzer adds more color and detention to the skin. A big trend for makeup is doing crazy contouring. This is not really necessary to do all the time and I personally don’t think it looks super natural either. A better way to give your face shape is a nice blended, overall bronze. A tip on how to apply the bronzer around your face is in the “E3” shape. This basically means that on the left side of your face you will create an “E” and on the right side a “3”. What you will do is take your brush and go around the boarder of the forehead (by the hairline and temple). Then bring it around to the hollows of your cheek bones (From your ears outward to the middle of the cheek). Finally take your brush and drag it underneath the jaw line. This will give the jaw line more definition. After this you simple repeat on the other side of the face.

Another little trick that I like to do is to place a little bronzer on each side of my nose and leaving the middle untouched because that is where the highlighter will be. This tip will make the nose look smaller but also the most important thing, giving the nose more contrast to the rest of the face so it does not get lost in the rest of the face.

Some products that are highly raved about is the ‘Benefit Hoola’ bronzer. This product cost $29.00. Like every high-end product that is pretty outrageous. I have found that the ‘NYC Smooth Skin Bronzing face powder’ in color ‘Sunny’ is a major dupe for the ‘Benefit Hoola’ bronzer. The NYC bronzer is only $3! This is a $26 dollar difference. It is insane to me that someone would pay that much when there is the exact same product for more than half the price.

Birkenstock Sandal Dupes

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

Another trend that has come back from the early 00’s is the Birkenstock Sandals. I remember having a pair around middle school. It is weird to think they are back in style. Although, it is fine by me because I think they are still cute and comfortable. Something that I do not remember from years ago was how expensive they were. Just looking on the Birkenstocks website, a classic pair of their sandals cost $99.95. (Below is a picture of what a Birkenstock Sandal looks like)

I do not know many people who would feel right about spending one hundred dollars on sandals. Unless you only care about having the real brand name of course but I think the overall look of the item is what matters when looking at dupes, not the brand name. Since I have been wanting a pair of these shoes for awhile now, I did my own research on other brands that make sandals that look just like Birkenstock’s but with a much better price tag. That is when I came across Targets shoe selection. I could not believe it but I truly found a Birkenstock sandal dupe. They are called Women’s Mad Love Keava Footbed Sandals and they only cost $22.99 at Target. That is a $77 dollar difference for shoes that look and feel the same. Also right now Target is having a BOGO sale for their sandals so you can get one in each color. Not to mention you can still buy two pairs of the Mad Love brand for much less then just one pair of Birkenstocks. (Below is a picture of the pair that I got from target)

Tips and Hacks to Get Marked Down Clothing

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

Getting fashionable clothes can be expensive most of the time if you do not know where to look to get a deal. I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the first tips to buying clothing cheaper is buying them when they are out of season. Right when the seasons are changing, store always move the last seasons clothes to clearance. This is a great tip because they usually have the new clothes coming in before the last season was actually over. So if you find clothes you like you can still wear them before the weather changes are you are too cold or too hot.

Speaking of clearance, another tip that I found super helpful is knowing the days of when stores mark down their clothes. For example, Target can be pricy sometimes but still fairly low prices and finding mark down items can be a steal.

Their schedule or marking down is: Monday– Kids clothing, crafts, and electronics, Tuesday– Women’s clothing and domestics, Wednesday– Men’s clothing, toys, health and beauty, Thursday– Lingerie, shoes, housewares, Friday– Cosmetics.

Another helpful tip along with knowing the days something will be marked down but also knowing if it is at its lowest price. Which there is an easy way find out, that many people never knew. So when looking at a clearance sticker if the price ends in a 8 it will be marked down again and if it ends in a 4 that is the lowest price. (see the picture above for an example)

Highlighter Dupes

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

A big trend that is happening to take your makeup to the next level is adding highlighter. A full face of makeup can look incomplete without the finishing touch of highlighter. It adds a nice glow to your face and it adds more dimension. Putting a little highlight on the high points of the face (cheek ones, down the middle of your nose or the tip of the nose, and on the cupids bow) gives a more natural look to your makeup. A product that is extremely raved about in the online beauty community is the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter in the color Champagne Pop cost $38 off of Sephora.com.

