Makeup is too expensive to be a hobby, and frequent trips to Sephora will leave you about as broke as your college education. But I get it, sometimes you just “need” more makeup. Well, turns out CVS and Walgreens offer more than just band-aids and your grandparents’ medication, and you can get more than mugs and frozen peas from Target and Wal-Mart. These drugstores carry some amazing makeup products that you should not be sleeping on.
These foundations are pretty popular, probably because they are absolutely amazing. This formula is magic. You’ll get a beautiful matte complexion without looking dry, and it will make your pores disappear. You can use less product for a more natural look and also build it up for you full-glam moments. With a shade range of over twenty shades, this foundation is definitely one that a lot of men and women will be able to use.
Don’t want to be matte? You can also try this Fit Me line in Dewy and Smooth!
2. Real Techniques by Sam and Nic Miracle Complexion Sponges: $10.99
These beauty sponges are a great Beauty Blender dupe! $20 for a beauty blender is pretty steep, but the Real Techniques beauty sponges are $11 for a pack of two, so just one will be around $5. By skipping Sephora and heading to Walgreens, you can still get amazing complexion at basically a fourth of the price!
3. Milani Everyday Eyes Eyeshadow Palettes: $8.63
I didn’t know the brand Milani existed until about six months ago, and I was missing out! Milani has a lot of amazing products including foundations, blushes, and lipsticks. One of their best products are the eyeshadow palettes. Each palette comes with six shades, with various formulas. They are incredibly pigmented, easy to blend, and incredibly affordable. What more could you ask for? The palettes themselves are also pretty diverse, so whether you like warm, neutral, or colorful eye looks, you’ll definitely find a palette for you!
4. Maybelline Master Chrome Highlighter: $7.89
Maybelline rules the drugstore. They can truly do no wrong. The master chrome highlighters are absolutely gorgeous. My favorite is the highlighter in Molten Gold, but they also have one in Rose Gold. These highlighters look good on all skin tones and are very easy to blend. If you love to glow (honestly, who doesn’t?), these highlighters will give you the most amazing, metallic highlight. You can wear these on your bare-faced days as well for a more natural, everyday highlight.
5. E.l.f. Brushes: $1-$6
E.l.f is one of the most underrated drugstore brands. They have so many amazing products at an incredibly low cost. Their baked highlighters and eyeshadow palettes are widely admired. My favorite products from e.l.f are definitely their brushes. Both their eyeshadow and face brushes are amazing and incredibly affordable. Most of the eyeshadow brushes are $1, and their complexion brushes can range from as cheap as $2 to as cheap as $6. No, you read that correctly. These brushes are great for a college gal’s budget. The best part isn’t even the price. It’s what you get for the price. The brushes are super soft and blend eyeshadows and face products incredibly well.
6. NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams: $6.50
NYX is one of the greatest drugstore brands out there, and their lip products are amazing. The Soft Matte Lip Creams are one of NYX’s greatest treasures. Because they are more of a lip cream than a proper matte liquid lipstick, they are very comfortable to wear and also layer beautifully. There a bunch of different colors to choose from whether you like bright purples, everyday nudes, or more dramatic browns and burgundies. The price, again, is well worth the product!
7. Milani Rose Powder Blush: $7.19
Milani has baked and powder blushes, and both of them are absolutely amazing. The Rose Powder Blushes are incredibly pigmented and blend beautifully on the skin. They are matte blushes but are not streaky or patchy. The presentation in the pan is also gorgeous–they literally look like roses. For $7, you get a good amount of product that will last you a while and also look amazing.
We all want to have flawless makeup but can’t always afford it. Luckily, the drugstore is coming in to help us out in our time of need. So the next time you go to Walgreens to get your grandma’s medicine, pick up a bomb highlighter while you’re at it.