Five Drugstore Beauty Items You Should Check Out

When it comes to me and makeup, less is more. I'm acne prone and have incredibly oily skin, so I tend to stay away from heavy products and let my face breathe. As much as I love poking around a Sephora and seeing what's new, I get a bit more excitement seeing what's new at the drugstore or Ulta. I feel like I run into more surprises and find more "bang for your buck" products whenever I wander into the beauty aisle at CVS or Walgreens.

I've put together a list of five beauty items you can score at the drugstore (or Ulta!) that I've been loving recently and would definitely recommend.

e.l.f. Primer Infused Bronzer in Forever Sunkissed ($6.00)

I discovered this bronzer when I wasn't looking for one, but decided to take a chance on it because I was almost out of my Hoola Lite and willing to give something else a go. (And at six bucks, it was hard to justify not trying it.) I love that many of e.l.f.'s products are great quality at an incredibly affordable price point.

I have a light-medium skin tone with neutral undertones and feel this bronzer gives me a warm, healthy glow without pulling too orange on me, which unfortunately tends to happen to me with most bronzers. I use the word "glow" because, while matte, my face does seem to have a bit of a sheen using this; it's very subtle, but there.

The powder is soft and blends easy, and even on this greasy face it lasts all day thanks to the built-in primer (which I would normally consider a gimmick but it actually does make a difference in this product). I recommend a light hand when using this — it can pull too orange if you get too enthusiastic with it. Start with a small amount of powder and build up slowly. This is also true of the Primer Infused Blush; both of these powders are pretty pigmented, which is a great thing. Just don't go too heavy!

e.l.f. Baked Highlighter in Blush Gems ($4.00)

I'm not a blinding highlight kind of girl. I like the natural sheen look, which I get just by existing and getting oilier by the minute, but when I want something that's going to give my cheekbones a pop without looking like I slathered my face in glitter, this is my go-to highlight.

One of the most common complaints about this product when it came out was that there was no color payoff whatsoever and that it was hard as a rock. This is true when the product is brand new, but if you take a butter knife and scrape off the top layer (you really don't need to scrape off much so don't go wasting your product) you'll get to the good stuff.

My favorite way of applying this is to wet my fingertip, rub it into the highlighter, and then wet that same finger again before very gently applying to the highest point of my cheekbones. It gives a wet sheen that looks so beautiful in the light without looking too phony, and without a bunch of glitter. I've gotten a lot of compliments on this highlighter; two coworkers noticed it and asked me what it was, and one of them thought it was an expensive highlighter from a mid- to high-end brand.

Blush Gems is most complimentary on my skin tone and works well with the pinky brown nude blushes I wear. This would be a good product even if it were more expensive, but at only four bucks it's a steal.

COVERGIRL Exhibitionist Mascara in Black ($10.99)

If there's one beauty product I've wasted more money on than anything, it's got to be mascara. I am EXTREMELY picky when it comes to mascara: if it's too clumpy, the formula is too wet or dry, it gives me spider lashes and no volume, doesn't do anything at all and is too natural looking, has fallout, etc. it's a big no for me.

Despite the fact that I tend to stick to no-makeup makeup, I do go bold with my mascaras. Big volume, big length. So when I ran into this one in CVS, I decided to give it a go, though I didn't even know it existed until that moment and knew nothing about it. The packaging reminded me of MILK Makeup's Kush Mascara, which I have no interest in because most MILK products I've tried have either been underwhelming or flat out awful, but since a lot of people have been raving about that mascara I thought maybe this would be a worthwhile alternative.

Wearing all of the products mentioned in this blog! (Yes, even both mascaras. Exhibitionist on my left eye, Lash Paradise on my right.)

I wasn't disappointed. This mascara gives really beautiful, fluttery, soft lashes with plenty of volume and length. It doesn't give me raccoon eyes and I don't experience fallout. My lashes don't fall flat by midday, either. Black was the only color available at my CVS, but I'd be interested in trying Very Black (though I have no complaints about the color); if there are different levels of black intensity, I tend to go with the darker shades. Really solid mascara.

L'Oreal Voluminous Lash Paradise Mascara in Mystic Black ($10.99)

This mascara is a pretty good dupe for Better Than Sex from Too Faced (which I also like), though it's a drier formula. It's drier than Exhibitionist, too. I get more volume from Lash Paradise and more of a va-va-voom look, so I reach for this one over Exhibitionist if I want more dramatic lashes. I think there's a discernible difference between Black and Mystic Black, so if you want darker lashes, go with the latter.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in London ($6.50)

I own an unhealthy amount of lipsticks and lip products. I take back what I said about mascara being the beauty product I've spent the most money on. There's no way I've spent more on mascara than lipsticks. I love finding new colors and formulas, and I never have less than a handful of different lip colors in my purse at any given time. I'm as picky with lipsticks as I am with mascara.

So I consider it high praise to recommend NYX's Soft Matte Lip Creams as one of my most favorite lip products. London might be my all-time favorite nude, an honor that used to belong to Kat Von D's Bow N Arrow before she screwed with the formula and turned the color from a beautiful pinky fawn nude to a straight up brown. London is the perfect every day, take everywhere, apply-anytime-and-look-more-put-together nude. Leon, Los Angeles, and Toulouse are all shades I wear regularly, as well.

The soft, whipped formula doesn't dry out my lips or leave them feeling tight; while the product dries down matte, it's not a long-lasting formula (so expect to have to reapply after a meal), but it's lightweight with a lot of color payoff and pigment for being whipped and creamy. As with most lip color, this formula looks best when your lips are at their smoothest, so go in with a lip scrub first if needed (and use a lip mask and lip balm regularly so your lips are always at their softest!). The color selection for this line is extensive and only seems to keep growing, so there's a good chance you'll find a color that works for you.

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These of course aren't the only drugstore beauty products I enjoy and would recommend, but just a sampling of the ones I use most often and have a lot of love for. Beauty doesn't (and shouldn't) have to come at a premium; I've known people that have balked at the idea of buying drugstore cosmetics, under the misconception that drugstore somehow equals lesser quality. Given how many mediocre or bad overpriced purchases I've made at Sephora, I feel safe in saying that price isn't always an indicator of quality. Buy what you want from where you want, but don't knock a product on the sole virtue of being from the drugstore.

I'm working on narrowing down a list of five mid- to high-end products I'd recommend trying — look for it soon!