Festival Grime: My Music Festival Makeup Bag and Essentials

     Greetings! My best friend, Maggie, and I recently spent about four days camping and attending Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware. We slept in the car for the first two nights, and the tent the second night because Big Blue's (Maggie's Expedition) battery died so we thought we'd give it a rest from constantly opening and closing the doors, which activated the lights. The weather was about as hot as how I imagine Satan's sauna to be, except for the day of the solstice, which was cooler and overcast. Weather aside, we had an amazing time (highlights for me were Arctic Monkeys, Sleigh Bells, and MS MR), and managed to look fairly cute doing it. Take a peek into my makeup bag! 

This was my first time going to an overnight music festival, so I had issues paring down the essentials. Here is everything beauty-related I brought: 

It's a bit much, huh?  

Here's everything that got used:

2 eyeshadow palettes, 2 single eyeshadows, 2 powder compacts, 2 eyeliners, 9 brushes, 1 blush compact, 1 brow powder duo, brow wax, lip stain, a concealer stick, 1 tube of primer, 1 tube of eyeshadow primer, 2 containers of dry shampoo, makeup setting spray, mascara, hairspray, makeup remover, sunscreen, and a spray bottle full of water. Still a bit much, but I was glad I had it all! 

And now for the things that were truly essential to me:

• Baby wipes: we were incredibly filthy the whole time. Ya need these.
• a plastic spray bottle from Giant: spritzing yourself with water feels like such a luxury when you're sweating your skin off. It also worked really well for wetting our toothbrushes without wasting valuable drinking water. A dark horse that was so worth it. 
• 2 of my Ecotools kabuki brushes: You know me. I love Ecotools, and these two brushes are perfect for applying blush and powder foundation.
• Smashbox's HALO Hydrating Perfecting Powder in "fair": I've been trying to let my skin breathe more lately, so I haven't been using much liquid foundation. This powder is amazing-- it doesn't crease and hydrates as well because it's got amino acids and other nice things in it. It's marketed as an anti-aging powder, but the lovely fellow who sold it to me said it was wonderful for everyone. Now for the best part. Instead of being a loose powder, or a pressed one that's easily broken, it comes with a mechanism over the powder to shave off as much as you need. It looks like this: 

  

  photo from beyondbeautybasics.com

  I can't get over how ingenious that is, it's protective and saves product. Agh!!
•  Benefit's Dandelion blush: I had forgone this blush a while back because I thought it wasn't intense enough. That was dumb. This blush gives me an adorable peachy glow without being too dark, and has the liiiiightest shimmer. It's so great for vampire pale humans like me. 
• Pond's exfoliating makeup wipes: Your face gets gross too, but you still want to treat your face skin differently than your body skin and also remove makeup. Enter: these wipes!
• Batiste's dry shampoo: This dry shampoo gives great texture, smells lovely (I have the "rich & elegant" scent), and most importantly removes grease. They also have colored ones in case you're nervous about getting white streaks in your hair. Love it.  
• Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer and Beach Defense sunscreens: PROTECT. YOUR. SKIN.
•  a mini Purell bottle: the portapotties aren't always stocked, and you never know when you're going to have to do an emergency surgery. Gotta be sterile. 
•  Shiseido's refining makeup primer with SPF: This little guy is tinted, minimizes light imperfections in skin tone, and makes my skin feel soooo soft. 
• Old Spice deodorant in Foxcrest: Old Spice makes fantastically strong deodorant. Foxcrest smells yummy-- I also recommend Denali and Swagger. My only regret is that I wish I bought the gel instead of the white solid. 

  

  Photo found on Reddit, but there's a watermark, sooo

• my SHANY spoolie: Gotta have nicely combed brows. 
• NYX brow wax: I HEART BROW WAX. I removed this from the pencil it was in and put it in a jar because I didn't have a sharpener big enough for it (so resourceful!).
• a Revlon eyeshadow single in "Taupe": Revlon now has these adorable little single eyeshadows that you click together to form your own palette/line type deals, and they're so small. UGH I LOVE IT, and I'm a sucker for a satin finish taupe shade. 
•  Pacifica's Stellar Gaze mascara in "Supernova": Target has started selling Pacifica, mineral makeup with a cool oceanic and stellar theme. I'm into it, and this is a great basic mascara that isn't horrible to sleep in. 
• e.l.f.'s eyeshadow primer in "Sheer": I may or may not have been using this as an undereye concealer. And it may or may not be working pretty well. 
• Firebird Bath & Body's glossy lip tint in "Sangria" (not pictured in other photos, oops): This is a really great, natural plummy red tinted balm from an indie shop based in Baltimore. You can find the shop on Etsy! She does wonderful perfumes too (I'm partial to Pomegranate Rose and Lavender Wood)

The looks I did for Firefly were pretty eye-heavy and glowy, though my love Maggie whipped out the purple lipstick from time to time.

The heavy shadow was an accident, but a happy one.

I'm a sucker for a golden hour selfie. 

The lovely Maggie inside Big Blue.

 Despite these adorable photos, I did eventually look like this:

Baby needs her spray bottle, man. The grime and the exhaustion is inescapable, but I hope this post helped or entertained you in some way! 

xx,