Grace Notes: February 2019
WORKING AS A BEAUTY WRITER PRACTICALLY REQUIRES ME TO TURN UP AT WORK WEARING AS LITTLE PRODUCT AS POSSIBLE – A BLANK CANVAS IF YOU WILL – TO BE SMOTHERED AND SWATCHED IN POTIONS AND PIGMENTS FROM 8 ‘TILL 5. AS IT'S MY JOB TO SWATCH AND SNIFF MY WAY THROUGH THE LATEST AND GREATEST BEAUTY LAUNCHES, EACH MONTH I DEBRIEF ON THE ONES WORTH WRITING HOME ABOUT.
Nars Dual Intensity Eyeshadow in Tarvos
As much as I love a complex, 7-shade blended eye look, for everyday I opt for easily applied eyeshadows - I call them my one-wash wonders. Nars’ Dual Intensity formula has long since been one of my favourites for tis purpose - I have it in several shades and they’ve never been far from my everyday makeup stash over the years. I recently developed a hankering for a mint green shimmer eyeshadow, searched far and wide, found a few worthy candidates embedded within 42-shade palettes (eye roll), and eventually (and quite by chance!) stumbled upon this in the Space NK sale. It’s buttery, smooth, pigmented, and the perfect shimmery mint.
Milk Makeup Blur Liquid Matte Foundation
Super pigmented, I dilute this with my SPF [NIOD Survival 30] to get the perfect sheer, glowy base that looks like my skin, but better. It melts into skin and doesn’t look cakey at all. Ignore the name, whilst it’s by no means high-shine, nothing about this foundation is matte. The ‘blur’ part however is totally on-point - this does an amazing job of covering redness, scars, spots, you name it. You barely need half a pea-sized drop to get decent coverage.
Peter Thomas Roth Water Drench Cloud Cream
First of all, I’d love this for the name alone. It truly evokes the feeling of washing your face in clouds - thick, fluffy, creamy, hydrating (my closest guess as to what clouds feels like). But name aside, this has the kind of formula my skin loves - it melts in, lathers enough to get into all the nooks and crannies, and leaves my face looking as fresh and glowy as if I’d just moisturised. If you appreciate a face wash with a simple, gentle formula and a no-frills, hydrating approach to cleansing, you’ll appreciate this one.
Revolution Skincare EGF Serum
Ever since writing an article about EGF for work, I’ve been big into this ingredient. Epidermal growth factor works by convincing cells to act young again, essentially kickstarting their repair and regeneration process into overdrive. Ideal if you have post-acne pigmentation, this has taken down the redness of my marks in 6 weeks. I also appreciated the fact that it’s water-based, goes on clear, and sinks in fast, so you can easily layer it with other products and don’t have to worry about contraindications.
MyClarins Clear Out Blemish Treatment
My many other targeted blemish treatments work by drying out breakouts - and I feel like that’s kind of the trend in new releases right now - so I was surprised when this one went on clear, gentle, and gel-textured. For this reason, it’s by no means the most hardcore targeted spot treatment I've ever used, but in a good way. Salicylic acid rather than sulphur-based, it works by taking down inflammation, and it works well.
