Glossier - The Seventh Sphinx

It’s finally summer proper here in Boston, which means it’s going to be miserably hot and humid in about 8 minutes. Isn’t it a little annoying how one is meant to be so happy about summer in our culture?* Autumn so superior, at least in the northeast, at least for this coat-lover.

*Actually, marketing-wise, we seem to meant to be thrilled about all of them in turn. But with summer it is especially egregious.

Well, summer has its good points. The rise in popularity of orange and coral beauty products has always been one of my favorite parts. Sunglasses. A thinly veiled excuse to get new lipstick. Late sunsets.

Here are a few of my favorite things at the moment.

Korres Wild Rose Vitamin C Active Brightening Oil, Glossier Rose balm.com, Dior Glow Maximizing Primer

I made this little ceramic tumbler, by the way! Will have to tell you more about extracurricular activities…

Loving the Korres face oil, kind of an oddly old fashioned rose scent but I like it. A little pricey but not so much that I hesitate before slathering (key). I’m one of those people putting oil on under or in place of moisturizer, so I have different types for different skin moods. This is a great morning oil that sinks in and feels nourishing but light. Getting a solid dewy base by layering the Dior primer over top. The Avene Cleanance Expert moisturizer is the light daytime option when I want a gentle skirmish with my skin rather than an all-out battle. This tiresome skin. The Glossier balm is nice and moisturizing with a hardcore castor oil/beeswax base. This scent has a surprising hint of oud along with the rose that makes it quite strong, likely not everyone will enjoy that. This is a thick ointment/balm that reminds me a bit in texture of the beloved Bite Beauty agave lip mask, though the more nourishing Bite lip mask is better for overnight or treatment situations.

MAC lipstick in So Chaud, Cargo Blush in Laguna, Ray-Ban Clubmasters

So Chaud is fairly new and so has that sheen of novelty that makes me like it all the more. This is a lovely orange-red, distinctly orange but with enough red to anchor it and make it quite wearable. Matte but still really creamy and pleasant on. Fantastic summer color, I’ve been eyeing it for a few summers running now and not disappointed. Cargo Laguna is a deep, vibrant peachy coral. They aren’t much talked about but the Cargo blushes are excellent, if comically large.

I think we can blame the longing for Clubmasters on the completely beautiful Priyanka Chopra, the lead in Quantico, of which I saw just enough episodes to deeply consider this style. Then, shopping, I stumbled across completely gold ones! Not offered in the U.S.? Sorry, can’t find a link.

This is an old favorite, the current anthem. Along with the amazing new Justin Timberlake, which is just stuck in my head.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are another serious favorite. I always eat a good amount of these but I’m really outdoing myself these days, consuming astonishing volumes of citrus fruit and avocado.

I’ve been reading Into The Gloss for years, a website about style and beauty getting the inside scoop from industry veterans. I especially enjoy the top shelf series, wherein beauty obsessives, models, actors, makeup artists, skincare moguls, etc, list their favorite products. So I watched the emergence of Glossier, a beauty brand founded by the founder of ITG, Emily Weiss, with interest. The brand is playful and modern, and obviously very carefully designed.

The product list is small at the moment, highly curated, and rolling out bit by bit with some really smart marketing. The brand presents itself as real, current, and friendly, building the line from the basics, which basics were created to be the happy combination of the best parts of all makeup everywhere, for the modern woman. [Or, more the modern girl/woman, as this targets quite a young audience, I would say.] The modern woman here being one who wants fresh, natural skin first and foremost (I agree with this completely, actually). It’s developed a solid community already, and, while I don’t want to get everything, I am paying attention. I definitely want to get some things.

Check out this packaging situation! Stickers! Very cute.

I picked up the skin tint in medium, an extremely thin, smooth liquid formula that is truly difficult to detect on the skin, which was just what I’ve been looking for. It doesn’t make a large difference, but I don’t want a large difference…I want a very subtle evening of skin tone. I like this.

I also picked up the LE glitter liquid liners they put out around Christmas, because I am a sucker sometimes, when it comes to metallic gold shimmer, and I don’t like them as well. The texture is OK but a bit sticky, and I expected a more concentrated metallic shimmer. Still, I can tap my own glitter on to the sticky base…I can work with it but not everything I’d hoped.

So, Glossier, I’m watching. I’ll probably pick up you lipstick, when it comes out.

Tag: Glossier

a few summer essentials

into the Glossier