Look Like a Million Bucks, Spend $5

By Emily Ragano

Natural beauty is priceless. However, tired eyes will never be a fashion trend. For those of us who don’t want to be easy, breezy, beautiful and broke, I ventured into Wal-Mart to find makeup products for less than $5.

Before becoming the Wolf of Wal-Mart...

I composed a list of makeup essentials: 

Foundation/Concealer

Blush

Eyeliner

Eyeshadow 

Mascara

Lip Gloss

For comparison, I research Sephora's products and prices for my makeup list. 

Omorovicza: Complexion Perfector.....$135.00 

Bobbi Brown: Hot Collection Cheek Palette…$45.00

Surratt Beauty: Auto-Graphique Eyeliner…$42.00

Sephora Collection: Colorful Eyeshadow Portfolio…$599.00

Guerlain: Noir G de Guerlain Exceptional Complete Mascara….$52.00

Guerlain: Rouge G De Guerlain L’Extrait…$53.00 

There better be gold in that concealer considering it's approximately five times my electric bill for my apartment. I don't think I could ever justify spending $599 for eyeshadow unless it gave me super-hero see-through vision. 

With only $5, I knew I would have to make some sacrifices to my list of makeup essentials. There was no way I was going to find concealer for anything less than $6. 

I walked into Wal-Mart and BAM, it's like they knew I was coming...

Unfortunately, I could not indulge in nail polish because it was not apart of this thrifty mission. 

I eliminated concealer, blush and eyeshadow to my list for money savings sake. With my $5 I was able to purchase eyeliner, mascara and "lip stain." 

Lip stain was a hybrid between lip gloss and lip stick, two-for-one deal. For $2. 

 Without tax, I was under the $5 limit...but with tax...I had to come up with $0.12. Mission: 98% complete.

To test the value of these products I did a selfie photo shoot. And yes, I felt ridiculous during the whole process. I compared the products to the ones I use frequently. Before I show you my natural selfie on a scale from one to ugly, I'm pushing Hargrid....

***WARNING CONTENT OF PHOTO MAY CAUSE MILD NAUSEA AND SHOCK***

No makeup AH 

No Makeup 

Products I already use:                                                Makeover: 

Products from Wal-Mart:                                            Makeover: 

Left: No makeup Center: Regular Markup Right: Wal-Mart Makeup 

Makeup is fun and for $5 you can get a lot of individual purchases. However, trying to complete an entire look was challenging.