My 5 Holy Grail Beauty Products

Welcome to Dressed for My Day! I thought we’d take a brief foray into beauty today. While I’m not a professional stylist, I feel a little more comfortable with my fashion sense than I do my beauty expertise. So I rarely venture into this area. But today I’m simply sharing my 5 holy grail beauty products. These are the products I use and probably won’t budge from until they stop making them or they change the formulas. Yes, I like these that much.

I shared my complete natural face makeup routine in a fairly recent post, and little has changed in my product choices since then. (See my recent makeup routine post here.) But I’m generally open to new products and, as a blogger, I kinda feel like it’s part of my job to try out new things.

But the five products I’m sharing today are the ones I’m not budging on anytime soon. These work for me…where other products I tried did not. I’ll share more as we go.

#1 – Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Face Primer

I’ll go ahead and start with the one product I have switched to since that last beauty post. I mentioned there that I had tried a sample of the Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Face Primer and had ordered it. Well, let me tell you, this is decidedly the best primer for me.

I discovered several years ago that my foundation goes on more smoothly and easily with a primer. And a good foundation primer also helps your foundation stay on better. You can also find primers that minimize pores. Obviously that’s one of the benefits of Benefit The POREfessional Face Primer.

This primer truly minimizes my pores and fine lines, creating a smooth surface for makeup application. It goes on easily, has no odor and does not aggravate my skin in any way. I only need a small amount to cover my face.

Application Tip: I do suggest you wash your hands thoroughly after applying and before applying your foundation. I discovered that my foundation was sticking to my fingertips in a weird way and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then I realized that it was “chalking up” because I had the primer on my fingers. So now I wash my hands between application and have no problem. Works beautifully!

The Benefit The POREfessional Face Primer is a little pricey, but you can also order mini size if you’d like to just give it a try and see if it’s worth the price for you. The one I ordered included the mini as a gift, but I don’t see that offered any longer.

#2 – Stila Hide & Chic Fluid Foundation

I’ve really struggled for the past ten years or so to find a foundation that works well for me. Most foundations felt great going on, but then left me with a sort of web like surface on my skin after just a few minutes of wear. Does anyone else have that problem? I don’t really no how to describe it other than to say my skin had the same appearance of an old timey crackled photograph. Or maybe vinyl that is showing some age. Make sense?

Anyhow, my hunt for a foundation that leaves the surface of my skin smooth is over. Hallelujah! I’m loving the Stila Hide & Chic Fluid Foundation.

This foundation is in the mid price range I’d say. There are definitely more expensive foundations out there, but this one isn’t cheap. However, right now it’s available for less than half price. It’s a great time to try it out if you’re hunting for a good makeup.

The Stila Hide & Chic Fluid Foundation is a very thin, silky liquid foundation. But it works beautifully in conjunction with the Benefit The POREfessional Face Primer. Because it’s a thin liquid, you can apply just a little for a very natural look or you can build more coverage by simply applying more. I also love this foundation comes in 30 shades. That’s quite unusual. I wear the shade “light/medium 3” for lighter medium skin tones with neutral undertones, in case you want to know.

#3 – The Original Beautyblender

These first three holy grail beauty products all have to do with creating a beautiful, flawless complexion with the application of foundation. And, while I love the Stila Hide & Chic Fluid Foundation, I’m not sure I’d like the results nearly as much without using the Original Beautyblender. Ever since a friend introduced me to the Original Beautyblender several years ago, I’ve used it faithfully to blend my foundation to a smooth, seamless finish.

I don’t apply my foundation with The Original Beautyblender. I use my fingertips for application. But I use the Beautyblender to blend it after I get the foundation in place. And I don’t rub it in. I just “bounce” the dampened sponge over my entire face and neck, careful to concentrate on nooks and crannies and along the hairline. The contrast between the before and after is quite startling.

And I’ve tried other brands of similar products, but never liked the results nearly as much. So I’m sticking with The Original Beautyblender until they stop making it. It just works too well for me to mess around with a good thing.

