Lala's Vanity - Current Top 5 favorite makeup products

I spent a huge part of my weekend organizing my vanity drawer and so it came to my mind to share some of my favorite pieces with you.






Last year, Sephora launched a Makeup academy palette consisting of  130 colors.



This, to date, is my best 40 euros investment in a make up product ever. I can safely call this palette alone my entire vanity box. It consists of:

1. One eye primer.
2. 18 Cream eyeliners.
3. 72 eye shadows.
4. One lip primer.
5. 28 Lip glosses.
6. 7 blushes.
7. 3 concealers.
8. Basic applicators for eye shadow and lip gloss.

I was pretty overwhelmed with the number of colors available in this palette at first. Moreover, I was also bothered initially by its size as it is not your usual on-the-go palette. It is a big table piece with in-build sliding plates which mean that it will always stay on my dressing table.

The reason I am finally talking about this product with confidence today is because it recently came to my rescue when I had to put on a look for a very important job interview. Even though, I had to use few extra products to integrate in my interview look, this palette literally saved the day for me.

Despite it's large size and not so handy applicator brushes, the variety of colors available and their lasting quality on my skin, I would call this palette my first and foremost favorite make-up product.

Here are some of the extra products that I already had as well as those which I had to buy to pair with the Sephora Make-up academy palette:

Let's take a look at some of these products which are my current favorite.

Clarins Instant smooth perfecting touch.

I discovered this makeup base/primer in my Clarins set which I purchased last year. It was a good deal on sale at Sephora so I used the opportunity to try my very first few Clarins products. While the BB cream and the lip gloss that were included in the set weren't a disappointment in anyway, this product, however, turned out to be something I knew I will buy again.


So here it goes, my second favorite product, Clarins Instant smooth perfecting touch. I am aware of the fact that when purchased individually, this product is kind of pricey, but then again, purchasing products that I know will work for me and will need very little quantity of application, to me this is an investment in self. It is a light neutral pink colored product that glides easily on my face and a little goes a long way. As you can see in the image above, even after one year of frequent usage, the pot is still kind of full!

Fit Me® Shine-Free Foundation - Maybelline

After a quality primer, the next important step is indeed a foundation. This Maybelline stick foundation is my recent purchase and I am really happy with it. Stick foundations somehow tend to suit my skin in the best way possible.

I have to admit, I am a pure mess with liquid foundations but this Maybelline product saved me the hassle on my interview day. Quick application, easy blending, controllable coverage, long-lasting wear and all this in very little time.At 14 euros, I did feel it to be pricey but now that I know that this is a reliable product, I  will definitely buy this again. (Maybe even buy and stock these! I am always scared of a brand cancelling my reliable products for whatever reasons)

Boi-ing concealer by Benefit Cosmetics

Another product from last year's sale season. I was looking for something heavy duty in efficiency yet not too heavy on the skin to conceal an clumsy scratch on my nose and of course to camouflage the proofs of my self-enforced state of insomnia (I was able to finish one novel in 2 nights, Ting!) Despite on sale, this little pot of concealer was over 30 euros but the reviews on the internet were so positive that I had to take the risk. To top that, the Sephora adviser who helped me choose my color and demonstrated the product on one of my dark circles to do a comparison, did her job right.

In winters last year, my flaky dry skin caused me some troubles with this product as it is a little hard to blend on even slightly dry areas. But I didn't give up on my skin and few months later, when my skin finally came back to life, this concealer became my go-to concealer on regular basis. I use a flat brush to apply it on well moisturized skin after applying my foundation and I love the results. It blends well when given a well hydrated base and provides maximum coverage to the little random flaws and dark circles. When using with a brush, very small amount of the product is required which means I wont be buying this again for at least another year.

Sephora Eye brow pencil in Grey Color

Last month, I learned the most important lesson at Sephora, thanks to one of their kind staff girls. I was looking for my first ever eye brow filling pencil and in my understanding, brown was supposedly the color I needed. When I told the Sephora girl that I was buying these products for an interview preparation, she paid even extra attention to ensure that I make the best choices.

 
This was when she taught me the most important thing I needed to know about eye brow pencils. Never buy a brown or a black eye brow filler pencils! She told me that black/brown filler pencils gives a very strong fake appearance upon application and if a person is even slightly not sure about using them, the result can become a disaster.

She offered  me to buy this Long wear eye brow pencil in grey color which comes with an attached blending brush and demonstrated the application as I was a eye brow beginner. The result was fantastically natural! The color is so safe to apply that even I cannot go wrong with it.

I wore this pencil for 2 consecutive interview days as well as in my photos for official purposes and wow, it's hard to tell that a filler has been used on the brows. Thank you dear Sephora girl.

And this is all for today. I hope you enjoyed going through the favorite picks from my vanity. I would love to hear any experiences you have had with these products. Don't forget to give me your feedback :-)

Have a lovely weekend y'all!