As a dry-skinned gal, I didn't think I needed to set my look with powder until I began to notice the foundation on my nose would disappear after just a few hours of wear. It would happen even though I was using a long-wear formula and my face hadn't oiled up much! I've learned to apply a bit of setting powder after since then, and it has honestly made a difference in how much longer my makeup lasts!

If you're a newbie at this like I am, it's good to know that there are great budget options available. But what if you want to invest in something that's HG quality? Well, that's where the rest of the PV team chimed in!

I was a young teen when I purchased my very first makeup brushes: a cheap travel set I'd spotted in the department store. The handles were thin and flimsy, and the bristles scratched my face and left a patchy application. I wasn't ecstatic about my purchase but I remember feeling proud of myself for getting them. To me, they signaled that I was serious about makeup and learning how to properly apply it to my face.

While skincare challenges like trying 10-step skincare, 7-skin method, and everyday masking are fun and sometimes worth the effort, there are also days when we just can't be bothered with our regular routine. When we're dead-ass tired from a very long day and desperately want to go to bed, our skincare regimen gets shortened to just a few products. We still want good skin, after all, and dread waking up to find a nasty breakout so even the smallest effort can make a difference. 

So, I just recently realized that the Lunasol Pressed Face Color I included in our Staff Picks last time is actually an illuminating powder. Yep, such a fail, I know! For those of you who like me did not know the difference, a highlighter is generally applied on a concentrated area to emphasize certain features such as the cheekbones, nose bridge, and bow of the lips. On the other hand, an illuminator is used to create a lit-from-within look so it's usually applied to a larger area or even the whole face.

When we did a feature on the PV staff's kikay kits last year, I was honestly shocked by how much stuff I lug around. Having a lot of options (and being ready to do a face at a moment's notice) feels reassuring but if you carry so much in your purse on the daily, the unnecessary weight can give you some serious back pain!

So we decided to do an edit and challenge ourselves: what are the products that we absolutely must have in our kits at all times?

As a PV girl who tries to be a smart spender, I almost never buy any products without looking for and extensively reading reviews about it first. It sucks to waste money on a dud product! However, there are times when no one seems to be talking about the product or brand I'm interested in and I have to go in blind to test them on my own. It's a shame because there are a lot of great brands that people don't know about simply because you don't see them on blogs or beauty websites. So today, we're sharing our favorite underrated brands and why you should consider checking them out! 

I say this with all honesty: the thing I love most about my job as PV's managing editor is working with an amazing group of women whom I'm happy to count as friends. The sort of hard part? These same beauty-crazy girls are such enablers! When your job requires you to know about each new makeup and skincare release, you are going to want to buy a lot of things. If your co-workers happen to be anything like mine, you'll probably go broke within the first week.

If I had to drastically trim down my makeup collection to just a few items, I can probably live with just one foundation, brow pencil, mascara, and blush. But can you imagine just using one lippie? Hell no.

We all probably have a lot more lipsticks than we can reasonably use up before their expiry dates. We may not love every single one but I hang onto them because we like the option of being able to switch up our look if we so choose. If we're being honest though, we play favorites and usually just have a couple actually in use. These are the shades we're currently rocking!

You've seen our #shelfies, compared notes with our beauty budgets, and even rummaged through our kikay kits! This time, the PV girls took on a different kind of challenge: putting a price tag on our daily faces. While each one of us are probably guilty of owning a makeup horde, the fact is: we often still end up using the same things everyday! So we decided to add up the prices of our makeup staples to find out how much our daily looks actually cost. How about yours?