September 21, 2016

The 14 Beauty Essentials Every Girl Needs

BY Jessica Sanchez

I’m a person with many interests! I’m an Activation Team Manager at GT Universe, managing and training a team of 100+ Brand Ambassadors. When I’m not staffing and thinking about food products, I’m thinking about beauty! I’m a member of the beauty community on YouTube with videos on makeup tutorials, DIY projects and beauty product reviews; found here  www.youtube.com/user/jessicasanchezbeauty. Friends always ask me what beauty products I recommend, here is a great list.

Ladies, I know we all have a passion for beauty, even if you haven’t discovered it yet. (Trust me, at least one of the 14 Beauty Essentials, you already use!) Beauty is not just about lipsticks, mascaras or the latest eye shadow palette; it’s about your skin also! You have to take care of the largest organ in your body, your skin, in order to use the foundations, primers, and concealers for days on end.

Are you ready to discover some of the essential products you need in your life in order to have a well-rounded beauty kit? BTW, most of these products are super affordable and can be found at your local drugstore like Walgreens, Jewel-Osco or even Target!

Let’s dive in!

1.      Cleansers & Exfoliators

Cleansers and exfoliators are the most important beauty essential, in my opinion.  Whether you have dry skin, oily skin or in between, these products will work well. As a general rule, you should remove your makeup every night before bed. With these products, you’ll look forward to removing your makeup at the end of the day.

For cleansers, the Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes are a must-have! These ultra-soft towelettes promise to remove 99.3% of your makeup and indeed they do. They are gentle on your skin and eyes, which is important when removing your eye makeup. They are affordable and sometimes come in a reasonably priced double pack!

For exfoliators, the St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub is my favorite everyday exfoliator to use. This oil free
exfoliator really digs deep in your pores to reveal your smooth skin. Being paraben free and sulfate free, this product works well to conserve the moisture in your skin while gentle enough to use on a daily basis.

I bought both of these products at Jewel-Osco.

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2.      Moisturizer

Moisturizers are to be used daily even if you’re not going to wear makeup that day. Just like your body needs hydration, your skin does too!

The Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion is one of the best overall moisturizers for your face and body. This lotion promises up to 24 hours of moisture, relieve dry skin and to soothe your skin. The first step when applying makeup is to apply a moisturizer and I definitely recommend you get your hands on this affordable moisturizer. You can find this lotion in almost any store but I purchased mine at Walgreens.

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3.      Brushes

In order to achieve the perfect makeup application, you need the right tools, brushes! The quality, length, density and variety of brushes are all very important when choosing the right makeup brushes for you.

You don’t have to break the bank in order to have the best brushes. Some of the brushes found at drugstores are very comparable to the high-end brushes like Sigma brushes. I found these Sonia Kashuk face and eye brushes in a very affordable set at Target. This brush set carries the essential brushes needed to complete a full makeup look; face brush, concealer brush, contour brush and eye shadow brushes.

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4.      Foundation & BB Creams

Now, that we’ve talked about the basics on taking care of our face and finding the right tools to apply makeup, let’s actually talk about makeup now!

It’s sometimes difficult to find the right foundation or BB Cream that works for you and your skin type. Luckily, there are so many affordable options in the drugstore that one of them is bound to work for you. My favorite BB Cream is Maybelline’s Dream BB Fresh 8-IN-1 Beauty Balm Skin Perfector. This BB Cream has been reformulated to make your face feel fresh and essentially “perfect” your face while not applying a heavy foundation. This BB Cream is great to wear during the summer when you want your skin to look better but still feel lightweight throughout the day and protect you from the harsh sunrays. This Maybelline BB Cream has SPF 30, which is great! I found mine at CVS Pharmacy.

For foundations, L’Oreal Paris makes the best drugstore foundations in my opinion. They continually come out with great formulas that fit any skin type and any skin tone. The L’Oreal Paris Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation is hydrating, long lasting and has SPF 15. When choosing your foundation, you want to find the correct shade first, and then find the formula that works with your skin type. This foundation is medium to
full coverage and gives you a flawless finish when applied correctly. I found my L’Oreal foundation at Target.

Whether you choose a light coverage or full coverage, foundations & BB Creams
should definitely find their way to your beauty kit!

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5.      Concealer

When we don’t get enough sleep, we wake up with dark circles, I know annoying right? Well, our next beauty essential are concealers. Concealers can be used in multiple ways. They can help cover-up a blemish, dark circles and they can help highlight certain part of your face.

The Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser for Dark Circles is an amazing beauty essential! This concealer works great with covering up blemishes and dark circles because it helps blend in with your skin and it treats your dark circles while it’s sitting on top of them. I recommend you get this concealer in your actual skin tone so you could use it even on the days you don’t wear any foundation.

The NYX HD Photogenic Concealer is my holy grail product that I consistently purchase over and over again! This concealer is perfect for highlighting the parts of your face to give you a flawless makeup look. You can apply this concealer under your eyes, forehead, bridge of your nose and chin. These are the points of your face that need to be lighter especially if you’re contouring your cheekbones. Make sure to purchase a shade lighter than your foundation if purchasing this type of concealer. I purchase mine at Target.

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6.      Brows

Brows have become an important part in everyone’s makeup routine. You have to have your eyebrows on “fleek” even if you don’t wear makeup on the rest of your face. This is why, brow products are definitely on this essentials list.

The Maybelline Brow Drama Pro Palette is a great drug store brow wax and powder duo palette. This palette gives you a tinted brow wax, tinted brow powder and even a lighter shade to highlight your brow bone. What more can you ask for? I found this essential product at Jewel-Osco.

