Can you tell my little sweetie is excited that Sephora is at Kohl’s now?!
In the past several months, makeup has been a huge part of my self-care ritual. Let’s be honest though, when hasn’t it?! I have found lots of awesome products that I’m obsessed with that I think you’re going to love too! Most of them are available at Sephora, but a few I bought elsewhere. It’s been a hot minute since I shared my favorites on here so I thought I would catch you up with what is new and loved in my stash. If I missed one of your favorites, leave it in the comments. I am always looking for tried and true stuff!
Sol de Janeiro Rio Deo Aluminum-Free Deodorant: Even as recently as a couple years ago, it was really tough to find a natural-ish deodorant that was worth a damn. I think this formula really stacks up to the best on the market right now, and it smells fantastic. If you’re a fan of their Bum Bum cream, pick this up. It keeps my pits dry and smelling fresh, and I love the solid, soft rounded top that really gets in there without tugging on my skin.
Lawless Forget the Filler Lip Plumper Gloss: Weirdest thing ever: a lot of lip plumpers out there are painful AS HELL. I recently tried one by Milk and one by Too Faced, and it was pure pain for about ten minutes, and I’m sure any signs of plumping were only inflammation while my lips were on fire. Not a fan. Anyway, recently I ordered some of the Lawless gloss and I’m totally into it. There isn’t much color payoff, so don’t worry about needing more than one shade. My lips were instantly smoother after application, and I swear they looked and felt a little juicier too. Sometimes gloss that says plumping just refers to the fact that every glossy lip looks bigger than a matte one, but there is something to this specific formula that is no bullshit. When I say juicy, I mean some of my lip lines actually disappear like they do when someone gets lip filler, which is proof to me that some kind of voodoo magic is occurring. Apparently, there are long term effects of this as well. Hey, I’m down. Check out their lip liner too. It’s creamy and awesome. I have Pink Sand and Honey Rose.
Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant: This product is the bee’s knees. I’ve been using it for years. It’s my one holy grail skincare item that I’ll never be without. My love for it recently renewed when I went through a stage of not washing my face for like a week. I wasn’t wearing makeup and got super lazy. Just using this once on a cotton ball erased a multitude of sins. I actually looked and felt human again. If you are the type of person (like me) who goes through periods of being ultra neglectful of your skin, but want to do better, grab this stuff. I noticed they started selling a $10 mini, which is amazing news for me. Not only can I travel with it more easily, but it’s cheap enough I can grab one for all of my friends for Christmas.
Kosas Sport AHA+ Enzyme Exfoliating Body Wash: I know what you’re thinking…who the hell spends $18 on body wash? 🙋🏻♀️ This girl! I love Kosas so much because as a brand, they roll out new products super slowly. I’ve been enjoying their stuff for years, and I think they place a lot of emphasis on product development and only coming out with the best of the best stuff, when they’re ready and have perfected the formulas. Because I blind buy everything they come out with, I ended up purchasing this stuff on a whim. Even though it says exfoliant, it’s just a clear liquid. But something about it does some kind of thing to my body skin. Beauty experts always say to take your skincare down your neck to your decolette, and honestly, I always mean to, but forget. I like that when I use this, it does something extra special to zhuzh up my body skin, and my chest and boob area looks and feels extra smooth and wonderful. If you are looking for great boob skin, look no further. It has a light honey scent that I like, but may be off putting to some. It fades though!
Pai Carbon Star: I saw this in a Facebook ad and I had to have it! I noticed it had charcoal in it and was meant for overnight use and for clarifying skin. People swear by charcoal masks for clearing up their acne, but I don’t usually use them because they can suck all the moisture out of my normal/dry skin. I figured if I could take that ingredient and use it in an oil form that can be used overnight it would help my skin and allow me to have a lazy one step skincare routine at night time. I’m no scientist, but it really does seem to be working pretty well! When I bought it, I think it came in a duo with the Impossible Glow also. I like the glow oil but it’s not a ride or die or anything! If you can get them together go for it, but otherwise stick with the Carbon Star if your skin sounds like mine!
Pat McGrath LiquiLUST Matte Lipstick: I bought this in the shade Wild Orchid on a whim one time when I was shopping at Sephora in person. I had always heard Pat McGrath was a great brand and I had been wanting to try their stuff but it is $$! I wasn’t expecting to love it so much but it’s quickly become my favorite liquid lipstick! Since loving my first purchase, I’ve gone back to get Divine Rose and Divine Nude too. Elson 4 has been sold out forever, but I would love to get my hands on that one too! They feel really nice on my lips and I mostly forget they are even there, because they don’t dry my lips out at all. I don’t get the weird cracking or any fading during the day at all when I wear them. After about ten minutes, I feel like it’s mostly transfer proof and I can wear it under a mask without any issues. My love for these makes me want to try more out of their line. I hear their eyeshadows are out of this world, but I just don’t get crazy with my eyeshadow often enough to make $100+ palettes worth investing in. I’ll share something below that I use and love lately that have kept me away from pricey palettes!
