Beautifully Boring: The Makeup Products I Use Everyday
Easy, achievable makeup? You've come to the right place.
Welcome to the latest edition of myMusings, a meticulously curated newsletter about skincare, beauty and everything in-between. Thanks for clicking on the first installment of Beautifully Boring, a conversation on navigating all things makeup, beauty and other cosmetic adventures. Today, I’m taking you through my everyday makeup routine and sharing all the scrumptious details about the products I use to achieve my daily makeup look. While I’m an avid makeup collector (read: hoarder) and I’m always trying new things, my signature makeup look has long depended on a few tried and trusted products that I constantly return to. My everyday makeup routine is a buffet with little bit of everything — from the undiscovered stars to the internet famous (or at least, they were at some point fifty-nine trends ago), the more affordable luxuries and the high-end necessities, the innovative game-changers and the classics that never go out of style. You can find every installment of Beautifully Boring here. Let’s dive in.
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Defining My Signature Look: Boring
It feels incomplete to share the products I use to create my everyday makeup look without first sharing a bit more about my approach to makeup, my preferences (and needs), how I got here and some hard truths.
Generally speaking, my makeup style is decidedly boring (hence the title of this post). My approach to makeup has never been very exciting — you’ll never see me wearing colorful eyeshadow, a statement lip or really anything that’s bold or not native to my skin tone. It’s just not me. I almost exclusively stick to soft, desaturated neutrals that feel at home on my face. The goal of my everyday makeup look is something practical (for me and my lifestyle), minimal (for the most part), easy and achievable — and also glowy!
As someone with skin akin to an arid climate in a record-breaking drought (read: incredibly dry), I can only use products that are actually kind to dry skin — and skin prep is truly the most important step of my makeup routine. Discovering the makeup products that I’ve come to rely on no matter the state of my skin has been an exhaustive process of trial and error that is still never-ending, especially as new products come out that I need to try in order to sleep at night. Over the years, I’ve tried hundreds of products and the large majority of them didn’t work for me but they taught me a lot about how to determine if something could work for me before I buy it and what to steer clear of no matter what.
Now, on to the hard truths. While I am constantly trying new products, I only try the products I’m actually interested in and think could work for me. And since I tend to gravitate toward prestige and luxury makeup, I know next to nothing about drugstore products (I’m sorry). If a product is viral on TikTok, it’s automatically less interesting to me (trends? her?). And finally, I have to admit that my makeup application skills are rudimentary at best so I can only do so much (which is partly why my makeup style is decidedly boring). Let’s begin.
The Products: A Buffet
Primer: An Essential Step
Primer — While I know some people think primer is a superfluous step and prefer to skip it altogether — I am not one of those people. A glowy primer is like catnip for me, specifically my holy grail primer that I use every single day even if I’m not wearing makeup. It’s everything and everything I’ve ever wanted in a primer: it gives my skin the most beautiful subtle glow, it’s blurring, hydrating and always makes my makeup look better than it would have otherwise. If you’ve been playing along on Instagram, you may have seen my many failed attempts to find a cheaper alternative. But truly, nothing compares to this. I wear shade golden.
Extra Primer — Sometimes I also layer the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter on top; however, I have a love-hate relationship with this product. While it’s glowy, it has a tendency to emphasize texture I didn’t even know I had. Plus, the packaging is awful. I literally store mine in a bag so the red lettering doesn’t get all over everything — though I still end up with it on my face daily. I wear shade one.
Foundation & Concealer
Foundation — My friend Nicolette recommended this foundation to me last year and it quickly became my favorite — I'm already on my second bottle. The coverage is light to something close to medium if you apply it with a damp sponge like I do, and I rely on my concealer for additional coverage as needed. It’s truly one of the best foundations for my dry skin — it’s reliable under pressure, plays well with everything else in my collection and holds up throughout the day. I really like a few foundations and skin tints, with this (save w/ myskinterest) and this (save w/ myskinterest) rounding out my top three. I wear shade two.
Nat Note: I just tried this foundation and it may be my new favorite (LN5).
Concealer — If I could only wear one concealer for the rest of my life, it would be this (save w/ myskinterest15). Despite getting lost in the sea of concealers that were released within days of each other last year, this easily beat out all of the new products and even my old favorites. While it’s not full coverage, it offers more coverage than most concealers I own but it can be easily sheered out. It’s creamy, easy to blend, kind to dry skin and truly stunning. My only caveat is the weird sponge tip packaging. I took/ripped the sponge tip off and changed my life. I wear shade two.
