I used to not where lipstick at all. I always thought it was for older women. I thought lipgloss was for girls and lipstick was for women. In my opinion, I do think young teens should only wear lipglosses and tinted lip balms. And I believe as you get older from late teens to womanhood…lipsticks, lip liners and lip stains can/should be added in to your collection.
Right now, I have so many lipglosses, I don’t even want to count. My favorite brands for lipglosses are Stila cosmetics, Cargo, NYX, NARS, Sephora, and tarte.
As for lipsticks, I only have 8 right now. I’ll have more once I’m working again. All, but one are from the drugstore/Target. I don’t wear lipstick a lot, so I don’t want to spend so much for ‘em. Also, I’m very anal about keeping my lips moisturized, so I try to buy lipsticks that won’t dry out my lips.

Here are the ones that I have. A few are not so great. Most are great. Click picture to enlarge.

Revlon Moisture Extreme Lipstick in Roseberry. I really love the color of this one. =) It’s a little more pink in the picture than in person. I feel very feminine when wearing this one.

Surprisingly, this one is from Walmart. Hard Candy Lipstick in Knock-Out. This is a very pretty pink. Totally a barbie/mod type pink, too. Colors like this aren’t my favorite because if you’re teeth aren’t perfect white, the color makes them look yellow. I haven’t worn it out in public yet, because of that reason. I got it for the fun of it. This color makes me feel stupid and ditzy. Lol. Just kidding.

Maybelline ColorSensational in Mauve-lous. This color is one of my favorites. It’s very smooth and shiny finish. Just the right about of moisture too. This color makes me feel sure and beautiful.

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Blackcherry. One of my favorites. The lipstick itself looks almost black. It’s somewhat moisturizing. This color makes me feel seductive and daring. Somewhat evil too. Muahaha..

Maybelline Moisture Extreme in Nude Blush. The one is my favorite lipstick out of the ones that I have. Can be worn with any eye look. I feel like a sweet and innocent girl carrying a basket of flowers in this color. Lol.

Maybelline ColorSensational in Madison Mauve. This color looks great in picture, but in person, it’s okay. It has a little bit of iridescence to it. I’m not a huge fan of iridescent lipcolor because it can be very tacky. The color is close to the other Maybelline lipstick I have shown.

Revlon Matte Lipstick in Nude Attraction. This was my least favorite lipstick. It wasn’t the color, but the formula. Because it’s a very matte color, the formula was on the dry side. You can kinda see the cracks on my lips in this picture. This is another color that makes teeth look yellow. I only like wearing this underneath a lipgloss.

MAC Viva Glam Lipstick in Viva Glam I [matte, A16]. As you can see, this color is very rich. It’s on the dry side, so I like wearing this with lipgloss too. Also…with this color and my Revlon Blackcherry, I wear a lipstain and lipliner underneath for insurance. This color screams glam, so that’s how I feel when I wear this color. Glamorous. =)

In all these pictures, [besides the lipstick] I’m wearing, MAC Select Cover-up [I didn't put enough], NARS Powder Foundation, Ardell Lashes, and Coastal Scents black eyeshadow. Only lipcolor I have on are just the lipsticks alone. No added liners, stains, or glosses.
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I always buy makeup with a smart attitude. Yes, I am a makeup junkie, but I’m not going to impulse buy [and possibly go broke until my next pay check] just to get the satisfaction of adding more to my makeup collection. It’s kinda stupid to do that if you’re not made of money. When it comes to shopping for makeup, I’m always looking for sets or palettes. I think they’re absolutely great for the girl who wants quality makeup, but wants to spend as little as she can. That would be me. When I did work, I would bust my ass off making that money. I don’t want to spend it all away by buying like four shadows and a lipgloss. So sets and palettes. I am all about them!
Also, a lot of people buy certain makeup just for the brand. I don’t care if it’s MAC, Shiseido, L’Oreal, or Chanel. It’s how you apply it that counts. Did you know that L’Oreal owns Lancome? The major difference between the two? Yup, you got it. Price tag.

