Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! So, since I just did my collective haul on here it’s time for something I was inspired by one of my cosplays! As cosplayers, we tend to work with a budget in buying our parts due to our lives outside of it, whether it being in school or paying rent, we don’t have a lot of money to spend with and there are times when we have to find parts at thrift stores and modify them, sometimes find the merchandise props that are cheap on EBay if we can’t find it in stores, and so on! There is one thing that is pretty important to cosplay and that is make up in order to get the look that we need! There are very good make up kits out there but you have to pay an arm and a leg for or win Face Off for a season and that would be hard to do, plus if you live in an area where there’s a lot of heat, some make up from party stores or Halloween stores since Halloween is coming up tends to fade easily! What should I suggest? Drugstores tend to have pretty good items in their make up section and they do have sales so you can save money depending if you are a member or not. So, what are these items? Keep on reading!

Maybelline: Eye Studio Color Tattoos: To start off this list is a product I’ve been picking up lately and that is the Eye Studio Color Tattoo eye shadows by Maybelline! If you read my Naruto Cosplay Advice post a year ago, I mentioned these for the Kankuro eye looks and you can use them as eyeliners, but you can take these steps beyond the eyes! How so? If you read my Richard Epcar and Dante Basco interviews and saw my pics as my finished .hack character and noticed the face marks and if the sleeves weren’t down and see the arm bands on my forearms, I used the Silver Strike tattoo from the Metallics line! I bet you’re wondering, “Don’t they fade after a moment?” Actually, these babies do not budge! NOT AT ALL! Even a friend tried rubbing one of my arm bands off and still wouldn’t budge! These last like they’re supposed to until you clean them off as in they last 24 hours according to the package! For $5-$6 for each, if you are at Target around this time if they have any of the sale colors on clearance, it would be $3 for those, these things are very handy! That is why I went back for Inked in Pink to Lucy’s Fairy Tail mark since it’s in pink and it’s on the hand! And for any Kankuro cosplayers out there, they do have a black one in the new Leathers collection! I would suggest picking these up if you don’t want to use sharpies or have bad skin reactions to costume make up since these are good for all skin types and Hypoallergenic! Also, as a huge tip! Get extras if you can because big stores like Target or Ulta or even CVS in drugstores tend to stop carrying colors after a while to make room for new stuff! And of course, the extra would be handy depending on how big the look or tattoo mark you’re making, for instance Crim from .hack as an example, great to have extras when needed!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil: Next is a NYX product and I tend to use these on a regular basis when I want to do silver eye looks or just line with silver and that is the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil! These glide on very well and you can use these for the eyes and a way of outlining for what you’re doing if you want to make a basic outline to help you out! You can find these at CVS or Target since they are carrying NYX products now and of course Ulta! A warning though, if you need a certain color, Ulta is your better bet since CVS and Target wouldn’t have all that you need for the entire line! Yes, you would need a eye pencil sharpener for these, I would suggest the Revlon Universal Sharpener and I do hear that Ulta has pretty good ones in their brand. Like with the Maybelline Color Tattoos, I suggest getting spares of whatever color you get like Milk, which is the white, Cottage Cheese which is the gold, and others! These also don’t cost much, around $3 if I remembered. As said, these are great for outlining for anything you want to draw on your body or face! If you are doing any of the Etotensei zombies or zombie costumes, using Black Bean would be your best bet for black! And forgot to mention, these can be used as eye shadows, for any Sango cosplayers from Inu Yasha, they do have a red one since she has some red eye makeup on. I would recommend these!

L’O’real Infolluble Eye Shadows: Another eye shadow for the list and that is the Infolluble Eye Shadows by L O’Real and their Paris line! I love these shadows and how they glide on! I would suggest using these if you want a pretty masquerade eye look or if you have any L cosplayers then I suggest using Soltry Smokes to do your under eye look! I love how it is a dark grey and it doesn’t have any shimmer so you can make it look really sleepy with this one! Plus these shadows are easy to build and blend and they do last for a long time, according to the packaging it’s supposed to last for 12 hours on you! Definitely a must and as always, pick up an extra but I do have to say the price does varies at where you go, it’s $7 at Target for each, around $7 or $8 at CVS and they do have specials for Extra Bucks sometimes like buy one get another for half off or you can get coupons for a few dollars off etc., $8 at Walgreens, and $6  at WalMart. So, I would say WalMart is better for these if you don’t want to spend too much and in case of getting extras when need be!

L’Oreal nail polishes: Another product from the same company and that is the nail polishes they make! Reason being is that they have a lot of matte colors you can use for characters that have nail polish on, take the Akatsuki as an example or if you want to paint your nails black for a zombie costume, etc. I would say go for the nail polishes from these guys since you have to go with non-shimmery colors and a lot of companies carry colors with it such as Pure Ice, Sinful, which they do have mattes in some colors, and so many other companies. I know Hot Topic’s Black Heart Cosmetics line also carries mattes but I highly recommend L’Oreal since they are easier to find and they will cost you around the same price as a Black Heart nail polish and they are very pigmented. I do have a tip and that’s carry a quick dry top coat since these dry a bit slower than others. If the polish works out, buy more bottles as back ups! Trust me, I have four more bottles of Stroke of Midnight for my Itachi costume!

