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Beauty, Body, Fashion, Hair, Makeup, Skin

#BeautyBookmarks: The News You Need to Know

There’s so much happening in the industry that I can’t possibly cover them all! But to keep you informed on what’s shaking, I’m serving up the biggest beauty and fashion headlines of the day right here!

Photos via Bustle and Glamour, respectively.

The Fenty Effect shows no signs of slowing down as new and established brands are bolstering their shade ranges. In fact, Revlon has partnered with Allure’s founding editor Linda Wells to launch Flesh, a new beauty brand with inclusivity at its core and foundation sticks that comes in 40 shades (Fenty’s magic number, which has now become industry standard for complexion products). The line is expected to hit Ulta stores exclusively on June 24th, so mark your calendars now, kittens! [Teen Vogue]

Another brand following in Fenty’s footsteps: Tarte Cosmetics. After its latest foundation and concealer launches were criticized for having a limited shade ranges, the brand went back to the drawing board to expand the Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Foundation from 25 to 40 shades and the Creaseless Concealer from 14 to 30 shades that just hit shelves. And it’s not stopping there, as the brand plans to do the same for other formulas in the line, stating, “We are excited to share that our shape tape matte & hydrating foundations, shape tape concealer & Rainforest of the Sea water foundations will get shade extensions this year.” [Bustle]

If you’re already on the hunt for Father’s Day gifts (it’s June 17th, but it will be here before you know it), Lush has got you covered. Forget the ties and grilling gear, the brand is serving up a batch of bathtime and grooming goodies, including a solid beard oil and a handlebar mustache soap you might want to snap up for yourself. [Allure]

Sure, we might use Spotify to listen to some of our favorite podcasts (The Read, Unladylike, and Fat Mascara quickly come to mind), but Tidal is taking streaming to a different level. The platform announced on Wednesday that it will add beauty content with an entertainment alongside some of its music-related shows. The first to hit small screens is Get the Look (hmm, that sounds familiar) in which various beauty vloggers will channel stars like Nicki Minaj and Rihanna in some of their hottest music videos., so if you don’t have an account, don’t forget to create another email account to score a free trial and check them out. [The Cut]

We’ve all been eagerly anticipating any new news on the upcoming Aaliyah x MAC collaboration, and we’ve finally got a better look at what’s expected to hit beauty counters this summer. The roster will include an orange-toned lipstick, a deep plum lip gloss, a bronzer embossed with the late singer’s signature as well as the nude lipstick and dark eyeshadow palette we’ve previously had a peek at —all housed in glossy, burgundy packaging. And we won’t have to wait much longer as the collection will become available online on June 20th before hitting stores the next day. Set your alarms because this one is sure to sell out ASAP! [Bustle]

But that’s not the only collaboration coming soon — far from it! L’Oreal is rocking the runway by linking up with Valentino to produce prestige beauty buys and fragrances for the brand that has already birthed a number of successful scents (I remember when Valentina and its second iteration first launched!). But if you’re looking for something with more sheen, Pinrose has partnered with Sephora to unleash a slew shimmery, holographic glosses, highlighters, and even a rainbow-hued brush set to ensure you can be seen from space all season long. [PopSugar, Elite Daily]

Since Memorial Day, everyone’s been looking to splash into summer. And it looks like mega model Hunter McGrady is making sure each beach body (because every body is a beach body) is ready with a line of sexy swimwear that budget babes will love in partnership with Playful Promises. With cute keyhole cutouts, little bits of lace, and a splash of sequins on a variety of sultry silhouettes, you can expect temperatures to rise (and pulses to race) as soon as you step onto the sand. [Glamour]

May 31, 2018 by
Beauty, Body, Hair, Makeup, Skin

Sephora Is Sprucing Up Shelves With a New “Clean” Beauty Category

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Sephora is proving that you don’t have to wait until Earth Day to clean up your act or your beauty routine.

