Emily Johnson

Beauty can be a complicated process and it always comes with a host of tools for application and maintenance. Of course, a majority of these tools end up as part of your routine or are ones you may just carry around with you daily in your makeup bag!

Here’s a few inexpensive beauty picks that will make your life a little easier.

Portable Nail Clippers Compact Collapsible Travel Keychain $9.99
I pick my nails. A lot. I mean to a point I’m gushing blood. You know this tempting little hang nails that you peel and they end up a horror story? The ones you pick and you basically can peel them to your knuckle (total exaggeration but you know what I mean LOL!)! I realize it’s a very bad habit and a nasty one but I do it anyway. I have to say I’ve stopped considerably since someone commented and said, hey, go buy a baby nail clipper and carry it with you. It was the best advice I ever got because quite literally I can whip it out, clip the hang nail, and not peel it till blood is everywhere. I’ve upgraded a little and I got this tiny collapsible keychain nail clipper I tuck into my purse. It’s the perfect size and it’s ideal to clip those little tempting pieces of skin I want to pick at!

Ingrown Hair Tweezers $6.99
I’ve recommended these in the past and to this day they remain my fav tweezers! They are ideal for ingrown hairs if you have them and perfect for plucking even the smallest, tiniest of hairs. One of the sharpest and most precise tweezers I’ve had the pleasure of using!

Makeup Brush Cleaner Mat 3 in 1 Silicone Makeup Brush Cleaner $16.99
This is one of my FAVORITE ways to clean my brushes. This is a cleaning mat slash bowl slash drying stand. First off it’s a bowl which you can add brush cleaner and water too, secondly it has ridges on the bottom that allow you to gently sweep your brushes across it to remove old makeup, and lastly you can empty it, rinse it out, and turn it upside to stick your brushes to dry off or you can even hang it up to air dry your brushes. It’s a super handy tool to have during those tedious brush cleansing days!

EIGSHOW Angled Concealer Brush Under Eye $8.99
You’ve heard me rave it before and you’ll hear me say it again and again but this concealer brush is truly awesome. It has the perfect triangle head that fits in the corner of your eye for that perfect dark shadow coverage. It fits the contour of the eye beautifully and applies concealer seamlessly. Totally a must get.

Angled Under Eye Concealer Brush $5.29
If you want an angled concealer brush that’s a bit larger than the EIGSHOW one this is your girl! Plus she’s a dupe for Rare Beauty’s Concealer Brush and hello, this price! Super soft bristles, great angled head that fits the corner of your eye and the contour of it perfectly! Pats on concealer like a dream! A must for anyone that uses a concealer brush under their eyes!

Do you have any fav inexpensive beauty tools to recommend? Do share them!

Baby, it’s cold outside. Brutally so. I’ll be honest with you I’m not even going to complain about it. About a week ago we had an intense week of wind and it made it feel like it was 4 degrees out. This is nothing compared to that. That being said, I’m a New Yorker and we LOVE to b*tch about the weather. LOVE IT. Every phone call I take from a client the first thing they say before even asking how I am is, “Oh my god this weather!”. New Yorkers can go on and on about the cold, the heat, the humidity, and even in the Spring we’ll rant how it’s not warm enough. Visiting New York? Heard rumors we’re not friendly people? Just start talking about the weather and we’ll shoot the sh*t with you and become your bestie instantly.

Anyway, I’m not complaining like I said as I can deal with this as long as we don’t get all that wind we had. My skin however, is in revolt. So here’s a love list of Winter skincare I love and other things to get me through this awful weather.

One thing I love about the cold is being able to snuggle up with a good book at the end of the night. My boyfriend has been engrossed in The Biggest Ideas in the Universe which is apparently amazing. But I’ve taken to re-reading some of my favorites one of which is Mary Reilly. Not only did I re-read the book but I also, re-watched the movie. You gotta love a re-telling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that turns into a rather gruesome gothic romance. Say what you will about the movie but John Malkovich swoon! Highly recommend snuggling down with both of them.

Speaking of period movies…! We recently re-watched Young Sherlock Holmes because we saw a Tiktok of “Where are they now?” and Nicholas Rowe was mentioned. I explained to my boyfriend that Nicolas Rowe and Wil Wheaton were the two boys I had planned to marry when I was like 14. And technically, I still had that plan in place if things didn’t work out with him! No seriously though, Nicolas Rowe was just so fine. Tall, lean, sort of geeky. My preference in men hasn’t change changed much I’ll tell you that. I think maybe Younger Sherlock Holmes deserves a spot on a cold winter week love list don’t you?