L’Oreal Miss Manga mascara: I know it sounds weird for me to mention mascara since I never worn it but I do now time to time, don’t worry Gondras helps out with that! I am mentioning this one since it’s perfect to have the lashes of your fave female character! The Miss Manga mascara is the newest one that L’Oreal has put out and it does give you the big lashes like anime characters! Some people don’t like it depending on how their lashes turn out while others do like it and I do like this one since my lashes look nice with it on! Gondras suggested that I should get it since I cosplay as Lucy from Fairy Tail and her lashes are pretty big and bold! So, if you want that for any female you’re doing, get this for it!

Revlon Color Burst Lip Butters: I do love using these whenever I’m in female cosplay because they are pretty much a buttery texture and balmy! They do last for an hour or so  and they are pretty easy to carry in a small make up bag or a purse if you have one or like what I did, have a mascot character backpack and stick it in there! I also recommend wearing these as a pair with NYX’s Butter Lip Glosses for a nice glossy texture and look! I pair Cupcake from the Revlon line with the Cupcake butter gloss from NYX since they match with each other and it looked nice with my cat costume for the LARP panel! You can find a lot of colors and as said, easy and best as a lip balm so you don’t have to carry both a balm and a lip stick if you don’t want to!

Revlon Color Burst Matte and Balm Stains: If you read my Battle of the Balm Stains post a few months back, I mentioned these and these can be worn if you don’t want to go lip color crazy for a masquerade look or a night on the town during the convention. These have a nice sheer stain to them and at the same time can be built up if you want to go darker! Be careful, you may run into extra build up if you go too much! Make sure you have tissues handy for that! If you don’t want the Revlon ones, Jordana and Wet N Wild have similar ones that are equally as good!

Wet N Wild Black eyeliner pen and Maybelline Master Precise Black eyeliner pen: I mention these both at the same time because they are very good eyeliner pens! I used to use the Maybelline one and now using the Wet N Wild one but the tips are pretty similar in my opinion because they make pretty good lines not only on the eye, especially if you need a cat looking eye, but the face as well! How so? I tend to use these when I do my Itachi fine lines and Gondras did use my Wet N Wild pen when he did his .hack costume for the face markings! Great is that the Wet N Wild one is good to go over any scruff you may have! He had to be a bit scruffy for his Dr. Who cosplay with the sideburns. Still, these are very good eyeliners to use if you need some black face markings and you don’t have the Black Color Tattoo from the Leathers line. I think the Maybelline one will set you back close to $10 but if you don’t want to spend that much you can get the Wet N Wild one for $2! I should add for the Wet N Wild one if you need extras, wait until Walgreens does the buy one get the other half off and I think CVS does it too right around November, which of course holiday conventions are around that time. I did forget to add, you can use these to add a bit more darkness to your L eye look if necessary!

E. L. F. Eye Brushes: Time for some beauty tools and the first I would love to mention is the E. L. F. eye shadow brushes! I know I said above that you don’t have to spend a lot for make up and brushes is one of those things! If you go to Mac or Sigma, you pay like $20 for an eye shadow brush but with E. L. F. on the other hand, it costs $3 for their eye shadow brushes! These babies are very awesome brushes and if you watch a lot of Beauty Gurus on YouTube, this kind of brush is an essential! I have like four of these things because I do have the Disney Villain books and they come with the same kind of brush as well! I had Gondras use this brush in order to get my .hack make up look since the Color Tattoo is very dense and didn’t want to do the finger application like you usually do with them on your eye! Also, this brush is pretty good with any other eye shadows! I did remember using it with my L eye look! Still, this brush is amazing and you can get it at Target for $3 and if you don’t have any E. L. F. products in town, there is always their website, eyeslipsface.com!

Chisel Point Brushes: These babies are good when it comes to small detailing! You can get these with the gel eyeliner pots from Maybelline and L’Oreal, I think Revlon has them but Wet N Wild also has them too! They also do have companies that sell them by what I heard. If you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for one of these, you can get the gel liners for the brush or ask someone you know that may know where you can find it. Reason why I am mentioning this is that since I’m doing Lucy, it would be easy to control the tattoo with this kind of brush rather than using a big brush and easier to do tiny detailing. Also, you can dip these in to use the color tattoos as eyeliner if need be! Also, you can use the gel liners if you want that come with whatever you gotten for cosplay  if you want or as daily use, I do hear people use the gel liners for their eyebrows. Still the little brush that comes in the packaging will help out and you can probably find it at Ulta or Sally Beauty Supply for cheap if need be!

Baby Wipes: I can’t forget these babies and that is the way of cleaning for excess or for your brushes and that is baby wipes! There are brush  make up brush cleaners or art brush cleaners but with traveling to cons out of state or to faraway ones, it will be hard to carry bottles! Also, with some make up cleaners and wipes not everyone has the perfect reaction, as in they can sting eyes and so on, so baby wipes are your best bet when it comes to skin types, especially sensitive skin, and of course they’re not too expensive, the cheapest baby wipes are around $2 at Walgreens and WalMart! They also fit in a lot of suitcases and travel bags, even if you get small packs! I do have to say you may have to scrub a bit more to get off mascara and the Color Tattoos but they still work in the cleaning department in make up like most make up removers and remover wipes! Also, nice to use on surfaces to help with extra clean up if need be and not to piss off housekeeping! Also, easy to use on brushes as well!

Well, that is it for my ideas on what is the best drugstore products for cosplay! If you have any suggestions for what I should use for cosplay or as any use, just leave a comment! Don’t worry I don’t bite! I love suggestions!

Next up is hopefully a Ipsy post since I am waiting for my very first Ipsy bag to arrive! I will also be doing my July and August Favorites! Until next time!