9 things i'm buying at the sephora sale
and why beauty products--unlike clothing--never let me down
i love beauty products.
one could argue that it’s because beauty products make me feel pretty, but i think the love for them goes deeper than that. you see, beauty products, unlike clothing, aren’t about size. they may be about color, or blendability, or yes, i suppose—sometimes—shape (ie, the shape of your eyes), but there has never, in the history of my 38 years on this earth, been a beauty product that was too small on me. there has never been a lip gloss that didn’t fit. i’ve never worn a mascara because i hope it’ll make me look thin, or tried out a hair product for its slimming effects (though i have tried many a hair product for anti-frizz; one of the best i’ve found recently is linked below!).
if you are sensing a theme—a theme of struggling with my body image, and in particular, my weight—you are right. forgive me reader, for i have sinned: i have spent most of my life thinking about how my body moves in the world. about how it fits into the world (or doesn’t). about how people are viewing it, this vessel that carries me through my days. about whether it is too stout or too round, too flabby in places i wish could be firm and smooth. it is a constant work in progress for me, my body. a thing i will most likely be working on ‘til i’m six feet under, my bones decomposing below some ratty green grass.
recently, a friend challenged me to name one thing i loved about my body.
and honestly? it took me a minute. because while it was extremely easy to come up with a list of things i hated—things i would change if i had three wishes—it was much harder to come up with a thing i genuinely adored.
i guess i like my hair? i said, a question more than a statement. because it can sort of do it all? it can be wavy, it can be curly, it can be coaxed into being silky straight.
my hair: one of the only things on my physical body that isn’t measured by size. no one has ever called my hair fat. frizzy, perhaps, but never fat. no one has ever told my hair how much prettier it would be if it did a few more sit ups; when my hair moves, it is with ease and beauty, not with embarrassed jiggling.
our bodies are not who we are. not really, anyway.
it is not our bodies that our friends call when they need someone to listen, but our hearts. no one is befriending me (or not) because of the size or shape of my calf muscles. if the world were a different place, perhaps we would dismiss our bodies almost completely, think of them as the outer shell of our actual being, give them little thought or care or worry.
but the world is not a different place. not yet, at least. and so most of us spend a great deal of time thinking about how we look instead of how we are. we dread the hospital hallway lighting in fast fashion dressing rooms, wax poetic about body positivity whilst simultaneously shaking our heads at our cellulite, tug on shapewear to present a smoother layer to the outside world. i wish it were not this way. i wish i were not this way.
but alas, i am.
i have spent the last 4 or so years attempting to come to terms with the fact that my body was not built to be a small one. coming to terms with the idea that i am not meant to be small, period. not in my body, not in my actions, not in my life. i have cultivated a relationship with my size that is not entirely positive, but is not always negative, either.
and all the while, beauty products—the things i can apply to my body regardless of size or shape—have been there for me. they have made me feel pretty and powerful. are they a necessity? most certainly not. they are frivolous at best. but i’ll be damned if they don’t brighten my day—sometimes quite literally (thank you, self tanner).
so! you came here for sale picks, and sale picks i shall give you.
for the uninitiated, the sephora sale runs from today, 4/5 through 4/15. depending on your level of loyalty as a sephora customer (i am a VIB member myself!), you can save 20%, 15%, or 10% off your sephora basket—both in-store and online. it can be tempting to go HAM during a sale like this (especially if you’ve spent enough to be a rouge member + have 20% off!), but i like to use these sales less as an excuse to go hog wild and more as an opportunity to stock up on my everyday favorites. the items i know i love.
so! what am i buying?
crown affair hair mask + leave-in conditioner. i’ve tried nearly all the products in crown affair’s roster, and while i loved their shampoo + conditioner, as well as their hair oil, it is the mask + leave-in conditioner that have really been standouts to me. the water in mexico did my hair dirty, and i returned home to new york with a lot more frizz than i’d left with. i’ve been doing my best to repair the damage, and these two products have gone a long way towards restoring the soft, touchable waves i aim to have. i like to use a tiny bit of the hair mask post-conditioning (don’t rinse it out!), and use the leave-in after i brush it out post-shower.
supergoop glow-screen, the mini. i am not nearly as good about wearing sunscreen as i should be, especially during the winter months. but once supergoop season™ arrives, i become a full-on sunscreen fangirl. in the years since supergoop launched glowscreen, numerous dupes have hit the market—but i remain faithful to the original, which imparts an instagram-filter like glow and protects you from UV rays. i’m snagging this mini size to keep in my bag + take on all my beach trips this summer.
summer fridays jet lag mask. this is my travel holy grail. i think it might be the very first product summer fridays ever made, and it remains one of their best. it’s a hardcore moisturizing mask that smells ever so slightly minty, and is the perfect long-flight companion. i bring it on every single trip i take, and apply it before i doze off on overnight flights. it’s also excellent as a regular moisturizer, should your skin need a little bit of love, and makes you look dewy and well-rested—even when you’re not. one tiny dollop (like, an eraser-head size!) goes a long way, too.
shiseido eyelash curler. if i am allowed to bring one product to a desert island, i am bringing an eyelash curler. nothing does more to wake up my face and make me feel like a real human. i have tried switching to cheaper brands, and i always come back to this one. hot tip (literally): i find that blasting the curler with a lil bit of hot air from a hairdryer goes a long way to “set” your lashes. test it with your finger first so you don’t burn yourself!
merit clean lash mascara. post-pandemic, i rarely wear mascara during the day. i don’t go into an office, and i’ve found that a good curler (like the one above!) does the job. but for nighttime, date nights, or days in which i want to look just a little more zhushed up and professional, this mascara is my go-to. it’s 100% clean, never clumpy, and washes off easily at night. it’s not going to give you insane volume, but it WILL give you long, natural-looking lashes that don’t flake.
grande lash serum. i tend to fall off the wagon with this product, but when i use it regularly, my lashes POP OFF. as in, they GROW longer than should be humanely possible. at $68 a pop, grande lash is not cheap. but i find that one tube lasts me at least 3ish months of applying once/day. and more importantly, when i apply regularly, my lashes get long. this stuff works!
wander beauty eye masks. look, you could use eye masks that aren’t gold. but why would you want to? it’s so much more fun to use these, which work well and look cute while doing it. i pop these on after a bad night of sleep, a big night out, or a long flight, and voila! i look better rested, with fewer wrinkles and less puffiness.
isle of paradise self-tanning drops (face). i feel oh so much prettier when i am tan. there, i said it! there is just something about being a little bit sunkissed that makes my whole being feel happier and more carefree. with my mexico tan fully fading (was it even real?! it feels hard to recall given our recent spate of rainy days here in new york), i dug out my favorite (relatively inexpensive!) natural-looking self tanner. i add a drop of this into my moisturizer each evening, making sure to rub it in evenly across my face and neck, and then (do not forget this step!) washing my hands afterwards, et voila: i wake up looking like i may or may not have just gone on vacation.
summer fridays lip butter balm in cherry. if you, like me, spent a good portion of the last decade thinking lip gloss was for your high school self, not your adult self, i’d like to introduce you to this. it’s half gloss, half balm. it’s a perfect wash of color, glossy without being sticky, balm-y with a little bit of shine. it is perfect for spring and even more perfect for summer, and gives you that “i just ate a popsicle” tint. i bought it in january and found myself applying it nearly every day, so i will be buying a second tube during this sale.
and that, friends, is where i leave you. if you like this post, it would mean the world to me if you’d hit the little heart icon, as well as consider sharing it with your network—so that the grand weekly can be seen by more people.