Drugstore Vs. High-End Makeup Showdown: Which Looks Better on Mature Skin?

Do you remember back in the 90s and early 2000s when much of drugstore makeup was. quite honestly, a hot mess? It didn’t apply well, it wasn’t very long-lasting and for the most part, it just didn’t look very good.

Well, fortunately, in the mid-2000s, drugstore makeup seemed to flip a switch and transform from caterpillar to butterfly. But now – with manufacturing costs soaring, drugstore prices are climbing and drugstore brands are often trying to replicate current high-end makeup trends. So, the questions many of us have are: Are drugstore brands still able to give high-end brands a run for their money? And – most importantly – do drugstore products work on our mature skin?

So, our mission today is to answer these questions by discovering if some newer drugstore products are indeed worth purchasing, or will they end up just sitting unused in our makeup drawer. I’ll also share some recent great affordable skincare finds.

Affordable Skincare Finds

Let’s start with skincare. I’ve recently started applying the Versed Weekend Glow Brightening Serum from the clean beauty drugstore skincare brand Versed. Versed launched in 2019 with the goal of providing clean, effective formulas packaged in environmentally conscious materials at affordable prices. They’re dermatologist tested, safe for sensitive skin, vegan and cruelty free.

And something I personally really love about this brand is that they very clearly state on each product who the product is for, how to use it, where to use it and when to use it. It’s amazing to me that this very helpful information is often missing from many skincare products. Versed was very kind to send me the products I’ll be sharing with you in the accompanying video, but I’ve used a number of their products previously and have had really good experiences with them.

The Brightening Serum is a daily-use antioxidant serum formulated with Vitamin C to brighten the skin, licorice root to even out the skin tone and Niacinamide for hydration and additional radiance.

Two more key skincare products from Versed that I’m really liking are their under eye brightening gel and their moisturizer. The eye gel is a lightweight, caffeine infused gel which cools on contact with the skin due to its metal tipped applicator. It helps reduce puffiness and targets dark circles.

The Versed Skin Soak Moisturizer is ultra hydrating with hyaluronic acid, squalane, sodium hyaluronate and red algae extract. I’ve found this to be a perfect moisturizer to use under makeup since it’s not too heavy. Moisturizers which are too heavy absorb our makeup which means the makeup disappears into our skin. And it’s important to let any skincare ingredients completely dry before applying any other skincare or makeup products.

Eye Makeup Options

Now let’s take a look at my eye makeup. On one eye I applied eyeshadows from the $3.00 “I Love You a Latte” four-pan matte eyeshadow palette from Elf and on the other side I applied eyeshadows from Natasha Denona’s new Mini Eye Sculpt Eyeshadow Palette which consists of five matte shades and costs $27.00.

Since I wanted to create eyeshadow looks that were extremely similar, I did not use the black shade in the Natasha Denona palette. Can you tell in the video which eye has the more expensive Natasha Denona eyeshadows on it? If you guessed my left eye, you’d be correct.

Although these eyeshadow shades are extremely close, the three midtone shades in the Natasha Denona palette are slightly darker and slightly more neutral. Both eyeshadows glided on very easily and provided good pigmentation that was long-lasting.

However, I occasionally notice a bit of irritation in my eyes when I wear the Elf shadows, so if you have extremely sensitive eyes like I do, you may want to try a mid-priced brand such as the Juvia’s Place Warrior II palette.

Bronzer/Contour Showdown

In a recent video I mentioned how much I loved Makeup by Mario’s Softsculpt Bronzing and Shaping Serum. But, that was before I found out that Elf recently launched a very similar product: their Camo Liquid Bronzer and Contour. The Makeup By Mario product contains 1.01 fluid ounces, costs $36.00 and comes in seven shades. In the video I’ll wear “Medium Light.” Unfortunately, there’s no indication of where the product is made.

The Elf Camo Liquid Bronzer and Contour sells for $7.00, comes in 10 shades, but it contains only .13 fluid ounces. It doesn’t say where it’s made, but does say that it’s made in fair trade certified locations. I wear the shade “Light.”

In the video you can check out each side of my face to see how these products actually look after they’re applied. I found them to be extremely similar in terms of how foolproof they were to apply and how good they looked on the skin.

Blush Comparisons

I recently discovered a drugstore blush duo that was very similar in concept to the high-end blush cream and powder blush duos created by makeup artist Patrick Ta. This drugstore blush duo is from Catrice. In the video I’ll apply the Catrice shade “Pleasing Pink” and Patrick Ta’s “She’s a Doll.”

The Catrice Duos sell for $7.00 each and come in four shades – pink, strawberry, apricot and peach and weigh in at 6 grams. Catrice is a European clean beauty brand and interestingly, these blushes from Catrice are made in Italy which usually means quite high quality.

The Patrick Ta blushes come in 18 shades, are made in the U.S. with globally sourced materials, and the weight of his duos has powders and cremes listed separately so it’s difficult to compare the two. Patrick Ta recommends applying the powder first and then applying the crème over the powder so that’s how I’m going to apply both of these products.

Do you notice any major differences between the two blushes in the video? The colors are very similar, but I did notice that the Catrice product didn’t wear quite as long as the Patrick Ta blush.

Be sure to check out Elise’s YouTube channel which specifically focuses on makeup tips, techniques, and product reviews for those of us 50+. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Two other great blush dupes are the Rare Beauty Liquid Blushes and the Elf Camo Liquid Blushes. I compared them in this earlier video in case you want to check them out.

Drugstore and High-End Highlighter Comparison

The two highlighters I want to compare today are Rare Beauty’s Positive Light Liquid Luminizer and Hard Candy’s Just Glow Vitamin Infused Luminizer. The Rare Beauty Luminizer is made in France and has eight shades. It’s a weightless formula that has superfine light catching pearls, lasts all day and layers well over other makeup. It costs $27.00 and is .50 fluid ounces.

The Hard Candy Just Glow Vitamin Infused Luminizer is $9.00, comes in three shades, is also lightweight and is infused with Niacinamide, Vitamins C and E, and grapeseed oil to boost the radiance. In the video it looks like the Rare Beauty Luminizer is a bit brighter, but that could just be a result of the pink color. It also glides on a little more easily than the Hard Candy Luminizer, but both work extremely well.

Lip Gloss Comparison

I also want to compare two lip glosses: the Essence Extreme Shine gloss “Sparkling Purple,” with the Lawless Gloss “Daisette.” The Lawless glosses are clean beauty products, .11 fluid ounces, are made in the U.S. and are not tested on animals. I’ll apply this one on the top lip only. On my bottom lip, I’ll apply the Essence Extreme Shine gloss. 95% of Essence products are manufactured in Europe and ingredients comply with the strict standards of the European Union Cosmetics Directive and US FDA.

I definitely prefer the applicator of the Lawless gloss because of its shape and the amount of product that it dispenses. As for the lip gloss itself, both feel comfortable on the lips and are stunning.

Also read, Tips to Make Our Lips Look Fuller and More Uplifted (VIDEO).

I hope you found today’s video helpful. I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether you could see any differences between how the high-end products looked vs. how any of the drugstore products looked. And if you’d like to see more great drugstore products in action, be sure to check out this video. And you’ll find many more videos about good drugstore products on my YouTube channel. After you click on this link, you’ll find the drugstore makeup videos listed along the right side.