Here are the shadow palettes that I have. Pretty much all the looks you’ve seen on me are from using these shadows. I have very few single single compacts. The shadows I first started with were from MAC, but I dropped them and everything fell apart. Where I lived, the MAC Store was on the other side of the mall, which was on the other side of the street, so Sephora was the store I would go to all the time. Even when I just wore MAC, I would only buy the eye shadow quads/palettes. Since I like experimenting with makeup..wearing different looks, it would take me forever to use up a single eyeshadow compact. That’s why I get palettes. I get to use more colors and get more use out of my money.

The palettes I have here are:
Coastal Scents: Ultra 88 shimmer, Ultra 88 Piece Makeup [matte], and 10 piece pro blush. [each are less than 20 bucks!!]
Relvon Illuminance Creme Shadow in Twilight. Four colors.
MAC holiday shadow compact. I got it like two years ago..forget the collection name. Six colors.
NYX Trio Shadows. TS34 [team spirit], TS6 [purple, deep purple, prune], TS10 [tropical, yellow, lime green], and TS13 [cherry, cool blue, hot pink]. Three colors each.
Too Faced Liquif-Eye Shadow Collection. 12 colors.
Urban Decay Sustainable Shadow Box. 10 colors.
Too Faced Glamour To-go II. 8 shadows, four lipglosses, and a blush.
Sephora Colorful Eyeshadow Palette in Chromosome X 10. Four colors.
Cargo Wet/Dry Eyelining Palette [I got as a gift] 8 colors.
Anastasia Brow Ex-press in Brunette Two brow shadows, brow wax and brow bone highlighter
Sephora Kat Von D True Romance Eye Palette in Beethoven. 8 colors.
Two off brand five color shadow palettes. Blues and Greens. [got these from a client of mine that went to a beauty convention/show, she works for OPI]
For each palette I spend about $7-50.

The brushes I use are all from brush sets. Brushes can be very expensive, especially when you buy them separately. Brush sets are awesome because they usually include all the brushes you would need. I like Sephora, MAC, and Sonia Kashuk [Target] brushes. All the sets I got ranged from $15-$50.
Bottom right set I got from an outlet mall. MAC Brushes. I got lucky with that set. =)
The rest are from Sephora. The bottom left is a travel set.
The three brushes on the top are from previous sets I used to own. Dumb move, Vana. :P
The only drugstores/Target/Walmart brushes I like are from Essences of Beauty, Revlon, and EcoTools.
The brushes I use for foundation/powders are from foundation sets. I use Bare Minerals and Pur minerals. To start with, I bought the starter kits because they came with brushes. Most mineral foundation kits come with a few powder brushes. The Bare Minerals starter kit came with three brushes. The Pur Minerals starter kit came with one. Each kit came with a foundation, some sort of finishing powder/blush, and a bronzer.

Most of the lipglosses I buy are separate, but when I see sets, they’re hard to resist.
Left: Tarte Crown Jewels Lipgloss Multi-Gift Set. 15 colors. $39 Right: Stila Cosmetics Lip Glaze Collection. 8 colors. $25
Both from Sephora. Great as gift ideas, but I kept most for myself and gave a few to my friends. Lol. Pictures from Sephora.

Pretty much all cosmetic brands offer palettes.
Check out Sephora. They have a of palettes. On their website, they have a section for palettes and a section for value sets.

MAC usually has already made shadow palettes for holidays and collections. You can also customize your own shadow palettes. They have a 4 [$47.50] and 15 [$177] color eyeshadow palette. And a 6 [$105]color blush palette.
Note: I love makeup and I love MAC, but I love getting the most out of my money more. I can get a 8-10 color palette from a different brand at Sephora [Tarte, Urban Decay, Kat Von D] for the same price as a 4 color palette from MAC.

Also check out NYX Cosmetics and Coastal Scents. They have a lot of already made & custom palettes too. Very affordable.

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