 One of my favorite videos to record for you guys is drugstore alternatives to high-end makeup and that's what we're gonna do today. So we're gonna see what we can come up with that is cheaper and better at the drugstore. It's gonna be really interesting in this video because I actually have three different primers in this video. I'm pretty passionate about primers because I feel like as a mature woman they really help with my skincare concerns as in texture and smoothness and being able to hold the makeup on and also being able to take care of some hydration if we need that. So let's start with one that kind of does several things and that is from Lawless. And Lawless is a brand that I've been kind of exploring lately. It's quite expensive but they have some really great products and this one is Set This Stage. This is the Hydrating Soothing and Primer Serum. And this one to me is a little bit, it's really kind of almost a slick product if that makes sense. But I could feel that hydration in there. Definitely could feel the smoothing property of the primer in there. And if you're using it as a barrier between your makeup or your foundation and your moisturizer, it does that really well. And that's mostly what primers were developed for. You know, when you don't use a primer you could find that partway through the day your foundation can be sucked into your skin. That's because our skin is thirsty all the time and it's going to be taking in whatever we put on it unless we put that sort of a silicone barrier there. So this is a really good one. I really enjoyed using it. But one of my favorites, and I've shared this before many times on my channel my favorite from Milani is a primer called Skin Quench. And it's the hydrating primer that has hyaluronic acid and coconut water. And I always say this when I see coconut in anything. I know that there are a few people that do have an allergy to coconut. So be, you know, be aware of that if you're going to try something like this. I always look at the ingredients. My mom has an allergy to coconut. But when I put this next to the one that I just used from Lawless I can feel that this one is just maybe, maybe just a scotch thicker. And the reason that I like that better than the Lawless one is because I can feel a little bit more hydration. So if you're somebody that is very dry like me and I know that I have several gals that aren't. So, you know, you may wanna choose something that's gonna be coming a little bit later. I've got something for everybody just about in this video for a primer as far as your skincare needs go. But what I love about it is it does have that hydration. I can feel the silicone property in there. And I definitely can feel that it's going to create the barrier. So as far as being by this, not that, that's the one that I would go for if I needed that hydration. This one is from Mac. And this is their Prep and Prime Skin Refine Zone Primer. And I heard about this from Mel years ago. And this is a really great primer for just using, for me anyway, for just using in my T-zone area where I have a ton of pores. So I will use this right here in between my eyes, a little bit on my cheeks, my nose, and my chin where all those really big pores are. And this sinks in super dipper fast. And the reason that I have loved this and I really loved her recommendation in it is I did exactly what it said it was going to. It took away those pores and it made them look very refined and very smooth. It's just been one that I think this is my third or fourth tube on it, but I was able to try this one from Revlon. And I think Revlon actually sent this to me. It's the Revlon ColorState Grip Matte Primer. The reason that I was so taken with this was because it had that matte property that the Mac one had and it did refine the skin. In other words, it does blur out those pores like crazy. Now this one itself feels a little bit thicker and that's that grip property. And as I say thicker on all these, you'll probably go on Melissa where, you know, we're at a certain age, we don't want things that are thicker. But at the same time, sometimes that's good. All of these primers that are out right now, like the one from Elf, the one from Milk Makeup, those are those HydroGrip primers and they're all the rage. This one from Revlon not only does that grip, but it also mattifies, which I think is really important because, you know, during the summer, we get really sweaty and that can be a problem for any of us, even if we do have very dry skin. Now as I'm feeling both of these side by side, I can feel that they feel exactly the same and that they smooth exactly the same. I also see that we're getting a lot more product. Now the one from Mac is 0.5 and the one from Revlon is one ounce. So you're getting double for the price. And I think that that can't be beat either. Who doesn't want to save a bunch of money? All right, next I want to share with you these two sponges. Now, first of all, from the Beauty Blender, they came out with this little cool sponge that had a little grip on the back of it. I'm sorry, a little tab on the back of it that you could put on your fingers and then you could just pat across anything you want to do. You could apply your makeup with this. You could apply your powder. You can, you know, blot throughout the day, whatever you need to do. And I really liked that inside of it. It felt like it was almost memory foam, a little bit more thick than memory foam. So it's a little bit bouncier but it's really good for being able to do anything you need to do. I have done a whole face of makeup with this. But I was so glad to see that real techniques came out with one that is almost identical. Now, you can put this in one of those zipper bags for your washer and put it into your washer and it washes up perfectly or you can just wash it with your brushes and it washes up really nice. But this one for real techniques is every bit as nice as the one from Beauty Blender. I like it better because of the cost, absolutely. But you also have the ability to take that little tab or the little elastic right there and you can put it on either