Back to School Series: Starter Makeup Kit

It's that time of year again, back to school time! That means new pencils, notebooks, and if you're going into middle school or high school or college that means getting to wear makeup for the first time.  Today I'm going to show you what I think you would need in your starter makeup kit.  I hope you enjoy!

First off, brushes and tools, because they are so essential to makeup application.  Going from left to right:

Kabuki Brush- Great for all over powder, either colored or translucent.

Fluffy eyeshadow brush- Great for an all over wash of color and blending colors together. 

Small tapered flat shadow brush- Really good for the crease and outer 'V' of the eye or putting a pop of color in the center of the eye lid.

Large flat shader brush- Good for an all over wash of color or doing a crease color. 

Blush Brush- This is a bit self explanatory, great for blush but can also be used for bronzer.

Dior Brush- I actually have no clue what type of brush this is, I just know that it's size and bristle shape work GREAT for bronzer.

Buffing Brush- Perfect for putting on foundation.  It can give sheer coverage to full coverage and can also be used with BB/CC Cream, tinted moisturizer, AND foundation.

Eyelash Curler- The one I use is by Tarte but I currently use ELF Studio lash curlers (found here) and they work really well and they are only $3.

Now for your base:
First you are going to want a primer (the pink pump bottle) which helps to keep your foundation on your face and keep it from sliding around when it's hot out or you're doing a lot of running about.  This picture shows the ELF primer which can be found on the ELF Website or at Target and now Walmart.
Next, depending on your age, you may or may not want foundation.  I chose the ELF Acne Fighting Foundation because it is a foundation that I love and it's not very expensive, like all ELF products.  It is also a full coverage foundation, which is nice since I think I left out concealer *checks* yep, I did. If you do want concealer and not foundation, which I would suggest the younger you are I would suggest either the Maybelline Fit Me concealer or the Maybelline Better Skin concealer to cover up spots.  You can check out my video on how to properly conceal here where I actually use the Maybelline Fit Me concealer. 
Up next is powder, and for that you don't need anything heavy or with high coverage, you just want something to keep the oil at bay and for that I would suggest the Rimmel Stay Matte powder in Translucent.  You would apply this with a Kabuki brush.  Next face powder you may or may not want (or be allowed) to use is bronzer.  I really like this bronzer by Rimmel, the Natural Bronzer in 020.  Again, I'm just trying to cover all  of the bases here, you can use as little or as much as you like or are allowed to.
Now comes blush and for this I picked another ELF product and I picked the blush in Candid Coral because it's a universally flattering tone and won't really look like you're wearing blush.  Finally, right below the blush is my favorite product of all- highlighter.  I would save this for more upper class high school and college.  Again this is another ELF product (seeing an affordable trend here?) called Gotta Glow and it's not glitter packed nor is it too 'shiny'.  It gives you that right amount of glow without looking over done.

Ahh the eyes, the windows (or the door) to the soul. You can use everything from just your brows and some mascara to a full on eye palette created look. The two most important things in my 'eyes' are brows and lashes, everything else is just extra.  At the top I selected the Rimmel Scandaleyes Flex mascara because the brush is natural bristled giving a fuller, more natural look to lashes- not to mention less clumpy. And down in the far left are an eye brow pencil and a brow gel.  Now, the pencil pictured (and the BDB brow powder) are the only two things that I did not have a drugstore dupe for but you can easily find one. Both L'Oreal and Maybelline make great brow products.  All you need to do is take a pencil or a powder and fill in your brows and then take a sweep of clear mascara over them and bada bing you're done, kiddo.  Now to the 'extras' I mentioned.
First up are eyeliners, you can choose pencil, cream, gel, or liquid.  I like them all myself, and have no preference but when you are first starting out, I would suggest sticking to pencil.  It's the easiest to control and comes in a wide variety of colors to play with.  I would suggest that you always have a black, brown, and nude liner in your arsenal at all times.  Why nude, you may ask? When put in the lower water line, it helps to open up your eyes and make them look wider and bigger and more awake.  Black liner can be very intense for someone just starting out, which is why I say to have brown because it's a very natural color on almost everyone and even helps to enhance eye color.  When starting to use liquid for the first time, I suggest not going straight for the brush but starting out with something a bit easier to control like a felt tip liner.  It's still liquid but has the feeling of a pencil but you get the handle of controling the liquid.
As for eyeshadows, I would say have one all over wash color which is a color you can slap all over your lids and have it look good, and one cheap(er) palette.  For the palette I would suggest the Nudes palette by Maybelline.  I know this has mixed reviews but personally I like it and I think that at $9.99 it's a great starter palette.  It's natural shades so you can easily do a quick school daytime look or a nighttime look with the smokier shades.  The solo color I chose is actually a pressed pigment, which means it's a loose shadow that has been pressed so the color is very bold but it can be sheered out.

Finally, the lips.  I love lip products because just a change in lip can transform a look from day to night with no other change in makeup.  We're just going to go from left to right.  Far left we have a lip lacquer balm or 'lip crayon'. These are great because, once you get the hang of it, you can slap them on anytime anywhere without needing a mirror.  Next to it is a Revlon Lip Butter.  I like these as a transition from that to a full blow lipstick at the end.  It's not totally sheer but it's not totally opaque either.  As well, it provides hydration to the lips without feeling like a chapstick.  Next to that is a lip stain.  This is something you definitely need a mirror for because, especially the Rimmel ones, once they're there, they're there.  They provide hours of continious wear without really any touch ups needed, which is great if you're at school or an event and can't properly or politely excuse yourself just to go touch up your makeup.  Finally, on the very end, we have lipstick.  This you need a mirror and probably some lip liner.  Lipstick is definitely high maintanence because as it fades, depending on the color, it leaves a ring around your mouth. No bueno.  So leave the lipstick for special occasions or work or a night out with the girls, even then be cautious.  But most of all, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER OF THE IS WHOLE POST is to have fun with it. It's makeup, it's supposed to be fun. Yes, I just wrote twenty million pages of what seem like 'rules' but they're more suggestions than anything.  Just have fun and live a little.  Happy makeup-ing!

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