On June 1st the retailer is launching a new category called “Clean at Sephora” as an easy way for shoppers to snap up beauty buys that don’t contain harmful ingredients like parabens, formaldehyde, mineral oils, and phthalates. According to Women’s Wear Daily, Sephora partnered with over 50 brands, including fan favorites like Drunk Elephant, Boscia, Supergoop, and more, with over 2,000 qualifying products that will receive a “Clean at Sephora” seal on the packaging and the products’ pages on the site as well as its own landing page. Plus, green beauty brands like Indie Lee and Go-To Skin Care will find their way to more Sephora shelves and employees will be educated on the new initiative so they can steer you in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of Sephora via Allure.

“Sephora continues to demystify beauty choices for clients, helping them find the right products for them, based on their lifestyle needs,” the brand explained in a statement to Allure. “Many of them are looking to shop brands and products that are ‘free of’ and Sephora is responding to help them do that, easily and conveniently in-store, online, and on mobile. Together with Sephora’s brands, industry experts, external council — including feedback from clients — Sephora has curated a partnership with its brands across cosmetics, skin care, hair care, and fragrance that stand behind the ‘Clean at Sephora’ category.”

So what kind of products ingredients wouldn’t receive the “Clean at Sephora” seal of approval? According to Allure, aside from the ones mentioned above, products containing ingredients like the sulfates SLS and SLES, retinylpalmitate, oxybenzone, coal tar, hydroquinone, triclosan, and triclocarban won’t be included. And the ingredient list grows when it comes to fragrances.  The gloss also notes that beauty brands that qualify should have “less than one percent of synthetic fragrances and no undisclosed fragrances.”

While the news comes on the heels of other retailers like Neiman Marcus and Bluemercury taking similar steps to clean things up as well as Kourtney Kardashian‘s recent trip to Capitol Hill to call for updated cosmetics regulations, WWD says Sephora has walked this path previously in 2008 and has continually made efforts, especially with its . But the clean up won’t stop at just the shelves either, as the retailer is looking to install LED lights in all North American stores and even developed a zero-emissions delivery truck at its headquarters.

As Sephora’s Chief Merchandising Officer Artemis Patrick put it, all these changes came from listening to customers. The store’s studies found that 60% of shoppers peruse a product’s ingredient list before they buy, and 54% only stock natural or clean items on their vanities. (So remember that your dollar is your vote for what you want more of!) “We have identified some common chemicals that are in certain products that our clients have asked about. It’s not about whether it’s good or it’s bad, it’s about being transparent, ” he told WWD. “While this is not necessarily a new thing, what we have seen is that the efficacy of the products that are out there are at an all-time high, so you can actually get products without these ingredients if you so choose and still get the efficacy of the product that you want and love.”

May 11, 2018 by
Beauty, Makeup, Skin

You Might Not Want To Swatch That Lipstick In Stores After Reading This!

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Last Sunday was spent not only sipping and supping on Dos Caminos‘ amazing brunch menu but also perusing the shelves at Sephora in pursuit of its bevy of beauty-inspired enamel pins (VIB points well spent!). But as I was scoping out the shelves, I spotted a slew of shoppers applying tester lipsticks directly to their pouts, and in one instance, someone creating a smoky eye using a shadow from a tester palette (Insert pearl clutching gif here). As horrifying as all that sounds, new findings from Sitejabber, which specializes in customer ratings and reviews of businesses, might gross you out even more!

The review-aggregating site told PopSugar that it discovered that of its 24 swab tests taken from three anonymous beauty retailers, the average beauty tester has almost 200 times the bacteria of the average toilet seat! To compare, a beauty tester is about 20 times germier than your own cell phone, which a 2017 study found has over 17,000 bacterial gene copies on the phones of high school students. A toilet seat tends to have around 20 colony-forming units (CFU) or bacteria per square centimeter since they’re cleaned fairly frequently while cell phones and beauty testers don’t often receive the same treatment.

