It was a total coincidence, I swear. My partner and I took a short trip to New York last month, and the place where we had a brunch reservation turned out to be right across the street from the Glossier flagship store, and we arrived at the restaurant thirty minutes early, and it was raining,… Read More A Visit to Glossier Soho
Believe it or not, I don’t just acquire new lipsticks; I also use up old ones. However, finishing a lipstick is a rare enough occurrence for me that when it does happen, I feel the need to brag about it on at least one online platform. And when I finish three in a short period… Read More Three Recent Lipstick Empties
Auxiliary Beauty recently passed its tenth birthday, so it’s fitting that this post concerns one of the first lipstick formulas I ever reviewed on my blog! In fact, my very earliest lipstick purchase, way back in the fall of 2009, was a Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Certainly Red. (The only other makeup I owned… Read More Cheap Thrills, Part 4: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Fire Peach
Around the middle of last year, I became aware of a new makeup category (or, at least, one I hadn’t previously heard of): lip oil. Seemingly overnight, brands at every price point had begun offering new ranges of lip oils. I wasn’t particularly tempted by the name, which sounded a little, well, gross. In general,… Read More Cheap Thrills, Part 3: NYX Fat Oil Lip Drip in That’s Chic
Beauty-wise, 2023 was a year of caveats. As you may have gathered from the tenor of my blog reviews, very few makeup products blew me away as thoroughly as, say, Gucci Anne Lilac did the previous year. I bought roughly as many color cosmetics in 2023 as I did in 2022, but I felt less… Read More My 12 Favorite Beauty Purchases of 2023
For almost as long as I’ve been wearing makeup, I’ve been using NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer to tone down my dark circles. I started in 2014 with Vanilla, which at the time was the second-lightest shade, and switched to Chantilly, the lightest shade, a few years ago. Because Vanilla had a slight peach undertone, it… Read More Cheap Thrills, Part 2: e.l.f. 16HR Camo Concealer in Light Sand
Slim lipsticks, somewhere between regular lipsticks and lip pencils in width, have existed for decades (look no further than this Maybelline commercial from 1980). ColourPop’s original Lippie Stix, NARS’ now-discontinued Pure Matte Lipsticks, Hourglass’s Confession Ultra Slim Lipsticks, and Kevyn Aucoin’s Unforgettable Lipsticks all fall into this category. Slim lipsticks appeal to customers because of… Read More Season of the Slim Stick: MAC Powder Kiss Velvet Blur in Wild Sumac & Maybelline Color Sensational Ultimatte in More Cedar
Just in time for spooky season, I’ve made two bone-chilling discoveries. The first is that Revlon discontinued its Glass Shine lipsticks at the beginning of this year. The second is that NARS is currently selling off its remaining stock of Velvet Matte Lip Pencils and replacing them with an uninspiring ten-shade lineup of Powermatte High-Intensity… Read More Mysterious Red Is Dead. Long Live Mysterious Red.
Have makeup prices increased dramatically in the past year, or am I just no longer receiving a paycheck? I mean, probably both. For the past month, I’ve been searching for a brownish red lipstick similar to Elaine’s in the “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld, but the $10-$20 price point of lipsticks, my former sweet spot,… Read More Cheap Thrills, Part 1: NYX Smooth Whip Blurring Matte Lip Cream in Chocolate Mousse
Earlier this summer, Glossier finally released Wisp, the lilac Cloud Paint for which fans had been clamoring for so many years. (Wisp and the other new Cloud Paint, Soar, are supposedly limited edition for this summer, but I have a feeling that means “limited edition unless they sell well.”) A purple-blush fiend since my early… Read More Glossier Cloud Paint in Wisp & Purple Blush Comparisons
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