Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Spring 2018 Favorites


Technically speaking, summer doesn't begin until the end of June. I'm stubborn, though, and I insist on saying a season starts and ends when certain events or temperature changes occur. It's in the high 70s, low 80s on the regular now, and there are plenty of thunderstorms--that means summer is starting. Hence, it's time for spring favorites!

I'm thrilled to say that two of my three beauty favorites for this past season are sun protection products. The first is the newest SPF in my collection, the Skin Laundry Daily Moisturizer SPF35. As the name suggests, this is a lightweight day cream that provides a little hydration and the perfect amount of sun protection. It does have a slight sunscreen smell, but it fades quickly, and it's much lighter and more hydrating than a standard sunscreen. Oily skinned people will likely find this too heavy or greasy, but if you have very dry skin like me, give this one a shot!

For incidental exposure, I'm loving the Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar Skin Tint SPF20. It provides SPF20 (though no UVA2 protection) and light coverage that looks incredibly natural and smooth on my dry skin. Now that I'm self-tanning my neck and upper chest for these warmer months, this is my go-to base product. Frankly, I'm so shocked by how good this is that I find myself peeking at other Philosophy beauty products, despite the fact that I've paid next to no attention to the brand for the last decade. That's the power of a new favorite, I suppose! I'm still not over the terrible packaging, though, and yes, I'm going to whine about it every time this product comes up.

For my SPF-free beauty item, I was pleasantly surprised by how voluminous and black YSL The Shock Volumizing Mascara made my lashes look. This mascara has the natural bristle wand and creamy formula that I prefer. The one bummer about this is that it does flake a bit and smear a little, but only "a bit" and "a little," and that's better performance than what I get from most mascaras. I don't think I'll ever cough up the money for a full size tube, but I'll gladly grab every sample available to me.



Like most Americans, I was blown away by the music video for Childish Gambino's "This is America." It took me a half dozen viewings to pick out most of the references I could find, and even then, there were several that popped up in analyses that I totally missed. It's a richly textured video that provides more commentary in four minutes than some films do in two hours.


Lastly, a book! As I mentioned in my previous favorites post, I've had a lot of ups and downs with my reading choices this year; not much is wowing me, and I've finished a number of "meh" and disappointing books. An exception to this was Leigh Bardugo's "The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic," a collection of updated fairytales and folklore. These stories are apparently linked to Bardugo's Grishaverse books. Since I haven't read those yet and I feared I wouldn't understand these short stories as a result, I almost returned the book to the library unread. I'm glad I didn't, though, because these stories stand on their own. Each tale is a delight, though I'm particularly fond of "The Too-Clever Fox." There are also a ton of absolutely beautiful illustrations by Sarah Kipin.

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2 comments:

  1. Have you tried the Juice Beauty CC Cream? They have a VERY pale shade for a dewy, barely-there veil of coverage. I always find the similar Glossier Skin Tint to be a bit chalky with some pigment separation. Let me know what you think!

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    1. Unfortunately, that one isn't in my budget right now. But thank you for the recommendation!

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