November 15, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC If you could peer into beauty influencers’ cosmetics cabinets, I can almost guarantee that you’d find at least one cult-fave lip-to-cheek tinted balm from Olio E Osso. The pigmented sticks, which are packaged in the brand’s distinctive push-pop tube, have quietly (but steadily) climbed to cult status among not only makeup lovers, but even people who don’t usually wear much makeup. Why so? Because they do it all and leave a whisper of a hue when you dab them on. Now, the balm brand is bestowing us with true makeup: lip products in all sorts of gorgeous shades. Launching today are Olio E Osso Lucente Lip Sheens ($28) and Crema Lipsticks ($30), which leave behind bold pigments, while still containing only good-for-your-skin ingredients. The brand extension into cosmetics makes sense, since founder Paola LaMorticella has been a makeup artist for over 25 years. “I’ve been doing that for so long, and I’ve always been on the hunt looking for things that feel good and are highly pigmented, but that I can sheer out,” she says. “I’m trying to create a color library, and a system [of products] that work together really well and support each other—to simplify things and make a family of products.” The brand’s new lip makeup plays along perfectly with the balms, giving you the option to layer more vibrant shades onto your lips (building upon the nourishing balm base). The Lip Sheens come in four shades—a neutral, a rosy
Category: Beauty
The pro-approved secret for removing lipstick without wrecking your pout
November 15, 2019 at 12:30AM by CWC I consider myself a pro at washing my face. I spend at least two minutes lathering my skin with cleansers—two of them, actually, since I am an avid double cleanser—making sure to get every last millimeter of gunk and makeup off of my face. And I’m successful at doing this, save for one exception: removing lipstick. Whether I’m rocking a bold fuchsia lip or a more subtle neutral, my makeup abolishing abilities end at my lips. I just don’t know how to remove lipstick. Even makeup remover wipes don’t usually do the trick. Post-cleansing, I’ll usually have to scrub so hard with either a tissue or my poor not-white-anymore towel to get the pigment off, which leaves my lips dry, flakey and all shriveled up from the aggression. So I had to ask a makeup artist: Just how do you remove lipstick without wrecking your lips or leaving behind a crime scene in the bathroom? Pro tip: It’s all about oil. “I love to use an oil-based cleanser to remove lipstick,” says Jeannie Vincent, a Boston-based makeup artist. “Or you can use a straight up oil with a few drops of water. You can use either a cotton, Q-tip, or reusable cotton round to remove it.” Her go-to is sweet almond oil, which works particularly great on makeup (plus it tends to be cheap, like this $3 option from Amazon). Also helpful is emulsifying the oil via some H2O. “Putting a couple drops
This 30-minute pimple-popping facial proves treatments don’t need to take forever to *work*
November 06, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC embed: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkm1OY6tRfw] Curious what can be done in a 30-minute facial? Watch it go down, here. We tend to think of facials as deluxe occasions to really indulge in self care—a chance to spend about an hour letting a professional do your skin care for you, and using every advancement in facial-boosting technology you can imagine. So why on earth would you schedule yourself for a quick-hit facial, when theoretically you can do the job yourself? Ella Dove, our senior video producer, investigates in our latest episode of What the Wellness, Well+Good’s YouTube series where she tries the wildest things the industry has to offer to uncover whether they’re weird or worth it. As this episode proves, a pimple-popping-packed facial, which takes only 30 minutes flat can be effective. It all happens at Glowbar, a new-ish facial destination in New York City’s TriBeCa neighborhood, which touts itself as a “no-frills” spa that delivers results efficiently—like so quick you could do it over your lunch break (for $65 or $55 with a membership). How do they speed up the luxuriating? Well, for one, you have to come with clean skin so that your esthetician can get right to work assessing your needs. The treatment can include anything from extractions to dermaplaning (ya know: lightly shaving your face to rid it of peach fuzz and dead skin cells), LED light frequency, exfoliating masks, oxygen infusion, and the list goes on and on, depending on the state of
Is working out (and getting really sweaty) going to ruin my eyelash extensions?
