My Holy Grail… 🙌🏽

Hey beauties (and beauts)! I didn’t get around to posting yesterday but Aaron took me on a surprise date when I got off of work! We went to see Beauty and the Beast 🌹- absolutely LOVED it! They did great! Anyways, you’re not here to listen to me jabber about those sorts of things. You want the makeup! So, here we go! 

Today’s post is going to be my holy grail. My must haves. Can’t live withouts. If I could only take one item from each “category” what would it be? I got this idea and thought it’d be way easier than it turned out to be. Not a bad problem to have, I suppose! So, without further ado…. 

PRIMER

Too Faced HangoveRX

Now, this is one I don’t budge on. I LOVE this primer. You’ll learn quickly that Too Faced tends to be favorite brand. But something about this primer is just great. I won’t use any others. 

EYEBROWS

ABH Perfect Brow Pencil, Medium Brown

Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) Perfect Brow Pencil in Medium Brown. A lot of people prefer pomades, gels, etc. I’m old fashioned when it comes to my brows. I have all of those but I get the best results, quickest, with this baby. And with a little one, quickest and easiest is best most of the time. Please excuse the fact that it’s so worn. I use it a lot. Love it. 

EYESHADOW PRIMER

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

I know I said I love Too Faced. But this one is coincidental. I never really tried shadow primers or anything before but I got the Nikkie Tutorials Power of Makeup Palette last spring/summer when it came out (LOVEEEE, btw) and it had this in it, so I tried it and have been using it most of the time (when I remember, I’ll admit I’m bad about this one) since. And it works great! 

EYESHADOW 

ABH Modern Renaissance Palette

I just got this palette. And when I did, the girl in Sephora told me it was life changing…. let’s just say that’s an understatement. The colors, the pigmentation, the buttery soft feel, literally everything about this palette is perfection. So, this was an easy winner. 

EYELINER

Maybelline Master Kajal

(PSA: I forgot to take a photo of this liner this morning so using one I had already, don’t mind the mess) 

If you’re like me and “wing-challenged”, meaning you are terrible at giving yourself wings, then this is the liner for you! It seriously does it for you. With just a turn of your hand. It’s so, so easy to use and I wish I had a better picture. I dropped the ball on that one. 😦 

MASCARA

Too Faced Better Than Sex

This one was another no brainer for me. I first fell in love with this mascara two years ago. I have several mascaras, have tried several, but always go back to this one. it’s just perfect. And go figure, another Too Faced product. 

FOUNDATION

L’Oréal Infallible Pro-Glow & ABH Oval Brush

The entire Infallible line by L’Oréal is just great. I have yet to find a product from that line I don’t like. I originally was give the Pro-Matte from s friend because it was too dark for her and she has oily skin. It was my color and I quickly fell in love. But I have dry skin. So I tried out the Pro-Glow, although it’s great, it doesn’t last as long for me so I mix the two. And it works perfect! I get my Glow in a shade lighter than my skin tone and the Matte in a shade darker, perfection. Also pictured is my foundation brush. Compatible to the Artis Oval Makeup brushes, this thing is perfection. I love it. It’s so soft and smooth. Blends to my face so perfectly and uses HALF, I’ll say it again for the people in the back, HALF, of the product a beauty blender or something of that sort would use. 

CONCEALER

Maybelline Age Rewind

This is another no-brainer. I’ve only found one other concealer I like as much as this one (Naked). This one is much more cost friendly for as much as it gets used. And I just use a simple beauty sponge to blend it out. 

BRONZER

Benefit Hoola

Big shoutout to Aidan for getting me this lovely for Christmas last year. Round of applause for her. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Benefit’s Hoola blends so well and is just soft and everything I want in a bronzer. I personally think their brush could be a little softer but I use it and love it regardless! 

BLUSH

Too Faced Love Flush, Love Hangover

SURPRISE!!! Yet another Too Faced product. I think this is a fine time to make note that this post is in no way sponsored by Too Faced. But their Love Flush in Love Hangover is just perfect shade, formula, everything. Smooth. I love it. It’s another one that I got recently and put the others on the back burner. (Sorry Physicians Formula and NikkieTutorials – the go-to blushes prior to this purchase). 

HIGHLIGHTER 👏🏼

NYX Illuminator, Magnetic & NYX Fan Brush

Makeup Revolution Vivid Baked Highlighter, Radiant Lights

Okay. Highlighters and Lipsticks are my FAVORITES. I’ll always BARE MINIMUM have highlighter, lippie, and mascara on. So, there’s no possible way I could choose one. So I chose my top two and that was even hard. I do have a LOT of highlighters. But each of these are perfect for different looks. I also included a photo of the brush I use. A fan brush is my FAVORITE brush for highlighters. It just gets the job done so perfectly. Makeup Revolution’s Vivid Baked Highlighter in Radiant Lights is perfect “strobing” and BAM! WOW!  The NYX Illuminator in Magnetic is still BAM! and WOW!  but it’s a little bit more subtle. And the color is just 😍 another thing you’ll quickly learn about me – my favorite color is rose gold. I’m a sucker for anything rose gold. 

LIPPIES 💄

So. Here’s the deal. I managed to pick a favorite for each category. However, I have OVER 40 lippies. There’s no way I could pick a favorite. I am however doing a HUGE lippie post in the near future to make up for it. So look for that coming your way soon. 