You don’t want to clean your Beautyblender with anything that contains glycogen. So I suggest using the Blendercleanser Solid. The Blendercleanser Solid usually lasts me about 6 months and a Beautyblender usually, with proper care, lasts me for about a year.

#4 – Urban Decay Double Down Brow

Beautifully shaped and filled in brows are like exquisite window dressing on a picture window. They brighten and accentuate your eyes like nothing else. And as we gals get older, we have to take a little more care with our brows. But honestly, I’ve always had to fill in my brows a good bit. I’m a true blonde, and my brows are thin and white. So I lean heavily on a good brow product.

Urban Decay Double Down Brow works beautifully for me. No, I don’t always get it right still. Filling in and shaping your brows is not easy. That’s why so many women opt for more semi-permanent solutions such as microblading. But I haven’t gone there yet, and I doubt I will. So I choose Urban Decay Double Down Brow as my solution. I find I work better with a brush-on powder application (it’s really a putty like powder) instead of a pencil.

The Urban Decay Double Down Brow comes in several different color combinations, but the Taupe Trap is supposed to be universally flattering, and that’s what I wear. I use the It Love Beauty Fully Angled Liner/Brow Brush #217 to apply the product. Then I finish it off with a little brush from my brow brush.

#5 – Lancome Définicils Lengthening and Defining Mascara

My final holy grail beauty item is the one I’ve been using the longest. While I’ve tried other mascaras (and even recommended them) along the way, I always return to my Lancome Définicils Lengthening and Defining Mascara. And I don’t think I’ve venture away again.

In the same way that my eyebrows are thin and blonde, so are my eyelashes. They’re short, thin, light colored and sparse. Ugh. And when I use mascaras that other women love, I just end up with big blobs because it takes a lot of mascara for my lashes to even show up. Or maybe it’s because my lashes are so short and the product tends to gloop up on them. I don’t know what my problem is really. I just know that the only mascara that doesn’t gloop and glob on my tiny lashes is Lancome Définicils Lengthening and Defining Mascara. So I’m sticking with it.

Application Tip: I dip my wand in one time and then apply that product on all of my lashes twice. I’ve learned that a little product goes a long way if you use it correctly. Also, be sure to “pull” the product all the way to the end of your lashes, lengthening as you go.

Shop my Holy Grail Beauty Products

The links above and the links in the shopping widget below are affiliate links. If you shop through them and buy anything, I potentially earn a commission, but at no additional cost to you. Thank you for shopping my links and supporting the work I do here. I appreciate you!

If you have any questions about the products I’ve shared here, please let me know. Also, you might want to check out my Beauty Routine for Women 40+.

Save + Share

If you enjoyed today’s post, I hope you’ll save it to one of your Pinterest boards. Oh, and share it with your friends on Facebook, too. I love it when new readers find Dressed for My Day because you’ve shared what you found! You’ll find share buttons just below the scripture in the Blessed for My Day portion of the post. And Pinterest buttons should appear when you hover over the following graphic (or any of the graphics in this post).

---

Don’t Miss a Post:

If you like what you’re seeing here at Dressed for My Day, I invite you to subscribe to my email list. You can receive an email each time I post (about 6 times weekly) or just on Saturdays. You choose! But you’ll also receive the password to open up all the subscriber freebies I offer.

Would you like to subscribe to Dressed for My Day?

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Frequency preference: New daily posts (6/week) Weekly digest (1/week)

Leave this field empty if you’re human:

Do you have a holy grail beauty product? One you won’t change because it’s working that well for you? I’d love for you to share! I may add a link to it so we can all check it out. Let us know why you love it so much!

---

Blessed for My Day

Have you ever wondered what the “gospel” is? Gospel simply means “good news.” The good news is that:

• God loves us, but our sin separates us from God.
• God’s love didn’t leave us without a solution.
• God demonstrated His love for us by sending Jesus to die for our sins and conquer death and sin through His resurrection.
• we can live life in relationship with God by believing in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

That is the gospel. Our world needs a dose of good news today considering all the bad news. Do you know someone who needs hope? Share the good news with her today.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. ~ John 3:16-17