 Oh I am so excited to be bringing you all Beauty Brand Superstars. We're going to get in to the very best from three of my favorite brands right now. Beauty Brand Superstars was kind of coined by Stephanie Marie that phrase. She did a tag video a couple of years ago where her idea was to take a few beauty brands and find the very best from that brand and then bring it to you so that took the guesswork out of what you were doing. So I've gone through and I've done the drug store alternative to that and I thought this would be a fantastic series to start on my channel. So I'm going to be doing this. I will take three brands in each video and I will take whatever amount of products that I love in that video and I am going to show that to you from each and individual brands so that you can know what the very best of the very best is and we're going to start off today with L'Oreal. Now I know a lot of people don't like L'Oreal so you know it is one of those brands that kind of gets controversial because it is higher priced at the drug store but I think they have some really great products that I love a lot. One of the ones that I've talked about a ton on this channel is the L'Oreal Lumie Bronze It. I love this one in light because it is a very cool toned bronzer and even though it says Lumie it's not really a luminosity. It's just kind of a lightness that it gives to you and because of how fair I am it's perfect for me. It gives warmth. It gives a little bit of a satin finish to it but it also gives just a really beautiful warming up of the skin so that you look like you have a lot of life to your skin. I just think it's so pretty. What I am wearing today from what I show you I will tell you and this is my bronzer today. Yes the top is broken off of it so I've had it for a long time. I've hit pan. I feel like I could use this forever and probably not run out. There's a lot in there. They also do a really good job of their blushes and the blush that I have is the Age Perfect one is this one and this one is Moved and it's a beautiful rosy pink color and it just shows up so pretty on this on your skin. I love L'Oreal's packaging as well most of the time they do a great job where you usually have a mirror. There was a little brush in there that I got rid of but I do like their packaging. This is a blush that lasts a long time too which I think is great. They also have their True Match Powder. I love this powder. It is one of the better ones at the drugstore. It is really a nice powder if you are somebody that's oily it's going to absorb really good but if you're somebody that is kind of on the combo normal side even leaning towards dry like in the summer this is a perfect powder for me because it's super light, super airy, very very finely milled and if you use a tiny amount of it it's going to not look cakey on you and I just really like this one. This is the fairest one and this is N1 so it's a neutral one. This is a beautiful powder. If you've been looking for one at the drugstore it's a great powder. They also have in their line the Lumie products that are the Glow products and this one is the Glotion. This is a lot like the Becca primer that everybody loves so much. It gives a very beautiful ethereal glow. You can wear it underneath your foundation if you want to or you can use it really lightly on top of your foundation for a beautiful glow as well and then they have the Glow Spray which I really like. It does have little micro like pearlescent colors down here. Nothing glitter nothing like that so you do have to shake this up and I will just really quickly show you. I put a little bit on my brush and then I will just go over the high points of my face to bring a little bit of glow to those places. I just think it's a beautiful beautiful look and it just kind of enhances what makeup you already have on. It doesn't give you like a really stark high beam glow. It just gives you a soft candlelight glow and I really love this one as well. They have the Age Perfect Serum Foundation which was supposed to be a dupe for the It Cosmetics CC Cream that everybody loves. This is a great foundation for dry aging skin. Sorry about my washer in the background. Everything's going off today. There's all kinds of noise. Anyway I like it because on my dry skin it really does hydrate throughout the day. You also get that little bit of sun protection and you also get a lot of antioxidants in it. So this is a really good foundation and I have really enjoyed using it. The last thing are these lip gloss lipsticks. These are great. I really like these. They're very hydrating. They give you some really good color. I do have these on today. I have this one. My glass is on so I can show you. This one right here is the first one and it is called it's number 105 Mulberry Plump. So this is one of the plumping ones. They have the plumping ones and then they have just the balms or the hydrators or whatever you want to call them. This one is 916 Luminous Coral. I don't normally wear coral but I thought because this is a little bit more sheer I could maybe mix it with some of my other ones. But that is such a pretty color especially if you lean a little bit more towards warm. And then the last one that I have is Sparkling Rose in number 908. And I have on that one and that one together today. I love them. They seem to last really good. They are balmy so they're not going to last all day but they do seem to leave a little bit of color behind as well. And I think that's great about them. The colors are beautiful. They