OK, here we go. The makeup basics I keep in my acrylic organizer.
I know it seems like a lot, but I like to change things up all the time, so there’s a lot of variety. I like having options, depending on what I’m doing any given day, and also whether I’ll be taking pics.
Sometimes, I’ll add products to the organizer that I’m currently testing, but there are products in there that always stay the same, like MAC Face & Body, MAC Pro Longwear Concealer, NARS Pro Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, Strobe Cream and the Shu Uemura Lash Curler.
Those are basically permanent members of Team Karen. 🙂
Brows
- Tweezerman Ultra Precision Tips Tweezer
- MAC Rick Baker The Monster’s Bride Palette with Mylar, Omega, Bitter (the green shade… I never use that one.), Club, Brun and Carbon
- MAC Cork Eye Shadow
- MAC Fluidline Brow Gelecreme in Deep Dark Brunette in Deep Dark Brunette
- MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Brow Set in Quiet Brunette and Bold Brunette
- Anastasia Clear Brow Gel
Lashes
- Shu Uemura Lash Curler
- MAC Extended Play Gigablack Lash
- Guerlain Cils D’Enfer Waterproof Mascara
Concealers/Eye Products
- MAC Care Blends Essential Oils in Grapefruit + Chamomile
- MAC Fast Response Eye Cream
- Trish McEvoy Line Refiner
- MAC Pro Longwear Concealer
- YSL Touche Eclat in 4.5
- MAC Prep + Prime Highlighter in Bright Forecast
- NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base
- MAC Paints in Sublime Nature
Bronzers and Facepowders
- MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Medium Tan
- BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Opal
- Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette
- Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Luminous Light
- MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Give Me Sun
- MAC Extra Dimension Bronzer in Delphic
- BECCA Shadow & Light Bronze/Contour Perfector
Foundations
- Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation in Honey
- NARS Sheer Glow Foundation in Stromboli
- Dolce & Gabbana Perfect Foundation in Almond
- MAC Face & Body Foundation in C5
- NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizers in Cuba and St. Moritz
- Skinceuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 50
- BECCA Matte Skin Shine Proof Foundation in Bamboo
- MAC Pro Longwear SPF 20 Foundation in NC42
- NARS Radiant Cream Compact Foundation in Barcelona
Primers
- Guerlain Meteorites Perles Les Ors Light-Diffusing Primer
- MAC Prep + Prime Natural Radiance
- BECCA Ever-Matte Poreless Priming Perfector
- MAC Strobe Cream
- NARS Pro-Prime SKin Smoothing Face Prep
That’s it! The contents of my acrylic organizer of makeup basics.
I switch my basics bag out seasonally or before vacations so it’s not nearly so extensive.
Right now
MAC face and body in N3
MAC Select Coverup in NW 25
Maybeline Fit Me Stick foundation
Benefit That Gal primer
Bobbi Brown Corrector and matching concealer kit
Benefit Sunbeam
MAC Strobe Cream
Laura Mercier pressed powder
MAC Full of Joy Blush
Clinque Plum Pop blush
Benefit Coralista Blush
Benefit Dallas Blush
Tarte Blushing Bride Cheek Stain
MAC Perfect Topping MSF
MAC Breath of Plum sheertone blush
L’oreal Beauty Tubes Mascara
Benefit They’re Real Mascara
UD 24/7 liners in Black Velvet, Underground, and Flipside
Maybeline Color Tattoos in some taupey shimmer and barely beige
MAC Painterly
UD Naked 3 palette
Bobbi Brown Nude quad
MAC Kelly Quad
Stila Kitten Lip Glaze
MAC Hot Tahiti, Up the Amp, Crosswires, Sweet Succulence, All Fired Up
UD Rapture lipstick
Bobbi Brown Valentine creamy matte lipstick
Clinique Black Honey almost lipstick
Lipstick Queen Perfect Wave hot pink sheer lipstick
Some cheap clear lipgloss
Covergirl lipstain marker in a rosey pink
There’s a UD lipgloss too, one of the new ones.
UD Optical Blurring Good Kharma brush
MAC 217
MAC 239
MAC 219
MAC 187
ELF blush brush
Ipsy blending eye brush (similar to a 224)
Shishedo lash curler
Ok maybe that’s more than i thought.
Seems like a pretty good daily stash!
Yessss! I was hoping for a list — thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Karen! 🙂
Gah! So much makeupey goodness! I want every single thing on Team Karen, my poor poor wallet.
Also, I tagged you in the blogger made me buy it tag! I hope you do it I would love to read your answers 🙂
http://beautifulbliss12.blogspot.com
this is one amazing list.. the only constant in my drawer is the MAC Pro longwear foundation, and sleek contouring kit.. everything else keeps coming and going! 😛
Karen, the question now is – how do you organize all your products/tools, and can we take a tour? 😀
hey Karen, I love this post and we have many favourites in common. Just a question, do you mix the Stromboli Shee Glow with something? I am also NC40-40, but Becca Radiant Skin in Bamboo is much too dark for me (I mix two parts Olive with one part Bamboo) and Stromboli is too light for me in summer; I either mix 2 parts Stromboli with one part Syracuse or with Tinted Moisturiser in Cuba. Just wondering! I have such trouble matching my skintone but at least Nars gets the undertone right.
Also, do you really enjoy that Becca duo bronzer/contour thingey? It seems to get mixed reviews on Sephora.com. When I saw it online I immediately wanted it, but when I read the reviews they totally put me off.
