Get more for your money

       Recently there was a discussion about the amount of money one has invested in their makeup bag. My number was huge. Of course this is because I am a non working MUA, and my entire kit has now become my own products. I estimated about $800 dollars would be down the drain if I lost my makeup bag. It might be more. That is a scary thought.

      Although that is a large amount of money for an average person to spend on their makeup, for a professional makeup artist it is actually a low number. I do have a MAC discount which helps but I also have a few for using a minimal amount of products to achieve a large variety of looks.

Here are a couple of things that might help you save some money in your own makeup bag.

• Have only two color eye liners, black and brown. If you want a colored liner you can set either of these colors with a colored shadow for the same effect. 
• Why buy 5 different shades of the same color? Instead buy a medium shade and use it with different techniques. You can do several layers of a color to make it darker. Try using it with a shadow primer for richer pigment, and without for a softer color. 
• The shadow that you use as a highlight color can double as the highlighter for the rest of the face, applied to the top of the cheekbones and the nose. 
• Use an eyeshadow to fill in your brows instead of using a separate brow pencil/powder.
• Always apply moisturizer to your face before applying foundation. Your skin is like a sponge, when dry it will suck up anything you rub on it, therefore using more product. A moisturizer is not just good for the skin, but it will fill the skin, and just like a wet sponge can't pick up more water, your foundation will stay in place. 
• Instead of having a lot of different lipsticks (I don't own one), try using a combination of lip pencils (I have 3, one flesh toned, one pink and one red) and glosses. You can create totally different colors using different mixtures here. 

Do you have any money saving tips? 

Just because there were no pictures in this whole post and I hate that. My poor cat. He loves me though. 

Why is it so fun to annoy cats?