Let's Talk About Drugstore Blushes and Eyeshadows

When I moved to the US a few years back I was overwhelmed with the variety and the huge quantities of makeup sold at almost every store we went to. There were a lot of beauty products and it just felt insane to even look at let alone understand what is what and how to use what and when etc. So of course I turned to the Internet for help like any other person from my generation would do because people no longer talk to other people, we instead look to Google for everything including our health issues. Although the Internet does help sometimes it is not always quite resourceful about what information to consume and what to stay away from. So I decided to follow beauty influencers who I thought looked convincing enough and went by what they recommended. I bought a bunch of hyped drugstore makeup that was being recommended by many beauty gurus online. But unfortunately, I learned my lesson and when it comes to drugstore makeup it is always a mixed bag. You might find something good if you're lucky. In this post, I am going to discuss blushes/bronzers/highlighters and eyeshadows. 

To understand why it was not my best decision to believe these influencers/beauty gurus I'll talk about the experience I had with products I bought from various drugstore brands, as follows:

Wet n Wild: This brand just makes it easy with their prices. It's just so tempting to go and buy them without feeling guilty since they're so cheap. They also have frequent sales so it's almost like buying for nothing. And I fell for it. I bought so many of their palettes without realizing and one day when I looked inside my shelf there were just too many lying there that I hadn't even opened or used because that's the thing that I didn't realize when it comes to eyeshadows, they're not so easy to use. You really need to have a talent for using them, know how to pair what color with what, how to match them to your skin tone and the rest of the makeup/clothing you're wearing, etc. I bought a few trios and a couple of singles that I thought were neutrals which might be easy to work with, and started experimenting. But it was just not working out. First of all the formulas are not consistent. Some trios are soft and have good pigmentation/blendability but others don't so it is hit or miss. Most of them were powdery/dusty and had a lot of fallout. Also, most of the colors didn't suit my skin tone or my wardrobe and eyeshadow just made my face look funny. But it was too late to realize this because the damage was already done. The influencers and beauty gurus we see are talented in using makeup and they know what to use and how to use it but a dumb idiot like me thought if they can do it I can do it just because they look like your average girls/boys next door. So I just ended up giving away most of these. You can find some swatches for the trios here from my fellow blogger. The famous neutral palette Comfort Zone has a lot of swatches available here, here, and here from my fellow bloggers. Honestly, this is the only palette that was somewhat OK and maybe worth checking out.

Now when it comes to blushes from this brand I bought only a few but ended up using them more than I expected. You can find some swatches of the blushes here from my fellow blogger. They are not the best quality but they have good pigmentation and I would say if you want to experiment with cheap blush then Wet n Wild is definitely worth checking out. They're also pretty easy to use even with the tiny brushes that they include in the package. I only had one bronzer which I didn't quite understand how to use and never really got to learning it so I gave it away after a few trials and failed attempts. One other main flaw with most makeup products from this brand is the packaging. It's so flimsy that it breaks easily and the product gets damaged as shown in the picture below.

CoverGirl: A budget beauty influencer was hyping up the CoverGirl cheekers blushes online. So I fell for it but I bought just one because the store where I lived didn't have a lot of colors that would suit my skin tone, thank God for that. So I didn't waste a lot of money and the product was decent enough. It was not the chalkiest and it was not the most pigmented one I ever tried either but for what I paid it was pretty good and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a cheap drugstore blush. You can find some swatches here from my fellow blogger.

I never bought any eyeshadows from this brand as I didn't find any recommendations online and none of the ones found in the store were tempting enough to try.

L'Oréal Paris: This is the only drugstore brand I feel is worth your money when it comes to makeup. I love their nail polishes, lipsticks, and glosses. And at one point they came out with these single eyeshadows that everyone was hyping up online. So naturally I bought them after I swatched them in the store (this is a rare thing for drugstore makeup, we don't usually find testers) and found a few colors which I thought would be fun to play with. The eyeshadows were in pressed powder form, they were very soft and pigmented. The color payoff and staying power were very good. They were a little pricey so I bought them on sale and they are worth it. The only thing to note is that they are quite bold so it is better to use them as single eyeshadows rather than layering and the best way to apply them is with fingers. I love that these eyeshadows are that easy to use. You can find swatches here, here, and here from my fellow bloggers.

I never really bought any blushes from this brand because it is a pricey brand for drugstore and I also never found any interesting enough.

Physician's Formula: This is another pricey drugstore brand whose USP is hypoallergenic makeup. Seriously though, how hypoallergenic can makeup be. All makeup has dyes and dyes are easily one of the causes of contact dermatitis. So who are they trying to fool? Anyway, I bought their most hyped blush, bronzer, and highlighter.

