Make-up: It's not the Apocalypse.

I am a well-known cream soda and makeup connoisseur in my circle of friends. If ever there be a cream soda I’ve never seen the likes of, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m buyin’ that puppy and taking my taste buds for a beautiful CS ride. So far, I’ve found Menards sells the best brand. I can’t remember the name of it but it’s got a bee on it and it’s made in Wisconsin. It’s to die for!

I also am crazy about makeup and although I don’t wear a ton of makeup for work, school, etc. I love makeup and experimenting with it. On the weekends is when I like to get pretty and plastered. (Yes, I just stole a Ke$ha song lyric because it’s so funny and so true). I “flaunt” the no makeup look more often than not -- at least Monday through Wednesday but I’m still passionate about it! That’s okay, right? 

I started my makeup obsession when I started working at Herberger’s in high school. I fell in love with Clinque and then Estee Lauder soon thereafter. I would come to work without makeup on (oops) and have a hay-day using different colored eye shadows, blushes and lip gloss. No one ever told me I couldn’t or that I had to stop so I just continued. I had some pretty interesting combinations going on.

I tried everything - everything. God, I hate to admit this: I wore GREEN eye shadow. It wasn’t a punk-lime green or a peacock-turquoise green. This green shadow was a few shades lighter than a Granny Smith green apple. I used it on the inner part of my eye and used a shimmery-mocha brown on the other lid moving in. I pegged it “caramel apple” – shoot 16 year old me!!!

Thank the Lord I only remember doing that one once! Why I pegged it caramel apple? Fun fact 1: after I do my make-up I name it something fun that it sticks. It’s usually influenced by the color scheme I’ve chosen so later down the road I can go, “I liked (insert name I chose) I think it would be fun for (insert event)”. The ones I use most are: peg-leg (brown/black), belly-dancer (gold/black), bear country (a few shades of brown), snow angel (light/dark silver), etc!

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to know what looks best on me. I have found browns and golds really bring out my blue eyes whereas granny-apple green just…doesn’t. God, I seriously I thought I was so cool. Isn’t it funny looking back thinking, “what in the HELL was I thinking and/or doing!?” But that’s how we grow and learn, right?

Well, since I have spent so much time experimenting, even after I left Herberger’s, my makeup bag has grown and grown. Started out in the old school hot pink caboodle and kept growing until I received THEE best blue/turquoise striped makeup bag from my WSM (wicked stepmother) and then kept going until eventually my best friend, Jen, gave me the zebra bag to hold all the “junk” that I really ever don’t use.

Those three usually-untouched monsterous bags sit below my bathroom sink. Inside sits all this:

This is the foundation/blush/bronzer pile. As you can tell I have experimented with loose powder foundations and many drug-store bought foundations. If there’s one thing to splurge on with make-up it’s foundation! I have spent $10 here and $7 there trying to find a decent foundation that worked for my normally-dry but oily-in-the T-zone skin and also for my weird and ever-changing skin color. And pah-lease for the love of all caramel apples, go to your closest beauty counter (Sephora, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Clinique, etc) and get yourself matched to a skin type foundation along with the correct color! It’s just easier to spend the $30 straight up than to fart around trying to find the best color at Wal-Mart. My best match is the Superbalanced foundation by Clinique in Porcelain. Fun fact 2: I hate porcelain dolls – they are the God’s creepiest gift ever given to the elderly and small children. I have a love/but-mostly-hate relationship with the fact my friends say I have a porcelain doll face.

Just an FYI: if you want to go for a heavier look, have a lot of acne scars, freckles or just like the full-coverage-trany look try Double Wear foundation by Estee Lauder.

Ahh, only some of my eye shadows pictured here. You could say eye shadows are by far my favorite indulgence when it comes to makeup. I have experimented with drugstore/department store brands and I have concluded of all the shadows I buy from the local drugstore I find that Covergirl stays on the longest for me. If I’m really looking for it to last all day and night though I’ll use Lorac or Estee Lauder shadows. I’m not one of those people who think the more you spend the better quality it is (for shadows) but I do enjoy the variety and sparkle the spendier brands tend to carry.

Lastly, lip gloss. I feel as though lip gloss is the Kourtney Kardashian of makeup, very underestimated and overlooked, yet polishes off the “crew” and can be boldly beautiful or meekly marvelous. I usually stick to a clear or slightly blushed gloss during the weekdays but I like to play around with my lipsticks (Don’t picture the 90’s lipstick stains on diet coke cans kind of lipstick, okay?J) on the weekends. “Tiger Eye” by Estee Lauder has been my favorite for years!!

I guess you as sparklers are wondering where the hell I’m going with posting pictures of my make-up all over my blog. Well, I was hoping we could have a cream soda/makeup discussion over Skype soon. Kidding, although I seriously would be so down for it so if you wanna…….

 Anyways, I am one of those people who have their bathroom cupboards stock-piled with several different lotions, body washes, moisturizers, foundations, shadows, perfumes, nail polishes, etc. I’ll have 4 body washes in the shower and 3 different face washes. It’s like, okay Brandi, these aren’t mood-washes they will all get the job done. I don’t need to have a variety at my fingertips based on what I’m feeling that day. I probably have thousands of dollars worth of beauty products in my home. It’s not normal and it’s definitely not cheap! Am I the only one that feels this way or is the rest of the female population also? Please tell me I’m not alone in feeling like I need to stock up for the apocalypse?!

After one day of dusting – DUSTING – my beauty products I thought enough was enough! I have decided that I am not allowed to buy another OUNCE of any of that “stuff” until I completely run out. I thought about it for awhile and then decided to take this up as a challenge. To fill my pocket book and empty my bathroom cabinets! So here I go to finish up what I have before I buy more! Who’s with me!?