The Skin and Makeup Products Real Women Use Until the Last Drop

There are many ways to go about finding beauty products you’ll actually use more than once. Sometimes it’s a matter of trial-and-error, tirelessly spending (and potentially wasting) money to figure out what does and doesn’t work. For some people, it needs a high profile co-sign from a beauty expert or celeb on the ‘Gram.

There’s also the rare occasion that you stumble across an unbelievable dupe or testimonial buried inside a random Reddit thread (our personal favorite). But more often than not, we discover our tried-and-true gems by way of recommendations from our girlfriends.

MORE: 20 Under-$20 Beauty Oils for Your Most Hydrated, Healthy-Looking Skin

They’re the ones who can give us a full breakdown of the pros and cons, in addition to telling us if they truly think it will for us, too. In short: these are the trusted reviews you get straight with no chaser and for that, we are thankful.

For those who have never experienced the former, we did the legwork for you and got a gang of product recommendations from women who have varying skin tones, types and concerns. It’s guaranteed you’ll see at least one thing worth trying.