November 06, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC I like to think of myself as a low-maintenance person (cut to: my entire family laughing hysterically). This at least holds true when it comes to my beauty routine. Example: I once went an entire year without getting a haircut, and lately my skin-care routine has fallen decidedly into the “less is more” camp. This is part of the reason why I love lash extensions. Yes, at first they feel high-maintenance, but then you get a few solid weeks where you can wake up, do nothing, and look like Bambi. But if I’m going to sit there for two hours (the initial appointment), then an hour (when they need to be filled in), I want to make sure that I’m extending the life of my lashes for as long as possible. Naturally, I was concerned that my super sweaty CrossFit workout routine was going to make my faux lashes fall out more quickly. After all, you’re advised to avoid getting them wet while you’re in the shower, and you legit sometimes have to use a little spoolie to brush them when water drops wind lashes together. Naturally, sweat presents these same problems, and so I asked Tirzah Shirai, lash expert and founder of BlinkBar, whether or not a sweaty lifestyle was a stop sign for fake lashes. Short answer: Not at all. Finally, an instance where we can have nice things. Initially, you want to keep your lashes totally dry for 24 to 48
The 3 most important things a dermatologist says to look for when choosing a serum
November 02, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC If we had a dollar for every time we heard a dermatologist suggest using a serum, we’d be happily retired on a Tahitian beach right about now (covered in SPF, of course). Seriously, in the—very, very—saturated beauty product world, serums remain one of the most important players. And while yes, they technically may not be a bare necessity in the way a cleanser or sunscreen is, they’re essential if you want to incorporate a lot of skin-care ingredients into your complexion (and quick!). “Serums are unique in that they’re highly concentrated, cosmetically elegant, and easy to layer,” explains board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD. “This means you only need a little bit to get the benefits of the active ingredients, and you can use it alongside your usual skin care routine without incident.” Not only are they more concentrated, they also penetrate deeper into the skin and are more stable, allowing them to work more effectively than other products. Here’s what to know about using one that’s packed with vitamin C, straight from Dr. Gohara: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0sqKBXyjls] “Serums deliver active ingredients past the superficial layer of the epidermis and are usually fat-based, which helps stabilize and preserve the important ingredients until they can be absorbed by the skin,” says Sheel Desai Solomon, MD, FAAD, a dermatologist in North Carolina. A quick note on application: Because they’re so light, serums should go directly onto clean skin, before any other products. The only drawback? There are
If you’re only going to buy one facial serum, make it one of these multitaskers
October 29, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC My serum collection is about as vast as my hot sauce collection: I have a lot of both. While I tend to use only one of my hot sauces (Valentina ILYSM), my serums overwhelm me to the point that in a skin-care-induced craze I just slather on the many active ingredients I want to feed my face with—vitamin C, retinol, and hyaluronic acid—but I’d love if I could streamline things down and just use one super-incredible multitasking serum that does it all. You feel me? It’s actually not the most out-there thing to have on a wish list, though. Plenty of multifunctional serums line the beauty shelves—you just have to know what to look for. “Most dermatologists subscribe to this multi-tasking policy,” says Rachel Nazarian, MD, board-certified dermatologist with Schweiger Dermatology in New York City. “If we had to use one ingredient per product, our regimens would be long and multi-stepped—we opt for shorter skin-care regimens with multiple active ingredients per product.” Celebrity facialist Joanna Vargas, who has an eponymous skin-care line Joanna Vargas Salons and Skin Care, says she specifically formulates her serums to pack a lot of benefits into a single bottle. “I wanted good nutrition for the skin and products that multitask when I use them,” she says. “A serum made with ingredients tends to assimilate into the skin better, and has a lot of vitamins and minerals to keep the skin balanced all day.” Her tip? Look for green
Everyone’s buzzing about “serum oils,” but where the heck do they go in your routine?