The Anastasia Beverly Hills Duo Powder is also a great brow product. The Queen of Brows, Anastasia, knows what every girl needs; great brow products! Whether you’re a newbie at filling in your brows or you’re a pro, you can never go wrong with this product. This product can be found at any specialty makeup store like Ulta
Beauty or Sephora.

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7.      Bronzer

Contouring has become a huge makeup trend that has all beauty lovers going crazy. While concealers help to highlight certain parts of your face, bronzers help to shade in other parts of your face like the hollows of your cheekbones, around your hairline, temples and jawline.

You should always have two shades of bronzer, one light and one slightly darker. For those days where you need to warm up your face a bit, you’d use the lighter shade like the Physicians Formula Butter Bronzer. This bronzer gives you a subtle glow while keeping your makeup look natural. For other days where you’re feeling fierce, you’d use the darker bronzer to give you a sharp contour to accentuate your features like the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer.

The Butter Bronzer can be found at any drugstore while the Too Faced Bronzer can be found at specialty stores like Sephora or Ulta Beauty.

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8.      Blush

Blush is a great beauty product to warm up your face in natural, soft, beautiful tones. Blush is meant to look like a natural flush while making you look healthy and attractive.

You can never go wrong with a soft mauve pink shade. This shade can fit on many different skin tones. When used correctly, blush can help tie a makeup look together. The Coulorpop Super Shock Cheek Blush is a very affordable cream blush that gives you a soft and natural finish on your cheeks. The Kat Von D Shade & Light Blush Duo is a great product to have in your kit. Not only do you get a big pan filled with product but, you also get two slightly different shades for the price of one.

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9.      Highlighter

The beauty world is raving over the newest and brightest highlights out on the market. Highlighters are a great essential to have in your makeup kit but, aren’t necessarily for daily use. Highlighters can be used to create a sexy
glow on your face or just help create a dewy look.

The Becca x Jacklyn Hill Champagne Pop Highlighter is a beautiful high-end product that fits almost every skin tone. This highlighter can be purchased at a specialty store like Sephora or Ulta Beaty. On the other hand, the Wet ‘n Wild Fegie in Rose Champagne Glow is an amazing highlighter that can be found in any drugstore. Both products will give you a sexy or dewy finish to your makeup look.

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10. Eye shadow

For any makeup look you’re trying to create, it all comes down to which eye shadow colors you’ll be using. You can create so many different eye looks whether it’s sexy, soft, romantic or spicy depending on the colors you use.

There are so many great eye shadow palettes on the market right now filled with many amazing colors. I recommend you start off your makeup kit with one eye shadow palette filled with a mix of neutral colors and colors that pop like blues or reds. I highly suggest you invest in a higher end eye shadow palette because
they tend to be more pigmented and usually better quality.

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11. Eyeliner

One of the hottest makeup trends that is becoming a staple trend is doing a cateye look with liquid eyeliner. Liquid eyeliners like the NYX Matte Liquid Liner are great for giving you a sharp eyeliner look. The IT Cosmetics No-Tug Waterproof Gel Eyeliner is a perfect stay all-day eyeliner to use in your waterline and to tight line with. Both are great products to have in your makeup bag.

Liquid eyeliners and pencil eyeliners come in various colors and are a great tool to have when creating any makeup look. I purchased the NYX liner at Target and the IT Cosmetics liner came in my August Ipsy bag.

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12. Mascara

Let’s talk about lashes! We all know false lashes are a “must” when creating dramatic, glamorous or even trendy looks. But, with or without falsies, you always need a good mascara to coat your lashes with.

The Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes gives your lashes a dark coat of mascara while keeping your lashes upright and curled. The Covergirl Clump Cluster mascara is an oldie but a goodie! This drugstore mascara separates your lashes perfectly while giving them lots of length.

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13. Lips

My favorite beauty essential has to be a good lip product. Your lipstick, lipgloss and lip stain finishes off your makeup look. It’s the beauty essential that people notice first when you’re wearing it. There are so many great inexpensive lip products that are very underrated. Let’s talk about a few!

The NYX Butter Gloss and NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams are great products you can find at an Ulta or Target. These products are not only cheap; they’re the perfect size to fit in any sized makeup bag. My favorite lipsticks
sold in the drugstore are from Maybelline Lipsticks. Their lipsticks come in different finishes and beautiful range of colors. Lastly, the online sensation, ColourPop, sells premium quality lip products at very affordable prices. The ColourPop Matte Lippies are highly pigmented and can last all day without having to
reapply!

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14. Primer/Setting Powder/Setting
Sprays

We have come to our last beauty essential, products to help the longevity of your makeup. Not many people know this but; primer is not only for paint. A great face primer to help fill in your pores and keep your foundation looking smooth is the Maybelline Baby Skin Pore Eraser. The same goes for your eyes, your eyes need a primer to help your eye shadows glide on and stay on all day like the Benefit Stay Don’t Stray Eye Shadow Primer.

One of the best setting powders I’ve found can be purchased at a drugstore like Walgreens, the Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder. This is a great product to use to keep your concealer from creasing which is a huge win! After you’ve completed your makeup look, you want your makeup to stay all day. The MAC Prep+Prime Fix+ helps your makeup stay in place all day. The last thing you need is for your work of art to fade throughout the day.

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Now that you know about the essentials, have fun exploring next time you make a run to the drugstore!  There are
many great brands of makeup in the market and part of the fun is finding what works best for you. Be sure to follow me @jessica_sanchez92 on Instagram and Youtube for more tips and tricks!

-Jessica Sanchez, Activation Team Manager