My Six Favorite MAKEUP Products

Back when I was in high school, I never left the house without a full face of makeup on. I'm talking foundation, concealer, eye shadow and liner, mascara..the whole nine yards. Now that I'm a bit more...sensible (and have a full time desk job I have to be at at 8 am), this is not the norm. Most weekdays I throw my hair up and do the minimum makeup wise (foundation, concealer, and mascara). But I still love spending time playing with makeup and trying new products. Here are the SIX tried and true makeup products that I absolutely cannot live without.

 

FACE: Clinique Stay-Matte Oil-Free Makeup in SAND, Marc Jacobs Remedy Concealer Pen in LAST CALL, MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation in NC42

Three out of six of my favorite products are either foundation or concealer. This is not by accident. Being mixed (half Mexican, half white), I have the hardest time just finding a product that matches my skin tone. I also have a pretty uneven skin tone with dark circles under my eyes (hereditary-thanks papi) so coverage is definitely one of my concerns. Clinique's stay matte foundation is the best liquid foundation I have come across to date. I always pair liquid foundation with a powder and this liquid offers enough coverage without being too thick to layer a powder over.

Finding an under-eye concealer that works for my dark circles has been the bane of my existence since I was a teenager. I finally found THE ONE thanks to a helpful sales associate at Sephora. It's definitely somewhat pricey but as my under eyes are my #1 concern makeup wise, it's definitely worth the money for me. The color works for my skin tone and it provides enough coverage without being so thick that it creases.

MAC's studio fix powder has to be the most popular foundation in the US-I swear everyone wears it. And for good reason-they have over 40 shades to choose from. I swear, as soon as I told the sales associate at the MAC counter in Tacoma's Nordstrom, she pulled the EXACT shade that worked perfectly for my hard-to match skin tone. You can also customize how much coverage you want by using either a foundation brush or a pad (I use the pad for more coverage).

EYES:Naked2 by Urban Decay

This is the only eyeshadow palette I will ever need. I'm a sucker for those "free" gifts that brands like Clinique, Lancome offer every so often that usually come with sample-sized eyeshadow pallets. I never use them. I'm not a fan of using actual color eye shadow (does purple eyeshadow ever look good in the real world?) but instead prefer to use more natural colors plus a black eyeliner to create a smoky eye. I absolutely love this palette which has all the colors I could ever use and they all pair nicely together so I can never really mess up! 

EYES: Lancome Hypnose Doll Lashes Mascara in SO BLACK!

I lucked out and have naturally long eyelashes which I love to play up-and this is the perfect mascara to do that with. It both volumizes and lengthens lashes while curling at the same time. I hardly ever use my eyelash curler with this mascara. Two coats of this baby and I'm good to go!

LIPS: Dior Glow in PINK

Since I love to play my eyes up with a great smoky eye, I always opt for a more neutral lip. I've seen this product on Pinterest and decided to give it a shot myself. I love it! This is a lip balm that supposedly changes colors to match each person's skin tone. I haven't seen anyone else use this product so I can't really vouch for the color-changing aspect but I can say normally something this pink would NOT look good on me. With my olive-skin tone, normally lip-wise more of a coral is what looks good on me. This product is the exception to the rule! I love wearing this balm on it's own-it looks like a "better" version of my natural lip. And it's a great moisturizer!

NOTE: This is NOT a sponsored post. All products I have paid for myself and all opinions are my own.

Buying a House Pt. V: FINALLY!

First off-notice the name change! "Life on the Sunny Side" was the original blog name as the hubs and I were living in Florida at the time...and hated it! Now that we're in Washington, that name doesn't really apply anymore. So since I talk about buying (and soon decorating) a house, cooking, makeup, etc. what could be a more fitting name?

Now that that's out of the way...we're moved into our house!! We ended up signing all the documents Friday evening. Once documents were signed, the escrow representative took them to the county to be recorded. Once recorded, the house was officially ours and we could pick up keys! That process normally takes 24 hours...but since we signed on a Friday evening and the following Monday was a federal holiday (MLK day)...we didn't get keys until Tuesday :( But it all worked out. Tuesday we picked up keys around 3 pm and spent the evening moving over my clothes, makeup, and toiletries (you know, priorities).

The next day movers came and moved the big ticket items (beds, couches, TV's, dining room table...) and we moved over everything else. If we were moving more than 10 miles away, we would have had the movers take care of everything...but it seemed silly when our new house is literally three exits away from our apartment on the interstate. Had the movers taken care of everything, it would have cost slightly over $1,100. We ended up paying $700.

Having moved four times in the past two years we've both become somewhat of an expert in moving... but we've also grown completely tired of it!! We still have a couple of boxes left to tackle but in the last week we've been focusing more on little projects-installing blinds and curtains, hanging pictures on the walls, putting together a bookshelf. More to come soon on our projects! The house being new construction, we don't have any renovations to do but I definitely want to take time decorating it-this is the first time either of us OWN our residence so we definitely want to put our mark on the beige walls. But for right now, we're grateful to actually be in our house!