Recent Favorites | Winter

It’s been ages since I talked about anything beauty-related, mainly because there’s honestly not much new in my routine as a whole. I’ve made a real effort over the past year to curtail frivolous purchases, which has meant the purchases I have made in the beauty space have either been repurchases or purchases that have been heavily researched!

Olive & June nail polish ~ I’ve been going nail polish free for the majority of the last few months, mainly because I’ve been rock climbing at least once a week, which is a sure fire way to destroy a manicure. Over the holidays I decided to get back into painting my nails, mainly because it’s enjoy the ritual of it and I tend to enjoy more fall and wintery shades over spring or summer ones. I decided to give a few Olive and June nail polishes a try when they were doing their Black Friday sale and I was very pleasantly surprised! The company started out as an LA-based nail salon and they just started developing their own nail polishes this year. Not only are they incredibly reasonable (at $8 a bottle, which is less than Essie or OPI), but the formula is incredibly long-lasting! The shade range they do have is awesome, but is a bit limited compared to some more established brands, so I hope they develop more shades in the future!

T3 Convertible System ~ I’ve had the same curling wand since I was a sophomore in high school, which means that it’s nearing ten years old. It was a cheap curling iron that I got from the drugstore, but nevertheless it has never given me issues or stopped working so I kept using it. I finally decided to upgrade this fall, when my old curling iron really started showing it was reaching the end of it’s life (i.e. it was no longer heating up the way it should have). I had heard a lot of great things about T3 as a brand, and even though their products are definitely on the pricier side, I have found that hair tools are worth the investment because they can last for years! I loved the concept of the T3 convertible line because you buy a base, which has different temperature settings and then you buy the barrel part as a separate attachment, so if you want to use your curling iron for multiple types of hair styles, you can easily do that without collecting multiple curling irons. I currently have the Tousled Waves barrel (1.25”-0.75” tapered barrel) and the Undone Waves barrel (1” straight barrel), both of which I love although I have been using the tapered barrel more since my hair is shorter now.

Charlotte Tilbury Magic Away Concealer ~ I am always on the look out for a good under eye concealer. I have always had dark under eye circles, they’re genetic and no eye cream will ever get rid of them, so concealer is really my only option is concealer. I don’t have an issue finding concealers that I like the texture of, however I do find issue with a lot of issues with the shades a lot of under eye concealers come in, they’re either too yellow, or too bright (i.e. you get the reverse panda look which is not cute). I had heard a lot of good things about the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Away concealer, so once I had finished my other concealer I decided to give this one a try and I love it! The consistency is really nice and light, although it gives a healthy amount of coverage, but the shade is really what I’m impressed with. It’s peachy enough to cancel out the blueish/purple tone of my under eye circles, without looking so vastly different from my actual skin tone.

IGK Mistress Hair Balm ~ After I finished my beloved HairStory Hair Balm, I decided to give a new hair product a try just to mix things up a bit! I went off the advice of the girl who gives me ultimate curly hair envy, Man Repeller’s Harling Ross. In her hair routine, she mentions how much she loves the IGK Mistress Hair Balm as basically her singular hair styling product, which is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, since I don’t like to use loads and loads of product in my hair and I want something that can kind of do it all. I wouldn’t say this is leagues better than the HairStory Hair Balm (which I 100% still love), but it is very comparable in how it moisturizes the hair, defines a curl, and keeps frizz at bay!