And we’re reached the final installment of my series on how much I spend on different kinds of makeup and why. This is the section about being a cheap skate! It will probably be everyone’s favorite!

THINGS I BUY ON THE CHEAP BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER:

Loose powder.  Excuse me for a moment while I pour one out for my dearly departed Jane Cosmetics, who made my favorite loose powder that I used from the dawn of my makeup use in junior high all the way through when the last one I bought before the line disappeared started to smell funky.  [WAIT WHAT!!!: while searching for an image of this powder I found that Jane has apparently re-launched! Anyone seen their new line in stores? Move over, Higgs boson, this is the most important news story of 2012!]

Anyway, I want four things out of a loose powder: 1) For it to be actually translucent, so it doesn’t make me look ashy. 2) For it to set my eye-makeup without distorting the look (another point in the “actually translucent” column) 3) For the delivery system to be slightly less than the messiest possible thing in the world (basically, a top layer with the appropriate number and size of shaker holes and a lid that screws on tight). 4) For it to not smell like old lady.

Jane did all of these things and also cost something like $4.  So when my last Jane loose powder hit its expiration date, I did the drug store circuit.  I ruled out all the brands that had shades attached to their translucent.  I ruled out all the brands whose fragrance I could smell through the packaging (COVER GIRL, THIS MEANS YOU!).  Which pretty much left L’Oreal Translucide finishing face powder, which wasn’t super cheap by drug store standards ($12), but it has last me a couple of years now without going off, and it gets the job done, so I’m satisfied with it.  I have zero desire to upgrade to fancier powder that costs twice that.

Also, if you are more interested in pressed powder, sorry, but I have zero input for you, because I call that “Flaky Skin in a Compact.”

Bronzer.  Wait, this might be misleading. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually purchased bronzer.  I pretty much get away with hand-me-downs and Sephora samples for this product, because I rarely use it (because I don’t really know how to use it).  Oh, wait, one time I bought the Physicians Formula Happy Boost Bronzer because it was TOO DAMN CUTE and within days of buying it I dropped the package and the whole thing shattered and made a huge tan stain on the carpet that made Collin very grumpy.

Cute, before it shatters. [source]

I have kind of been looking around for a good matte bronzer to do a little contouring with, and have been thwarted by living in a country where the majority of women are more concerned with lightening their skin.  I AM OPEN TO YOUR SUGGESTIONS.  It is entirely possible this item will need to be recategorized after I am a little more learned in the ways of brushing on a tan.

THING I AM PRETTY SURE I AM CORRECT IN BUYING ON THE CHEAP:

Blush.  The caveat here is that I really like Benefit’s Coralista blush, which I got as a Sephora sample once and used until there was absolutely none left.  If I had run out when I was living in the states, I would have no doubt bought a full-sized one the very next day.

But I was living in South Africa, so I went cheap, and found that NYX Powder Blush in Pinched is a nearly perfect substitute for Coralista. At something like 1/5 of the price.  Huzzah!  Sure, the crappy plastic packaging broke within a couple days of buying it (the product stayed intact, so it wasn’t another bronzer disaster), but I was able to fix it with some electrical tape.

Now that’s really just a matter of finding the right shade in a cheaper brand.  But I didn’t categorize blush with eyeshadow or lipstick because I think there are benefits to cheap blush that go beyond shade: basically, you want LESS color payoff with blush, not more.  Expensive makeup has more pigment and less filler. BUT BLUSH NEEDS FILLER.  Why put expensive pigment-rich blush on your brush only to have to tap off most of the product and then spend ten minutes blending so you don’t look like you were just slapped?  Just buy cheap blush and the work is done for you.

THINGS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD BE BUYING ON THE CHEAP:

Eyebrow makeup.  I didn’t put my beloved eyebrow wax in this hierarchy yet because frankly, I forgot about it.  I have been using a regular old eyebrow pencil recently because I couldn’t find a light enough waxy one here in ZA.  You can also use eyeshadow that is a little lighter than your eyebrows, which you probably already have.  In any case: cheap options get the job done. What you really need here is a decent brow brush (and pencil sharpener, if applicable).  Moreover: why spend a ton of money on eyebrow makeup when filled-in eyebrows are probably going to be SO FIVE MINUTES AGO any second now?  Mark my words: well-defined, filled-in brows will be to future works set in 2012 what dark blush on the sides of your face is 1980s period pieces.

