**Dollar Store Challenge**

My friend Melissa, who is a Beauty Vlogger on Youtube, and I were discussing negative comments we get about our makeup and one thing led to another and we decided to do this Dollar Store Challenge. Not only is it fun but it is a CHALLENGE. We basically wanted to know if it takes mainly good skills to apply makeup, good products that do all the work or about half and half. Plus not everyone has tons of money to spend on Sephora or even drugstore (ie: Walgreens) makeup these days. So going as low as we could we decided to try out this challenge at our own dollar stores to see what we could find and how we were gonna make it work from application like brushes, sponges, etc to actual makeup, and for me even correctors. So we had to get creative. 

Here is Melissa's video: *FAIL* Dollar Tree Makeup Look 
Her Instagram: @melissa.juliet
Her Snapchat: @melissa.juliet

This is my local dollar store. It actually has quite a large makeup section but staying true to the task I went for the lowest price possible which was LA Colors. So basically everything I got was LA Colors and 2 things I think were Broadway Colors or something. The brushes were also $1 I only found two and there was no blending brushes, also got a Beauty Sponge. 

So I got:
L.A Colors Graphixeyeliner in black
L.A Colors Brow Kit in Medium
L.A Colors Liquid Makeup in Buff
L.A Colors Cover Up Pro Concealer Stick
L.A Colors Matte palette in Brown Tweed
L.A Colors mascara in Bold Lash
L.A Colors blush in Natural
L.A Colors lipstick in Dream
Broadway Colors True Matte lipstick in Pink Drop
Broadway Eyes lashes in Flirty
Beauty Sponge
Liner Brush
Shader Brush

Total Spent $26

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 So first off, I needed some type of corrector for my dark circles. So I used the lipstick in Dream, which is a pinky peach, under the eyes. I applied it very very lightly. It was a bit too bright but it worked. Next up I added a layer of concealer under the eyes, and in the T Zone so that the center of the face would have some highlight. Then I used the foundation. The foundation didn't have good coverage it was like a sheer, possible medium coverage so I had to add more concealer on afterwards to get about a medium coverage.

Next up I used the Ivory powder in the Matte eye palette to set the under eye area with the shade brush. Very very lightly. It didn't have a ton of pigment so it worked fine for setting everything under the eye. Moving onto blush this was a disaster. The brush it came with was terrible naturally and the blush itself had lots of sparkle in it. Maybe using a real blush brush would've done better but I AM COMMITTED. So I applied wayyyyy too much and then had to buff it out with the sponge. I tried using the eye shadow to contour some but it didn't hardly work out, it mainly just buffed completely away.

For the eyes I used Matte shadow palette and just basically accomplished a smokey warm eye with a very smoked out liner. Speaking of liner I used the liquid liner and it was not easy. It was such a stiff applicator and dried so quickly that is was nearly impossible to make a clean wing. Therefore, I had to smoke it out which I liked better. I used the eyeliner straight brush to apply black shadow to the wing and help make the look more pulled together instead of a mess. I also used it smoke out the lower lash line as well. Then I used the mascara which seemed to work pretty well. I applied the Broadway Flirty lashes and I LOVE these. They're the perfect size for a natural look, not too long and fits the eye perfectly. I just lay them down in the center. You can hardly see them but I love that, they look like your lashes but better and you don't even feel them.

Next for brows. I used the little brow kit that came with tweezers and a mini angled brush. It has three colors all cool toned browns from medium, dark, to black. I used the middle shade the dark brown. This actually worked really well. I would prefer one of my regular angle brushes but like I said we're COMMITTED. For lips I used the True Matte lipstick in Pink Drop. It's like a bubblegum pink which I wish I would've chose a different color but too late. This was very opaque and pigmented but it looked a bit dry and clung to dry patches on my lips. I believe it was just $2 if that and for that price I don't mind it looking a tad dry and I may go back and get some other colors. 

So all in all this was a very challenging and I'm so glad I done it. I'm so glad Melissa asked me to do it with her. Our conclusion is having good products makes a huge difference but so does having good tools. Not all brushes are super expensive either. Just check out Morphe, Crown Brush, or even Coastal Scents and get some basic brushes. Also try a real beauty sponge like the Real Techniques Miracle Sponge. Yes it does take some skill to pull off a flawless look but it takes good tools and at least decent products. Not to say that all these products wee duds. Only two or three of them were. So don't sweat it. If you wanna save some money and get some inexpensive products I do recommend the lipsticks, eyeshadow palettes, even the concealer if you aren't covering tons of blemishes, the lashes I love, and the Brow Kit. Also maybe a mascara when I find one that I really like. Jordana also has nice products for a very low price as well. The sponge I don't care for, nor the eyeliner or blush. 

So that was my challenge I'm linking some videos on my Instagram of how it went applying these along with some fails:
Part 1 here
Part 2 here
​Fails here