Now, as I’m not going to say a single bad word about this weather as long as the wind doesn’t come back. However, my skin is revolting. My cheeks are so tight and flaky right now. I’m adding a few skincare picks to my cold winter week love list that you absolutely need if you have dry skin! Dr. Denese Firming Facial Microdermabrasion Cream is still my beloved after all these years. I love this scrub. It’s like a chemical peel in a tube! It’s a refined facial scrub that will buff away that flaky skin instantly. And of course, the best of the best moisture you can get is from Experiment Beauty’s two star products! Their Super Satty is a glycerin packed serum (30% to be exact) that can be used on wet skin to make it juicy, hydrated, and plumped. This will seriously remove any and all dry skin woe. It’s my absolute go for a heavy dose of moisture. Also, adding some of their Buffer Jelly on top will seal all that goodness in! And let me go ahead and add some Futurewise Slug Balm Moisture in the mix here because it deserves to be on a cold winter love list as well! This stuff is gold. It’s a heavy duty slugging cream that will absolute have you waking up with the smoothest skin of your life!

And this one is a little controversial for a cold winter week love list but my Sam’s Club is still serving the Santa’s Milk and Cookies Sundae and I don’t hate that. Sure, it’s cold. But did I eat one recently? Hells yes I did. I hope your Sam’s Club is still serving it!

What’s on your cold winter week’s love list? Share with me?

My blush life was a lot different back in the early 2000s when Laura Geller’s Baked Blush-n-Brighten Marbleized Blush was one of my favorite things. I absolutely adored Laura’s blushes. I had almost every shade. The formula was smooth and silky plus they applied like an absolute dream. And let’s not forget about the AMAZING Laura Geller QVC Today’s Special Values. She always had such great kits but I did hate on her a little for including Baked Balance-n-Brighten Powder in every one because I seriously had like ten full-size compacts of it hanging around due to those QVC TSVs. I recall Tropic Hues was my most coveted shade but Pink Buttercream was my girl too! Remember when she played around with new formulations too like the Gelato Blush? Those were pigmented as hell!

There was a small period of time when she wasn’t really anything new but later on she introduced new shades of Baked Blush-n-Brighten Blush and at that point I felt the formula had changes. I recall purchasing Peach Delight and not liking it at all!

I think Laura’s journey is an interesting one. She introduced a Wheel of Fortune Collection which made me laugh a little and a lot of people said well, she’s reaching her demographic with it. And maybe that’s the case. Laura’s not young and it’s safe to say her makeup collection is likely not one that interest a younger crowd of makeup lovers. Part of the Laura Geller Collection is now at ulta.com and I’m guessing they’ll be available in stores as well soon. Ulta seems a good match for the brand and maybe it’ll open doors and garner new fans. I haven’t played with her makeup for a while but I do remember loving it. Her move to Ulta makes me want to re-explore the brand.

Do you have fond memories of Laura Geller? Or have you no tried anything by her before? Do share!

Laura Geller is now at Ulta!

Where to buy

Nordstrom

Another Aspyn Ovard x Tarte Eye & Cheek Palette? Nope! It’s been seven years since the last Tarte Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette launched and for Spring 2025 it’s getting repromoted. Yup! Same palette, same shades, but a new price (It was $39 and now it’s $45)!

I do recall the original promote images made the palette look like a selection of dusky pinks and roses but when we actually got to see it in person it was a selection of lighter nudes many of which sort of looked like ones featured in the Tarte Clay Play Face Shaping Palette and Tarte Clay Play Face Shaping Palette Volume II. I wouldn’t say they were exact dupes but they were similar. I will say even if it wasn’t exactly what I imagined it has aged well and I can see it being a big hit this time around as everyone is in their “clean girl era” and love lighter shades of nude especially for Spring.

One of the most beautiful things about this palette was the presentation and it still remains just as gorgeous It comes in rose gold metallic compact decorated with gorgeous pink roses. The same design is also on the palette itself. The metallic design is actually inside as well and it has a very generously-sized mirror as well. It’s one of my favorite palette as far as packaging goes that Tarte has released.

What shades do you get in this palette? You’ll get nine shimmer and matte shades plus 1 blush and one highlighter in:

• Made You Blush
• Pure Soul
• Brilliance
• Unbothered
• Endless Summer
• Mother
• Heart of Gold
• Road Trip
• Single Life
• Tea Time
• Wanderlust

Tarte Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette Swatches (Brilliance, High School Sweetheart, Endless Summer)

Tarte Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette Swatches (Married Life, Tea Time, Wanderlust)

Tarte Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette Swatches (Santorini Sands, Heart of Gold, Road Trip)

Tarte Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette Swatches (Made You Blush and Pure Soul)

I’ve taken the liberty to include my swatches from my original review of the palette in this post but I am noticing that the blush in the promo images almost looks oddly yellow. I doubt it is as last go around we had the same issue where the shades looked COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in the marketing. Moral of the story is take Tarte’s promo images with a grain of salt.