seem to be very wearable colors across the board. And I just think that they're great as far as having that balmy texture. So if you have very dry lips you're going to get the moisturizer at the same time. So those are some of my favorites. I could go on and on with L'Oreal. Actually I do want to tell you that I also like L'Oreal's Infallible Pro Glow Foundation in combination with the ProMat. They work together so beautifully. Now let's move on to Milani. Milani has been forever probably my very favorite brand at the drugstore. Except for I don't like their concealer and their foundation. It's a little too bit too heavy but they have some fantastic products. Let's start out with one of my very favorites ever is their SunKissed Bronzer. It's actually called Silky Matte Bronzer in the color SunKissed. This is a beautiful bronzer if you are a cool toned gal because even though it has warmth it's a little bit more on the neutral side. So this is the second color the O2. It is a little bit, you know, you can tell that it's not that contour shade. It is most definitely the shade that's going to give you warmth. But this clings to your skin and it's going to be there all day. It never looks patchy. If it wears away it wears away very subtly. I feel like it stays on all day and I have loved this ever since they brought them out. It's one of my very very favorites. Beautiful creamy texture to it just like their highlighters. This is their baked highlighter. This one is called Dolce Perla and I'm telling you how would you ever use that much highlighter. What I love about this is that even though it can be a very beaming highlighter it doesn't have to be. So you can really tell where I put it right there. But if you wanted to sheer that out you can. And then if you want to go in and you want to really bump it up you can as well. I will just really quickly kind of dot some of that on. Maybe it will bring a little bit extra light there. I'm such a highlighter person. I love highlight. It's so pretty. So it just gives that absolutely gorgeous glow. I love it. And then along those lines are the baked blushes and yes I have a ton of them. My very favorite though are two of them. One is Dolce Pink. This has been said that it is a dupe for Nars Orgasm. I think it probably is. I just love the glow that these give you. They are a swirled color as they're poured and then baked. So you get this multi-dimensional color but you also get a beautiful glow from these. So if you're somebody that doesn't like wearing highlighter try these because they give you that little bit of light without having the bright high beam look to you. And then my other favorite is Petal Primavera. This is a very rosy pink color. That one I just think is so gorgeous. It just is one of those colors that just about anybody can wear. It isn't really too pink. It's not too rose. It's just kind of a really neutrally color to it. I love that one. And then really quickly I will show you that they just came out with two new colors. This one is a peach and then this one I think is a cherry. These are very, very vibrant compared to what they have had before. So a little tiny bit goes a long ways and I'm having a hard time finding that happy balance with them. But they're beautiful colors. So if you're somebody that has a deeper skin tone you might really, really love these. And I know that and I know that right now they only have them on their websites. Keep that in mind. I love those. I also have discovered this skin quench hydrating primer from them. It has that blurring technology but it grips your makeup really well and it fills in the pores. And I just love that. Not only that it's super hydrating. So as I put it underneath my makeup I feel like I'm getting that extra dose of moisture before my foundation and it looks so pretty under foundation. I am wearing this today and I feel like my foundation just smooths across it and it's absolutely gorgeous. And I really have fallen in love with this. I'm almost halfway through with it and I think I've only had it for three weeks and I've just been using it non-stop and nothing else. And then as we're coming into summer one of the things that I really like that they have is the Make It Last sunscreen setting spray. It will help with the longevity of your makeup but what I really love about it is the fact that it has that sunscreen in there. So if during the day you're going through your day and you feel like you're out in the sun a lot, you need more sunscreen, you can just spray it on. Instead of having to stop and put on more sunscreen that's going to mess up your makeup. And the sprayer on this is really light. One thing I will say is I don't like the smell of this. It's quite intense. It's got that sunscreen smell to it. So I think that it probably is more of a chemical than a mineral sunscreen, probably anyway in a spray form it would be. But I love having this for on the go. It lives in my purse and I just use it when I'm out over and over again to spray it across my arms, across my face. I really like it a lot. And then their Prep Set and Glow Powder. This is a phenomenal powder. If you're looking for a finishing powder that's going to help you look like you have just a satin look to your skin, this is for you. Not only that, it's super micro fine. I have said in the past that this is a dupe for the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Setting powders and it truly is really good as far as that goes. It gives that little bit of light to the skin without having too much