Holiday Gift Guide: Drugstore beauty gifts/stocking stuffers 2013

Just because you have a budget, doesn't mean you can't find some awesome beauty gifts at amazing drugstore prices. There are plenty of great gift sets out there that are sure to please even the most discerning beauty lover on your list.

Check out some of my top picks, none of which will cost you more than a whopping $20. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back, you are one bad ass shopper.

Pacifica Body Butter Collection ($15) / Pacifica Take Me There Set ($18) / Pacifica Day & Night Natural Skincare Collection ($19) / Real Techniques Core Collection Set ($18) / Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral eyeshadow palette ($20) / Essie Holiday Color 2013 set ($15) / The Body Shop Body Butter Lollipop ($20) /The Body Shop Almond Handy Manicure Set ($18)

What are some of your favorite affordable gift finds in the beauty isle? 

Holiday Gift Guide 2013: Beauty Gifts $30 or less

1. Real Techniques Cosmetics Brush Set ($30) / 2. Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral LE Matte/Neutral Palette ($30) / 3. Stila Color Me Glossy Lip Glaze ($28) / 4. Anastasia Beverly Hills Covet Waterproof Liner set ($28) / 5. Stila Tools of the Trade brush set ($28) / 6. MAC Stroke of Midnight Viva Glam 1 set ($30) /  7. Benefit Cosmetics Luve It Up! Color Kit ($25) / 8. Julep Hand Model kit ($25) / 9.  ALTERNA Caviar Experience Kit  ($29)/ 10. Living Proof beauty product ($29)

Makeup and beauty tools:

It's quite possible to purchase quality makeup and brushes for affordable prices, especially during the holidays with all the great gift sets. Best of all, you don't always have to hit up a specialty store to find them. Case in point, the Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral Limited Edition matte and shimmer palette is available at Target and offers fantastic pigmentation and easy blending. Speaking of blending, you can also find a Real Techniques brush set while you're there. 

If your giftee prefers high-end brand (how particular of him/her) don't fret. Stila has a great lip glaze set that includes nine glosses and a brush set both just under $30. There's also Anatasia Beverly Hills waterproof liner set and Benefit's cute LuveiIt Up kit, which includes three neutral shadows, a mini creaseless cream shadow, and Dandelion lip gloss. For the bold diva on your list, check out MAC's Viva Glam 1 holiday set that includes the original lipstick and gloss inspired by RuPaul. Bonus, every cent you pay for the set goes to HIV/AIDS research, so it's a do-good, look-good gift. 

Hands and nails:

If you've got a nail obsessed giftee on your list, instead go for a little something different than  nail polish and try this Model Hands set by Julep. Help your nail fashionista take care of her hands and tips so all the fun colors and designs she wears will look even better on her soft smooth and nourished hands. 

Hair

If you're gifting a gal (or guy) with luscious locks, consider helping her (or him) discover some awesome new hair products. Alterna's Caviar kit is a great anti-aging hair travel set that will help keep locks nourished, shiny, and full -- all signs of a youthful mane. And if Jennifer Aniston is his/her hair icon (and honestly, isn't she everyone's?) give them one of the various Living Proof hair care travel kits to address a variety of hair needs. My personal favorite is the  No Frizz Smoothing and Frizz Fighting line. Fantastic humidity fighting products that are light weight, smell great, and leave your hair looking ah-ma-zing. 

Holiday Gift Guide: Beauty Gifts under $50

I love holiday time in the beauty industry because of all the great gift sets. It's a great time to get a lot of bang for your buck, try out new products without spending a fortune, and get some stand-by items in pretty sparkling packaging.

In my last post, I showed you some of my picks for gifts specifically at Sephora. This time, I extended my search to other stores for the beauty obsessed on your list.

Gifts under $25

1. Real Techniques brushes ($6-18) - If you've got a beauty lover on your list, chances are, she loves a great makeup brush. Makeup brush quality and prices can range wildly, but you can find some great brushes at great prices. Real Techniques brushes are fantastic and they're available at fair prices. Individual brushes range from $6-10 and brush sets are $18. The brushes are sturdy, have synthetic, soft, taklon bristles, and are cruelty free. Order them online or get them at your local ULTA, they are bound to please.
2. Sonia Kashuk All Out Glam brush set ($24.99) - Check out the sparkles on this gorgeous brush set. It's so festive and perfect for the holidays. Who wouldn't feel like a million bucks when getting glammed up with these makeup brushes? Sonia Kashuk makes great brushes and the best part is their easily accessible at your local Target. 
3. Sonia Kashuk Limited Edition Formal Affair face palette ($19.99) - A compact palette that flatters most skin tones is great for on the go. It has a pretty shimmery bronzer, matte pink blush, shimmery coral blush, and four metallic, yet neutral, eyeshadows. Great for the holidays and to use year round. 

