In my desire to be more frugal and less cluttered, plus my pent-up need to sample new products after carefully avoiding changes in my skin routine leading up to the wedding, I have been systematically devouring all my Sephora samples. This particular experiment deals with the many vials of tinted moisturizer I’ve accumulated.
The first I tried was Smashbox Sheer Focus, which was fine but not amazing. Even their paler, more neutral shades still wind up looking really dark and *wrong* on me — I can’t always tell in which direction they’re wrong; I just know I don’t look like myself! This stuff was fine, but simply nothing special on my pale complexion. I do like the SPF though, and it didn’t seem to cause any angry skin reactions (besides slightly clogged pores, but I’m VERY sensitive to dimethicone and similar so that’s to be expected). Weirdly enough, it felt very greasy several minutes after application even though it was oil-free — can’t tell if it made my skin over-produce or what.
 Next up was Perfekt Skin, which was perfektly lovely. The (tiny!) sample I had was in Radiant, which is a shade darker than I needed, but it actually went on just fine and wasn’t too dark or obvious around my hairline or brows (always the tells). It feels like a primer — suuuuper silicone-y — and it looks and feels fabulous on its own or under my HD Finish Powder (didn’t try under full foundation).
However, three minor cons: 1) It’s SO EXPENSIVE! Almost $60 for the full-sized tube! 2) Definitely caused some clogged pores, especially on and immediately around my nose. (Again, to be expected w/ me, but still — worse than other tinted moisturizers due to high ‘cone content.) 3) When I checked out the Sephora tester to see about the lighter shade, the pump had totally gross dried-up product in it, so I worry about freshness. The To Go size seems like a better buy if you’re not going to slather this on daily. Oh yeah, I lied: 5) No SPF. :( This stuff was still the big winner though, just in terms of awesome formulation.
Next up was Dr. Perricone No Foundation Foundation. I’d been wanting to try this for ages, even though it seemed too dark when I tested it on my hand. My suspicion was confirmed, as this was just NOT my skin tone. It also went on way sticky and tacky and uneven-feeling, and was obvious in my “tell” spots (brow & hairline). But I like the high SPF! Still, I felt like I needed to GOB it on to get good sun coverage — ew. Not for me.
Last up we have Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer — another one I’ve been dying to try. I had both a couple foil packets and a big sample tube of this stuff, all in Nude, which is the second-lightest shade — but it was too dark for me. However, that didn’t seem to matter as much upon application — it still blended and disappeared nicely, and really wasn’t noticeable on my skin. This stuff is quite pleasant and lives up to the hype, after all! Not wild about the chemical sunscreens, but beggars can’t be choosers — these were all free samples, after all. Laura was a close second based on formulation, but I wish there were smaller tubes out there.
So there you have it! I doubt I’ll buy any of these for regular use, esp. since I can just mix foundation and sunblock/lotion. But I might pick up a Perfekt To Go in Luminous for those big night out kinda moments!
So leading up to the wedding, I spent approximately a million dollars on beauty-related products and services and then received a bunch of gifts that take up all the space in our cupboards. So it’s time for a purge!
In addition to cleansing our kitchen of old dishes, I’ve decided to make my way through all the many, many, MANY Sephora samples I’ve amassed in recent months and possibly even years. (I used to use these up as swap gifts on MUA, but I’m too pressed for time to even swap anymore.)
So in the coming weeks, look forward to an insane amount of feedback on the many different little foil packets I’ll be busting into soon! First up will be a tinted moisturizer round-up, despite my fair skin – at least I’m doing it in the summer to try and check ‘em out at my tannest!
 In recent years, I’ve started to notice keratosis pilaris on my upper arms, and a teensy bit on my tush and the backs of my thighs. The latter two don’t matter AS much, since my hubby thinks my skin is smooth is butter (and it IS compared to his). But I really wanted to eradicate the arm stuff before my wedding!
For years I’ve used the blemish-clearing formulation of St. Ives Apricot Scrub as a body scrub, in conjunction with a foaming shower gel and waffle scrub gloves and some DIY skin oil immediately after. That quadruple-combo usually helped, but only if I was REALLY regular with scrubbing and moisturizing, which I generally am not.
