My 10 Step Everyday Makeup Routine

Putting on makeup in the morning is honestly one of my favorite reasons to roll out of bed.

Well, thinking about my possible makeup routine AND thinking about boiling a big cup of matcha tea are two awesome reasons for me to get up!

As such as a creative person, I see the beauty and art behind using my face as a canvas. Makeup has been one of my earliest passions. Skin care is a close second!

From middle school when I started out using one BareMinerals powder up until now, at age 25, with experimentations using a wide range of beauty brands under my belt, I can truly say that I’ve had a long journey with beauty over the years.

I can reimagine my look on a new day. When I wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and energized, all it takes is one look in my mirror before I am ready to mix up a palette of special ingredients for my face. It’s no wonder that applying makeup continues to fuel my creativity with a single fluffy brush in hand.

sonia kashuk makeup bag | denim button front dress

The best thing about makeup in my eyes? Experimenting with all types of shades and colors. Of course, I generally love golden tones and warming up my cheekbones with a delicate layer of bronzer, but every now and again I will find products at the drugstore (or Sephora) to spice things up!

Today I am bringing you my Everyday Makeup Routine Using Drugstore Products. I believe a complete makeup look does NOT have to come solely from high-end makeup stores such as Ulta or Sephora.

Grateful Journal Target || ceramic bathroom tray

The drugstore has plenty of brands and lines to play with to curate your own individual everyday look. I’ve found what works for me through a lot of trial and error. I hope you see these items I’ve used in my routine and are inspired to try out new unfamiliar brands for yourself!

1. Foundation

Foundation sets the tone for the rest of your makeup! I don’t even want to KNOW how many bottles of foundation are currently living in my makeup drawers right now…easily over 20 different brands!

When I was choosing a foundation to discuss in my everyday makeup routine, I knew I wanted to show off the beautiful Covergirl truBLEND Matte Made Foundation.

foundation

With a “strong yet flexible hold on the skin for durability”, this foundation has a mix of mattifying power and it will absorb excess oil. This foundation has up to 12 hours of wear, which is great for me to keep my face looking matte and flawless while I am busy at work.

Another favorite foundation of mine? Maybelline Super Stay Full Coverage Foundation.  I wear the shade porcelain and what I enjoy about wearing this foundation from Maybelline is how it matches my light skin tone so well! At $11.99 it’s a steal, too.

2. Setting Powder

After applying a coat of liquid foundation, I need to set it properly into my skin with a powder. At the drugstore, finding a powder can be an overwhelming process. There are SO many choices! I often use my Maybelline Fit Me Loose Finishing Powder to lock in my liquid foundation.

This finishing powder has great lightweight coverage that won’t make your foundation budge. It promises to have your skin looking matte and poreless for up to 16 hours, too. I blend this loose powder all over my skin, starting with under my eyes and ending on my forehead.

The finishing powder I use from Maybelline also has a light tint to it, which is just enough to smooth the texture of skin as a secret weapon to achieve a flawless face in minutes. My shade is 05 Fair.

3. Eyebrows

Onto the eyebrows! I am a different gal when I draw in my eyebrows, that’s for certain! I can not skip out on this step by any means or else the rest of my makeup look will look incomplete.

As for drugstore eyebrow pencils, I choose the $14.00 Soap & Glory Archery 2-in-1 Crayon Gel  to draw in my dark blonde eyebrows. I can sculpt my ideal eyebrow shape and look in no time with this awesome crayon gel formula. Retailers such as Ulta and Walgreens sell Soap & Glory products. I just want my eyebrows to look like Allana’s, K?

eyebrow pen from soap & glory

Easy to apply and remove, this eyebrow crayon from Soap & Glory is the first product I’ve tried from the brand. I am glad I found it while snooping through my local Walgreens a few months ago. The gel hold is excellent for me and stays on throughout my day-to-day activities. I also don’t need to use any further product to lock in my eyebrows because the gel formula does that job for me!

4. Concealer

Rimmel products are also some of my drugstore loves. When it comes to concealer, I need something that will hide my dark undereye circles. With my fair skin, I can look tired if I don’t cover up under my eyes to match with the rest of my liquid foundation and powder.

Concealer

For my drugstore look today, I applied coats of Rimmel Stay Matte Concealer in Vanilla. The formula is both humidity-proof and sweat-proof, which is what this Florida gal has always dreamed of! Concealers can easily get cakey and start to crack on my skin, so I also apply another generous coat of Fit Me powder once my concealer is on my face.

Not only is this concealer cheap, but it’s super creamy. A little also goes a long way, so if you try it out, please don’t overdo it! I put on too much during my photo shoot and had to reapply it again to smooth everything out, haha.

5. Bronzer

One of the best parts about doing my makeup is glowing up my fair complexion with a deep stroke of bronzer along my cheekbones. Bronzer was once a step I left out of my entire routine! I noticed a complete transformation of my face once I started incorporating bronzer into my daily makeup look.

Sleek Makeup Palette

Bronzers can be tricky – you don’t want to use one that makes you look orange, yet you also need to find one that provides you with the right amount of color payoff.