We stick to a lot of the same basics (NARS TM, a Becca foundation, NARS foundation, HG powders,) and I keep primers, powders, etc in my desk top too. But when it comes to color, I just can’t commit! For example, all week I wore light pink lipstick but every day was a different one. So fickle!
Are you loving Becca Shadow & Light?
What a beautiful picture! It looks like makeup heaven lol. I always keep my Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade and brow gel in rotation along with my Makeup Forever powder foundation, MAC Magnetic Appeal highlight and MAC Blunt blush for contour. I think I want to check out that Becca duo. It looks really nice!
Love Love all these products!
Hi Karen, please please please at some point can you review the Mac Pro Longwear SPF20 Compact Foundation? How do you like it?
Hey there, Karen!!! I knew we had a ton in common. Haha. I see some things on list that I’ll be looking in to on my hunt for HG.
My go tos…
Face – Nars sheer glow and sheer matte foundations, HG immaculate foundation, Stila illuminating BB, bare minerals original foundations in fairly light and light, bare minerals concealer in well rested, maybelline dream Lumi in ivory and radiance,
Powders/bronzers/highlighting – Anastasia contouring palette, MAC Aphrodite’s Shell, nars Paloma contouring palette, nars translusent crystal both loose and pressed, HG ambient lighting palette, MAC mineralized skin finish in light plus, nars illuminator in 413 blkr and Copacabana, MAC MSF in Lightscapade, HG mood lighting, benefit watts up, stila pink shimmer, Nars Albatross, and the little highlighting powder that comes in the Lorac mint edition palette from sephora.
Primers and bases – HG mineral veil primer, nars radience primer, Nars pro-primer smudge proof eye primer, Laura mercier oil free foundation primer, rimmel soft kohl in white, Fyrinnae pixy epoxy, maybelline color tattoo in dramatic black.
Color – I reach for Too Faced chocolate bar palette the most for nudes, I adore my Madd Style Cosmetic pigments. She has so many different options. They are all so beautiful. Urban decay electric palette. I just can’t pick, I love my milani blushes just as much as I love my Nars but my MAC Sharon and Kelly blushes as well as my baby Nars deep throat and the tiny peach blush from the lorac mint edition palette, heck, I love the Lorac mint edition palette!!!!!!, are in my top five.
Mascara/liner/etc. – milani liquid eye pencil in black, lorac pro liquid liner in black, Smashbox full exposure mascara, rimmel scandleyes retro glam mascara, l’oreal infallible gel liners, Anastasia clear brow gel and pencil in medium brown, I need a lighter color because I bought these in a brows to go set.
Phew. I think I’ll stop there. Haha.
Thanks for doing this Karen!!!! For someone like me that also has an oily T-zone but normal/combo for the rest of her face this is super duper helpful.
So interesting! I love that you laid all this out and made the post 🙂 It’s awesome to see what’s in my fav bloggers’ ‘everyday essentials’ stashes!
My own is much les impressive, LOL. It’s basically:
YSL BB Cream/Powder foundation/Touche Eclat in 01
Bloom Tangerine Lipstick
Whatever mascara I have on the go (usually a sample).
Lancome Tres Chocolate matte eyeshadow for eyebrows
UD Naked 2 Palette.
If we include tools, then it extends to the breathtaking total of:
Chanel curlers
My fingers.
😀
There is a lot of overlap with what I have in mine mostly because we share the same skin tone!
Mine isnt that elaborate though and I keep changing it every week! here is what I have right now on the table.
Foundatons : Alter between Maestro, MAc face and body and Guerlain Lumiere
Setting/Finishing Powder: Ambient Palette, NArs loose powder, Guerlain meteorites
Blushes & bronzer/hghlighter: Right now Osbournes blushes, Seduced at sea, and Chanel Intonation, Guerlain terracotta bronzer #5, Cindy Lou-manizer, Armani Liquid highlighter
Eyes: NARS smudgeproof,UD Primer potion, MAc Groundwork, NAked 3 palette, MAc custom palette
Lips: Dodgy girl, MAc magenta lip liner, MAC lip erase, Jack black and MAc lip conditioners(but I do have all the lippies in acrylic 60 cases on the desk, so its going be a tough one)
I loved seeing this! It’s so cool how you link back to reviews you posted years ago and a lot of those products are still your go-to’s. You put serious work into writing those posts and just because they were written awhile ago doesn’t make them obsolete- it’s nice to have a reason to go peruse some products that have stood the test of time! Usually all my attention (and dollas) go to what’s brand-spanking-new, but there is a world of products that are little legends I never knew existed! I had never heard of that MAC Grapefruit & Chamomile Oil, for instance. These secret peeks into Karen’s acrylic organizer are fun! I hope you do more of this!
Holy moley that’s a lot of foundations! My EZ-grab stash has like, a tube of bb cream, a couple eye palettes, and about 479 lipsticks. After seeing your stash I’ve decided that I must have unconsciously developed the strategy of having mediocre skin but distracting everyone with my ridiculously bright lipstick.
This was a great post to read! Makes me think about my go-to products that I absolutely love! I would like to document something like this as well 🙂
MAC Face n body is a constant in my makeup bag too.. and lately Sleek brow kit and Loreal true match concealer too.. 😀
I want to get my hands on Becca and Gurelian here.. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this! Love to see what beauty bloggers reach for on the regular. 🙂 I’m loving the Becca Matte finish foundation too, but I mix it with Kat Von D’s Lock-It foundation to get just the right coverage, finish and color.