Personally, I’m not really the type to spend excessively on materialistic things unless it’s really worth it, like make-up for example. And when it comes to make up, its either a quick 5 minute job or a full 2 hour session in front of the mirror, working through sweat, stress and tears to get that perfect going out-out look. But either way, make up is a part of my daily routine and over the years, I have tried and tested a wide variety of brands, from the very cheap to the very expensive.

Today I will be revealing to you all the 7 products that I use EVERYDAY and literally don’t think I could go a day without them in my make-up bag.

1. Nyx Micro Brow Pencil – Shade Brunette

Now my journey with eyebrow products has been a wild one, and that’s putting it kindly (scroll to 2016 on my insta and you will see brows half the size of my face).  But making the discovery of this product, the NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Shade Brunette has honestly been a GAME CHANGER.

Its thin shape makes application so precise you can draw on fine lines, but the formula is creamy enough to fill in the whole brow. This make up product lasts ALL DAY, with it being smudge and water-proof. And if that wasn’t good enough, it’s double sided! With a small spoolie brush on the other side to help you brush the product through the brows.

Now like everything in life, this brow pencil isn’t perfect. With the width of the pencil being so thin, it means there’s less product and does run out very quickly. It’s also a bit on the pricey side, costing £9/£10 a pencil, which doesn’t sound much at first, but with the little product you get for the price, it does eventually start adding up when you buy them frequently. Lucky for you lot, I’ve worked a way around this. When you buy from Amazon, you have the option to “Subscribe and Save” meaning once you sign up to regular orders of this products, you can save yourself some pennies! Another bonus with amazon is that they are ALWAYS having these random price drops now and again, like recently I got one sent to me for just over £6! So that’s how I do it folks, buy the Nyx Micro brow Pencil on Amazon, get monthly deliveries, save yourself some cash and worry less knowing you’ll always have it in stock

2. Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Now this bright orange egg shaped sponge has probably been in everyone’s make up bag at some point in their life. For me, the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge still remains there all these years after its first launch in 2013, perfect for the application of liquid and powder make up.

If you’re looking for a high quality make up sponge that won’t break your bank, I’ll tell you now this is probably the best and cheapest one you’ll find, ranging from about £5/£6 depending from where you buy it from, but you can save more pennies when you buy them in multipacks! What I love most about this product is its shape, with a rounded side to cover large arears of the face, its pointed tip to get into all the tiny corners and for precise coverage, and finally the flat side, PERFECT for blending out foundation and packing in loose powder. I use this sponge when its slightly damp for a better and smoother application,

Again, nothing is perfect. The only downside to this product I find is how long it lasts, which isn’t very long at all. Within weeks this bright orange sponge, bright enough to replicate Trump, eventually turns into a gross brown shade, so full of product that it turns as hard as a rock and riddled with bacteria. You can wash and care for the sponge all you like, but eventually this will be your outcome no matter how hard you try. But saying this, I do feel for the price you pay for this sponge, it doesn’t hurt to go buy a new one after 1/2 months once it’s got all dirty like all make up sponges do.

3. Maybelline Fit Me! Foundation – Shade 100, 105 & 128

When it comes to this foundation I have two words. CRY PROOF. Yep. For years I have tried and tested a ridiculous amount of foundations, proper expensive ones too, only to realise after a mental breakdown (we all have them xo) you’d have these AWFUL tear lines coming down your face! And for someone who cries an awful lot (I’m a cancer what else would you expect) this is a deal breaker.

To me it just made me think, if a foundation can’t handle a couple of tears, surely this would be the same with oils, rain and sweat? You pay all this money for expensive, fancy make up for it to just slide away off your face, Thankfully I discovered Maybelline Fit Me! Foundation when trying to find a new foundation for my yellow under-toned skin. If you also have fair skin and yellow undertones, the shade I mostly use is 105 all year round. Then shade 128 when I’m tanned or for a bit of contour and 100 for the really dark, wintery months when I’m pale AF and to also use as a highlight. I love this foundation SO much, it covers up my pores effortlessly, but the formula is light enough to not make your face cakey. All this for, wait for it, £6!!!

The only negative I would say for this foundation is that it needs to set with a loose power to really get it to stay all day and can sometimes get a bit oily round the t-zone later on. But if I’m honest I really can’t fault this foundation anymore. So if you want to switch up your foundation or try something different I would defiantly give this one a go! I always go to my local Superdrug to buy my Maybelline Fit Me! Foundation as they always seem to always have all 40 shades in stock and quite often have deals on!

4. Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer – Shade Lite

“Hold tf up, didn’t you literally say at the beginning you’re not the one to spend excessively on make up?!?” Yes, yes I did…”…and isn’t this bronzer £27???” YES I KNOW not like me at all, but let me explain to you how I came across the Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer in the first place and why I can 100% justify buying this make up product.

So for a long time I had been trying to find a nice bronzer which wasn’t too intense but not really having much luck. One night I stayed round at my friends uni and saw the Hoola bronzer on her desk…BUT IN LITE. Me being dumb thought Benefit only produced one shade…but there’s 4. The next day I went into Boots and found the nearest Benefit counter TO JUST TAKE A LOOK. I asked the lady about the Hoola Lite bronzer and she said they had some in stock. NEXT THING I KNOW I have a card machine thrown at my face and her saying “that’s £27 please do you have a boots card xoxox” URM. I came here to look hun…but me being my socially awkward self just smiled politely and tapped my card whilst slowly dying inside that I just spent £30 on the smallest box of bronzer ever *sigh* it all happened so quick.

