February Round-Up
This month flew by and droned on at the same time.
Beauty
It was a big month of fragrance testing for me, and my friend Dena and I embarked on a journey to look for new signature scents for 2024. We tested over 30 new niche and luxury perfumes, and ranked our favorites in this video.
Remarkable People
Top notes: Grapefruit, Champagne, Cardamom
Middle notes: Black Pepper, Curry Tree, Jasmine
Base notes: Sandalwood, Lorenox, Labdanum
The winner for me? Remarkable People by Etat Libre D’Orange. It’s sweet, spicy and aromatic, with a beautiful opening of grapefruit and champagne. I cannot wait for my bottle to come in the mail!
It’s been a big month for new lipstick launches, as well. I started February out on a high after my acquisition of the new Byredo Liquid Lipstick Matte in the shade Fire Grace - an intensely pigmented, comfortable matte red. Merit then entered the chat with their new Signature Lipstick Matte launch. They sent me 4 shades and I really like them all, favorite being Classic, a neutral pink that leans warmer on my skin tone. The formula is very comfortable and smoothing on the lips. It’s not drying at all, which I appreciate.
Left: Byredo Liquid Lipstick Matte in Fire Grace, Right: MERIT Signature Lipstick Matte in shades Power, Classic, Antibes and Maison.
I’m also thrilled that I got to work on a campaign with L’Oreal Luxe, including the iconic YSL Candy Glaze. It’s such a beautiful balmy, glossy lip formula. It’s essentially a sheer lip balm/lip gloss hybrid but in a stick form, with the luxurious YSL Beauty lipstick packaging we know and love. It’s very plush and moisturizing on the lips. The first super high end lipstick I ever bought was YSL Rouge Volupte (in the shade number 7 Lingerie Pink), so working on a campaign that was a nod to that momentous luxury beauty purchase was a big deal to me.
Watch me apply the rest of my beauty favorites from the month in this video:
Abandoned Carts 🛒
Making and leaving shopping carts online is one of my favorite past times. Here’s what I talked myself out of this month:
Burberry Peep Boots, gorgeous and unique zipper detail but… $1650?! I want to dabble in Daniel Lee’s Burberry because I love so many of his designs but the price points are prohibitively expensive.
Plated Exosome Serum, a promising skincare product that claims to help speed up healing and collagen production. I may try this eventually but I did not feel like shelling out over $250 for it.
Patrick Ta Blush Duo “Not Too Much” is the first colorway of the brand’s iconic blush formula that has tempted me. It’s right up my alley. But you want to know what that means? That I already own these shades, in both cream and powder formulas. I’m trying to be good and narrow down my blush collection, so this will have to wait.
That’s it for this month! We finished the entire season of Love Island: All Stars and now there’s a tanned Anton-shaped hole in my heart. What a great show. You can catch it on Peacock if you’re curious. It was worth the subscription to yet another streaming service (which we promptly canceled afterwards).
