The Cost of my "Night-Time" Face

After publishing my recent The Cost of my Daily Face post, I was super interested to know just how much my "night-time" face cost. I tend to use predominantly drugstore products when it comes to my everyday face, saving the "good" products and brands for special occasions or nights out. Of course, the amount of make-up that I wear to a night out depends heavily on what I'm doing. This breakdown is of my general, fool-proof night-time face - the look that just works, no matter the season or occasion.

I've linked the stores that I personally buy each product from, prices vary slightly from retailer to retailer, obviously. All prices are in AUD.

Skincare
I truly feel that a good make-up look (day or night) starts with good skincare, and I'm going to start off my saying: I know that my skincare routine may seem like a lot for some people, but dealing with my combination oily/flaky-dry, sensitive, intolerant skin (try saying that three times fast) requires so much effort, it's ridiculous. I've done so much research and have finally found a combination that works well enough to make my skin manageable (pls halp). I tend to take more photos with friends at night rather than during the day, so I like to give my skin the tools that it needs to look its very best.

After my shower, I start my skincare routine with a swipe of Burt's Bees Intense Hydration Nourishing Facial Water ($24.99) over my face with a cotton pad to tone my skin, followed immediately with Benefit's It's Potent! Eye Cream* ($59.00). I've found that the baking I do later on in my routine works much better with a moisturised under eye area. I allow the eye cream to sink in for a minute before massaging a couple of drops of AVON's Nutra Effects Miracle Glow Lightweight Facial Oil ($17.00) over my face with my fingers, focussing on the front of my cheeks, the sides of my nose and my chin. Once the facial oil has absorbed, I spread a dollop of Neutrogena's Hydro Boost Water Gel ($24.99) all over my face, followed by a light layer of The Body Shop's Vitamin E Intense Moisture Cream for Dry Skin ($28.00) and allow a minute for everything to sink in nicely.

Makeup
The order in which I apply my make-up is a little convoluted. I suppose everyone has their own preferred order (the age old eyes before foundation vs. foundation before eyes debate, for example) and I've tried applying my make-up in every which way you can think of, but this is the routine that I've found works best for me.

I have quite large pores on the front of my cheeks next to my nose, so I like to really "push" a small amount of Benefit's The POREfessional Primer* ($53.00) in to the pores in that area (it sounds gross) to fill and blur them before smoothing a light layer of Too Faced's Hangover Primer* ($40.66 - converted to AUD), which is amazing to prime and hydrate dry skin, over my whole face. Next comes my Models Prefer Highlight ($9.99) and Contour ($9.99) Sticks (why don't these come as a set?!). I draw a few lines under my cheekbones, under my chin and on the "corners" of my forehead with the contour stick, and then draw a few more lines on the top and underside of my cheek contour, the middle of my forehead, my nose, and the middle of my chin with the highlight stick. I like to leave those lines to "bake" in to the skin while I do my eyes. I honestly have no idea if leaving the cream on for a while even makes a difference to the look of the contour versus to how it'd look if I immediately blended it in, but it's just what I do.

While my cream contour is "sinking in", I blend a little Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer ($18.95) under my eyes to cover dark circles as a concealer base. I say concealer base because it's not overly brightening; I use a more brightening concealer on top to lighten later on. I like to leave that to dry for a moment, so I'll define and fill in my brows with a mixture of Benefit's KA-BROW!* ($42.00) (to define and fill slightly) and Rimmel's Brow This Way Kit ($12.95) (to finish filling and set with powder) in the mean time. As I've mentioned before, I'm a foundation before eyes kind of gal, so next I apply Estée Lauder's Double Wear Foundation* ($54.00) (see my full review here) to my face with a damp beauty blender, blending out my cream highlight and contour as I go, and finish with a light spritz a little Australis Make-up Finishing Spritz ($15.95) to further hydrate and to meld the base products together and in to my skin for a less cakey finish.