Gifts under $50

1. Stila Seeing Stars Smudge Stick waterproof eye liner set ($32) - I purchased this eye liner set for myself at the Makeup Show in Orlando and I love it. Five, long-wearing metallic shades in very wearable colors. Fun to wear and not too in-your-face, for those out there who are color shy. Available at Sephora and ULTA. 
2. Korres Butter Me Up body & lip butter collection ($38) - If you have any natural beauty fans on your list, consider giving the gift of moisture with this Korres gift set that includes three super smooth lip butters (guava, jasmine, quince) and four luxuriously creamy body butters (guava, jasmine, basil lemon, and apple blossom). What it doesn't include: parabens, sulfates, and phthalates. Pick it up at your nearest Sephora.
3. Stila Luxe Eyeshadow Palette ($45) - Another palette I purchased at the Makeup Show and absolutely love. It includes nine eyeshadows in neutral, smokey, and bright colors and has a nice mix of matte and shimmer shadows, as well as a smudge stick eye liner in lady killer (a pewter/purple metallic). The shadows are soft, pigmented and easy to blend and has a lot of great go-to every day colors. Available at Nordstrom. 
4. BareMinerals The Star Treatment set ($40) - If you've got a mineral makeup lover on your list (like I do) check out some of the great gift sets BareMinerals has this season. There were too many to include them all, so I chose my personal favorite of their products, their pressed shadows. This particular palette is limited edition for the holidays and it has some gorgeous colors in it. Ten gorgeous shadows to be exact, an eyeshadow brush, and an eyeshadow primer.  You're getting quite the deal, since normally the two-shadow palettes run for $20 and here you're getting five times as many shadows. Available at Sephora. (If you'd like a separate post on all my BareMinerals gift set favorites, just leave me a comment below.)
5. Sephora Favorites Glitz and Glam Party Sampler ($45) - If you have an ultra-glam gal to gift, consider this gift set from Sephora that includes nine of their best-selling products that give you that holiday glow. Three of those products are full-sized items. Give your glam puss a full look and the chance to sample some new goodies. 
6. Lorac Eye Candy Eye Pencil set ($28) - This eye liner set is just functional, it's gorgeous to look at. I'm gushing over it! The golden packaging with rhinestone accents is positively luxe. But it's not just pretty on the outside, it's functional too. The set includes four wearable eye liners in coal (slate grey), licorice (black), cocoa (brown), and plum. Available at ULTA.
7. Lorac Pro palette ($42) - If you know someone who owns and loves the Urban Decay Naked palettes (either of them), surprise them with the new Lorac Pro palette. It's a great neutral palette to add to their arsenal, with 16 gorgeous shadows that are generously pigmented and easy to blend. Use shadows wet or dry to line, define, shadow - creating office friendly and all out glam looks with the same palette. Available at ULTA and Sephora. 
8. MAC Guilty Passion 4 pigment gift sets ($32.50) - Pigments are so much fun! Use them as shadows, apply them on your lips, or mix them into polish -- they're truly versatile. MAC released three new sets of mini pigments this holiday season, but don't let the term "mini" fool you. These are generous minis, with 3g each they'll last you quite a long time. Ask anyone who's ever owned a MAC pigment. They are seemingly endless. My two favorites are the Sweetly Smokey and Tenderly Warm sets. I think Tenderly Warm will give you a great glow the likes you might see in on the pages of Victoria's Secret. Secretly Smokey has some great shades in purple, berry, frosty pink and shimmery taupe. 
9. OCC Lip Tar gift set ($49) - The lip junkie on your list will go nuts over this collection. Five favorite Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics lip tars they can mix and match to create their own unique shade or wear straight out of the tube. The possibilities are endless and the price is right. The tubes of liquid lipstick might look small, but they'll only need a pea-sized (that may even be too much) amount to pretty their pout. Check out my post where I swatch my OCC lip tars here. You can purchase this set from Sephora. 

What are some of your favorite beauty gift sets this year? Are you buying for yourself or to give to others? 

Affordable Eye Makeup Brushes

This video is a follow up to the video on Affordable Face Makeup Brushes that I posted last week. It's just my way of sharing other makeup brushes out in the market that aren't always the same Sigma, Sedona Lace, and MAC brushes everyone else talks about. Yes, those brushes are good quality, but they aren't the only good quality brushes available to you. In fact, they aren't even the most affordable, good quality brushes out there. I hope this is helpful.

If you like this series, leave a comment below and tell me if there are any other brush types you'd like me to talk about.