Tools — I use a really cheap, extra soft makeup sponge you can find on Amazon. Don’t pay $20 for a makeup sponge that you’ll have to toss after a few uses.
Bronzer, Contour, Highlight, Blush & Setting Powder: A Novel
Bronzer — I’m obsessed with bronzer but unfortunately most are too deep for me and/or look orange. However, this bronzer/contour duo is my favorite, my most tried and trusted, my holy grail and the only bronzer I use regularly. I find that it’s blurring and forgiving (read: it’s hard to overdo it), and I can also dial it up or down easily. I also love one from Armani, but as with everything I love, they discounted it. When I use other bronzers, it’s almost always this, this (save w/ myskinterest15) or this (save w/ myskinterest). I wear shade 01.
Nat Note: I just tried this powder that’s really a bronzer and it’s even more subtle and beautiful for my skin tone.
Contour — In the rare event I contour, I use this. I don’t feel passionately about it but as someone with truly pathetic makeup application skills, this is the only product that allows me to achieve a somewhat believable contour. I wear shade travertine.
Highlight — I love this one from RMS Beauty (save w/ myskinterest20). If I want a balmy highlight, this is the best. I don’t always wear highlighter.
Blush — Here’s the thing, blush and I just don’t get along. If I wear blush, I wear one of the limited edition shades from Chanel’s fall collection that sold out in 0.000001 seconds. But because that one feels very precious to me, I normally wear this — it’s such an easy formula to work with (save w/ myskinterest20).
Setting Powder — For a pressed powder, this is my favorite. For a loose setting power, this is easily the best I’ve tried (save w/ myskinterest).
Tools — I almost exclusively use BK Beauty brushes. I use this angled brush for bronzer, this or this for powder products and this for any creams.
It’s All About the Eyes
Eyeshadow & Primer — I’ve learned that I need to wear an eyeshadow primer with every eyeshadow. As a result, I’m more likely to reach for an actual eyeshadow than just my bronzer because I feel like I’ve really invested in the eye look at this point. I really like this eyeshadow primer and know a lot of others do too. For eyeshadow, I love a bunch but for my everyday makeup look, I’m want something matte that won’t budge or crease — and this eyeshadow is the winner. When I do want to add some shimmer, I use this, this or this (save w/ myskinterest).
Eyeliner — I will always pick a brown eyeliner over all others, and I have no idea how to use a liquid liner. This eyeliner is easily my favorite, but I also love this (random, I know) and this (save w/ myskinterest). Oh, and this is a MUST.
Mascara — I love mascara. I always want my lashes to look as long as possible with alllll the volume. I usually have a few open and right now that includes this, this and this (save w/ myskinterest15). My other favorites are here.
Brows — Thankfully, my brows are easy to work with. This brow pencil is my absolute favorite and I recently discovered this brow gel and love it. But honestly, brows are kind of an afterthought in my routine.
Tools — For eyeliner, I think this smudger brush is fabulous — especially as someone who can’t put on eyeliner to save my life. I also love this brush and this brush for any eyeshadow blending needs (I usually just use my fingers and then a fluffy brush to blend the edges). However, this eyelash curler is an absolute game-changer (save w/ myskinterest15).
Final Touches
Lipliner — I recently started wearing lipliner every day, and I love this and this (save w/ myskinterest20).
Other Lip — If we’re being honest, I usually toss on a clear gloss with my lipliner and call it a day. However, I also love a balmy lip and always have a few on hand in my makeup bag and my work/life bag to use. I most often wear one of these (save w/ myskinterest), this (get the shade Easy) or this (which is embarrassingly expensive).
Face Mist — Finally, I love using this refreshing face mist to help everything meld together and throughout the day for extra hydration.
Thank you for following along as I bumbled through my beauty routine! I hope you found it helpful to see how I approach my signature, achievable makeup look despite having very little makeup application skills, extremely high standards and lots of opinions.
Have a question about any of the products mentioned or others on your mind? Leave me a comment below! I’d love to hear from you. And if you’ve made it this far (bless you), please give this post a like. You can find everything I referenced here.
Until next time, follow along on Instagram and browse all of my favorite things. Don’t forget to click the 🤍 before you go! Thank you for being here. Talk soon.
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Welp, there goes all my $$$ as I buy all these recs! I think the VB Bronzing Brick needs to make its way into my life!