Over time, my taste in beauty products has rather fortunately and organically shifted to the drugstore variety rather than the high-end designer brand names. I find (and have reiterated this in countless beauty posts and vlogs) that drugstore brands such as Revlon, Maybelline, Rimmel, and heck, even Wet N Wild, have really amped up their game and are putting out quality beauty products that are easily becoming cult favorites. Over lots of time and research I have put together a list of drugstore products that knock their high-end version off the throne. Each of these products that I write about (in posts entitled Splurge vs. Steal - so original, I know) have been personally vetted. I hope you will enjoy these posts as I have quite a long list to get through! Let's get started.

Starting with bronzer, there is no better-known bronzer out there than NARS' cult hit in the shade Laguna (they have a darker version called Casino as well). It's mostly matte with a hint of shimmer and stays far away from orange overtones, and it isn't so potent that you have to be super careful about how much you apply--it blends splendidly. NYC's bronzer in "Sunny" is similar in the same way, although it's more matte (which is desirable for contouring the cheekbones) and it's so smooth and blendable, I find myself reaching for it more than my Laguna, even though I own and love both. I think the reason I love NYC's bronzer more, besides the price ($34 for NARS Laguna and only $3 for NYC's Bronzer!), is that I find that it has even less orange tones than Laguna. Before being introduced to NYC's Sunny, I wouldn't have thought that possible! This is definitely a huge knockout in my book, because you can purchase 10 NYC Sunny bronzers for the price of one Laguna. Insane!

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