side. You can do that with this one from the Beauty Blender as well, I should say that. And the one from the Beauty Blender also does have a little pocket in there that you can put your fingers up in and use it that way as well. The one for real techniques doesn't have the pocket. So on one side of it, you have the actual part that feels just like a makeup sponge and the other side feels like a powder puff. This is such a good tool and I was so glad to see that I could find one that wasn't $15. The one from Real Techniques, I'm not exactly sure, but I wanna say it was around $7. So about half the price and really great tool. If you haven't tried either of these before, I highly recommend that you do because as you're wanting to touch up through the day or even to put on any makeup, this is a really great tool. Now this one I may have put in another Alternatives video, but this is from Rare Beauty and this is her liquid highlighter and this one is in Enchant. This is the liquid luminizer, is what she calls it. This goes such a long way and it really does give such a pretty glow to the skin. How lightweight this is, hopefully you're gonna be able to see that, how lightweight it is and how luminizing it is. It's so pretty, it's very buildable as well and I love that about it. It has been one of my favorite products for a very long time, but I did find this one from Joa. Now I'm sure there are others out there but I do like the Joa brand as I know many of you do and so I wanted to pick this one up and give it a try. Now this one is called Liquid Raise Highlighter and this one is called Pink Dawn and this one is not the exact same color but you cannot tell the difference when you get it on your cheeks and that's what I love about any of these liquid products is that once we tap them out, you're not gonna be able to see too much of a difference although the difference in these two is that I feel like the one from Joa is a little bit more luminizing. Nice thing about liquid products also, if you're working with a highlighter, is that they show so much less texture and that is a really great thing when you're looking at all of these highlighter products. So love these two, they perform very much the same and they last about the same amount too. I had them both on by the time I went to bed and I was taking them off with my makeup so they weren't wearing off very quickly and really good quality on both of them. Gwen Stefani has been expanding her makeup range at Sephora. She has gotten in duo blushes and she also got in this brick highlighter and remind you of anything, I'm sure it does as you're looking at it. It's very pretty, very smooth. Actually run my finger across everything, get it all lifted and then put it on. Now I did wipe off that other luminizer so that you know that but this is really pretty because there's absolutely no sparkle in it, there's no pinpoint reflex. This is just shimmer, just beautiful pure shimmer and I really love it. It's quite light and it really is quite beautiful. Let me just put a tiny bit of it, I'm not gonna put very much, let me just put a tiny bit of it right here onto my cheeks so that you can see that. It's so pretty and the luminizing property of it, it's just gorgeous, it lights up your skin without putting a lot of texture. Well I immediately thought of our Physicians Formula shimmer brick that we used to have and we used to get these all the time, these are so pretty. Same thing with this one, not a lot of like a beaming highlighter but a definite lighting property to it. It's just a luminizer, so pretty. Now I will say that the one from Physicians Formula is a little bit darker, it's got a little bit more warmth than the one from Gwen Stefani but really again when you get it onto your cheeks especially if you stayed on this side of the product you won't be able to tell any difference at all. So let's put just a little bit of that over here on this side and you shouldn't be able to tell any difference whatsoever once you get it on your cheeks and I think that makes it definitely worth it. Now to just talk about the last primer that I have that I wanted to share with you, this one is the Glow Wish primer from Huda Beauty. This is such a unique primer in that it feels like it's going to have a ton of silicone in it when you pick it up out of the jar, this is how it comes and it doesn't really have any silicone in it. It just feels like this super watery product that sinks into your skin immediately and yet as you're rubbing it you can definitely feel that it is smoothing your skin. It's very unique, very different and very beautiful underneath makeup. It's one of those products that I felt like was extremely innovative but I had heard another influencer talking about the Wet and Wild Impossible primer and I was like, okay, well I'll give that a try. Well as I got this I realized this is exactly the same thing as the Huda Beauty. Now I do think that Wet and Wild came out with this one before Huda Beauty came out with hers but again, this one from Wet and Wild it feels like water going on your skin but as you're working it into your skin you can feel that smoothing property. The other nice thing I found about them is they were a tiny bit mattifying but not so mattifying for my skin that I felt like I was drying out. They definitely don't dry you out. This is something that I think that anybody would like to at least give a try especially when the Wet and Wild is a fraction of the cost of the Huda Beauty. Very innovative product. Something that they can't do very much anymore is come out with something that is so different than what's already on the market and I feel like Wet and Wild really did in this instance come out with a primer that nobody else is showing out there or nobody else has out there. My most expensive foundation is from La Mer. I got sucked into this during a sale at Macy's and I went ahead and I bought it because I wanted to know what all the hype was about and as I was using it I was like, okay, this is really beautiful. This is going on very beautiful on my skin but I did not feel like it was 130, I think it's $135 now