Tips to make your makeup last longer

Hey, kids... that's right; she's back! After an extended absence-- life gets ahold of all of us sometimes-- I took a look at the blog and thought that perhaps it could do with an update. Hope you all missed me. And if you didn't? Well, screw you, too. ;)

Alright, so in this post I'm going to talk about how to get the extra mile out of makeup. We all know makeup is expensive-- the Chanel foundation I use is $60 a compact!-- but I have a few penny-stretching tips for you to make your money go a little further in the makeup department.

1) You can start out by buying better makeup. I know department store brands like Clinique and Estee Lauder can be expensive. But I'llt ell you this-- one compact of Chanel makeup lasts me over six months (closer to nine months) because it's made better and you can use less of it than even Clinique or Chanel. And the brands you get at Wal-Mart? They don't compare in terms of longevity. A lot of generic makeup (such as Cover Girl and Maybelline) goes bad before you can use it all, or doesn't get you very far. If you pay $15 for foundation every couple of months, at the end of the year you've spent $90 or more when you could buy one compact of Chanel at the same price and get better quality makeup that won't break you out and won't go bad, dry out, crack or oil out.

2) No matter what brand of makeup you use, you should always cleanse and tone your skin first, because oily, dirty skin causes makeup to fade or smear.

3) Apply your foundation ten minutes after you put on moisturizer. If you don't allow the moisturizer to soak in, you'll have to use twice as much foundation and it won't last nearly as long or give you a pretty finish.

4) Use a makeup primer! It'll add hours to your finish-- TRUST me. I recommend Benefit.

5) Liquid eyeliner has 4 times the staying power of regular crayon liners, and you use less of it.

6) Slightly wet your sponge before applying foundation to the sponge and less product will be lost in being absorbed by the sponge.

7) To get the last little dollop of mascara out of the tube, run the covered tube under warm water or warm it up with a hair dryer. This will loosen up any mascara that may be on the innner sides of the tube. And if you love a mascara, try to keep the wand. In washing the wand thoroughly and reusing it, often you'll find it's the wand that really does the trick and not the particular mascara formula. So before you throw away that mascara you just bought because you don't like it, try swapping the wand out!

8) Using a lip brush means you use less of the lip product, making it last longer.

9) You can use your eyeshadow as eyeliner; simply get an eyeliner brush at the grocery store, moisten it and dip it into your eyeshadow, then line your eyes.

10) To make perfume last longer, use lotion before you apply perfume. It works just like a makeup primer does for foundation.

And that's all I've got this week. Stay tuned for some Spring Runway previews, hot winter trends and ways to look fabulous for the holidays-- and give great gifts-- for less. This is the Redneck Fashionista, coming to you from a place where your cool factor is defined by how many old cars are scattered around your lawn.