So I bought Diana Yvonne Lactic Acid 10% gel and Fruit Acid gel 15% combo, plus KP Duty by DermaDoctor and Peter Thomas Roth Max Complexion Correction Pads.
Combining the above-mentioned products really did the trick. I eased in, using part skin oil and part one of the gels, and I would kind of try to homogenize them in my hands first and then apply. I would sometimes use straight KP, sometimes mix KP and a gel, sometimes wipe arms down w/ pad when I couldn’t shower. It all really helped!
My arms were lovely and bump-free for the big day, and not nearly as discolored/blotchy as the KP used to make them look. The Diana Yvonne products were fab — not chock full of propylene glycol like so many other AHA/BHA formulas. I now just do a little bit of any one of the above when I think of it or notice the stuff coming back!
If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t bother with the KP Duty. Pretty pricey and kind of stinky. I’ll use it now that I have it, but the Diana Yvonne was better bang for my buck.
Wow — Sephora’s recent VIB Swag Bag was quite the freebie for me. Many of the items included are things I’ll actually use*, which is rare for me with freebies. There was even a replacement for an existing product of mine! It was nice not to have to spend the $50 minimum for free shipping online, too — my local store often runs out of bonuses way early, but not this time.
 PLUS, all my wedding skincare remedies qualified me for a free Skincare Challenge full-size product, and they finally had something I wanted — and I’ve been wanting to switch to a different moisturizer anyway as of late. Never seen a philosophy Skincare Challenge reward on their site before, so this was a pleasant surprise.
And lastly, I still have a crazy high number of points to redeem, so I’m due for another freebie soon! But none of the 500-point bonuses have appealed to me lately. Maybe I’ll just wind up stocking up on a zillion different $100-point perks instead…
*Like Phytodefrisant, Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer, Urban Decay Stardust shadow in a purpley color, and a replacement for my trial-size Smashbox Photo-Op Under Eye Brightener that I like to carry in my purse for loooong days (like this one). Quite the bonus bag!
 So Aveda finally came up with a new hair spray that really impressed me. This stuff is lightweight, firm, fast-drying, non-sticky, and more brushable than most hair sprays (with fewer fake-dandruff flakies). AND the smell ain’t too bad, and the spray seems to mist finer than some other nozzles. Hooray!
I also gave Phomollient a try before my wedding, and found it to be not horrible. (It didn’t seem as effective as the other, “industrial” mousse Carina had me use for my wedding ‘do, but it also left my hair less sticky when I touched it.)
Who knew Aveda would come to the rescue for my tresses? Certainly not me, with all my prior negative feedback to their new products. For the first time in years, I bought a full-sized bottle of not one, but TWO hair products from them. Here’s hoping it earned me enough Pure Privilege points to finally not give a shit about whether they’ll expire someday.
 Well, the big day has finally come and gone! The day was lovely, but now it’s time to get ugly. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t view marriage as an excuse to completely let myself go or anything. But this wedding has involved an INSANE amount of primping and stress and spending on our parts, and my new husband and I will both be pleased to relax a bit now that the show is over. (Though we DID both get spa treatments on our honeymoon!)
Non-beauty inevitabilities that I officially welcome back into my life:
Yellow teeth — those Crest 3D WhiteStrips HURT! And my teeth look just fine all normal-colored, thank you very much.
Dry cuticles and unkempt nails — Sometimes you gotta be lazy!
Acne AND bacne — thanks for holding out for so long, epidermis! You can even throw some KP my way if you must.
Tan lines — gone are the days of swaddling myself in a goddamn cashmere wool wrap in 96 degree weather just to keep my back and shoulders line-free! OK, I still wear it sometimes as it’s great sunscreen and looks lovely — but I no longer feel OBLIGATED to wear it rain or shine.
Mosquito bites — I’m amazed you guys didn’t cover me in pink welts before the big day. Thanks, buddies! Have at it. I will tackle you with prescription-strength steroid cream and continue to catch you easily mid-flight.
Things I now bid adieu to for the foreseeable future:
Bustiers/corsets with boning — GOD PLEASE THE HORROR. I still have a scar from where it poked at me all night, from BEFORE the wedding! Boning is bullshit.
Spanx — I can finally both digest and breathe, to say nothing of going to the bathroom in a reasonable time frame.
