Your Personal Make Up Collection

My train case Feb 2010

When I first started out with make up, I didn't know what I needed.  Now that I have a couple of years under my belt and I feel like I've reached the point in my life where I can say "no" when I'm at Sephora... I feel like its my duty to share what I've learned.  I want to share with you what I believe the essentials are and when  you know you've had enough.  The picture above shows my train case from over a year ago... I haven't boughten much since but honestly thats more than enough make up for ANYONE... unless of course you are a make up artist.  So please keep in mind that this article is just for the every day girl who isn't trying to be a make up artist and has no interest in collecting make up for fun.

Okay... I'm going to separate this into 3 stages. Stage A will be for very beginners... Stage B will be once you have items in Stage A and finally Stage C will be when you have most of the essentials and you are now customizing to your eye color, etc.

Face

• Stage A: Facial Moisturizer & Eye Moisturizer (depends on age), Foundation/Concealer, or Tinted Moisturizer (if you have really nice skin), blush, make up remover
• Brushes: Foundation brush (if needed), Wedge Sponge, or you can use your hands (make sure they are super clean), & a blush brush
• Stage B: Powder (if you have combination to oily skin), bronzer
• Brushes: Angled blush brush, kabuki brush for more coverage, or you can get a stippling brush
• Stage C: Highlighter, Face Primer, Correctors, and Finishing Powder
• Brushes: If you feel the need to get concealer brushes or if you would like to invest in a beauty blender or you may find that you like alternative face brushes

Eyes

• Stage A: Neutral Eye Shadow Palette, Eye Liner/ Gel liner/Liquid liner, Mascara
• Brushes: Flat eye shadow brush (2 to 3) and angled liner brush if you are going the gel liner route
• Stage B: Eye Shadow Primer, Brow Filler, Eye Lash Curler, Eye Shadow Palette with "smokey colors"
• Brushes: Blending brush, Crease Brush
• Stage C: Eye Shadow Palettes that accentuate your eye color (ex. Navy/Purple Eye shadows for Brown/Hazel Eyes) and 1 or 2 fun palettes (I recommend one of those 88 palettes unless you want to spring for a fun Urban Decay one)
• Brushes: There are sooo many brushes on the market.. at this point you can purchase better quality brushes or just get different sizes or cuts.

Lips

• Stage A:  Very good lip moisturizer and 2 or 3 neutral lip colors and nude or neutral pink lipstick
• Brushes: n/a
• Stage B:  Lipsticks/Lipglosses in shades that aren't extremely bold but can work with a lot of looks... cranberry, brown, deeper pinks, etc. (3) and you can start purchasing a nudish lip liner
• Brushes: If you feel like you would work better with a lip brush you can purchase it at this point
• Stage C: Lipsticks/lipglosses in BOLD shades. This is the time when you probably are confident enough to pick out a perfect red or a deep plum.  This is also the time to build your lip liner collection if you like the way it looks on you.
• Brushes: n/a

All in all I would say that for the average make up wearer you should own

1- foundation or tinted moisturizer

1- powder/finishing powder*

1- concealer 

1- facial moisturizer & eye moisturizer

1- face primer*

2-3- blushes

1-2- bronzers

2-5- lip glosses

2-5 -lip sticks

1-2- lip liners

1- lip moisturizer

3-12 individual eyeshadows or 2-3 palettes

1-3- eyeliners

1-2- mascaras

1- eye shadow primer*

4-7 - brushes for make up application