Frugal Friday: Discount Rockstar (Featuring NYX Crimson Amulet Palette)

Today, just for fun, I thought I would try a look using almost exclusively drugstore (or the drugstore side of Ulta, anyway) products. It's hot and sticky and gross outside, so I went with a sleek ponytail hairstyle with a smoky brown eye. I hope you guys like it. (And please be kind about my photography and how messy my car is. Thank you, The Management)

Shirt: Old Navy. Necklace: Soixante Neuf for Open Sky. Earrings: JewelMint. Car: Hurricane Erin.

The ponytail is the easiest thing in the world. Blow-dry your hair as straight as you can get it (I like to use a good leave-in conditioner/heat protectant first), then run a little Fekkai Glossing Cream throughout. Gather up your bangs/front section, and tease the underside for a little height and pin in place or use a barrette. Then create a ponytail, as usual, and slick down any flyaways with a little Pantene Classic Hairspray. If you want to fancy it up a bit, wrap a lock of hair around the ponytail and secure in place with a bobby pin.

The makeup isn't much more difficult. Start with E.L.F. Tinted Moisturizer, then grab your NYX Crimson Amulet palette (if you don't have one, see if you can still snap one up. It's one of my absolute essentials, now) and pop a little HD Eye Primer on each lid and blend up to the to the brow. I like to add a little under each eye, as well.  

Next, you're going to need the bottom half of the eyeshadow palette. Going left to right, the second shade on the bottom row is your all-over color. The third shade on the top row goes in your crease. The second shade on the top row goes in your outer corner, adds further definition to the crease, and runs under the lower lashes. Finally, the dark brown shade that's second on the middle row completely lines your eyes--upper lashes, lower lashes, and inner corners. Wing it out a bit on the outer corners. For the waterline and a little added definition, I used Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Pencil in Whiskey. It's not bargain, but it's all I had. Your brown and inner corner highlight is the first shade on the bottom row.

I pulled out the only other high-end product in this look, next. I used Benefit's Boi-ing Concealer to clean up around the eyes and cover blemishes and redness. Again, it's pretty much all I had, outside of my film kit. E.L.F.'s Eyebrow Kit in Medium filled in and defined my brows, and a coat of Maybelline Falsies waterproof mascara coated top and bottom lashes.

Alrighty! On to the rest! Apply the matte pink shade at the very top of your NYX Crimson Amulet palette to your cheeks, starting about an inch away from  your nose. You don't want too much on the apples. Then dust the highlighter on the cheekbones. Finish the look with a swipe of Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey on the lips.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Recession-Era Halloween Treats

Today's Frugal Friday's quick and easy. You can save 31% sitewide at DuWop cosmetics with the code BOOWOP, now through Halloween. Plus, you get free shipping on all orders. That's a darn good treat, if you ask me.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, how's about a little non-Halloween related product review?
Even better--how 'bout one that'll actually save you about $37? That got your attention, didn't it?!

A little while ago, I reviewed Bumble & Bumble's Let It Shine shampoo and conditioner, and loved it. L-O-V-E-D it! And don't get me wrong, I still do. It's utterly and completely amazing at imparting shine and sleekness, even in my city's crazy humidity. However, it's expensive and I am broke. Given my personal finances, almost twenty-five bucks a pop for shampoo and conditioner seems a bit...well, wasteful, at best, and downright irresponsible, at worst. One day, I may break down and buy a bottle of each, but it will then go into my "special occasion" pile, reserved for freshly-colored hair, or days when I have pictures or filming and don't want to take any chances. At that rate, one bottle of each should last, at least, a year. Unfortunately, I have standards, and insist on washing my hair more than once or twice a month. What's a girl to do?

Well, in my case, I pulled out my handy-dandy Total Beauty app, and scrolled through shampoos until I found the highest rated drugstore brand for color-treated hair. What I found was Pantene Pro-V Color Preserve Shine shampoo and conditioner. (Walmart, $3.78 each)

Now, I won't bore you with a play-by-play of my showering experience (unless you just want to know how long it takes to shave my legs, or how many times I got caught in the shower curtain? I mean, I hate to leave you hanging...). After I towel dried my hair, I worked in my usual pea-sized amount of Fekkai glossing cream ($9, Ulta) and blow-dried just like I normally would. When I got finished, I spritzed on a little of the Bumble & Bumble Shine On finishing spray (Sephora, $25), just like I did with the expensive stuff.

I couldn't tell the difference.

Seriously, if you took a picture of me after I used the expensive products, and compared it to a picture of me after using the Pantene, you, more than likely, couldn't tell which was which. What's more, I couldn't tell a difference during the blow-dry experience. I didn't have any trouble with frizz, fly-aways, tangles, or anything else. If anything, I think my hair might be softer with the Pantene, but I can't really count that as a con.

Now, it's true that I used a couple of higher-end styling products, but I kind of had to for comparison purposes. That said, I can totally justify the expense for both of those items, not only by their effectiveness, but also by the price per use. I've had that glossing cream for seven months, and have barely put a dent in the travel-sized bottle. That's working out to just a few cents per use. The finishing spray is significantly pricier, but still, with the need for only a small amount after each blow-out, this bottle will last for months, with a cost per use in the well-under-a-dollar range. The high-end shampoo and conditioner were running closer to a dollar each per use, with bottles lasting a few weeks, as opposed to a few months. That's a little more than I can go, especially with such an affordable duplicate available.

Final Verdict: 10 out of 10. As good as the expensive brand, but at a fraction of the cost. No complaints here.