stretch that makeup budget with some mixology.

The other day I was doing a cosmetic and beauty product purge, as I’ve been replacing my commercial products with homemade varieties (more on that later). I wanted to share a couple fun and frugal discoveries I made.

First, I gathered up all the eyeshadows I just wasn’t using. You know- those palettes with a couple colors you never use? Or one that I just couldn’t use because it make my eyes itchy? Since all my wayward shadows are random shades of brown and tan, I decided to see if I could make my own bronzing powder with them. Because bronzing powder is the only thing I always wear, besides mascara, I knew that I would definitely use it up that way! All you need for this is the shadow palettes, and corn starch. I also had a tiny bit of another bronzing palette (Physician’s Formula) and a Bare Minerals bronzing powder to mix in.

I made two variations. For the first, I used my lighter, brighter shades – anything with gold shimmeries and pinky hues. Pretty!

I crushed it up with the back of a spoon until it was in a fine powder, then added corn starch a teaspoon at a time until it was the color saturation I wanted.

In the photo above you’ll see a little bottle of lavender essential oil – I added one drop and mixed well to give it a nice scent – but this isn’t necessary at all. This powder came out lovely! It’s a great everyday powder, over foundation or not, and has a tiny subtle highlighting. The cornstarch doesn’t dry out my skin at all – and I have dry skin! In fact, I have dry shiny skin. Which doesn’t make sense, but it’s true. This powder gives me a nice glow while still making my forehead look less reflective – haha!

The second powder I made was created using up some browner shades, and turned out much darker – more of a contouring powder, which may be fun (if I were more adept at applying makeup! I will have to practice..). I decanted my powders into little plastic containers with lids. These are the kind you make jello shots with, but they are perfect for little projects like this.

The second fun thing I made is a really easy tinted moisturizer. I am a bit of a cheapskate, but somehow I had been suckered into indulging in some seriously spendy (for me) beauty products last fall. First, some MAC foundation I didn’t actually love (it was too heavy) and some Philosophy moisturizer that justified its way into my life on a particularly low self-esteem kind of day (damn you, you genius anti-aging marketing ploys!). Well, I forced myself to use up that MAC foundation to justify the cost, and both products were running low. The little pump on the foundation was not able to get anymore from the bottle, but there must have still been $5 worth of makeup in there!

Rather than toss it, I thought I would mix the products together and make a super fabulous tinted moisturizer. Turns out – that works perfectly – but even that tiny dab of makeup went really far when mixed with the cream, so I ended up making two small containers of it.. for the second I used the end of another face lotion I had – Boots brand. The Philosophy creme made a nicely-textured tinted moisturizer, but the Boots one is slightly oilier-feeling and I don’t know why. Since I have dry skin, a little extra oil isn’t a big deal, but I thought I would mention it.

I won’t have to buy makeup for months – and because all of the resulting concoctions are lighter and brighter than the products I used to make them from, they are perfect for summer.