glow. So you're getting an incandescent look to your skin and an ethereal look to your skin. I love this. Super light, super finely milled and it's a perfect finishing powder. And yeah, if you've been looking for something that gives a little bit of life to your dull skin, if you're older, you might really enjoy this one. I know that I do. The last product that I absolutely adore from them is their Keep It Full Plumping Lip Glosses. These are so good. They have that little bit of a tint to them. So you're getting a tiny bit of color, especially on the ones that don't have any shimmer in them. But they also have that plumping cooling effect to them like the Buxom Glosses and I love it. And I just think that they are some next level beauties. I love them because of how pillowy they feel. You don't get any of that gunky stuff when you're talking. It's not sticky and kind of making your lipstick together a little bit. It lasts a long time. They're really great for that. And I just feel like they make your lips look so, so juicy. And I love these. I have like four other ones that live in my car and my purse, but they're just great. I think that they're really, really good. And anybody that has been thinking about these, go ahead and pick them up because I think that you'll really love them. I forgot one thing that I absolutely love from Milani and that is their eyeliners. They're so phenomenal. These are the Stay Put eyeliners. It's a gel eyeliner and the payoff on it is fabulous. I have this cobalt blue one underneath my eyes. It might be called Sapphire. And then this is the plum one. I just think these are so good. They're just, uh, can go in the waterline if you want them to. And then you can work with them and smudge them before they sit down. But once they sit down, they're there for the day. I think these rival Marc Jacobs. And I love Marc Jacobs high liners. They're some of my favorites. The differences is these are sharpened. You have to sharpen these and the other ones from Marc Jacobs. You don't, but I don't mind that because I do it anyway, a lot for all of them. So yeah, that's my last product from them and really, really good eyeliners with a great payoff and great smudge ability and going to be there all day. Switching gears now to Essence, which is probably the most affordable brand at the drugstore in, in comparison to about wet and wild type thing. But I feel like their quality is so far above wet and wild. I just love, love, love everything they do. And I feel like so many of their products kind of get looked over. And I know that you all have heard me talk over and over again about this mascara. I do have a whole video on this mascara. It is what I have on today. So you can see those lashes. And I think this is one of the best mascaras I've ever tried at $6. It is so good. I'll make sure that I link that video for you so you can see it. This is a dupe for the benefit their real mascara. It's just phenomenal. I love it. Now the Lash Princess line has been a favorite of everybody's for such a long time. And they build up and they're beautiful mascaras. I can only wear the waterproof one because all the other ones have a tendency to flake on me. But this one, this does not flake. When it says 24 hour, it's there. It's there until you take it off. I love this stuff. No flaking, no smudging. It's so good. And then a lot of people also talk about the Pure Nude highlighter, which for a very good reason because this is a highlighter that a mature woman cannot go wrong with. There, you put this on and you just get light to the area. You don't get high beam. You don't get anything like that. You don't even really get highlighter. You just get light to that area. This is a perfect color if you want to put it across your lid, done, go. That is, it's just a beautiful color for that. Now everybody kind of talks about that. It's a beautiful finished look too. You could also use this as a dupe for the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders. It's really, really beautiful. Now it's not as finely milled as the Milani Prep Set in Glow Powder that I just showed you, but it is used a little bit differently because it is classified as a highlighter for them. So yeah, I love that one. And they also have another one that I really like. They have a darker one as well for my deeper skin gals, but this one is the Space Lighter, the Pure Nude Space Lighter. I like this one on my lids. It looks so beautiful on my lids. It has a very dual chrome, almost pinky purple shift to it with the white cast. So pretty on the lids. I'm telling you, it is just gorgeous. So it's one of those ones that I keep around more for an eyeshadow than anything, but it is beautiful. So here are a few of the things that I think are hidden gems. They're Brighten Up Banana Powder. This is a really bright powder. It is one of those powders that you can put on. And again, it just brings light to the area. And yes, mine is broken. Are you seeing a theme here? I use my makeup like crazy. And I just really enjoy this because if there is a day during the summer when I feel like I need to set my under eyes, this is beautiful for that. It does, if you go really light-handed with it, you're not going to find a lot of cakeiness. If you're a dry person and you have dry all the time, I would say, steer away from this. But if you're oily, it's beautiful. And you know, if you have somebody that sweats during the summer, has your personal summers with menopause, this is just gorgeous. And as my contour today, I am using