I know that title is vague as hell, but I'm still laughing at it because of the gif I made below. In this post I will lay out a list of beauty/self care products that I finished this summer and will be repurchasing. It was a hot one, and if you've read any of my other posts, you'll know I kept the makeup very minimal this summer. None of this stuff melted off and my skin looked bomb.
Three crucial things I just finished, and will be re-purchasing ASAP, are Glossier's Lash Slick, Stretch Concealer and Solution. Lash Slick is such a good mascara because it looks like real eyelashes and does not bleed or move at all, under any circumstances. I use Stretch Concealer like foundation, so it's no surprise that this will be my fifth purchase of the 0.17 oz jar. Last in this bunch is Solution which truly changed my skin (in combination with Mario Badescu Buffering Lotion and Cleansing Milk, both of which I will also be repurchasing). The real key to my minimal summer look this year has been being acne and texture free, and these products made my face the woman she is today.
Keeping with the skin theme, I have been cherishing a sample size of the Sunday Riley Sulfur Acne Treatment like Gollum with the ring. One face mask to rule them all? Definitely not, but I think I finally need to buy the full size because it does get a very specific job done for me. I use it as an overnight spot treatment on emerging blemishes to dry them up, and the next night I cover the spot with Peach Slices Acne Dots. I bought two packs of those last time I ran out, so add them to this list too. This combo is...I don't want to say "fool proof", but it's fool proof.
With all that skincare, you have to make sure you wear sunscreen. I have tested a ton of different ones this summer, and my favorites are Supergoop's Unseen Sunscreen (which I will be repurchasing) and Clinique's Super City Block BB (which is DISCONTINUED, and I'm crying about it). The thing with having a face slathered full of sunscreen is that you really need to pick and choose your eyebrow products. You don't want your face caterpillars sliding around, and I personally don't really want them to move at all. I love Boy Brow, but my favorite brow gel is Essence Lash and Brow Gel Mascara. It's like three bucks and Ulta, it doesn't flake off, and it holds my eyebrow hairs in whatever spiky direction I brush them. So chic.
On to some things that I haven't really written about before because they're everyday items and don't really give you a ~lewk~. They do allow me a steady base for all looks though.
I've been trying to be conscious about things with better ingredients in them, so I made the switch to a more natural toothpaste called Hello. I use the Extra Whitening one which has fluoride in it, but they do make some that don't have any fluoride if you want to avoid that as well. The best part about this (other than that it keeps my teeth as white as a fresh pair of Yeezys, an off-white simile on purpose because I'm not a damn Barbie) is that the tube holds it's shape, so you don't have to struggle to get the last drop out. *insert misc Kanye ad-lib here for emphasis*
Non sequitur. The summer is a full body skin struggle for me (sunburn, thigh chafe, buckets of sweat etc.), so to solve at least one problem I've started religiously using Completely Bare's Moisturizing No-Bump Shave Gel and their Bikini Bump Blaster pads. The shave gel is pretty self explanatory, but the pads are a true innovation. They're basically exactly like those insane alcohol acne pads that we put in our backpacks to wash our faces after PE in middle school, but these have witch hazel and green tea to keep ingrown hairs and bikini bumps at bay. The idea is to keep things dry which is a damn ass feat when you're in a constant cycle of sweating and showering.
Showering. A perfect segue to the final item that I will be purchasing again: Christope Robin's Cleansing Purifying Scrub. This is a scalp detox that I use instead of shampoo like every other week. It has sea salt and turns in to a really nice lather that makes my hair literally squeaky clean and keeps my scalp fresh which is priority number one when your hair is black (or "espresso" if I'm going for an eye roll) like mine is.
xo,
Nate