The Brands From Day One

I never really used makeup when I was growing up, and largely started "using" makeup between my Junior/Senior year in high school. I started off with the bare minimum makeup, mineral foundation from bareMinerals, eyeliner and eye primer from Urban Decay, mascara from Dior (courtesy of my mom), and blush/bronzer from Benefit. For the most part, I continue to use these brands to this day because they're just some great products.

Mineral foundation continues to be one of my favorite products to use as they're gentle on the skin and allow your skin to breathe while giving a minimal amount of coverage. These days I'm using the Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation, but in an effort to use up my current makeup I've been trying to use up my bareMinerals Foundation in Medium. I haven't had any sort of tan since I was in college and this year I ended up being slightly tanner than usual, so what better time to use it up? 

I have a crazy amount of Benefit blushes, as you can see in one of my first posts here. This past summer I've been reaching for Coralista as it's a beautiful coral/peach shade with hints of glitter. A built in highlight if I say so myself. (Although I have not hesitated to layer a good highlight over this. Double the glow, why not?) I have more than a handful of these, and even a holiday blush set that I (truly) should make better use out of. This set is amazing value if you're looking to try out the Benefit blushes as you get to try 5 full-size pans for the price of 2.

In an effort to use up my eyeliners, I've been reaching for my Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Demolition (Matte Deep Brown) - which is almost finished! The pencil itself is almost shorter than the cap, and once I can't sharpen it anymore it'll be getting the toss. The first eye primer I ever used was the Urban Decay Primer Potion - back when it came with a doe-foot applicator in a potion shaped container. I purchased my second one when they changed it to the tube version (and it now has the best of both worlds of a doe foot applicator in the squeezey tube.) This product has a cult following of its own but I've since moved on to the NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base. But I did have a little bit left in this and wanted to finish it up, so that I am doing.

My mom was cleaning up some of her makeup and she came across a Dior Iconic Mascara which she had bought a while back but never used. I was a bit weary to use it as I wasn't sure quite how old it was, but it had never been opened. So I opened it, gave it a sniff and all was good. It was indeed a new tube of mascara! It isn't waterproof and my eyelashes do droop back to their normal pin-straight nature, but I haven't really been bothered by it. It also makes eye makeup removal a cinch at the end of the day with little tugging involved - making it great for those minimal makeup days. I'm almost tempted to try out a Dior waterproof mascara - yay? nay? (Probably nay since I want to use up the drugstore backups I picked up at Ulta a little while ago.)

What are some products that you continue to use to this day that you began using when you started to wear makeup?

Just a reminder that I'll be posting every weekday in October - so get ready for those posts starting Monday! And, appropriately, I'll be creating a hashtag (#CHYtober) and will be tagging all my photos on Instagram with that. Feel free to join in with the hashtag or even tag me in a photo or own twitter if you're reading a post ^__^