But I must say, I dont think I can even begin to think of reasons why I would dislike this product. It’s the right shade for me all year round, can be easily distributed around the face for a soft glow, but then layered for a more intense contour. The box may look small but I tell you what it might as well be a bloody Tardis because my Hoola bronzers have always lasted a year AT LEAST. So in this case, I do really feel you can justify those extra pennies when it’s your exact shade AND lasts a very long time. Why don’t you pop along to your local boots and buy yourself a Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer but let’s hope you don’t see the same lady as me who Jedi mind tricks you into buying bronzer.

5. Rimmel Scandaleyes Wow Wings Mascara Extreme Black

Oh how I wish I could spend half my monthly wage on lash lifts and extensions, but unfortunately because of where I work they’re currently not allowed (rip). And when it comes to false lashes, christ they are such a pain to put on, and harmful to the natural lashes too. So that leaves me with only option, plain old simple mascara. Me being be, I wanted to find a perfect daily mascara that wouldn’t break my bank but still work amazingly with my natural lashes, which was when I discovered the Rimmel Scandaleyes Wow Wings Mascara.

They named this product very well because my first reaction was indeed WOW. The application brush itself is two-sided, one winged side to get that insane flicked up look and a rounded side to add that extra length and volume. It comes in two colours, black and extreme black which is the shade I use. The price? £8! which is an amazing price for the result you get AND lasts literally forever (well a good few months but you know what I mean).

I would say though I’m not a huge fan of the packaging. It looks and feels like something you would buy in year 9 for your local school disco. It also does clump up very easily after a couple of uses but for a drug store mascara I really think this is worth the price you pay and more. So if you want to give you natural lashes a chance and take a break from harmful fake lashes, I would seriously recommend Rimmel’s Scandaleyes Wow Wings Mascara. Give it a try!

6. Elf Poreless Putty Primer

This is it. The primer EVERYONE and their mums have been trying to get their hands on ever since it broke the internet in early 2019. Why did it break the internet you say? Jeffree Star, world famous YouTube beauty guru and CEO of Jeffree Star cosmetics reviewed the Elf Poreless Putty Primer on his channel and claimed it to be the perfect dupe for high end Tatcha primer. And that was it. Elf primer sales went through the roof. No matter what your opinion on Jeffree Star is with his VERRRY controversial past, you can’t deny he knows his make up quality well and any make up product that is Jeffree Star approved is a product I know I can trust.

On his video where he compares the two products (which you can watch here) he explains the Tatcha primer is worth £40 but the elf primer is ONLY £8 but both work exactly the same. After watching the video, I tried getting my hands on the Elf primer for MONTHS and one day I walked into Superdrug just to have a little nose, AND THERE IT WAS. That’s going straight in my basket. I use this primer almost every day an honestly it’s like my pores don’t even exist and thankfully, you only need a tiny amount, so I can treasure this product until I have to go on a quest to find another one.

You know the drill by now, here comes the negatives. Now in my pure panic to pick up the primer and run, I didn’t realise there was actually 3 types of this primer, The Poreless (which I have), The Matte and The Luminous. And I’m slowly realising I should have bought the Matte putty, as this is designed for oily skin (which I have) instead of The Poreless which is for dry skin (I most certainly don’t have). So throughout the day my foundation does start to get a bit oily where the primer is working to keep the skin hydrated. But saying this, it really does work brilliantly on covering up pores and for smoother finish.

SO if you’re out looking for this primer (good luck) make sure you get the one right for your skin type. I highly recommend the Elf Poreless Putty Primer and hope it works for you too!

8. Maybelline Instant Anti Age Eraser Eye Concealer

Finding the right concealer has also been a bit of a quest for me over the years. Remember when everybody bought the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer just because Zoella swore by it? Ah the good old days of YouTube and simple smokey eye looks. But now I’m an adult and start work at 5am most mornings, I need something to cover up them dark under eyes so bad they’d make a panda jealous. This is when I discovered Maybelline’s Instant Anti Age Eraser Eye Concealer.

For a long time, I thought “surely the more expensive the concealer the better it will work” and used to use the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer. Don’t get me wrong I loved this concealer, but £24 for 6ML? No thank you that’s not how I roll. This is when I started looking into finding a dupe for my Nars concealer and found out about Maybelline’s under eye concealer having the exact same results. It has a really cute sponge applicator to easily apply the product under the eyes and uses a twist mechanism in the tube to add more product into the sponge. I use the shade “06 Neutralizer” which is perfect for my skin tone and also works as a good highlight. In a INSANT them dark circles disappear, lasting all day long for only £9 for just under 7ML. If you want to go really wild with this product, buy a darker shade and use it to contour!

The only negative to this product is it does run out pretty fast and the twist mechanism can be quite frustrating when the product doesn’t go quite into the sponge. But id take the twist mechanism over a simple applicator any day if it means my product doesn’t dry out every time I open the tube!

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Anddddd that’s it! 7 Make up products I don’t go a day without using! I hope you don’t mind that most of them are simple drugstore products and not high end layered with gold leaf, I honestly just cannot fathom why on earth you’d spend so much on a make up product when you can get the exact same results with a cheaper one? But whichever way you choose to use your make up, I really hope this post gave you some ideas on what products to try if you’re looking to switch up your routine. Thanks for reading!