Danessa Myricks Colorfix Eye, Cheek & Lip Cream Pigment in Milky Way: Discovering Danessa Myricks’ beauty brand has been one of the best beauty finds of the year for me! It’s vegan, I think most if not all of her products are waterproof, and the prices are really reasonable. I’ve picked up several items from this brand and I’ll probably do a standalone post on her stuff sometime. Milky Way is my favorite thing I’ve found of this brand. I use it as a glitter topper for eyeshadow. It’s extremely glittery, and I usually tap a very tiny amount on my lid with my finger, and WOW does it make a difference! It just brightens up my entire face of makeup in one second. If you look at the Sephora site, I don’t think they accurately depict how beautiful or vibrant it is, and the model they currently use is wearing it by itself. I’m sure that would be lovely as well, but if you really want to see it in all of its glory, take to Instagram and see how the makeup artists are using it. This product alone has saved me from buying lots of makeup palettes. I’m always drawn to the beautiful shimmery shades and eyeshadow pairings (like the PatMcgrath ones that are $$$) but knowing I can just pop Milky Way over any eyeshadow look I have going to transform it makes me less interested in collecting more pricey eyeshadow palettes.
Tarte Amazonian Clay 16-Hour Foundation: When Tarte announced a while back that they were improving their foundation and rolling out new shades I knew I was going to get a tube of it right away. I’ve used this foundation on and off for years. It’s a great formula because it covers really well with full coverage, doesn’t need setting powder, and the clay in the formula has some sort of sorcery in it that seems to dry up any acne/pimple situation while not being drying at all. If you haven’t tried Tarte, they use a lot of amazonian clay in their products and it’s pretty awesome; their eyeshadows don’t even require primer for me because they pretty much stay put on their own due to the formula. Anyway, I’ve been using this non stop since I picked it up. I just went and read the reviews and was shocked to read that a lot of people aren’t loving this new formula. It sounds like the main gripes are that they added a very light fragrance, the color matches seem off compared to the old formula, and it doesn’t blend well. I did notice the added scent which doesn’t bug me at all, and I’m sure if you pick up the wrong color it’s going to look terrible even when blended. I’m obsessed with this stuff but if you loved the other formula, just be aware that it’s not identical and maybe check out your shade in store before buying! I wear 20N light neutral and have no problems!
Tarte The Buffer Foundation Brush: I have so many brushes and I don’t usually pick up more, especially not for foundation (because I usually use a beauty blender) BUT…I’m so glad I picked this up on a whim. I bought it in store the day I bought my new foundation from Tarte and it’s quickly become my most used brush. I now use it with all of my foundations! It grabs the product in one second and when I make tiny circles on my face everything buffs right in like a dream, to an airbrush finish. It’s so fast and makes everything look so pretty and skin-like. When I went to grab the link to the brush for ya, I happened to see that this also had terrible reviews online. Not sure what is up with that but it seems like some people got a bad batch. I’ve had 0 problems with mine. I hope I didn’t just jinx myself, but mine is truly great at the moment and I’ve had it for months! Hopefully if you pick one up on my recommendation it holds up well for you too!
Patrick Ta Gel Eyeliner in Cream: This was an impulse buy that I’ve grown to love. The shade I currently have is Cream, which is a perfect waterline color for me. It’s not too sharp and pokey, like many eyeliners are for that area, and the color is spot on. It also stays for many, many hours. I think it’s the best eyeliner I’ve ever used on my waterline. I was watching Tati’s channel on YouTube, and she mentioned that she likes to use Hourglass’s Bronze eyeliner on her waterline, which is only $18. That’s a lot cheaper than the Patrick Ta formula, so I decided to try that one as well, only to realize the bronze shade is sold out everywhere. I will be looking to try that one next, but in the meantime I picked up Patrick Ta’s Deep Bronze shade at the Sephora sale.
Benefit Powmade Brow Pomade: I have a super old Brow Zings (the one with the powder and the pomade in one) and decided I should probably toss it and replace. Wouldn’t you know, they don’t sell that anymore! I ended up picking this up instead and I’m really enjoying it. It’s really similar to Anastasia’s formula, but this one has the ingenious addition of a little well on the inside to wipe your brush off. I’m obsessed with the convenience of being able to get the excess off my brush before applying it to my brows, and that alone makes this my favorite brow product ever. I’m sure everyone will start to copy them, but until then, this is my favorite brow item!
Tatcha Rice Wash: One of my friends told me about this when we were wandering around Sephora together. When I brought it to the checkout all the employees were like WOW! This is my favorite! I loved the enthusiastic endorsements and it’s definitely lived up to the hype! This face wash is perfect for my normal/dry skin. It is creamy, lathers, and has incredibly fine rice powder in the thick formula that makes me feel like I’m in a spa when I rub it into my skin. It’s similar to the Paula’s Choice BHA I mentioned above, in that when you use this it’s like you’re washing your face for the first time in five years and you feel like a fresh new human. I am obsessed! I will say, smells intensify in the shower and I transferred this to my shower to use it and I could hardly stand the fragrance! I don’t even notice it when I’m using it in my bathroom sink though. Huh, weird! Anyway, go get you some. It’s great.
I could probably go on and on, but that’s the best of the best I’ve discovered in the past few months. I hope you find something that works well for you on the list if you are on the hunt for anything new! Enjoy!
