Everyday Beauty

I have finally found the pen eyeliner of my dreams. That’s’ the good news.

The bad news is that it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.

$56.00 to be exact.

I have Jenn to thank for that since I was eyeing the Tom Ford Eye Defining Liquid Liner Pen for a while now, but ultimately, it was her post that convinced me to buy it.

All I have to say is this: it’s worth it. It is so worth the price, guys. It just makes applying eyeliner so easy; it glides and goes on so smoothly, it’s just a beautiful, beautiful product. A very expensive beautiful product, that is worth every penny. The pen itself has a little weight to it so it feels very comfortable in my hand- even though it’s much longer than traditional pen liners.  It’s dual ended and incredibly precise. There’s no tugging, no pulling on the lid involved, it’s just pure perfection.

Every summer, I bring out my white nail polish. Seriously, white and black are my go-to colors these days (with a little sheer nude somewhere in between).

If you’ve ever used a white nail polish, then you probably know how tricky they can be to apply. They get streaky, patchy and sometimes you have to apply as many as 4 coats to get an even coverage. One of my favorite white polishes is Revlon’s Sure Thing– it’s super bright and applies really nicely. I recently found something even better and a bit more long-lasting: Context polish in Dream On. The application is a breeze, it dries very quickly and I love how long-lasting it is on my nails. The formula is also very clean + vegan.

I usually never rely on makeup products for sun protection, and always wear sunscreen underneath (or on top) of my makeup. Lately, though I’ve been really liking Coola’s Makeup Primer*. It has SPF 30 and that silky-smooth (very primer-y) formula that plays very nicely with all the foundation/base products I’ve used it with so far. It has a very light scent that doesn’t irritate my skin, which is kind of different- usually, the moment I realize that a priming/base product is scented, I expect my skin to burn. Not with this baby.

I’ve been off Absorica for about two weeks now, and so far my skin is just as dry as it has been during my treatment. You’ve seen me talk about Chanel’s Vitalumière Aqua and L’Oreal’s True Match quite a lot, and since my skin is still very dry, I still reach for these two, most of the time. Both are so lightweight with a really natural finish, what’s not to love?

Maybelline’s Instant Age Rewind Concealer has also been my best friend lately. I mean, this product has been around forever, and I still love it as much as I did when I first used it.

If there’s one product I definitely don’t need more of, it’s mascara. Mascara is probably one of my favorite makeup products and I own well over 10 (I rotate between them ALL the time), so when I see something interesting come out, I always want to try it. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about new Cover Girl Total Tease Mascara. I think that if you’re a mascara junkie and love taking your time when coating your lashes (that’s me!) then you would really like this one. If you don’t usually have time to play around with first coating your lashes with mascara, then “teasing” them, then you won’t like it. It does a really good job at separating the lashes and I didn’t notice it flake too much. I like it, but it’s not something I’ll be reaching for when I’m in a hurry. The cool thing about the little “tease comb” part of the wand/brush, is that it’s perfect for coating those hard-to-reach lashes in places like the outer and inner corner of the eye. I swear that my actual lash line is longer than my lid, so this comes in handy. You just have to be careful not to poke your eye with that thing, of course.

Chanel Le Volume de Chanel mascara- I fall in love with this one more and more, with each use. I actually wasn’t a fan at first, and I think that my application technique had a lot do with. The way I make it work is by really concentrating on the base of my lashes- coating it very well, before distributing the rest of the product. It gives me an insane amount of volume, without any clumping.

My “everyday” lip combo over the last couple of days has been pretty much the same: Rodial XXL Lip Liner in Nude (got this one of my Glossyboxes) and MUFE Lip Booster in Light Pink. This is a perfect, natural, minimal makeup, office-friendly combo. The only downside is that the Lip Booster isn’t very long-lasting- it’s sort of like a combo between a gloss/oil and a balm, but it works really nice with my dry lips (which, unlike my skin, are coming back to normal, thankfully).

While I’m not too much of a bronzer girl, I’ve been reaching for Marc Jacobs O!Mega Bronze compact, all the time. I’m slowly starting to use a self-tanner and as a result, I feel like my foundation always looks a bit lighter. I keep my self-tanning to a bare minimum, really- just enough to avoid scaring people away when wearing a dress and to make myself to look a bit more “healthy” (kind of annoying to hear “you need to get some sun, girl!” all the time). Using a little bronzer, with a huge fluffy brush does just enough for me, whenever I need to warm up my foundation a bit.

Again, there’s probably nothing that I love more from this bunch than this eyeliner. Since I’m being more mindful about my beauty spending this year, I love knowing that splurging once in a while on a high-quality product, feels a lot better than spending a small fortune on “meh” products that do nothing but take up space.

What’s in your “everyday” stash at the moment?

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