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I have to admit this is a beautiful product. If I had about forty dollars laying around I would love to buy this high-end product. But since I do not, I have found a product that gives me the same look for less.

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The Elf baked eye shadow shade called Enchanted. Even though this is actually an eye shadow you can still use it as a highlighter. This product only cost $3! That is a $35 difference for two products that look the exact same! The photo below shows the comparison of the two.

Elf also offers actual highlighter products that I also love. They have three highlighter shades. Pink Diamonds (a pink/ blush shimmer), Moonlight Pearls (a light golden shimmer), and Blush Gems (a darker golden brown shimmer). They all cost $3 as well. These are all great products from Elf that I personally use everyday. All these shades including the baked eye shadow ‘Enchanted’ would only cost you about $12. You can get all four for still half the price of one BECCA highlighter.

Primer Dupes

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

One of the best ways to get the most out of your makeup is to always start your makeup routine with a primer. A primer is applied to clean skin first then your foundation or BB cream over to smooth out imperfections, make your pores disappear, keep your face matte, and to make your makeup last throughout the day. I have noticed a big difference on the days that I do and do not wear a primer under my makeup. If I don’t, by lunch time some of my foundation has probably rubbed off of my nose because that is where I usually get the most oily. Therefore there are obviously high end primers that will do the job but in reality I have found dupes at the drugstore for have the price. Here are some dupes that I have found and have tested out myself.

First is the Benefit Porefessional vs. Maybelline Baby Skin. The light blue packaging of both looks very similar along with the product inside. The Maybelline Baby Skin does just as good of a job erasing the look of pores as the Benefit Porefessional. But there is a big price difference. Benefit Porefessional cost: $12 and the Maybelline Baby Skin cost: $6. Save your money and go for Maybelline. You could buy two for the price of one Benefit Porefessional.

Another dupe would be the Smashbox Photo finish primer vs. the Elf Mineral Infused primer. Just like the other primers above Smashbox and Elf are the exact same. They both do a great job making the skin look matte even with flash photography. But here is the price difference, Smashbox Photo finish primer cost: $16 and the Elf Mineral Infused primer cost: $6. Also Elf has different colored primers too for the same cost that help with color correcting of the skin.

High-End vs. Drugstore Lip Stick

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Amanda Bergman

The latest trend in make up is matte lips. Matte lip stick has a nonglossy smooth finish typically with lots of pigment and a stay that last all day. Many think that this kind of quality has to come at a high price tag but that is not always the case. Some of the most raved about high end products include the Kylie Jenner lip kits, Makeup Forever, Mac, NARS, YSL, Dior, and a few others. This list of products range from fifteen to forty dollars. In my opinion, as a college student, paying more than ten dollars for a lipstick is way too much. Those products might be worth the money in some ways but when comparing them to some drugstore products the quality is the same, with a much more manageable price. NYX is a drugstore brand that is just as good if not better quality then the lipsticks worth forty bucks. NYX is my personal favorite drugstore brand. I think this cosmetic line offers great products overall in addition to their lipsticks. The NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams and the Lingerie liquid matte lipsticks are the two products that I have purchased and the ones that I reach for the most when doing my makeup. There is over forty different shades to pick from. They offer the perfect nude to bright pinks and vampy dark purple, reds. The Soft Matte Lip Creams are five to six dollars and the Lingerie liquid lipstick are about seven dollars. Both are found at stores like Ulta or Target. The main difference between the two product would be the pigment of the colors. The Soft matte lip creams need two coats when applying to the lips but the two coats have just as much color as one layer of the liquid Lingerie lipsticks. Each last all day and do not rub off when eating or drinking. Hands down the best lipsticks for less than ten bucks. For sure gives the exact same look for much less.

Both images found off of nyxcosmetics.com

Beauty on a budget

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