I headed to the mall on Friday armed with a limited amount of makeup knowledge and a Route 44 Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic. I hadn’t really planned to make a stop at Sonic first, but that morning Caroline asked me if I’d come eat lunch with her at school and could I please bring her a Wacky Pack with a side of mozzarella sticks? And how do I say no to that?
Especially when I know that she won’t eat all her tots or the mozzarella sticks and I can eat whatever is left over with no caloric consequences because every mama knows that the food you eat off your child’s plate doesn’t count towards any official calories.
So I experienced all the entertainment and mouths full of missing teeth that the elementary school cafeteria has to offer and then grabbed my Cherry Limeade (and maybe a mozzarella stick) and left for the mall. Since Caroline eats lunch at 10:40 (absurd) I still had plenty of time to conduct my makeup research.
Here’s what I ended up with:
1. Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer
I walked into Sephora already totally biased towards this product, mainly because Gulley loves it and I totally trust her opinion on these sorts of things. Plus, it got a lot of shout outs in the comments.
I’d like to say that I’ve already used it and gotten countless compliments on my glowing complexion, but when you spend all weekend coaching soccer and laying on the couch in attempts to recover from aforementioned coaching experience, makeup doesn’t really seem necessary.
But I loved it when I tried it in the store and the nude shade is perfect for my skin tone.
2. Nars Bronzing Powder in Laguna
Nars has a blush that people rave about (I’m not going to mention it by name because, MY WORD, at the google searches it would generate). Anyway, I tried it but felt like it looked too pinkish for my skin. I don’t really enjoy a pinkish hue as much as I like to look as if I just returned from a long weekend at some tropical resort.
Even though if I’d just returned from a tropical resort I’d still be pale because Mamaw would wear her SPF 75 and oversized sunhat the entire time.
So this is like I’ve been to the tropics and live in a world where a little bit of sun exposure doesn’t come with ugly consequences like basal cell carcinoma and brown sun spots.
3. Cargo Blu-Ray High Definition Mattifier
A reader named Sara emailed me about a year ago and told me about this product. I’ll admit I was hesitant to buy it because I generally believe that any sort of makeup primers are just a big scam to get you to spend more money.
But on Friday I purchased my second tube of it because it absolutely makes a difference in how my skin looks. It evens out fine lines and covers your pores so your skin looks smoother even before you put on any kind of foundation. Or maybe I’m just seeing something I want to see and it’s just a placebo effect. Either way works for me.
4. Benefit Big Beautiful Eyes Palette
I wasn’t really looking for eyeshadow but I was walking through Macy’s after I left Sephora for other non-makeup related errands when the girl at the Benefit counter called me over and asked if she could do my eye makeup. It’s like she had a window into my soul.
And so of course I said yes because I am committed to the research. Next thing I knew she’d made my eyes pop and sparkle and highlighted my brows and she’d done it all with just this little palette of eye makeup.
What really sold me was when she showed me how I could use it to give myself a natural eye or a smoky eye depending on the occasion. Granted, I haven’t worn a smoky eye since I inadvertently got a little carried away with my Merle Norman palette of blues and purples back in 7th grade when I tried to match my eyes to my blue Izod shirt. But you never know when I might decide I want to sport a smoky eye at a PTO meeting or for a trip to HEB.
So those were my four purchases of the day. I still need a good eyeliner but couldn’t make a decision and, truth be told, I was actually pretty happy with my Revlon ColorStay eyeliner before I got overzealous and broke it in half the other day.
And the girl at Sephora and the one at Macy’s both tried to sell me on new mascara, but I’m a big fan of CoverGirl LashBlast Mascara. The price is right, I love the brush, and it doesn’t clump when I put it on. I’m sure I’d love DiorShow or one of those fancy battery-operated ones if I tried them, but since my family likes to eat and Santa Claus needs to show up next month I’m going with the whole ignorance is bliss thing.
I also neglected to buy any sort of lipstick because I have approximately 84 tubes of various lip products floating around in the bottom of my makeup bag and countless others that I carry in a Ziploc sandwich bag in my purse. Gulley made fun of me for the Ziploc bag a while back and I tried to explain that it’s because I travel and need the Ziploc bag to get through security. Of course since I hadn’t been on a plane in about a month at the time, my explanation didn’t hold a lot of weight. What’s closer to the truth is that I’m lazy and don’t want to take the time to move all my lipgloss from the ultra classy Ziploc to a fabric makeup bag because can you even imagine the amount of energy and time that would take? How would I ever get those 30 seconds back?
Anyway, in the interest of knowledge and frugality, I’ll share with you that I’m a huge fan of CoverGirl Lipslicks in Daring. It’s a great color and it’s cheap. I own no less than six tubes of it because I keep losing them and finding them again. It’s my prodigal lipcolor.
And there you have it. I realize on the scale of boring to moderately interesting that this entire post would fail to register, but y’all were so helpful with all your suggestions that I felt like you deserved to know how it all turned out.
You should also know that the downside to makeup experimentation is that my face is breaking out like I’m a thirteen year old with a mouth full of chocolate and braces.
Of course it could also just be PMS.
But I believe it’s directly related to having my face covered with more makeup in a two-hour time frame than it usually sees in a week.
Unless I get all dolled up to deliver Sonic at 10:40 a.m. to the school cafeteria.