The Budget Fashionista

What: Tailor-make your beauty with customizable makeup palettes.

What the experts say: What good is a makeup palette if it contains only one or two items that suit you? In steps customizable makeup palettes, which allow you to combine the best of what works for you into one easy-to-use palette.

“Palettes are a great way to organize your makeup and streamline your makeup routine,� makeup artist Bobbi Brown writes on her website. “Pick your favorite shades and custom-fill your choice of palettes. It’s the ultimate in personalized beauty.�

What we say: We love it when we come across a smart idea that simplifies our lives! Think about it: Rather than dig through an overflowing makeup bag filled with tons of product, we can access our go-to colors in one easy-to-use palette. Each palette compact comes empty, and you can pick and choose which items you want to plug into it.

We’ll take this one, and this one, and this one…with Bobbi Brown Empty 4 Pan Palette you can tailor your eyes and cheeks to your liking. The eyeshadows and blushes are on the pricy side—$20 to $22 each—yet provide dazzling results in a spectrum of just-for-you hues. We also dig Prescriptives Colorscope Large Compact , which allows you to piece together a product puzzle of innumerable color combos. For example: Snap in two Cheekcolors and a Highlighter, or do up your eyes with six Eye Color Singles—the options are endless (and slightly less expensive)!

For the ultimate in inexpensive personalization, we’ll be counting on mark Snap To It Mega Custom Color Palette, which allows us to play mad-scientist makeup artist without shelling out to much dough (each Custom Pick Eye Shadow is $4; each Good Glowing Custom Pick Powder Blush is $6).

Photo: Artistry.com