October 28, 2019 at 09:48PM by CWC In recent years, the Internet has run wild with things that aren’t quite as they seem. Is the dress black and blue, or white and gold? Is the shoe pink and white, or teal and grey? Is she saying “Yanny” or “Laurel”?! The trend has recently taken hold in the beauty world, too, with the serum/oil hybrid—a new product category that has us asking, “Is it a serum, or is it an oil?” Well, as with all of the other examples, this isn’t an “either/or” situation—it’s both. Which means figuring out where the heck to use it can be about as challenging as trying to convince your coworkers that the dress is, in fact, black and blue (and I will fight you on that). To understand what serums and oils do when they’re combined, it’s first important to understand how they function on their own. Serums, the central star of any skin-care routine, are known for having high concentrations of actives like vitamins, peptides, or AHAs/BHAs. They’re generally lightweight, which means they can penetrate the skin more deeply and deliver all of those important ingredients deep within its layers. Oils, on the other hand, tend to be made with essential oils and botanical ingredients, and are meant for locking in moisture. “Oils have larger molecules, so they can only penetrate the outer layers of the skin, which is what makes them different from serums,” says Cindy Kim, co-founder of Silver Mirror Facial Bar.
This $16 serum singlehandedly stopped me from biting my cuticles
October 25, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC It happens when I’m stressed, under a deadline, or right as the plot twists in a movie. Sometimes it happens when I’m nervous, or annoyed, or even when I’m bored. Whatever the case may be, when tense times strike, you can find me biting my cuticles. Often. “Biting your cuticles can cause damage to the nail, create more hangnails, jagged edges, and even cause infection,” says Sarah Gibson Tuttle, founder and CEO of Olive & June. According to her, this creates an unhealthy condition, which is not optimal for nail growth. When nails are dried out, we have a tendency to pick at them more, so maintaining well-moisturized fingertips can be helpful. “The more hydrated the cuticle, the less tempted you’ll be to pick or bite,” says Tuttle. Yet—I have always found moisturizing my cuticles to be annoying. A lot of the times cuticle moisturizers come in oil form, and leave your fingers sticky and damp for awhile after you apply them (not to mention they leave their mark—just look at my keyboard, which is fully stained from oily-fingertips). This was all until I found the Olive and June Cuticle Serum ($16), which helped to halt my cuticle biting compulsion. Photo: Olive & June Instead of a sticky oil that I haphazardly drop onto my nails, this one’s applied with a fuzzy ball tip that’s infused with moisturizing ingredients, including cactus flower. It feels like you’re giving your nail beds a kiss from
How To Choose The Best Facial Stone For Your Gua Sha Or Face Roller
October 23, 2019 at 10:15AM From jade to rose quarts—find yours here. Continue Reading… Author Alexandra Engler | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
This Well+Good beauty editor tried being a facialist for a day—here’s what happened
October 21, 2019 at 04:30AM by CWC https://content.jwplatform.com/players/mZCLICMY-AjgxWzQ7.js Are you ever sitting at your desk wishing you could step into a different life—even if you’re super content with what you’re doing—just to see what it feels like? Same—whether it’s fantasizing about being a barista who can create a face in your morning latte, a fitness instructor who can somehow talk and squat at the same time, or, in Well+Good beauty editor Rachel Lapidos’s case, a facialist who delivers glowing skin on demand. Instead of reporting on the latest happenings in the beauty realm and interviewing top estheticians, Lapidos stepped into their (literal) world for a day. “Usually I’m writing and researching all day at my desk,” she says. “Learning how to be an actual facialist was a dream come true—I think I’m a natural.” The biggest takeaway? What you can gain from switching up your daily routine and adding some fun to it. So during the 50-minute facial Lapidos performed, she made room for moments of joy like a snack break with Smartfood® Smart50—air-popped, 100 percent whole grain popcorn at 50 calories per cup or less, with new flavors that always hit the spot (white cheddar and sea salt, duh). Because trying new things, even careers, should be fun. Watch the video above to see how Lapidos changed jobs for a day—and what she learned from her experience. Sponsored by Smartfood® Smart50 Continue Reading… Author Well+Good Editors | Well and Good Selected by CWC