My Favorite Makeup Things: Spring 2021
Spring flowers and pops of color. Photo by Alicia Michelle
Spring has sprung, which means it’s time for another beauty favorites post.
Too much spare time and the roll-out of vaccines got me thinking about the return of pre-Coronavirus life, when music, movement, and human touch abounded…
NARS Schiap Lipstick
NARS’ Schiap swatched on dark skin.
Teenage me would have scoffed at Schiap, a universally flattering, cool-toned fuchsia. Because at that time, pink was the antithesis to my Leon Trotsky-reading, Linkin Park-loving self.
Adult me, however, the version of me who has slightly mellowed with age, adores Schiap. Part of NARS’ 60-shade matte lipstick line, Schiap’s name harkens to Elsa Schiaparelli, an old school Italian designer who introduced shockingly neon fuchsia, and an equally shocking animalic perfume, to the world in 1937.
Besides a vivid, powdery finish and surprisingly weightless wear, this shade’s attitude is what I love the most about it. Flirtatious, audacious, and yes, shocking, indeed.
UOMA Beauty Double Take Contour Stick
UOMA Beauty’s Contour Stick in the shade Brown Sugar swatched on deep skin. Photo by Alicia Michelle
I know, I know. I’m tragically late to the contour party. So late, that it feels like contouring has long since packed up and left.
In 2021, however, I believe there’s still a whisper of contouring left on the beauty scene, in the form of bringing subtle definition back to the face after applying foundation and concealer.
UOMA Beauty’s Double Take Contour Stick, is frequently seen in makeup artists’ kits. With two ends, one side for creating the illusion of shadow, and the other for imparting dewy, lit-from-within sheen to your cheeks, Brown Sugar is remarkable for its intense pigmentation, creamy formula, and effortless bendability.
I find that this product is a great match for orphan lipsticks, the kinds of shades you just can’t find an appropriate blush for, like the above Schiap from NARS. A little also goes a long way in Brown Sugar’s case, a feature that ensures this product’s 9 total grams will last you a while before you need to replace it. And unlike cream contour products from other brands, UOMA Beauty’s Contour Sticks come in a whopping six shades, all of which are pigmented enough to show up on dusky and deep skin tones.
Laura Mercier Caviar Eyeshadow Stick
In the before times, I was a tanguera, or female Argentine tango dancer. Many Saturday nights were spent at the nearest milonga, or tango dance social, and many of those same Saturday nights were spent preparing for them.
The combination of low lighting and dance traditions that rely on eye contact meant eyeliner was a must for ensuring my gaze wouldn’t get lost in the dark.
Laura Mercier’s Caviar Eyeshadow Stick in the shade Cocoa, is a standard warm-toned dark brown with a satin finish, but its performance and silky, no-tug formulation is anything but. Just the tap of a finger is enough to create smudgy, smoky, smoldering eyeliner goodness, goodness that keeps on truckin’, even through heat, sweat, and humidity.
RÓEN Beauty 75° Palette
Roen 75 Degree Palette swatched on dark skin. Photo by Alicia Michelle
At first glance, RÓEN Beauty looks like every other luxury clean beauty brand, with an online catalog dripping with sleek minimalist design, recyclable packaging, and cool-girl models. RÓEN’s formulas, however, are what set them apart from the crowd, with eyeshadows containing ethically sourced mica and natural glitter derived from fish scales.
The 75° Palette, bearing four pans of warm-toned neutral shadows, is the priciest item on this favorites list, and a worth-while splurge at that.
Though the shades look blah in pictures, they impart a shimmering, multidimensional wash of color that looks wet upon catching the light. Perfect for one-and-done eyeshadow looks, this palette pairs well with smudged eyeliner and nightlife settings.
This palette, however, is not without its downsides. The first is that, due to RÓEN’s cream-powder eyeshadow formula, creasing is guaranteed after three hours of wear. Second is that this palette has a slight learning curve; it takes a few uses before the shadows apply evenly, and unlike standard cream shadows, it requires you to firmly swirl your finger in the pan for a few seconds before depositing the color on your eyelids.
Tocca Cleopatra
No milonga is complete without a dab of perfume, and Cleopatra, an oriental floral fragrance from Tocca, is my balmy night go-to.
After opening with a juicy and pithy splash of grapefruit, peach, and crushed cassis, this beauty moves through a creamy tryst of jasmine and tuberose before settling into a dry-down of pale vanilla musk and blonde pachouli. All phases of Cleopatra’s six-hour wear time sit close to the body, and the white floral portion is my favorite, like an olfactory flash of sun-warmed skin beneath a billowing linen dress.
Like tango itself, there’s something melancholic about Cleopatra. Perhaps because her ornate glass bottle and blushing juice within remind me of vintage perfumery, when designers invoked pleasurable sensations with odors modern noses find unpleasant. Or perhaps because I just miss the days when getting within six feet of someone didn’t mean risking lives…
Did you discover anything new this spring?