Drugstore Diva: What My Face is Wearing These Days plus my First Ever Giveaway!

First, My BB Cream Story.
I am not sure if you are aware, but there is a new beauty product flooding the market right now. It is called BB Cream, and no, I do not have any idea what the Bs stand for. It is a cross between foundation and moisturizer--one step up from tinted lotion and one step below actual makeup. In short, this is a product tailor made for people with sensitive skin, a lax beauty routine, or both. I decided to try it immediately upon discovering that such a product existed, but decided that I did not want to spend a lot of money. So I picked up the L'Oreal BB Cream. L'Oreal makeup has rarely disappointed me. It is usually my favorite drugstore brand, but this time, they really let me down. The cream was not very creamy at all. It came out of the tube as a white liquid, requiring me to rub it between my fingers for application. This got more product on my fingers than my face. Once applied, it became almost powdery, leaving me feeling less than moisturized, and for the coverage (which is very light) I felt like I should just go ahead and use traditional foundation. So I relegated it to the box of cosmetics that I never use but can't really bring myself to throw away.

Then I came upon the BB Cream by Olay. Now, Olay is a skincare company that I am highly devoted to. Face wash, body wash, soap, lotion, you name it, I own the Olay brand of it. And this time I was not disappointed. The Olay cream was the exact texture of my creamiest moisturizer, and its color perfectly matched my skin tone. It went on smooth and smelled amazing. I was so pleased because after applying makeup, I felt as fresh-faced as if I had just washed. I do add a little powder to it for deeper coverage, but in the summer definitely, I will be using this and nothing else. If you are curious about BB Creams, buy this one immediately.

This adventure made me start thinking about my beauty routine as a whole. I have finally settled into a set of makeup that I really like, so I thought I would share what I wear on my face, complete with a terrifying picture of me before anything has been applied!

Now, on to the fun part. Here is a picture of me without any makeup on:

 

Here it is, my bare naked face. No filters, no photoshop, just the warm, flattering light of my bathroom. I'm just going to get this out of the way: please ignore my bushy eyebrows. I am desperately in need of a wax. If you are curious about my face wash routine, I take my makeup off with good old Pond's Cold Cream, and I generally use Olay anti-aging facewash and moisturizer, along with copious amounts of Bert's Beeswax on my lips before bed. 

 

And this is me with makeup! This is just my everyday look, nothing special. Sometimes I will put on darker eyeshadow, eyeliner, and/or bright red lipstick, if it's a special occasion. But here I am using just a simple brown palette and a peach lipstick. 

 

Close-ups of my eye and lips. You can see that the eyeshadow isn't super heavy. The palette I used (which I will be listing below, along with all the other products I use) has four colors. One that goes up from the inner corner to the brow bone, one that goes over the whole lid, one that goes on the outer corner, and one that goes in the crease. The lipstick is wonderfully glossy, but stays on better than most lip glosses.

(Also, that's not a booger in my nose. That's the stem of my nose ring. Just want to be clear.)

 This is the same face in natural light. I think we can all agree that natural light is not great. We should all be surrounded by incandescent bulbs and vanilla scented candles all the time. It just makes us look better.

List of Products:

Listed in the order in which I put them on my face.

Face:

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser w/Dark Spot Corrector in (220) Light Pale

Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream in Fair to Light

Revlon Photoready Pressed Powder in (010) Fair/Light (are you noticing a theme here?)

 Eyes:

Revlon Colorstay 16 Hour Eye Palette in (545) Attitude

L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black

L'Oreal Extra Volume Collagen Mascara in (680) Blackest Black

Cheeks:

L'Oreal Visible Lift Color Lift Blush in (703) Pink Lift/Rose

Lips:

Maybelline Color Whisper in (30) Pin Up Peach

 So that's what I wear on my face most days. I do own some nicer makeup. In fact, I have gotten into the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette lately, and I LOVE it. Like, LOVE. Lancome also makes a blush that is to die for. However, these things are a little more pricey, so if you don't want to pay $30-$45 for your makeup palette, these drugstore picks will glam you up just fine! 

AND:

Because I want to share my joy with the world, I am going to give away three of the pieces above! Three winners will be chosen at random. Just go to the comments section and tell us: What are you favorite drugstore makeup finds? What are your favorite colors to put on your eyes and lips? 

Winners will be announced on Tuesday, and will be asked to email me with their choice of product and what color they prefer. 

P.S. I'm sorry about the weird formatting. I don't have a decent photo editor/collage maker right now.Thank you for your patience.