I seriously suggest keeping any test eye products as far away from your eye as possible (I’m talking to you random stranger I saw swiping on that test shadow!). Eyeliner was found to be the germiest of the bunch with 98,000 CFU, and mascara came in second on the gross factor with 32,000 CFU, which Sitjabber says is dirtier than a pet toy. And those germs can cause some serious illnesses beyond a bad breakout or pink eye, as PopSugar noted that a woman filed a lawsuit against Sephora in December claiming that she had contracted herpes from a sample. It’s a suit similar to the one MAC dealt with in 2013 when a woman claimed that she had also contracted the STI from a tube of Riri Woo lipstick during the star’s Diamonds tour.

But there are plenty of ways to stay safe while you swatch. First, carry a bottle of hand sanitizer in your bag so you can start and finish with a clean slate since our hands have loads of germs that can easily be transferred to everything you touch. Second, use new and clean applicators — they’re often readily available on the endcaps for shoppers to use when trying on the formulas. Third, keep the swatches to your hands and arms, not your face or near any broken skin to prevent any harmful bacteria and virus from entering the body, and you should be set. Keep it clean, folks!

April 27, 2018 by
Beauty, Hair, Makeup, Skin

Walmart Is Branching Out Into Beauty Boxes Too — And For Less Than $10!

Photo via Walmart.com

Chances are that when you sign up for a subscription box — whether it’s for hot sauce, snacks, or beauty buys — you’re not going to get anything bigger than what is allowed through airport security. Aside from weighing down the box itself, scoring something full-sized can send the price of the subscription skyrocketing. But that’s not the case for Walmart which just announced the debut of its own line of beauty boxes!

Priced at $9.98 each, the Walmart Beauty Favorites Boxes offer some of its most popular must-haves for your eyes, lips, skin, curls, and more valued between $20-$40 with a mix of mini and full-sized products. Housed in electrically vibrant boxes, each handles a different beauty need whether it’s a dramatic eye look, a plush pout, gorgeously glowy skin, defined and frizz-free curls, or a way to clean up your beauty routine. But you’re not going to want to wait to pick one up while you shop since, according to Bustle, there’s a limited number of boxes available both online and at 3,000 store locations.

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April 26, 2018 by
Beauty, Skin

Is This The Secret To Making Face Masks More Effective?

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When it comes to skincare, we tend to treat face masks as miracle workers in the pursuit of flawless skin. Not to mention it offers an opportunity to snap a selfie mid-mask, or if you’re like me, share your weekly skincare routine on social media (so if you’re not tuning in, you’re totally missing out!). But regardless of whether the mask is meant to moisturize, detoxify, brighten, or lift, we might not be making the most of the stuff we put on our faces.

While sheet masks do an amazing job of softening, smoothing, and brightening on skin’s surface, Sumbody Skincare Founder Deborah Burnes recently told SheFinds that those mid-pore masks, which feed skin with vitamins, nutrients, and other active ingredients, and deep-pore masks, which break up all the old dirt and grease, need more effort to be effective. Letting your mask of choice dry as you scroll through your social media feed won’t do as much as you’d expect as it only works on the surface. And in some instances, it can exacerbate skin issues like acne and make skin look worse. “Using a mask this way reverts it back to a powder which clogs your pores rather than feed them; that means your pores are being filled with more gunk,” she said.

Her suggestion? Slather on your face mask after stepping into the shower. It helps open up the pores and allows the mask to penetrate the pores even deeper. It’s why facialists use a steam machine during every treatment so that whatever’s been lurking deep in your pores will come to the surface allow whatever skincare products to sink in further. “It’s the beautiful moist heat in the shower that acts like a gentle steam and creates this skin-loving magic,” Burnes explained to the site. “The steam also keeps the active ingredients alive and viable and keeps the mask potent.”

Talk about an easy and cost-effective way to get that spa experience! It looks like I’ll have to start snapping my #SkincareSunday Showdown stories from my shower — hey I’m already prone to taking pictures in my bathroom anyway.

April 24, 2018 by
Beauty, Body, Hair, Makeup, Skin

Skip The Subscription & Treat Yourself to a Target Beauty Box for $7

Photo via Target.com.