this Essence Contouring Palette. This isn't as muddy as I normally like. If you've seen my videos before, you know, I like a really muddy contour. But this is pretty good. It does a pretty good job of being more of a neutral shade and really a cool or a warm shade. I really like it. And this one is the one that is for lighter skin and they have one for darker skin. So I really like this. This powder over here is really good too. So if you're looking for a powder, just an Oliver powder, this is a nice powder as well. Beautiful texture on these. Very creamy. And I really like them. If you haven't had a chance to look at the blush from them, it's just called The Blush. They're really good. This one, I think, is the rose color. Let me throw my glasses on so I can tell you exactly which one it is. This is called Befitting. And it's really a beautiful blush as far as just being super creamy and super pigmented. And it blends out like a dream because their powder products in particularly are more creamy. They are really good on mature skin. And this blush is just gorgeous. Now, I do have three lip products that I love from them. This is their liner. This is an automatic liner, super gel formula. This is called Keep Receipts. Gorgeous, gorgeous liner. I do have it on my lips today. It just lines my lips and gives a bit of shadow so I can do a little bit extra outlining just to make my lips look a little bit plumper and, you know, more full. And then I love the texture of these nude lipsticks. They're so pretty. I'm losing places to put this. This is super saturated. It's kind of along the lines of a matte formula. So you have it on all day long. It's gorgeous. I love it. And I think this one is called This Is Nude 04. They're beautiful, beautiful. And I love the color. I love that color. And then the 24-ever line that the mascara was from, I also have one of their liners. Look how fine that tip is. It's super, duper fine. So I can get really close in and tightline my upper lash line. I am so sorry about that dinging in the background. It's really great for being able to go super tight and being able to really catch all of the base of your lashes. And it lasts all day. It doesn't come off. It's perfect for me because that's all I want to do with this kind of a liner, a felt tip liner, is I just want to go really, really tight to that line that is just above my eyelashes so that it can make the base of my lashes look thicker. And this does the job. And I kind of did this in reverse order, but a base product that I absolutely love is their brand new Pretty Natural Hydrating Foundation. It is so pretty on the skin. I've been loving it. It's like, every bit is good as the IT Cosmetics CC Cream. I've just been really liking it. It's got a great texture. It is not very thick, but it's not too thin either. So for me, it's a medium coverage with a medium texture on it or feel to it. And I just, I really like it. And this color happened to be a really good color for me, which is so weird. This is neutral ivory, but it just happened to blend perfectly with my skin, as you can see right there. It's one of those ones that I'm like, how can this be for such a cheap amount of money? Be a quality product, but it's good. And it lasts all day and it doesn't show up texture on my skin. I love that. And then lastly, two setting sprays from Essence that I absolutely love because neither of these contain alcohol, which is phenomenal if you are an aging woman with dry skin. This one is the Essence Fix and Last 18-Hour Fixing Spray. So this one is more along the lines of making sure your makeup gets set down all day long. And then this one is Hello Good Stuff 3-in-1 Face Mist. And this has a watermelon extract in it. So yes, it does smell like watermelons a bit, just so you know that. But it doesn't have anything that sticks around. And I do know that it is just actually watermelon extract. It's not fragrance. I did look on the label. Although you know what? Now that I'm thinking about it, there might be a little bit of extra fragrance in there. So I don't want to misspeak there, but I do really like it. And you know what's nice about these is that they have a pretty, I just sprayed myself in the face, they have a pretty fine mist on them. So they're not going to squirt at you. And I really like that about it. This one is really good if you need a refresher during the day. And then this one is going to definitely keep your makeup on all day. This one can also be used as a primer and also as a freshen up. So you freshen up, set, primer, all those good things. And then this one is more about just setting down your makeup. Did I talk fast? I probably did. We went really fast. But I love talking about makeup. And this is going to be such a fun series that you can put into your like folder or a special folder on YouTube and you can go back to it and you can go, what did Melissa like from there? I can look it up in the video and then it just takes the guesswork out of going and shopping in these brands. So I hope that you did enjoy this. Please give it a thumbs up if you're as excited to do this series as I am. I can't wait to continue on in it. Thanks everybody for being here with me. If you have products from these three brands that you think are phenomenal that I haven't touched on in here, I might not have tried it because of course we can't try everything. I'll make sure you leave that down in the comment section. I love you guys so very much. Please take care of yourselves. Catch you in my next video. Bye friends.