Beauty: Recent Faves.

I’ve been lucky to try a slew of new beauty products this month and wanted to tell you about five of my favorites.

We’ll start with skincare, as after all, great skincare is the foundation of any good beauty routine. OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. This one minute facial from Ren is a godsend. Seriously. A gift (early birthday present?) from God to me, to keep me from looking old. I’ve been a big fan of Ren for a while now (high-tech, all natural products that work wonders) but this is my favorite. It’s this minty green paste. You apply a generous layer to clean skin (it’s a bit granular so you feel it exfoliate a bit) and then wet your fingers (to activate the vitamin C) and massage it for a little bit, and then leave it on for a minute. Just one minute is all it takes… and voila, perfect skin. Okay, maybe not perfect but definitely more radiant, firm, glowing skin.

This may be a little bit controversial, but I might be the only person in the world who isn’t completely obsessed with Urban Decay’s Naked Palette. I don’t know. I have (and love) a lot of their products but I don’t really love their eyeshadows. I find that they are harder to apply (the consistency flakes and I end up with sparkles under my eyes) and it doesn’t wear well. It could just be me. But this Stila palette (in “Spirit”) is totally my jam. The colors are great, the formula is silky + velvety (they blend together so easily) and it stays on all day.

If not liking the Naked Palette makes me lose street cred, this will too… I hadn’t tried NARS’ Multiple Stick  in Orgasm yet. I’ve had and worn the blush for years but the multiple is just so.much.better. I probably don’t need to tell you about the formula or the color as everyone has this, but I just wanted to feature it here to tell you that I’ve finally tried it and it is just as good as everyone says it is. Also… when looking for a link to this product, I typed in “NARS Multiple Orgasm.” So there’s that.

Next up, also from NARS is their contouring palette. I’m all about contouring lately, and this makes it easy. You put the dark where you want to look skinny/add dimension, and the lighter shade where you want to highlight. It’s kind of like Photoshop, in real life. I don’t know if I’m doing it properly, but I add dimension to my face by applying the darker shade across my forehead, down the bridge of my nose, and to the hollows of my cheeks… and using the lighter shade on my cheek + brow bones.

Lastly there is this little lip pot, in “Smart.” As much as I love my red lipstick I also love a good gloss… I got this one in a gift bag randomly and have not let it out of my site ever since. It’s not sticky, won’t dry your lips out, and leaves your hint with a glossy wash of color that is just really pretty.