Hello, Beautiful!
I'm really excited because I've been working on going through my entire makeup collection to find as many makeup dupes on just about everything I own. I know there are plenty of makeup dupe posts and videos out there, specifically referring to dupes for MAC products, but I don't own a lot of MAC at all so most of my dupes will be for other high-end, department store and specialty brands. If you're looking for MAC dupes I may not be much help at all with that, but if you want dupes for other high-end brands - like NARS, Urban Decay, Too Faced, Smashbox, Make Up For Ever, Stila, Benefit, and many more, then I think you'll find my makeup dupes blog post very helpful.
I've already gone through a bunch of products, but still have plenty more to go through before I'm completely done. I'm having a lot of fun, especially when I find such amazing dupes -- meaning you can save money! Who doesn't love that?! I know I do! The only products I don't plan to go through at this time are primers, concealers, foundations and setting products. Specifically for the concealers and foundations I'd want to do more testing and before/afters, and I just don't have many/if any primers and setting products from the drugstore. I also don't want to waste money and just go out to get drugstore products searching for dupes, so I'm just working with what I currently own (which is a lot on its own).
I've already found many great low-cost dupes that are practically identical to some high-end/specialty brand products I own. And for me, dupes must be really spot-on. I know there are some products that are good-enough but aren't spot-on. When I look for a dupe, I'm looking at undertones, the finish, how it looks when I move my hand to show any color/sheen variances, the texture, and the performance of the product. If it's not an almost identical match then it really isn't a dupe to me; it's a "good-enough" product and a good alternative option, but to me it's not a dupe. It's sort of like when you read magazines and you see the fashion "lust" and "must" -- they're rarely ever identical but they're always similar or with the same theme/idea in mind. I always get frustrated when I see that in magazines because I feel like they didn't try hard enough to find a great dupe for the fashion lust. So yeah, because of my way of thinking, lol, you'll see that I'm pretty particular with my dupes and they'll be pretty much spot-on, identical, hard-to-tell-a-difference dupes.
I also found a dupe from the same brand (Mally), of the same product (shadow stick), just a different formula (one is her regular shadow stick, the other is the Age Rebel shadow stick); they have two different shade names, but they're identical in color. And I mean they are I-dent-i-cal! So yeah, can't wait to show you all that one too, and if I find any more like that.
I'll have swatches of all the dupes so you can see how closely matched they are; although not sure how they will appear on camera but I can assure you in real life they are pretty close. I will likely do a video as well.
Anyhow... enough rambling on and on... I'm just very excited and my arm is worn out from swatching like a mad woman. I just wanted to let you all know a makeup dupes post is coming very soon!
Enjoy the start of your week! : )
