Many of us gals have been the victim of expired cosmetics. Here's the scenario. After seeing pics of that smokin' gloss we used to wear in high school, we rush to our beauty closet only to open the tube to a rank stank that we don't understand. Most beauty products do not have any smell, or if they do, it is very faint. If you start noticing some product BO, it's because that favorite gloss is dying a slow, bacteria-invested death in that dark, tightly sealed tube. Once the product has peaked, it can cause some pretty gross irritations or infections if used. To avoid all of the above, follow these general toss time guidelines.

At first we felt a little, well, superior. After all, we have mad make-up skillz, earned through years of clown faced experiments. And the first item in the gallery was that Sally Hansen nail pen we posted about a month ago. Um, yawn.

But then we were very pleasantly surprised by the rest of the products. Not just easy to use, they are also cool!

Sharing time! I've got something good here that will hopefully help a few of you out there.

For the past few months, my skin has been going absolutely berserk. I noticed that my normally clear skin was breaking out a lot more than usual, but I couldn't pin-point the reason. Usually, the only reason why I use foundation is because my skin tone is slightly uneven, but after the break-outs, I would wear more in a desperate attempt to cover up. MAC's Studio Fix generally did the trick. Unfortunately, my skin kept going insane and I kept putting on the Studio Fix. Now, I believe that the foundation was what caused me to break out in the first place, which is actually kind of funny to think about now that I'm not freaking out about it.

Now, until I have to wash my face and change my makeup thirteen times a day, I think this is the last of the Drugstore Beauty Queen series on foundation. How much foundation can one girl possibly use?!

Okay, don't answer that.

We're talking about drugstore brands, but there are different price levels in the brands. Neutrogena is one of the higher end lines. They can do that, you see, because they already have a reputation for excellent skincare, and many of their cosmetics fall into the same "good for your skin" branding, even though we all know that makeup in general is pretty suffocating to your skin. Neutrogena's Visibly Even Liquid Makeup claims that it has been clinically proven to temporarily even out your skin tone when you wear it, and physically even out your skin tone over time. Really? Does it have some magic voodoo that will erase all the freckles, sunspots, and redness on my face? It does have a soy component and SPF, but this might be too good to be true!

Oh my.

Ladies, we might have a winner today, and we're only halfway through the week of our drugstore brand foundations!

The funniest thing is, the one that I really like is from Cover Girl, a drugstore brand that I haven't looked at, let alone used, since my cheerleading days back in high school. That was -- admittedly -- a very very very long time ago. I have since gone more upscale to unneccessarily expensive department store brands and even to more expensive , "mature" drugstore brands like L'oreal and Revlon.

Cover Girl Clean Makeup is marketed to teen girls. I mean it has the word "girl" in the name, and with the addition of "clean,: I believe it's meant to imply that it'll work right along with your Stridex and Oxi pads to keep acne under control. Forget about all of that because it doesn't really matter. The liquid foundation is quite simply, fabulous.

This week, I am doing a special series of Drugstore Beauty Queen posts -- Laying the Foundation.

Every woman has one, though it may be different for each woman. It's that one cosmetic -- whether it be lip gloss, blush, or mascara -- of which she will never find "The One." She will try a different brand, a different formula, a different shade every time, find it unsuitable, and try yet another one, only to be dismayed again.

For me, it's foundation. I swear I don't think I have purchased the same foundation twice. I try one, hate it, but use it until it's done because I can't bear to throw it away, then try something else. The only exception is a bottle of La Prairie Skin Caviar Concealer and Foundation, but again, I didn't buy it a second time because who can actually afford to pay $165 for foundation?!?!

So this week, I will be sharing with you all my adventures through foundation (all drugstore, because I am convinced that there is a drugstore brand that will work) over the past two months. Do not worry. I do not wear that much makeup that I actually went through five bottles of foundation in two months. I just have five bottles of half-used foundation!

Today, it's Dream Matte Mousse by Maybelline, which runs about $8-9 in the drugstore. I have to hand it to Maybelline for their branding. The name "dream matte" alone made me want to buy it.

Foundation application can be tricky. Do you use a sponge? Do you use your fingers? Or is it that you are supposed to use a brush?

I'm sorry to say that I can't answer that question conclusively. But I can say that by and large, most makeup artists I know suggest using a brush. But sometimes figuring out exactly how to use the brush can be tricky. That's why Yves Saint Laurent Beaute developed the Perfect Touch Foundation. The first of its kind, the Perfect Touch is an all-in-one foundation bottle with a built in brush. Simply turn the brush to the 'on' position and the foundation flows out from the bottle. Turn it to the 'off' position and you can gently sweep your foundation on. It's practically fool proof! Of course picking out the right shade of foundation is a problem for another day.

I first starting using MAC cosmetics when I was 16. That year, I attended a nerd camp at prominent southern university wherein my roommate was a really prissy rich girl named Sarah from Charlotte, North Carolina. (Charlotte, for those of you who don't know is big banking territory; it has NASCAR as well, but Sarah was from the banking set.) During the three weeks we shared a room, Sarah managed to be belittle absolutely everything I owned, from my shoes to my hair to my taste in music to what I had named my calico cat when I was four.

The only thing about me she didn't completely gauche or cheap was my make-up -- a foundation compact from the MAC counter at the local mall.

When she saw the sleek black compact on my desk, she mumbled in her tinny voice, "Oh, MAC make-up is pretty good." Then and there, I decided that if MAC was good enough for that stuck-up twit from Charlotte, it was good enough for me.