One thing I learned in my brief time as a beauty advisor in Ulta is that beauty doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg if you know how to play your cards right. Growing up, my mother was part of that group of baby boomers who only used MAC products. So, naturally when I started doing my own makeup, my mother taught me with MAC and only preached big brand makeup application.

However, when I got to college, I barely had food money – let alone MAC money. With the name brands that I was using in my $40 foundation and $20 concealer, to do an entire face was costing me upwards of $80. I had to find the alternatives.

$120 worth of product (left) vs. a $50 face (right)

For those die hard Sephora fans, I get it. It’s hard to leave when your points don’t expire and you can buy those luxury brands; but, I urge you to consider the other side. $80-$100 for makeup doesn’t help if you don’t know what you’re really doing and $40 for a full face can look like $100 if you know just the right ways to apply it. These drug store basics for a full face, will still help you get your prime time baddie look and cut your makeup budget at the same time.

Foundation: 

1. Maybelline Fit Me Foundation ($7.99)

Maybelline has a great foundation that I love using. It’s affordable and lightweight. It comes in two styles: Matte + Poreless (for normal to oily skin) and Dewy + Smooth (for normal to dry skin). It’s my favorite for its texture and they have a very decent shade range. However, it’s competition at a very close #2, L’Oreal, probably has the deeper shade range.

2. L’Oreal True Match Foundation ($10.99)

L’Oreal Paris is one of those brands that really adapts to their audience requests. The foundation precisely matches skin tone and undertones to give you your true match foundation. It offers light to medium coverage and, for about $11, it’s a super affordable addition to your makeup collection.

Concealer:

LA Girl Pro Concealer ($4.99)

L.A. Girl Pro Conceal reigns supreme among all drug store concealers. It’s affordable and it works! You can apply it before or after foundation and it still gives you a nice blended finished look. It covers dark marks and scars really well. The only thing it doesn’t work on is tattoos. They also offer color correcting shades as well. L.A. Girl Pro Conceal, not only helps as a concealer, but it can also be used for highlighting and contouring. The trick is go one shade lighter for your natural highlight color and two shades lighter for a good highlight. For contour, take the same tip, but go darker.

• my shades are warm honey and dark cocoa 🙂

NYX Professional Makeup: 3C Conceal Correct Contour Palette ($11.99)

I used to love this back before I switched to L.A. Girl pro. It’s so easy and keeps all the colors you need in a palette. As someone who loses concealers a lot while traveling, this was great for me because it kept everything together. All you need is a good brush and beauty blender and you can pretty much breeze through your concealing, highlighting, and contouring in your routine.

Eyebrows:

Ulta Brow Pomade: ($10)

it’s a slept on product, but it’s good and it works. Its more for the natural everyday looks because they don’t have a full range of colors, but it does pretty well with filling and lining your brows. I pair it with my Nyx Pro Dual Brow Brush and it works to give me the eyebrow look I typically go for.

Lips: 

NYX Butter Gloss (Praline): $4.99

I loved this gloss when I worked at Ulta and I still love it to this day. I firmly believe that NYX could definitely give us a bigger tube with more product for these glosses because they are THAT GOOD. I always choose praline because I know that one is a very good color for darker skin tones. However, here’s the real tea: the best glosses to buy will come from your local beauty supply store. All you need is a good liner and one of the lip oils from the beauty supply– NOT Sally’s, I said a beauty supply. If you know, then you know.

These are some of the drugstore basics that I prefer to use. They’re well done, good cosmetics, and they’re cost efficient which is what I’m really looking for as a full time college student. Of course, I’ll add more to the list like blushes/bronzers and eyeliners as soon as I find a drug store brand good enough to recommend, but for now, these are the most amazing products that can be found at any Ulta, convenience store, or beauty supply. Try them out and let me know how they work!