• Crown Italian Badger Deluxe Crease $2.99 
• Crown Italian Badger Deluxe Oval Shadow $3.78
• Crown Luna Deluxe Crease $3.19 
• Crown Luna Blending Fluff $2.79 
• Crown Luna Chisel Fluff $2.89
• Crown Pro Spoolie 79¢. There are spoolies for less than $2 in the Luna and Italian Badger line too
• elf Spoolie $1 
• Sonia Kashuk Bent Eyeliner Brush $5.99
• Posh Wide Dome Shadow Brush $5.49 (When I checked online, it's listing the cost at $10, but I know for a fact I didn't pay that much for it because I wouldn't have bought it at that price. So instead, I've provided the link to the same brush by Essence of Beauty)
• Studio Tools Eyeliner $2 
• Studio Tools Crease $2 
• Coastal Scents Pro Blending Fluff (MAC 217 Dupe) $4.95
• SOHO Blender Brush (Dupe for MAC 224) $8.99 

NOTE: I've also tried the SOHO blender sponge (Beauty Blender Dupe) and I think its even better than the Sonia Kashuk one. It's softer, squishier, and pink! I think Walgreens is getting ahead of the curve with this line of brushes. They are all quite nice. I touched the sample brushes in the store and they all seem to be very good quality. 

Makeup:
L'Oreal True Match foundation - Creamy Beige (C3)
Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer - Nude
Sephora Microsmooth Foundation Powder - Nude
Maybelline blush - Pinch o' Pink
elf Studio Blush & Bronzer - used the bronzer
Rimmel ScandalEyes Flex mascara - Extreme Black
elf Studio Brown kit - Medium Brown
MAC Cinema Features shadow palette #5
Rimmel Moisture Renew lipstick - Soft Beige (620)

Music by Dan-O at danosongs.com. Song: En la Brisa

ULTA Haul: What I got with my 20% savings card

I recently received a post card from ULTA that offered 20 percent savings on an entire purchase -- always a fun thing to get in the mail. But here is the kicker, ULTA upped the anti, the coupon could be used toward the purchase of premium cosmetics! Usually, their 20 percent off coupons exclude the high-end cosmetics brands. I went in on Saturday (the last day of the sale) to find a mob of people. Everyone wanted in on this deal, and who could blame them? I was so psyched when I verified with staff that I could use the coupon to purchase high-end cosmetics. Even though I'd read the coupon's fine print, I still couldn't believe it. I needed verbal verification.

I didn't go overboard, since I'd just made a HauteLook purchase two days earlier. I did take advantage of the sale to pick up one of the new Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Shadow Pencil ($20 regular; discounted price $16). I was hoping they would have those (or the regular 24/7 pencils) on the HauteLook sale, to no avail. Hey, a gal can hope, right? Maybe next time, when the products aren't as new to market... Fingers crossed. While I wait on the next HauteLook Urban Decay sale with baited breath, I figured I'd pick up at least one of the shadow pencils. I decided on Rehab, which is a gorgeous dark taupe (shout out to G over at Nouveau Cheap, since we both seem to share an obsession with taupe shadows) that borders on brown, seems to have a bit of a rosy undertone, and definitely has a gorgeous shimmery finish (but no glitter).

You can use these (much like the 24/7 pencils) as eyeliner or as eyeshadow (or a shadow base if you prefer). They are creamy, glide on easily, are smudgeable (is that a word?) as long as you work quickly, and waterproof. Once they are on, they will not budge. I haven't had too much of a chance to try it out. I'm curious to see if they will crease or not? The jury is still out on this for me, since I haven't tested it without primer. But the color is gorgeous. I'm in lurve. It boasts the quality, pigmentation, and creaminess you would expect from an Urban Decay product. It's basically a 24/7 pencil on steroids. Bigger so that it's easier to apply to the entire lid.

UD 24/7 Glide-on Shadow: Rehab

Rehab swatch

While I was perusing the isles at ULTA, I found something that made me super happy. I recently wrote about my love for the Sonia Kashuk blending sponge (a dupe for the Beauty Blender sponge) and it's more affordable price tag ($10 compared to the Beauty Blender's $20 cost). Well, my beauty aficionados, I found an even better bargain. ULTA sells its own version of the Beauty Blender for a mere $5. That's a quarter of the price of the original. I immediately grabbed the last two that were on the shelf at my local ULTA. You can find them in the same isle as you would find the disposable sponge applicators.  Check out my side-by-side photo comparing it to the Sonia Kashuk sponge.

ULTA sponge (left); Sonia Kashuk blending sponge (right)

Now that I have used them both, I can tell you, they are essentially the same exact thing. There are some minor differences that I noticed (nothing that I would consider a deal breaker). First, as you can see from the photo, the ULTA version is a bit squatter and rounder, while the Sonia Kashuk is a bit pointer. The pointier end is nice to have since it helps you get in to corners easily (like the corner of your eye for applying concealer), but the difference is not so grand that you don't end up getting the same effect. Second, the material for the ULTA sponge is denser, making it less squishy (yep, that is a technical term there for you). This is not necessarily a bad thing. While the sponge doesn't feel as soft, it's certainly not rough at all, and since it is denser, it absorbs less of your foundation. At the same time, it absorbs less water, so when you get it wet, it's easier to squeeze the excess water out of it and use it. The final result for your makeup application is the same. The only difference: you have an extra $5 left in your wallet to do with whatever you please. I used mine to buy an extra, so that I would have one at the ready while the other was drying from being freshly cleaned.