 

There’s nothing like the giddy anticipation of opening up a box filled with a mysterious array of tiny treasures, but doing so might be a bit much for many who either can’t afford to keep up with a subscription beyond a few months or haven’t finished the samples they initially received yet. But Target is delivering the best of both worlds: a slew of beauty buys to sample for less than the price of a full-sized product — minus any commitment.

The retailer has just released a range of six themed beauty boxes that are $7 each and come housed in pretty, Insta-ready printed packaging that makes any last-minute gifting super simple. Each is designed to tackle a specific beauty need whether you just need something to help you get out the door in the morning, repair the damage your hair has incurred, or even simply wind down for the day. So you don’t have to worry about getting stuck with samples you won’t use (though you can always gather them into a gift basket for someone in your circle who could use it).

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April 4, 2018 by
Beauty, Body, Hair, Makeup, Skin

10 Egg-cellent Beauty Buys To Add To Your Easter Basket

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To be honest, I almost forgot that Easter was upon us since I’m so used to it falling around the middle of April, not on April Fool’s Day. (I can only imagine what kind of crazy pranks will pop up on social media this weekend!) But the holiday brings back a wave of memories of my mom getting me dolled up in pastel frills for a few photos before heading off for Easter service and then a slew of Easter egg hunts, with the youngest of us popping open all of our collected plastic eggs to scoop the trinkets and treats housed inside.

Many might think that Easter baskets are just kids’ stuff, but why should the little ones have all the fun? I figure it’s a fun opportunity to treat yourself, especially during Mercury retrograde. In keeping with the spirit of the celebration, I’ve found a slew of beauty buys that are sure to soothe and tighten skin, pump up the volume of your locks, and make your beauty look absolutely egg-cellent (you knew that was coming!), using the power or inspiration from eggs themselves. After all, egg whites are a classic DIY mask ingredient thanks to the albumin’s ability to help tighten pores for a smoother-looking visage. And according to Refinery29, the yolk comes packed with proteins, vitamins, and fatty acids to help nourish skin and hair and hang onto hydration. So whether you’re want to start small on the egg trend or splurge on something extra special for your skin, there’s a little something for everyone. 

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March 30, 2018 by
Beauty, Skin

Nigella Therapy Unlocks the Beauty Secrets of Black Seed Oil

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You might’ve sprinkled them on avocado toast or drizzled the oil on your salad, but black seeds have the power to do more than just enhance the flavor of your Instagrammable meal. In fact, black seeds — also known as black caraway, black cumin, black onion seed, nigella sativa, and kalonji —  are not only purported to offer a slew of health benefits like improving liver function but they also have a long history of delivering beauty benefits as well, including stimulating hair growth and soothing scalp conditions. The oil’s even been used by the likes of Cleopatra and Nefertiti, and the seeds were even found in King Tut’s tomb!

But while the seed has been utilized to strengthen and lengthen our strands by beauty brands for years, the innovative ingredient hasn’t really reached the skincare aisle until recently, according to Nigella Therapy founder Osama Kandil. During a recent dinner celebrating the launch of the brand, he explained how the seed and its oil had been used for ages in Egypt to treat a number of health ailments as well as to moisturize from head to toe. Kandil spent years studying the seed’s potential benefits and developed a way to extract the oil, called Nigenol, in a way that ensures the highest concentration of thymoquinone and thymohydroquinone. Both of these antioxidants have been proven to not only fight off free radicals that can cause premature aging but also calm inflammation and soften skin.

In between plates of warak enab  (super yummy stuffed grape leaves) and Egyptian Ottomanelli ground beef sliders at New York’s Casa La Femme, a group of beauty editors and I slathered on the brand’s Nigenol oil, rich with fatty acids and plant sterols on our winter-parched hands. Formulated to be paraben-, sulfate-, and preservative-free, we were all pleasantly surprised at how fast the light oil sank in, deeply nourishing our skin and nails (I started rubbing it into my cuticles) without leaving a greasy feeling between our fingers. And since taking a bottle home with me, it’s already become the final step in my nighttime routine (sorry Origins) to hold in any hydration that might otherwise evaporate with the dry indoor heat.