[source & source]

Also, I use clear Maybelline mascara as brow gel, which is incredibly cheap, but even that is a waste of money because I could just be using regular hair gel.

Lip Gloss. Lip gloss comes in two varieties:

1. The shiny, tasty, smooth-feeling kind that lasts about as long as the walk to your front door and takes whatever lipcolor you put underneath it with it.

2.  The thick, gloopy kind that usually tastes like glue and lasts maybe as long as two hours, but you can’t eat, drink, talk, or kiss anyone during that time or your entire face, NAY, YOUR ENTIRE LIFE will become a thick gloopy glue-tasting disaster.

There are a million varieties of both types, at various price points.  And they all fucking suck. Lip gloss is the worst.  I’m going to keep buying it, and so are you, because I suspect Bonne Bell is in cahoots with Gerber to condition us from the moment we start on solid food to want sweet sticky shit on our lips at all times.

Are you fucking kidding me. [source]

 But it’s always going to be either a fleeting, lipstick-destroying bliss or a kind of unpleasant and not-all-that-lasting-besides beauty chore.  So you might as well spend as little as possible on the whole fucking charade.

Ok well, that’s that, folks! This has been fun.  I should write about makeup more often.  If you have a specific makeup/beauty topic or question you’d like me to cover, please do let me know!

The continuation of my analysis of what I’m willing to spend on different types of makeup. If you missed part 1, go check it out!

This is my whole  makeup stash.  It is GREATLY reduced from what I had pre-move.

SOMETIMES WORTH IT, SOMETIMES NOT, DEPENDING ON THE SHADE IN QUESTION:

Eyeshadow. Pretty much my favorite makeup ever is the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, such that I cried actual tears both when I realized I had lost mine somewhere on the journey between St. Louis and Cape Town and when my mother-in-law Viki generously mailed me a replacement. And I have gotten a ridiculous amount of joy and entertainment out of the Urban Decay Smoked palette that I bought with Regina in Scotland. I’m pretty sure I will have to fight the temptation to buy every major palette release from UD from now on. So clearly I’m willing to spend a butt-ton on eyeshadow.

And I could talk a big game here about how expensive shadows have better color payoff and blend more easily and suffer from less “fallout” and creasing, and while all of those things are true, they really don’t matter to me. I’m basically in it for the color. And the packaging. So my advice is that if something is a color you will use constantly, like your perfect blending neutral or your signature metallic or a true black, spend the extra dough on a fancy one in a nice container. If you just feel like trying out orange eyeshadow because you keep seeing it on fashion blogs, go cheap. My favorites for weird colors are the Cover Girl singles or the Maybelline quads, and I often use my Ulta points to pick up their eyeshadow singles, even though I hate the packaging (it’s better after the redesign in that it doesn’t ALWAYS break, but they’re hard to open without fingernails) because they have a great color selection.

Lipstick. I have found virtually no benefit in expensive lipstick, partially because of my preference for the paint-on long-wear kind which fancy brands often don’t even bother with. When it comes to regular stick lipstick, I do love getting a Clinique Tenderheart as a bonus when I buy Moisture Surge, but mostly because the color is more flattering on me than anything else I’ve ever found than it feeling or wearing better than cheap-ass drugstore lipcolors. A lot of the value of any given lipstick is going to come down to personal preference regarding feel and smell, but there isn’t a linear relationship between price and pleasantness on either of those fronts.

But when it comes to shopping for a specific, bold color of lipstick, like summer’s ubiquitous orange-red or fall’s deep burgundy, I have the exact opposite opinion to the one I just expressed about eyeshadow. With bold lipstick, like with foundation, I feel it is worth it to pay the premium to have makeup counter experts find the right shade for you. And drugstore reds almost always come out hot pink (but I am a huge fan of Revlon’s Colorstay Ultimate in Top Tomato, which is true red and is in my preferred paint-on formula. Sometimes you get lucky with drug store lipcolor.)