Once my foundation is dry, I move on to eye shadow. My go-to look for a night out is a smokey eye and I usually reach for either the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette* or the Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette* (both $48.00) to achieve it. Neither palette has very much fallout, so I don't have to worry about messing up my base too much. It takes me about 99 years to make a semi-satisfactory smokey-looking eye and after that, I'll line my bottom waterline with Rimmel's Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil ($8.95) and spend another 18 hours trying to create even-looking wings with Maybelline's HyperSharp Wing Liquid Liner ($17.95) on my top lash line. After that ordeal, I'll quickly set the eye liner on my waterline with any old black eye shadow that I have on hand (see my eye liner setting hack here) to keep it in place. Next I'll apply two coats of Maybelline's Lash Sensational Waterproof Mascara ($21.95), which I actually prefer to most high-end mascaras. Whilst my lashes are drying, I draw and lightly fill in a triangle of NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer ($44.00) under my eyes and let it sit there for a minute before I blend it out with my damp beauty blender. Whilst my under eyes are sitting, I pat any excess concealer left on my sponge on to my chin and the middle of my forehead to subtly highlight and then proceed to blend out my under eyes, cleaning up any eye shadow, eye liner or finger prints in the area as I go. I find that letting your concealer sit (a hot tip from Jackie) for a minute before blending means that the product has the chance to sink in to the skin before it gets buffed away, giving a more brightened result.

 Once I'm satisfied with my eyes, I lightly bake my under eye area with RCMA's No Colour Powder* ($27.00) to set that concealer down. I do have dry skin, so when I say lightly bake, I mean very lightly bake. While my translucent powder is doing it's thang, I move on to bronzing, dusting a very light amount of The Body Shop's Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder ($25.00) under my cheekbones and the "corners" of my forehead before sweeping a mixture of the two bronzing shades from Too Faced's Cocoa Contour Palette* ($42.00) over the cream contour that I previously placed under my cheekbones to deepen and set the cream. I'll also bake under my cheek contour with a little more of the RCMA powder to make those bad boys pop even further. Once I'm agreeably snatched, I'll wipe away any excess bake with a clean, fluffy brush.

To put the final touches on the whole look, I start by applying a light dusting of Rimmel's Stay Matte Pressed Powder ($11.95) to the middle of my forehead, which is the only area of my otherwise desert-dry face that gets a little oily. Next, I brush a light sweeping of Benefit's Gimme Brow* ($39.00) through my brows to add a little volume. I enjoy a very subtle blush, so I'll apply a light sweep of Hourglass' Ambient Lighting Blush ($55.00) to the apples of my cheeks and then dust a generous amount of theBalm's Mary Lou-Manizer Highlighter* ($29.95) to the tops of my cheekbones, sweeping up towards my eyebrows in a curved shape, to my cupid's bow and the tip of my nose.

My lips are almost always coated in a pinky-brown nude shade. The brand and type of lipstick that I use all depends on what I'm feeling at the time, but for the most part, I usually opt for M.A.C. (although I love Jeffree Starr's liquid lipsticks too). I'll line an fill my lips with M.A.C.'s lip liner in the shade "Whirl" ($30.00) and then go over it with the lipstick shade "Velvet Teddy" ($36.00).

With a generous spritzing of Urban Decay's Cooling and Hydrating Setting Spray ($49.00) to set everything in place and remove any potential powdery-ness, I'm ready to hit the town.

Phew!
Total cost = $897.22 AUD - Holy moly!
I was expecting the costing to be pretty high for this one considering that I break out the higher-end brands for a night-time look, but I am absolutely gobsmacked that this is how much it came down to. Of course, The actual cost of doing my face would be much less than this. This total indicates the price for a full-sized bottle /tube/whathaveyou of each product, rather than a breakdown of the cost of each individual squirt, dollop, gram, etc. that gets used on every look.

I really did enjoy writing this post. It was fun to discover exactly how much time and money goes in to being me. Discovering exactly how many products I use without really thinking about it did surprise me, but at the end of the day, I'm an avid lover of make-up and beauty - using these products and creating pretty looks brings me so much joy. Besides, I rarely have a special occasion or night out these days (#adultlife), so it's not like I'm spending this much time and money on my appearance every weekend (could you imagine?!). To me, this is all worth it.

What are some of your go-to make-up products or brands for a night out?

As always, this post has not been sponsored in any way, meaning that none of the items mentioned have been sent to me, endorsed or paid for by anyone other than me, myself and I. This post does, however, contain affiliate links. I will always disclose such information with an asterisk (*) for full disclosure to my readers.
Feel free to find and purchase these products elsewhere if you don't get down like that. :)