What I Actually Bought To New York With Me Beauty-Wise

Greetings from New York! *Insert New York, New York/Empire State of Mind/Welcome To New York here* Lily and I are here with the guys from West Elm for a couple of days to hang out at their HQ in Brooklyn and eat, shop, eat on repeat. It’s pretty dreamy. As I’m writing this post I’m sitting in the lobby of a pretty swanky hotel drinking Kombucha and feeling like such a poser, but at the same time thinking that Liz Earle would be really proud of me. It’s so cool that Lily mistook the concierge for a DJ. I’m still chuckling to myself about it now. But anyway, onto the makeup. At the weekend I vlogged the process of packing for this trip (scroll down to the bottom of this post for that), but I thought I’d give you a blow by blow of the beauty bits that brought along with me, as it’s surprisingly slimline compared to the cartload of products that I used to drag along with me.

COMPLEXION

There’s nothing I’m going to drop in this post that will come as surprise – you know me! It all starts with the It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream (I’ve graduated up to the Light for the summer), followed by the Glossier Stretch Concealer in Light which I’m just so in love with at the moment as it’s so light and creamy for use in the summer months. I have been setting a little bit under the eyes with the MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural in Light Plus, just to keep things lasting a bit longer as I sweat off my makeup in around two minutes.

For cheeks I’m keeping things simple, adding colour with just the Marc Jacobs O!Mega Bronze Perfect Tan (which is great for travel as the mirror in it is massive – I’ve been using it every morning), a dab of the Glossier Cloud Paint in Dusk on the cheeks and then I will admit that I’ve packed two highlighters. I have no idea why because I’m producing quite the natural sheen here given the heat, but I did throw in the Glossier Haloscope in Quartz because I just want to live out the Glossier gal dream whilst I’m here and then the It Cosmetics Hello Light Creme Luminizer which adds a cool-toned glow without looking glittery.

EYES

With my eye makeup I feel like I’ve really found my uniform. In fact I can’t believe that even just a year or two ago I thought I looked better without eyeshadow. Now I like the definition it gives to my lids and I feel a bit naked if I do my makeup without it. To prime I use the NARS Pro-Prime Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base and then I either apply a little of the MAC Eyeshadow in Soba over the top if I want a shimmer-free dose of moody brown or the CHANEL Illusion D’Ombre in Mirage if I want a bronze with a bit of a metallic quality to it. To beef up my eye line and give a bit more smoke for the evenings (because CBA to reapply the whole thing), I just add some Charlotte Tilbury Rock ‘n Kohl Liner in Barbarella Brown and I’m back on the Faiydrops Scandal Queen Mascara because it makes my eyelashes so huge when they’re really not.

Brows are being catered for by the It Cosmetics Brow Power which is SO good. I haven’t used a brow pencil for yonks, but I started realising that my right brow is looking pretty sparse so I appreciate the extra pigment. Then I set them in place with the Glossier Boy Brow in Brown (hold tight UK peeps, they’re going to start shipping to us later in the year!), which adds hold without crustiness. How many times have I rolled out that sentence, eh? 

LIPS

OK, here I kept things real simple. Back in the day I would have bought glosses, balms, reds, pinks, nudes – the whole shebang, but this time round I packed just four lip things. The Glossier Generation G in Cake is my daily go-to at the moment, although it can be a little drying so I top up in the Balm Dot Com in the evenings to stop my lips looking like a cat’s behind. Then for a something a little bit extra, I bought along two colours of the It Cosmetics Your Lips But Better Waterproof Liners in Blushing Nude and Pretty In Pink. They weren’t completely necessary, but I’ve enjoyed experimenting with them recently to bulk out my rapidly disappearing lip line and give a little bit more oomph to my everyday nude colours.

So, if you’d like to see everything else that I packed – yes, I really went through every single thing, prepare for a snooze – then have a watch of this…

Photos by Lauren Shipley

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