Nailpolish. I am really not qualified to speak on this subject because I keep my nails filed down to the quick to make it harder to scratch my eczema, and I rarely draw attention to them with polish. I do feel naked without painted toenails, though, so I still buy polish. And while it’s plausible polish for your fingernails might be worth more money to get chip-resistance or what have you, when it comes to painting my toes, I’m just in it for the color. Which means I sometimes splurge on wacky shades from cool OPI themes, but just as often get whatever I’m in the mood for in one of those tiny $1 bottles. But when it came time to select a few polishes to bring with me to Cape Town, all the OPI ones made the cut, so read into that what you will.

YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.

PART 1: I SPEND MORE THAN YOU/MORE THAN I SHOULD

Primer.  Several of the comments on my primer roundup noted that Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel or silicone-based lube for nakedtime are very similar in formulation and just as effective as expensive silicone-based makeup primers.  But I still use my expensive foundation primer from Too Faced. I am running out, so I might have to give the wacky silicone subs a try next time.

PART 2: I SPEND LESS THAN YOU/BUT DON’T FEEL BAD CUZ WHATEVER WORKS WORKS

Concealer. I asked my makeup guru friend Lexi for her take on this subject when I started writing these posts, and she immediately listed concealer as a big-budget item.  I totally get that—concealer is really important.  But I just happened to luck out and find a really inexpensive concealer that is just the right color for my skin and is in a formulation that more or less agrees with my super-dry skin: Rimmel Hide the Blemish Concealer.  I use it in “Soft Honey”, sometimes preceded by with the pale yellow “Neutralizer” stick when my undereye circles are really dark.   But don’t get me wrong, I’d easily drop $30 on this product if that is what it had to cost.

Mascara.  So this was originally going to go in the forthcoming “BE CHEAP AS HELL” category, but comments on the first post of this series persuaded me to move it.  Because maybe I was failing to check my eyelash privilege. Yeah, you heard me: eyelash privilege. I mean, look at these bad boys:

That’s makeup-free.

That’s with shadow liner and mascara.

So, really, my use for mascara is to detangle my eyelashes and help lift them out of my eyes.  I’m not asking very much of the product.  Right now I’m using Maybelline Great Lash because it’s the only waterproof mascara I’ve found in Cape Town for less than $10 USD, but I used to cycle through all the cheapo drugstore ones just to keep myself entertained.  I really like the wand on Maybelline One-By-One (moreso than the formula, which I found a little less waterproof than advertised) and used to keep a clean one in my kit to separate clumps when I went for my most dramatic mascara-heavy looks (it was lost along with my first Naked 2 palette, sadly).

But if you are not “born with it” in the eyelash department, I’m guessing you need bigger guns.  I don’t really know what to tell you, other than I’m always happy when I get Clinique High Impact mascara when I get a sample in my bonus bag, even though it isn’t waterproof, which is a huge drawback for me because I’m something of a constantly tear-stained drama queen.

Stay tuned for the third and final installment of the series, where I’ll discuss things I buy for cheap because I don’t know any better, and things I think everyone should be spending as little as possible on.

[Also, same disclaimer as last time. Not being paid or compensated for all this free advertising, despite my tens of readers. How rude!]

One of the unpleasant side effects of getting married was becoming willing to spend more on makeup.  In my quest for the perfect wedding-day makeup, I discovered that some things actually are worth the extra money, and then I started wondering if EVERYTHING in my makeup stash would be better if I spend more on it.  And so I did.

And I’m not going to lie to you, if we were still in the States, I might be continuing on in my merry expensive-makeup indulging ways.  I am pretty much the poster woman for The Lipstick Effect.  Nice makeup was a relatively cheap way for me to have some consumerist fun.

But no more!  In South Africa, makeup is more expensive across the board.  Even the cheapest of cheap things in my makeup kit, the classic Maybelline Great Lash mascara, costs R80 or about $10 USD.  I used to get that for 5 bucks back in the states without even bargain hunting. I think you could get a three-pack on Amazon for ten bucks sometimes. I don’t like spending three times what I think I could be spending on things unless they FEEL fancy.