Over the years, finding GOOD, high-quality bronzers from the drugstore has been a fun challenge for me. One of the first bronzers I ever experimented with was from Rimmel. The Natural Bronzer from Rimmel was a product I used for years on my face, too.

I felt instantly warm and glowing as soon as I used an angle brush to apply it, that’s for sure! It looked like I spent a vacation out in Mexico whenever I used that bronzer. Oh, the good ‘ole days when I relied on just one single product instead of trying out hundreds of other bronzers!

Enter the latest bronzer/highlighting duo: Sleek MakeUP Palette Copperplate. This Target find took me by surprise. I had never heard of Sleek MakeUP until I purchase one of their smooth matte lipsticks (a super rich + dark wine color, may I add!) and now I’m hooked on this gorgeous palette.

The colors inside this all-in-one palette are what I need to look fresh and radiant! It’s a neat idea to place four highly pigmented all-over shimmer colors inside a bronzing palette like this one from Sleek MakeUP for face and body. The best part? You decide what kind of look you want with the help of this palette. You can easily create a subtle daytime look or add more buildable coverage for an intense glow! For $12.99, I would compare this palette to a more expensive Hourglass highlighting palette.

6. Blush

Onto blush! There is nothing I love more than a pink blush to make my cheeks look rosy and naturally flushed. Sometime last year I worked with Neutrogena on a campaign and I was gifted one of their single Healthy Skin blushes.

The color I received in my gifted package was “Rosy”, a gorgeous illuminating pink shade. The formula itself is enriched with vitamin C and botanical conditioners that make it super soft.

7. Highlight

Another recent beauty buy is a highlighter from Morphe. The next product I’ll be talking about is the Morphe eyeshadow of my dreams, but for now, I need to focus on how much my life has changed from this one singular highlighting product!

Morphe is a top-selling brand because it continues to deliver amazing products from each category of makeup at such an incredible price. Oh, and probably because YouTube star and makeup artist Jaclyn Hill has a little something to do with the brand! Ha! From concealers to highlighters, Morphe has it all in my opinion! I will be purchasing a few more products from their collections at my local Ulta in the future, I can sense it.

Highlighter

Highlighters are typically applied on the top of your cheekbones to add a little bit of glam to your makeup routine. However, I’ve made this product (High Impact Highlighter from Morphe) work for me as both a highlighter, eyebrow bone highlight, eyeshadow, and inner corner highlight. A mini highlighter in the color shade called “Spark” is also something that I fell in love with when I first bought it.

In fact, my best friend also loved it so much that I recently gave mine to her and repurchased it again for myself! An $8.00 travel highlighter can do so much for you if you plan on taking a mini weekend vacation with minimal makeup.

8. Eyeshadow

Any Morphe palette will seriously change your makeup game! I personally use the Morphe 9C Jewel Crew Palette in today’s look. The combination of color choices for your daily eye look is impressive from a $12.00 eyeshadow palette. These nine jeweled shades are pigmented beyond belief.

eyeshadow palette

You can also travel with this palette because it’s so compact and easy to toss into your carry-on. The shimmery shades are just the right kind of gold for me to bring out my blue eyes, too. There is a little bit of fall-out so be warned before you start blending the colors together on your eye. All you need is a bit of powder on a fluffy brush to gently remove the fall-out.

9. Mascara

Making me eyelashes pop is the next step in my full drugstore makeup routine. Mascaras are also a beauty product that I’ve found hits and misses with.

The best drugstore mascaras are ones that are clump-free, waterproof (or not waterproof! I really don’t mind either formula), and lengthen your lashes. The mascara I’ve recently been loving is from Maybelline and comes in at under $6.00.

MASCARA

The Maybelline Snapscara Washable Mascara also comes in a few color options. I usually stick to dark black. It’s a pigmented and wax-free formula that is revolutionary for the brand. It provides a clean volume and no mess! My lashes are defined for as long as I am wearing the product on. At night, it’s super easy to remove the product with my favorite micellar water, too.

10. Lipstick

The final touch?

A vibrant lipstick, of course! Lipsticks can take your entire routine up a notch. For me, I never leave my house without a lipstick or lip balm. In my purse, I easily have 4-5 different lip products at this very moment to choose from. The funny thing is, they are all basically the same shade, too. What can I say? I have a type!

Liquid lipsticks are having a huge moment right now, however, I am currently crushing on a new trend that has recently hit the drugstore market. Once I discovered the Lancome Matte Shakers  I instantly found my new go-to lipstick. These water-in-oil formulas are non-drying and deliver weightless texture to the lips.

Revlon Kiss Cushion Lip Tint 

Luckily, Revlon saw what Lancome released and decided it was their turn to provide beauty junkies like myself with a much more affordable version. Thank you, Revlon! The Revlon Kiss Cushion Lip Tints are so much fun! I am wearing the shade “Naughty Mauve” which is a combination of purple and dark red tones. Whenever I need just a hint of color this spring season, I search my purse for my new Revlon Lip Tint.

Credit For All Images: Sara Magnolia / Studio Magnolia