the strange musician: My Favorite Drugstore Beauty Products!

I reviewed some new Ulta products last week, but today I'm planning to tell you about all of my favorite drugstore beauty products, since I know some of us are on a budget and maybe can't afford to go spend $50 or more on one eyeshadow pallet. However, when I opened up my makeup bag to work on this post, I realized I had quite a few products to tell you about, so you might want to grab the popcorn and settle in for a long one!

While I'm calling these "drugstore" products, I actually bought most of them at Target. I'm not sure whether you would consider that a drugstore, but you can probably get most (if not all) of these products at your local convenience store. And if I'm not mistaken, most (if not all) of them were $10 or less! (Also just a heads up, this post is not sponsored in any way!)

So first off, I'll start with the elf makeup brushes. Besides the Ulta brushes I reviewed in my last post, most of the brushes I use are from elf. I have two professional eyeshadow brushes, one professional blending eye brush, the flat foundation brush, and the professional total face brush (not pictured below. It's really big and fluffy and I don't use it very often). I think most of these brushes were actually $3 or under, and I've never had a problem with any of them. I use them on almost a daily basis, and I really like them. And as a bonus, elf products are all animal cruelty free, now including their brushes!

Moving on to the Almay smart shade foundation because it does a really good job of adjusting to your individual skin tone. With marching band, my summer tans really come and go, and it's nice not to have to have multiple foundations for different times of the year. This is more of a sheer coverage foundation, which I like as well because I don't like feeling like I have makeup caked onto my face.

Next I'll tell you about the elf shimmer lip glosses I have. I actually got these in a set of 10 and gave most of them away to my friends (who also said they really liked them), but I did keep a few for myself. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I've seen these exact ones again, but if you do spot them, they're really nice. My two favorites are a bright berry pink color, and another that's more of a nude peachy color.

I really like elf for affordable makeup, but probably one of my favorite things from them is the elf smudge pot. It's a cream eyeshadow that works just as well as an eyeshadow base or as a stand alone color. I have it in the color Cruisin' Chic, which is a warm, shimmery brown and it's just so pretty. It looks just as good on if you have brown eyes or blue eyes, or probably any color in between. You can apply it with a sponge-type applicator or even just your finger, but be warned: if you use your finger you'll probably need makeup remover to get it off because this stuff lasts all day.

One of my other favorite things from is the elf shimmering facial whip. It's a small tube of liquid highlighter, and it comes in a few colors. I have it in the color lilac petal, and it's a nice, natural sort of pink. Highlighter can really add a nice finishing touch, and with this product a little goes a long way. It blends out well and gives you nice, glowing skin.

The next product is still fairly new to me, but so far I've really liked it. It's NYX Super Skinny Eye Marker. So far, this has been a good liquid liner pen, and it really does have a very skinny tip, which is nice if you're afraid of messing up or getting your eyeliner too heavy, like I am.

One other product I use almost every day is my Maybelline liquid concealer. I think I got this as part of their "Fit Me!" line, but it works just fine with other foundations. Again, with this product, I've found a little goes a long way and it blends nicely, so I really like using it for my concealer.

Another new product (and I do mean new, I only got this a few days ago), is a NYX lipstick. I'm not entirely sure what line it's from, but the color I bought is called Tea Rose, and it's a really lovely pink. The product itself has sort of a balmy texture and it feels like it's nourishing to your lips. Plus, I think it smells nice, which is good when the product is sitting right under your nose all day.

My current favorite mascara is Maybelline Full 'N Soft mascara, and I usually get it in waterproof (mostly so I can wear it in marching band and not sweat it off). I think this mascara makes my eyelashes look really nice, but my favorite thing about it is that it doesn't make my eyelashes feel stiff or crunchy. It really annoys me when mascara makes my lashes feel stiff, so it's nice that this one doesn't.

Last but not least, I'll include my two current favorite Pure Ice nail polishes. These two were part of the limited edition Fairy Tale Forest collection, and I bought them around New Years, so hopefully they're still around. If you've taken a look around my blog, you know I love fairy tales, and you know I love the colors blue and pink, so these are just perfect for me. The pink is called "True Love's Kiss," and the blue (my absolute favorite, I'm wearing it right now!) is called "Prince Charming." The collection had a lot of really pretty colors, but these are the two I bought and I'm really liking them!

So there you guys go! Those are some of my favorite affordable beauty products, most of which I think I payed less than $10 for! Have you tried any of these products? Did you like them as much as I did? Let me know what you think in comments!

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