for this bottle of foundation. I did not feel like it was worth that. It's very smoothing. It's very pretty that it doesn't show any texture. It does stay on a long time. It's got about a medium coverage that is very buildable and it looks very natural but definitely do not feel like it was worth that kind of money. I was wanting to be completely blown away and frankly I just was not completely blown away. So as I was using this particular foundation the other day I'm like, you know what? I think this foundation acts exactly like La Mer and that is the Sephora Best Skin Ever Foundation. Now I know this doesn't work for everybody but you know what? I've heard so many people say that the La Mer doesn't work for them either. I would say that this is a natural finish foundation, the La Mer, which exactly is what the Sephora Best Skin Ever is. I do think that possibly the Best Skin Ever might have a little bit more coverage than the La Mer although that difference is very, very minimal as far as I'm concerned. So the Best Skin Ever I found almost immediately when it came out. I was very intrigued by the name of it because of course we all want our Best Skin Ever but what I loved about this when it came out was the shade range. My goodness, they have so many shades. If you're the very palest or the very deepest of skin you're going to be able to find your shade in here which is fantastic. And also I love how long this wears. This is a very, very long wearing foundation. I can find that putting it on in the morning I will have it to take off at night unless I sweat like crazy. And the La Mer doesn't seem to last quite that long. Now I feel like the La Mer has a little bit more of a fragrance to it or a little bit more of a scent to it than the Best Skin Ever. I really am not very sensitive to fragrance or anything. I feel like the Sephora One for my aging skin and having a little bit of texture with medium pores I feel like this is just prettier on my skin. Now one of my powders through this summer that I have really been enjoying is from Jouer. And Jouer you can buy at Sephora as well. This is an extremely light, airy powder but I don't know if you can see that or not but even as I just put my finger in there and rub it you can barely see that there's any powder on my finger. This is also called the Soft Focused Hydrate Inset Powder. So it's not meant to dry you out at all. They really have focused on the fact that this powder is so light and so airy that if you're a dry person you should be able to wear it and not feel like it's making you look like your skin is dried out or the life sucked out of it even more. I have a little dent in mine. I've used it over and over again this summer I just think it's so pretty. And I really have been enjoying it. Again, absolutely no fragrance in this whatsoever. It's a beautiful one. I do believe that this comes in different colors besides the translucent one but this one happens to be the translucent that I was using. But as I got to using this one this summer this is the new Wet and Wild 5-in-1 Essence Primer and Finishing Powder. This one feels so much like that powder from Jouer. I'm just shocked at how much it feels like that. It is so light and so airy and there is no drying out with this powder. Again, it feels like it's meant for mature skin because it's not drying. It's not gonna make you look older. It's just so, so light. I do feel like it was very, very close to the Jouer powder and I felt like I could very easily put one on one side and one on the other interchange them and I would not be able to tell the difference and I don't think anybody else would be either. This is a much bigger pan as you can see right here. Actually, almost does feel like there's a little bit of that buttery feeling in there. Like there's a little bit of hydration in there. As much as I love the Jouer, I love the Essence as well. Let's wind this down with a couple of products that I'm in love with. Now, I got this little trio from MAC. This is one of the trio of their lipsticks during the holidays. I was getting really worried about this one because I love it and it was getting down there and I was starting to think, how am I going to find something to match this? This is called Making Spirits Bright. It's a very creamy, almost a cream sheen from MAC if you've ever had a cream sheen from them. It's like a balm, such a pretty, pretty lipstick and it's not one that will dry you out. It's not matte, it's not satin. It's just that balm cream sheen formula that they add. But I did come across this one as I was getting ready to do this video. This one is from the Sephora Collection as well and I can't see that. Their writing is so awful on their stuff. So I can't see it, but here it is. And this one, you only need one or two swipes and you can see that it is just identical colors and also the formula. Oh my goodness, so pretty. I love these. Both of them have that same sheen finish or that balm-like finish. And I was so excited to be able to find this because you get these limited editions, you fall in love with the color and you can never find it again. And that's upsetting, but when you can find something that is pretty much identical and it's a fraction of the cost, thank goodness I found one that works so good to replace it, just love that. So that lipstick is the last alternative of the day. I know that you guys do enjoy seeing these videos where I show you something that can be just as good as the original. And then another company can come out with something that's very similar and they're just almost interchangeable, identical. I love that. We can be able to save a little bit of money and still get that great quality. So please tell me down in the comment section if you have found any dupes recently. I'd love to hear that from you. I love to learn about dupes as much as you guys do. And if you're not already subscribed to my channel and you do love this kind of content, would you just take a second and just smash that subscribe button? Thank you so much for being with me today. I love you very much and I'll catch you in my next video. Goodbye, my friends.