Unfortuantely, while the price-hike on fancy makeup is relatively smaller, the price floor is still twice as high as it is for drug store stuff. [Also, while there is MAC, Clinique, Smashbox, and several other fancy brands I like, a lot of my favorites (Urban Decay, Make Up For Ever, and now Benefit) aren't in the South African market].  While I do suffer from a touch of “If I’m going to spend too much on something, I might as well spend WAY too much on something” consumerist logic, it’s hard to spend THAT much on makeup.

Because  it’s not just that makeup costs more here, it’s that its price relative to everything else is much higher.  For what I would spend on say, a Revlon lipstick (R150), I could take me and Collin out to a reasonably nice dinner, or see three movies, or buy a case of beer.  So it feels like a much less innocent indulgence.  [I redirect my "I need to buy myself a present" impulses toward the purchase of fashion magazines, which ends up only fanning the flames of my rampant consumerism.]

So I’ve had to re-evaluate my hierarchy of makeup spending.  I’m going to walk you through it strata-by-strata, and because my blatherings have gotten so long I’ve decided to break it into a series of posts.  I’ll start with the things that I’ll spend the big bucks on:

WORTH IT:

Foundation.  For one thing, you’re putting this all over your face, so spending more to get something that will treat your skin right is worth it.  But my main reason for spending the big bucks on foundation is that there is no person at the drug store whose job it is to pick out the right shade and formula for me.  There’s too much trial and error in drug store makeup to make the lower price actually meaningful. But if you’ve already found a cheap one that matches your skin and doesn’t make you break out or flake up, bully for you!  Keep buying that.

Literally half of these shades are named “[Something] Beige.” Eff that noise.

[Source: Maybelline]

Brushes. Because they last pretty much forever, and the better quality ones do a dramatically better job and feel nicer on your face.  I still won’t spend $30 on an eyeshadow brush like MAC seems to want me to, but let’s face it, if I had a little more cash coming in, I probably would.  If you are starting from zero brushes and trying to build a collection, you’ll probably want to spend less per brush (I think Eco Tools are at the perfect price point for that situation, and they make combo packs).  If you just want to add one specific thing to your set, there’s no shame in spending more. Think of it as a price-per-use situation, and TREAT YO SELF.  My favorite of all my brushes, the Sonia Kashuk flat-top brush (I use it damp for applying foundation and dry for blending everything else), was probably the most expensive brush I’ve ever bought, but it has been worth every. red. cent.

[Source: Target]

Waterproof eyeliner.  As I covered in one of my first makeup posts, expensive waterproof eyeliners do tend to last longer, wear better, and survive more tears and other wet things.  But if you just want to use a pencil eyeliner, I think you might as well buy a cheap one, or just use your eyeshadow as eyeliner as demonstrated here by the illustrious (no pun intended) Natalie Dee, whose makeup blog you should all be reading because it is funny, no-nonsense, and informative.

WORTH IT IF YOU ACTUALLY BOTHER WITH IT:

Highlighter.  I basically consider myself a thrift hero for never having succumbed to my desire for YSL Touche Éclat, the drag queen’s highlighter of choice, which sells for $40.  But I did buy the $30 Benefit Watt’s Up and the $26 dollar Benefit Moon Beam.  I have spent more than $50 dollars on highlighter.  I am guessing many makeup wearers don’t even know what highlighter is.  Sigh.  And look, I’m not going to get all evangelical on you and insist that you should be dropping mad cash on shimmery goop for your cheekbones to be all that you can be.  But if you have already fallen down this rabbit hole, I think you’ll agree that a good highlighter (one with the right tone for your skin, appropriate level of shimmer, ease of application and blendability) is worth some extra bills.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, in which I talk about the makeupy things I willfully spend too much on, and why some eyeshadows and lipsticks are “worth it” but others are not.

Meanwhile, dear readers, please confess your own makeup splurges in the comments!

[Just BTW, no one gave me any money or swag to mention any of the products in this post; not like I'm ABOVE taking money or swag, I'm just not important enough to be offered it.]