While I was standing in line I found my last two goodies: a travel-sized Benefit Boi'ing and Eye Bright duo for only $12! I love both of these products and was psyched to see them in one package that would make it a lot easier to carry them around with me; and a Tarte cheek stain (called The perfect pink) infused with Amazonian white clay in an adorable travel-sized container (0.17 oz for $10). I knew the Benefit purchase was a steal because I use both of those products religiously and thought picking up the Tart cheek stain would be a great way to test out this well-known product without spending $30 on its full-sized counterpart. I wanted to make sure I liked it before committing, you all know that I need to test drive my products before I commit. 

Available only at ULTA

Benefit Boi'ing & Eye bright to go

I also purchased a gift for Mr. Girly Things while I was out. He was a good sport, patiently waiting around for me while I dutifully looked at every single item at the ULTA store. Ok, ok I exaggerate a bit, but I did take a while to finally decide on these items and hemmed and hawed over whether or not to buy some extra goodies (but I decided to be good). He got a new cologne of his choosing. He decided on a Givenchy cologne. So even he got to cash in on the sale fun. 

Beauty Blender Alternative: Sonia Kashuk Blending Sponge

Well, I've finally come around to the dark side, or shall I say, I've finally come around the the airbrushed-look side. For a while I've been resisting the Beauty Blender phenomenon. I just couldn't understand why I should pay so much for a reusable sponge, when I could simply use a disposable one, or even a foundation brush. So, here it is: I. Stand. Corrected. This really does make your foundation application look flawless. It's impressive.

Now, as you can see from the title, I didn't purchase the $20 Beauty Blender brand. Instead, I saved $10 and purchased the Sonia Kashuk Blending Sponge ($10) at Target. It's pretty much the same thing, at least according to many people who have done side-by-side comparisons to them. The main difference (aside from the obvious color): the Sonia Kashuk sponge has a groove along the middle that is supposed to make it easier to grip. If you prefer the full-on egg shape, sans the groove, check out the Sephora brand blending sponge, which is $12. I have not tried this one out, nor have I seen any reviews on YouTube comparing the two, so I can't vouch for it. But, it looks like it's essentially the same thing.

Here's the skinny on it:

• It is latex-free, which is great for any of you out there who are allergic to latex and therefore avoid the disposable makeup wedges
• You use it to apply foundation (use the bottom, broader side), concealer (use the pointy side to get into hard to reach areas), and cream blushes (use the broad/bottom side)

How it works:

• Dampen the sponge (make sure you squeeze out nearly all the moisture, you want it to be damp not wet). This step is crucial, otherwise the sponge will absorb the foundation into itself rather than applying it to your face.
• Apply foundation to the back of your hand and dip the sponge into the foundation
• Bounce the sponge on your face (also known as stippling) to apply the foundation
• For concealer: apply concealer under your eyes and use the pointy side of the sponge (damp) to blend into skin.
• For blush: apply cream blush to your cheeks, and use broad end of sponge to blend
• Can also be used to apply sunscreen to help you apply an even coat without applying too much (and clogging your pores) and keeping your from looking greasy or ashy

You might be asking yourself, how is this any different from dampening a makeup wedge and using the same application method? It's not that different. Either way you are using a stippling method. In fact, before I purchased this blending sponge, that is what I did when I used makeup wedges. Except, I still had to do a lot of blending. I'd still get some streaking, nothing blending wouldn't take care of easily, but I think the blending sponge's egg shape helps you stipple and blend simultaneously, making application a little quicker. I also find I end up using less foundation with the sponge than with the wedges (even when they are damp) and I just notice the finish is more flawless. Again, I think it is because the sponge blends better, though other than because of the round shape (you can roll and bounce simultaneously), I'm not sure why. 

One benefit of this is that it is reusable. You can wash it with soap and water (would you like a YouTube video on how to do this?) and reuse it, making it a more environmentally-friendly alternative. And over time, costing about the same (possibly less), as buying several packets of disposable wedges, depending on how many you go through per month (you should toss out the disposable ones after each use). As I understand, these should last about 3-4 months before you need to replace them, depending on how well you care for them. 

I'm planning on nabbing myself a second sponge so that I can use one while the other is freshly washed or so that I can use one for makeup and one for sunscreen. I'm definitely happy I purchased it.

Has this peeked your interest in a reusable makeup sponge? Would you like a YouTube video on how I use it to apply my makeup and sunscreen?