But the slathering didn’t stop there as I popped open one of Nigella’s Perfecting Night Serum snipgels before the main course arrived, and I was shocked at how much they actually contained, not only enough to slather on my hands (another area where skin aging can be a concern) but also on my face and neck if I wasn’t already wearing makeup. Aside from the infusion of the Nigenol oil, the serum contains a blend of CoQ10 hyaluronic acid to plump skin up and keep it hydrated. It also has alfa lipoic acid and a blend of vitamins, minerals, and essential oils to nourish and brighten to wake up with a fresh flawless face. While the day serum includes most of the same ingredients as the night serum, including the signature Nigenol with the hydrating, brightening, and firming ingredients, it also boasts a bit of zinc oxide (a natural, physical sunscreen) to help protect  skin from damaging UV rays even if you decide to go makeup free and keep it glowing all day.

While some might experience a bit of sticker shock over the skincare system, it’s because of the precious ingredients and the process to make it, not simply because of the pretty packaging. The brand uses locally sourced seeds from the southern region of Egypt that are only available during a limited time period each year, and they’re processed using a proprietary machine designed to maintain the high antioxidant level during extraction, which Kandil developed himself. So while I understand that some might not be ready to spend the money, I know that skincare savants and all-natural beauty buffs who are strict about the ingredients they apply would see how the system and its skin-illuminating benefits would be worth the investment.

March 12, 2018 by
Beauty, Body, Hair, Makeup, Skin

Serena Williams Is Launching Her Own Beauty Line

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She’s conquered the tennis court and slayed the style game, but it looks like Serena Williams is ready to serve up something new: her very own beauty line!

TMZ recently reported that the all-star athlete filed legal documents to trademark the name “Aneres” (which, while it sounds like the name of  Game of Thrones characters, is actually Serena spelled backward) for a cosmetics line back in January. She had previously applied for a trademark on the reversed version of her name for a clothing line back in 2003 that fell through and reapplied for it again in 2016, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. While she hasn’t announced anything regarding the line, the filing details that she’ll be using her moniker to bring the beauty line, which will include everything from skincare to cosmetics to fragrance to bath and body care to even hair care and styling products, to life.

Given the fact that Williams loves to look glam on and off of the court ( I still can’t get over this gilded pony she rocked at the 2017 Glamour Women Of The Year Awards), I could easily see a makeup collection and maybe even a dry shampoo, which was also listed in the filing, designed to stand up to serious sweat in the near future. In fact, big beauty brands like Tarte and Clinique have already released their own gaggle of gym bag goodies in recent years to much fanfare. But I feel like Williams could easily smash the cosmetics competition by taking a 360-degree approach to her athleisure array of beauty buys, delivering easy and effective solutions whether you’re a barre babe, a busy mom, or both!

So while we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for more details on the upcoming launch, I’d start saving my pennies now so you can snag every items on your wishlist once it’s finally served up!

March 12, 2018 by
Beauty, Body, Hair, Skin

#OnMyVanity: The Mega Moisturizers That Helped My Skin Survive Winter

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I receive a slew of samples, and when I find something I like, I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Proper hydration is essential in maintaining the health of your skin and hair no matter the season. But the winter’s high-speed winds, chilly temperatures, and the subsequent use of dry heat to keep warm can make dry skin anywhere on the body feel extra parched. It’s something my skin has dealt for years, sometimes drying out to the point of splitting (yeah, ouch!). Since I started writing about beauty, I’ve slathered on a slew of serums, lotions, creams, butters, and beyond to keep my skin and strands supple season after season on a mission to find formulas that not only deeply nourish but also pass the doorknob test (you know, when you’re trying to turn a doorknob after moisturizing).

Sure, Spring (and my birthday) are only a few weeks away, but we’ve faced a pretty weird winter filled with fluctuating temperatures, plenty of blustery, grey days, and dry indoor heat. With a slew of moisturizers on the market at the moment, I decided to roll up my sleeves to slather on a slew of samples to see which beauty buys could sustain the suppleness of my skin throughout the harsh season.

Let’s take it from the top (to toe), shall we?

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March 4, 2018 by