Heels — OW. At 5’11″ I’m done with that discomfort for a WHILE. (Though I’ll probably dye and keep my 2.5″ Jimmy Choo and/or Angela Nuran wedding heels, and re-wear them eventually!) But as of right now, I can’t feel the outer edge of my damn big toes because of my wedding-day footwear worn for a mere 2 hours. *&^@$@#! heels!
Manis/pedis — I gotta start saving my money again, and plus, I kind of miss my OWN neglected polish shades! And no more dremel for a while. Nails on a chalkboard. And no more soaking my fingers in acetone for ages to get the tough gel polish off.
Makeup artists — I love being pampered and all, and Carina and Swink both did an amazing job — I just kind of miss looking like ME. I normally never do foundation or blush, my eye makeup never looks as perfect as theirs, and I’m just *used to* my own shades and formulations. Plus it took like a year to get my false lashes off, and a few real ones came with each cluster. QQ Owie!
Hey beauty followers, sorry for the technical hiccups — I’ve had to delete and re-post a few recent blurbs in order to fix a problem with the newest version of WordPress. Should be all clear now, but for anyone who follows via RSS, apologies for the duplicate posts! No comments were affected by this techfoolery.
 I’ve been hunting for the perfect face wipes for AGES — I’ve never found a formulation that wasn’t chock-full of dimethicone, propylene glycol, and harsh surfactants. Not exactly what my sensitive, breakout-prone skin ordered! (I even shelled out for Josie Maran’s Bear Naked wipes and found that they sting SO BAD!)
But I just spotted this product on Glamour’s beauty blog and I think my search might finally be over. (I love that they contain tea tree oil AND a low percentage of salicylic acid.) Now I just have to actually find a vendor that sells them so I can read the full ingredient list…
Not a Heliotro.pe original, but still a delightful beauty neologism. :)
So I recently hit 29, which has coincided with my skin starting to show its first signs of aging. I’ve also been shifting towards a more grown-up lifestyle and image over the past few years, yet I’ve started working in increasingly low-key settings with a more casual dress code and funkier limits for hair and makeup. While I don’t much miss the slutty zany clubbing clothes of my skinnier and drunker youth, I do kind of miss some of the crazy makeup, and I admit to taking advantage of the casual setting by rocking bright turquoise shadow/liner from time to time!
I keep hearing (mainly from the Lauren Hutton brand) that women “of a certain age” should avoid shimmer-based makeup. I’m starting to notice that some shimmery makeups do indeed settle in my few fine lines and make me look older, but others still seem to flatter. I definitely decided a few years ago that glittery makeup was a no-go for me anymore, except for really extreme occasions, like New Year’s Eve or maybe my upcoming bachelorette party.
I now work in a very young-looking industry (video games) with loads of women who wear pigtails and black lipstick well into their 50s and are covered with visible tattoos and dye their hair crazy colors. And I feel like this skews my perceptions of age- and work-appropriate makeup and hair stylings in a “normal” setting, partly because I’m in a techie bubble (heavily influenced by Japanese trends too) and partly because those definitions themselves are shifting.
All this has got me wondering what everyone else thinks! (This was modified from an EDS post, but I wanted to blog it too to see if there’s any different feedback from that community.)
When are you too old to wear makeup with glitter in it? Is there a difference between glittery eye makeup, glittery lip stuff, glittery nail polish?
When are you too old to wear zany colored makeup, likecolored eyeliner? How about very bright lip color? Bold blusher?
What about false lashes? Crazy colors of nail polish (like very dark/black, bright blues, etc.)? Do any of those have age restrictions?
At what age do you stop wearing shimmery stuff? (We can talk skin age rather than actual years — like how lined does your face have to be before it’s time to lay off the shimmer? Is there a good litmus test for this?)
What about twee-seeming hair trends, like headbands orbraided styles or what have you? Any restrictions on type, color, material of fascinator, hats, etc. that have just gone over my head? What about hairstyles that are throwbacks to prior decades, like perfectly teased 60s flips, long straight middle-parted 70s Cher hair, or 80s side ponytails à la Flashdance? What’s your limit?
Anyway, I was just curious to solicit the opinions of other beauty nerds out there. Any input from posters of any style, skin type, age range, etc. is most welcome!
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