Last year, a friend had some adventures that included seeing ABBA. She had a requirement: vegan glitter. While I don’t know what she ended up with, I joined the hunt for products and offered up Lemonhead LA glitters as a suggestion. I would later learn that, in the realm of cosmetic glitter, Lemonhead LA reigns supreme. If you’re on the hunt for glitter that sets the standard, your search ends here.
Did you know about the Target x Ulta Partnership? I’ve been a little out of touch, so I didn’t until a disappointing experience with Target in February.
I’d been wanting to try one of the Stila Convertible Colors for YEARS. Like, 5+, but I had a trouble pulling trigger on the $25 cream blush compact. I noticed that Target is carrying some prestige brands, but didn’t think much of it. I saw a Target Circle offer for 50% off some Stila products, and this was on the list! Score.
My order arrived, and this was the condition of the product when I unboxed it:
Ever wonder about how to lower your beauty waste or lower your beauty consumption? Over the years, I’ve challenged myself over the years to make small, practical changes in my habits and consumption. Beauty and personal care aren’t exempted from this endeavor.
I am not and do not aim to be zero waste. I’m also not here to preach at you from astride a white horse. My time is valuable to me, and I am willing to make certain concessions in the name of convenience to preserve some of it. I think there’s a balance to strike – plastic isn’t evil, just like chemicals aren’t evil, but we should produce and consume (let alone recycle or dispose of) far more thoughtfully (read: less) than the average person is today.
If you’re able or willing to go harder than me? That’s great! If you haven’t made changes along these lines but want to, that’s great too – and maybe I can give you some ideas to lower your beauty waste that don’t feel like such a sacrifice that you can’t achieve them. After all, goals that aren’t achievable aren’t smart.
Just because you aren’t going full-tilt doesn’t mean what you CAN do doesn’t make a difference.
Luxury brand Lancome isn’t on the forefront of beauty trends, but Lancome Juicy Tubes ($20) glosses endure as a classic and a favorite in the broader community of cosmetics fanciers.
I like the idea of lipgloss, but rarely the execution. As a youngster, I owned a few Wet n Wild tubes (and they still make a shade I used to use and still enjoy!), but never fully embraced them once I started wearing makeup in earnest as an adult. I can cope with the need to reapply often (though I don’t want to), but sticky is unacceptable.
My preferences translate to a relative unwillingness to risk $20 (or even a sale price; at 20% off they’d still be $16) on one. Admittedly, I was curious though: we’re talking about a non trendy/hype machine product with enduring 4.5 star reviews. Could Lancome Juicy Tubes be that good? What would a $20 lip gloss have to do or be in order for you to buy it?
There’s no universe in which I spend that much on something that looks like I could’ve gotten it from Claire’s as a child. When I was able to nab a free sample tube, I did.
In (an acronym and) a word:
Here I am, flirting with danger by reviewing a potentially gimmicky product: the Tao Clean Sonic Brush Cleaner.
You do clean them, don’t you?
Are you a sociopath that enjoys cleaning your brushes? It’s okay, this is a safe space. If you’re like the rest of us, though, there’s a whole subset of the beauty industry targeting the rest of us. There are a whole host of brush cleaning gadgets on the market. Some of them appear to me to be gimmicks, or to be scarcely more efficient than washing individually by hand.
For ages, I ignored them. Like a unitasking kitchen appliance, I wasn’t sold on their value. Furthermore, some seem harsher than doing so by hand. Your tools are an investment: you don’t want to be rough on them by subjecting them to a violently whirring apparatus. Many makeup brush cleaner appliances fall into this category.
Noting my bitching (and negligence), my husband got me the Tao Clean Sonic Brush Cleaner ($ 95) as a birthday gift last year. Thoughtful. Practical. And a good present because I’d never have purchased it for myself at that price point (remember?). But finally, I’m actually keeping my brushes clean at a regular interval.
So, first things first about the Tao Clean Sonic Brush Cleaner: it isn’t a smol boi. Nearly a foot tall and a touch top-heavy, the appliance comes in two pieces with a detachable A/C power supply. The run time for a single cycle is 2 minutes – in that time, it subtly moves each brush back and forth 50 times a second – or 6000 times.
I don’t know about you, but my manual cleaning (even with this mat) doesn’t result in fifty motions per second.
Last year posed changes for nearly everyone, and for me, that meant there was a lot I didn’t buy in 2020. If you escaped unscathed, good on you. Since this blog is largely about beauty, we’ll keep it in the realm of changes in that regard:
I’m in the third camp, though I was required to report to the office periodically. All of these things represent, in one way or another, a likely change in your grooming processes: if you have a mask on all day, maybe you’re skipping foundation to avoid, “maskne.” You’re almost certainly skipping lipstick. If you’re on camera, you might be fighting looking pallid and exhausted/sick/etc.
I’ve advocated, for those WFH, to try to continue getting ready – even if not identically – to maintain a routine. It’s good for your mental health! My routine has changed considerably – which has altered my buying habits.
