Studio Davina

Lets get real, we are all living on a budget.  If you have been dancing for a while, you know how important your makeup is and how expensive it can be to experiment with different brands, products, and formulations.  When I’m preparing for a show, I can sometimes pile on more than 20 different cosmetics to achieve as smooth and flawless a finish as possible.  My mission is to enhance my beauty, create a look worthy of the belly dance mystique, and to look younger, healthy, and vibrant.  PHOTO LEFT:  Long ago I got into the habit of the pre-show selfie to help remember the look, the costume, the moment.  

Finding the perfect products to create the look you want on stage, that will hold up to the rigors of performance, and will not irritate your skin or eyes is quite a heft challenge.  You will, without a doubt, wind up buying many products that simply don’t work for you. Some won’t look as good on your skin as they did in the package, while others won’t be able to last through a show without running, fading, or flaking. It takes some trial and error before you figure out what are your holy grail products.  As a budget conscience dancer, I try to save money on the products I use, by shopping sales, using coupons, and buying workhorse products that I already know will provide good value for my money.

The store Ulta is one of my go-to places to shop for both drugstore and prestige makeup lines. Ulta has online and brick and mortar stores, so while it’s fun to go in and shop, I can often find items that are sold out in my local store, available on line.  ((And though it’s a bit, if you buy $50 – you will get free shipping))  Ulta has a liberal return policy.  Try a product and don’t like it?  Return it for refund within 60 days of purchase or store credit if longer.  Buy on line?  Don’t like the product?  Return at the nearest store or ship it back. Also, Ulta has a great customer loyalty program, that, for the repeat shopper, can garner bonus samples, free shipping, special sales, birthday gifts, and more. Their rewards program is accessible both in stores and on the Ulta website. http://www.ulta.com/  PHOTO ABOVE:  I was caught in the act of checking my lips for touch-ups.  Even though our designated changing spot was very dark, I found a spot light and did a last minute check.  Shout out to Alisha Westerfeld for this catching this moment.

Ulta’s budget friendly store brand that has some of the most frequent sales and deepest discounts.  As I write this blog, Ulta is currently offering a “Buy Two – Get Two Free” sale!  These sales are great when you are hunting for new products, because you can try them at a fraction of the cost, and return them if they don’t work out. Add one of Ulta’s infamous $3.50 off a $10 purchase and the deal gets even sweeter.  Sign up for their mailing list to receive sale notifications and coupons in the mail!

After a bit of experimenting, I’ve fallen in love with quite a few of the Ulta brand products. Last weekend, I wore three of my favorites during performance. I use a multi-step lipstick application, and I adore using their Double-Duty Lip Stain as my base layer for all of my performance lip-looks.  My over 40 skin requires a layer of silicone infused primer to help smooth out my skin’s imperfections, and the Ulta Matte Prim really does the trick. I also have an Ulta Sculpting palette, a collection of three powders that serve as my contour, blush setting powder and a highlight. Having three products in one package saves time in rooting around my cosmetic bag, and it saves on space when traveling.  LEFT PHOTO: Post-show with half the warpaint removed to demonstrate how effective that makeup was.  I was in this face for 7 hours total at this point, and that’s what my lipstick looked like after dancing, drinking, and eating.  Go-Go Turban Hair. 

Even if you aren’t interested in checking out the house brand, there are many-many more beauty products frequently on sale at Ulta.  I have been dancing for many years, and have used their website to track sales.  The result is that I have many of their products, from both high and low priced lines, in my performance makeup kit.

This week, I’m going to continue my experimentation and order a few things from the Ulta brand while the B2-G2 sale is on!  Time to visit their website and invest in some new items to try!

Good Luck with your own personal experimentation!!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
February 1, 2016

A Few Faves from the Ulta Line:

• Ulta – Sculpting Palette – “Rosette”
• Ulta – Double Duty Lipstain & Balm – “Drama”
• Ulta – Professional Matte Prime

What else was on my “performance face” this weekend?  Here’s a list of other products I used to make this look and are available from Ulta:

• Moisturizer – Boot’s No7 – Dual Action Tinted Moisturizer – “Fair” 
• Foundation – Dermablend Liquid Camo Foundation – a blend of “Linen” and “Sepia” 
• Under Eye Correcting Concealer – Nyx Dark Circle Concealer – “Light” 
• Brighting Concealer – Maybelline -Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer – “Fair” 
• Eyebrow Pencil – Nyx – Automatic Eyebrow Pencil –  “Medium Brown”
• Brow Gel – L’Oreal Brow Stylist Plumper Brow Gel Mascara – “Light to Medium”
• Face Powder – L’Oreal True Match Super Blendable Powder – “Alabaster” 
• Face Highlighter – L’oreal True Match Lumi Powerder Glow Illuminator – “Ice” 
• Eye Liner Pencil – Nyx Cosmetics Wonder Pencil – “Light” 
• Eye Liner Pencil – Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Trio –  “Smoky”  
• Eye Liner Liquid Pen – Essence Waterproof Eyeliner Pen – “Depest Black 01” 
• Setting Spray – L’Oreal Infallible Makeup Extender Setting Spray 

A few products from other places:

• Eye Primer – LA Girl Pro-Primer HD in “Nude,” “Black” and “White” (yes – I use all three) – https://www.lagirlusa.com/HD-PRO-Primer-Eyeshadow-Stick-2639.html
• Eyeshadow – Galaxy Chic baked eyeshadow palette from BH Cosmetics – 
• Eye lashes – Daiso – a local Japanese discount store
• Lips – Lip Liner and Lippy Stick from Color Pop in “Bossy” 
• Blush – Boots no7 Pop & Glow cream blush in “Watermelon”