Shelby Ann Bell is from Wagner, South Carolina — population: less than 600. When she started creating content in 2021, using mass products wasn’t solely a matter of affordability, but also of access. There was a grocery store and a Dollar General in her town, but no other retailers. That was where she first became interested in beauty.By the time Bell began to create content, she’d relocated to Aiken, South Carolina. At the time, she was working as a third-grade teacher and professional makeup artist. “I was trying out [products] that were affordable and accessible, because I wasn’t close to a Sephora or an Ulta — the closest one was over an hour away, so I was buying stuff in CVS and Walmart to review and talk about. That’s really where my passion for affordable and drugstore makeup came from,” she said.
As she grew a following, she began trying a wider range of products, but then, last April, she posted an all-drugstore makeup routine that went viral. To date, it has 11 million views. “That kind of [reignited] my love for drugstore [products] and affordable makeup,” Bell said, noting that after that she decided to focus entirely on mass-market products. Favorite brands include affordable options like Hard Candy, which is exclusive to Walmart, Essence Cosmetics, also sold at Walmart and CVS, and Morphe, available at Target and Ulta Beauty.