The blush is called the Happy Booster blush and has an attractive design and packaging. It is supposed to boost mood and give a nice glow. It comes in 4 shades and I got the shade Natural (you can find some swatches here from a fellow blogger) since it seemed to match my skin tone the most out of all. The bronzer was called Ultra-Smoothing Bronzer with cashmere extract (really?). It comes only in 2 shades and I got the darker one which still seemed too light especially if someone with a deeper skin tone is considering it. You can find the swatches here, and here from my fellow bloggers. The highlighter was in strip-type packaging and called shimmer strips. I got this in the shade Waikiki which seemed like the only shade dark enough for my medium skin tone. You can find some swatches here from my fellow blogger. This could apparently be used for bronzer, blush, and eyeshadow but to me, it looks just like an average highlighter. Overall, not a lot of shades so I got the ones that seemed most suited to my skin tone. All of them were originally quite pricey (for the drugstore that is) but you can get them on sale. One thing I would recommend in the drugstore is to always buy on sale. The blush does give a decent color payoff and glow that is not too over the top. I am not sure about it making me happy though. The bronzer is something that I was not quite sure how to use. It is supposed to be used as contour when wearing a full face of makeup which I don't normally go for. But I tried experimenting with it and it was OK-ish, not a lot of pigment or color payoff but was easy to blend. Still, it is not something I would use often unlike the blush so I gave it away. The highlighter was good but a bit too glowy and shimmery which I guess some people would prefer but it was not for me so I ended up giving it away too. So I would recommend the blush but the other two only if you know how to work with them and use them.

Maybelline: I have loved the Maybelline dream matte pressed powder for such a long time. But I never had luck with anything else from this brand. Until the Maybelline color tattoo cream eyeshadows.

These were single eyeshadows released by Maybelline recently that were being hyped all over the internet among the beauty sphere of course and I had to get them. And this is one hyped product I feel like it is worth all the rap it gets. I got two shades which were neutrals and would suit my skin tone. The eyeshadows were creamy, pigmented enough, and easy to blend. They would be put to better use by someone who knows what they're doing but if I were able to use them easily anyone can IMO. I used them as single eyeshadows and used my fingers to blend them. These are totally worth your money and I would recommend them to anyone interested in single cream eyeshadows. You can find some swatches here, from a fellow blogger.

Milani: This Milani blush line had a shade that was called a dupe of the famous Nars orgasm blush. Honestly, I do own the Nars orgasm blush and there is no dupe for it, so do not buy this blush thinking it could be a dupe. But on their own, these are good blushes. I am talking about the Milani baked blushes. I got one in a shade I thought was a bit cool-toned and rosey. 

The blush's packaging was what got to me at first. It has these golden lines of shimmer mixed with the blush that looked so pretty. The blush has good pigmentation and gives a nice glow. Some of the shades are more shimmery than the one I bought so you have to do your research carefully before buying them. But overall I liked the blush and I think this line of blushes is worth the hype. You can find some swatches here, by a fellow influencer.

ELF: ELF is another online drugstore brand that does not sell as often in stores but they always have good sales with free shipping so that makes it easy to shop often. I tried their nail polishes, and an eyebrow kit which I love but I did not have a good experience with their lipsticks and lip glosses. I never bought any eyeshadows from this brand but I did get some of their hyped blushes and bronzers. 

And I am not impressed. They seemed chalky/powdery, not quite pigmented, and very below average but I guess you get what you pay for and they are not worth the hype. They are also (and I cannot stress this enough) not dupes for Nars Orgasm blush. You can find some swatches here, here, and here, from my fellow bloggers.

L.A. Colors: You can find this brand usually sold in Dollar stores like Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, etc.

Another cheap brand and as expected the eyeshadow palette I bought was chalky, not great pigmentation or color payoff, and difficult to blend. I trashed it.

Coastal Scents: Oh boy! This brand! They are known for selling these cheap huge eyeshadow palettes that come with a variety of shades of eyeshadows, blushes, bronzers, and highlighters all included in one.

These palettes were being sold by budget beauty influencers to all their viewers everywhere online. I was very skeptical about it since it was sold online only but it was so cheap that I had to test it out for myself. And like I expected these were the chalkiest, least pigmented, and the most difficult to blend eyeshadows that I have ever tried. Not worth it!

Other/Random: I also have a shimmer strips eyeshadow/blush/bonzer style product that I picked from a random store which I don't even remember. Like I said at the beginning of this post, they literally sell makeup at almost every single store you go to. The brand is called Love&Beauty. I guess I picked it up because the colors looked attractive. But like any other product, it's all just packaging when it comes to makeup. The product obviously was not good quality, and difficult to blend so I ended up trashing it.

So clearly out of 10 brands, I found some good blushes/bronzers/highlighters in about 4 brands, some good eyeshadows in like 2 brands, and the others were crap. Overall I haven't had a great experience with drugstore blushes/eyeshadows. The blushes were slightly better and easier to work with. The highlighters were too shimmery and shiny. I just don't get this love for shimmery makeup in this country. I also don't get bronzers and why anyone would really need them unless your job is to work under harsh studio camera lights. The eyeshadows were a big disappointment especially the palettes, almost all of them were chalky/powdery, difficult to blend, and not quite pigmented. After trying so many I'm not super impressed with drugstore blushes/eyeshadows and I don't think I'll be buying anymore. Also, blushes and eyeshadows are not something I use daily so I never get good use out of them. They just make me look funny and too made up which I do not like. Especially the eyeshadows are difficult to work with if you do not know what you are doing like me. But that said would I recommend high-end blushes and eyeshadows? Well, maybe, if you have so much money to spend on makeup then yes please do so but for me, I'm low on budget for makeup products and I just cannot justify spending 50 dollars on a blush or eyeshadow. At the end of the day, it's just makeup and there are more important things in life that I choose to spend money on. If you like drugstore blushes/eyeshadows please let me know why and what brands you prefer. I don't seem to have much luck. I also have to say buyer beware and do not fall for influencer marketing all the time. I learned my lesson the hard way, as you can see.