SETTING SPRAY

There’s tons of excellent ones out there but this one is a fraction of the price and works just as good! Cut corners when I can! 👌🏼

TODAY… 

I used all of the products I mentioned above and created this simple look! And one more picture for the road…. I got a little help with my makeup this morning from the best assistant a girl could ask for! 😉

So, there’s my holy grail. My go-to’s. My number ones. What are some of your favorites?! 
-xo, j. 

Beauty Bar

Evening Ladies (&& Gentleman)!!

Since Jacki had to go and show off her new vanity, I decided I needed to, as well!!

I just purchased my first home and since I gave my fiancé full range of the garage, he gave me full range of the extra bedroom. We don’t have kids, and don’t plan on having any, so I took the opportunity to turn it into my own little salon. We’ve only been in the home for a month, and between grad school and working, I haven’t had time to paint the walls yet. It’s on my list but probably won’t get done until the semester is over. So, please forgive the horrible wall color. (I have NO idea why anyone would choose these atrocious colors).

This is my lovely little Beauty Bar…

I purchased the desk from Walmart.com for $30, the metal shelving on the left from Walmart (in store) for $20, the plastic drawers on the right from Amazon.com for roughly $8-$10 for each set, the baskets on the left from Lowes for $4 each (clearance isle!), the chair from Walmart for $12, the mirror from Lowes for $30, and the under cabinet lighting for $30 from Lowes. So, I spent roughly $175 for everything. Compared to other vanities out there, I think it was worth it. Not only was I able to make it my own, but it ended up being cheaper for me because I’d still have to buy all the extras even if I purchased an “actual” vanity.

Let’s take a closer look…

First, is my straightener holder. It needs repainted (I’ve had it awhile) but this was super easy to make. My fiancé and I went to lowes and purchased the wood and the PVC pipe. He put it together for me and I painted it. The PVC pipe is heat resistant (to an extent) so it is PERFECT for my styling tools. Unfortunately, my blow dryer doesn’t fit, so I am working on making a holder for it. I screwed this right into the wall, making it super easy to reach for the tool I need and keeps the heat off my vanity. It also keeps the cords organized and out of the way. I used to keep my tools in a basket and everything was ALWAYS getting tangled.

Here, we have my hair products. I keep my dryer in the top basket, hair products on the 2nd and 4th shelves, lotions and tanning stuff on the 3rd shelf, and nail polish and tools on the bottom shelf. This allows me to keep everything organized and still have it close enough to grab. I hate keeping things in the bathroom, because I never get ready in there!! The only thing that sucks is that the shelves are wire, making things fall over easily. I need to get more wood from lowes to create a flat platform.

I keep my makeup on the right side of the desk. I have everything organized by type. On the top shelf, I have my foundations and mascara. I am sure that these holes were designed for lipstick, but I wear way more mascara than lipstick, so sans their idea. Top left drawer is where I keep my primers and top right are my little tools (tweezers, facial razor, q-tips, etc). Down from there is my power foundations and liquid contour products. Then comes my setting powder. Next drawer is my bronzers and powder contours. Below that is my eyebrow drawer and last, not not least, is my eyeliner drawer. I keep my liquid eyeliners up top though. I’ve found that if you lay them down for too long, the product settles and makes it difficult to use. So, I keep my with the point facing down! This has definitely increased the life of them.

Next shelf down, you’ll find travel size mascaras, some more foundation, beauty blenders, face oils, scotch tape (a must have for perfecting your eyeshadow), and some cute little makeup remover pads that my mom made me. In the drawer below those items, you’ll find my illuminators. Below that are my single eye shadows. Finally, below that are my lipsticks and glosses. Scattered around my entire vanity, are my palettes.

On the bottom shelf, I keep a catch all basket. Whenever there is a good sale at Ulta or I make a drug store haul, I put those products here, until I get to them. This is everything that I am going to try, as well as backups for when I run out of products that I love.

 

 

These little beauts are my brush holders. I know, I need another one. I actually made these because brush holders can easily cost over $20 and who wants to spend that on a holder when you can spend it on more makeup?? The glass jars started their journey in this world as candles from Walmart. After I burned up all the wax, I stuck them in the freezer for a few hours. Then, I took a butter knife and chipped out all of the left over wax. Next, I took some flaxseed that I had in the cabinet and filled them to about 3/4 full. That’s it!

Here is my light. I have to give credit to my fiancé on this one. Since we are first time homeowners, neither of us know anything about wiring and neither of us wanted to pay someone to come out to rewire my room for vanity lights. So, we took another trip to Lowes and found this little gem. It is in the “under cabinet light” section. They have a ton of different options, but I liked this one. I prefer things to be semetrical, so the bar was perfect to center above my mirror. I was concerned that it wouldn’t be bright enough, but as you can see, it is hella bright. Especially at 6 in the morning. I also got the mirror from Lowes. Honestly, I could have probably found a cuter and cheaper one from a thrift store, but I didn’t have time to go searching, so I opted for convince on this one.

Since Jacki showed off her closet, I figured I would too! My closets are a little small in this house, so I have clothes spread throughout every room. This closet is my favorite though!! As you can see, I have a shoe problem and a fashion obsession. However, I am also a bargain hunter… So, I purchase everything off of the app, Poshmark. It is my FAVORITE. I have found the BEST deals on there and I’ve made some extra cash by selling the things that I don’t wear/use anymore. You can find clothing, accessories, shoes, and makeup at REALLY low prices. (If you want to try it out, download Poshmark and use the code BVMKH to get $5 to spend with them!) I can’t recommend it enough.

There you have my little in home salon. It is still in the works, but it has definitely become my favorite room of the house!!

❤ -a