If you missed the Tarte x Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette the first go around you can get on the wait list now for it’s re-release. I’m not sure of the exact date of launch but it is coming soon. Do you have this palette from back in the day? Love it or was it a miss for you?

Where to buy

Tarte

Vanilla Bean Noel season has sadly ended. Did you stock up? I used to be a massive Winter Candy Apple fan girl and later on Twisted Peppermint was my jam but as I got older the one scent I really looked forward to from Bath and Body Works Holiday Collection was Vanilla Bean Noel. It really is a comforting, yummy vanilla. If you haven’t stocked up you still have time as the full-size mist and lotionya are under $5 at the moment. However, Vanilla Bean Noel has one problem…

It really doesn’t last long as I would like. You can layer up and you’ll extend the wear but really, I wish that Bath and Body Works would launch it in a perfume. They did a laundry detergent (which was awful by the way) why not a perfume?! But it’s ok because I’ve found a dupe of Vanilla Bean Noel and it’s available in the most a perfume formula and it smells delicious!

Allow me to introduce you to Alina Milani’s Vanilla Bean Noel. I purchased a small bottle of this off Tiktok shop very randomly and I expected it to smell awful. Why? Because there were one or two Tiktokers going on and on and on and on about how great it was and sadly, that’s a red flag for me. When I have a Tiktoker shouting, screaming, and throwing up about a perfume I tend to raise a brow lately. Most of the time it’s all hype! However, I decided, against my better judgement to try a small spray bottle. It was 1 oz in size and set me back $32. At the time I didn’t realize it was a Vanilla Bean Noel dupe. By the time I got it, tried it, and fell in love with it I was unable to go back for the larger 3.4 oz bottle because it sold out. Several weeks later the large bottle finally restocked and I never purchased anything so fast in my life. I’m now the proud owner of not one but several of her fragrances.

Her scents are well blended, alcohol-free, and wear long. She has a few different duplications of Bath and Body Works scents and every one is perfection particularly the Vanilla Bean Noel! I’d go so far as to say it actually smells almost better than the original. It’s such a warm comforting gourmand vanilla that’s perfect for this cold weather. Perfection! If you love Vanilla Bean Noel I highly recommend checking this version out.

Where to buy

Alina Milani

Well, it’s happening. Amazon Haul Beta has dropped. What is Amazon Haul? It’s a selection of products for $20 or less (really, most are $10 and under) much like Temu. Yup, Amazon’s take on Temu is to getting you to spend, spend, spend on home, fashion, electronics, and more with budget-friendly prices. But will they arrive as fast with Prime-like speed? Sadly, no. Amazon Haul is not part of the Amazon Prime shipping service. Anything purchased on Amazon Haul can take up to two weeks to arrive.

The idea of Amazon Haul is to provide current customers in the US with a place to discover a wide variety of items at super low prices. Apparently, the selection is huge with over 300 million products to choose from over 35 categories. But no, Amazon isn’t actually selling these items personally. But they do pick, pack, and ship the items on behalf of sellers whom they have partnered with around the world (I suspect they mean China). You do have to buy more to save on shipping though as free delivery applies to orders of $25 or more. You will get an additional discount if you purchase more with orders of $50 or more getting 5% off and $75 or more getting 10% off.

“Finding great products at very low prices is important to customers, and we continue to explore ways that we can work with our selling partners so they can offer products at ultra-low prices,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Services at Amazon. “Amazon Haul aims to help make shopping for fashion, home, lifestyle, electronics, and other products even more fun, easy, and affordable, all backed by Amazon’s A-to-z product guarantee so customers can shop with confidence that the products they’re purchasing are safe, authentic, and in the condition expected. It’s early days for this experience, and we’ll continue to listen to customers as we refine and expand it in the weeks and months to come.”

Amazon Haul is not yet available on desktop but you can shop it via your phone or tablet at www.amazon.com/haul. I browsed very briefly and it doesn’t look like anything anyone needs (as you can see from my above screenshots). I’m all about saving money and love a good inexpensive buy however, things like Temu and Amazon Haul encourage more waste than anything else. Consumerism is already rampant across social media with many social media accounts dedicated to encouraging you to buy, buy, buy every little organizer on Amazon to spruce up your kitchen and home. Amazon Haul is likely going to make things even more crazy. Trust me you do not need another pair of inexpensive leggings that promise to lift your butt into next year nor do you need another iPhone case even though it costs only a dollar.

What are your thoughts on Amazon Haul? Yay or Nay?