Favorite Products This Month

August/September is always a month when I start trying tweaking my routine, and always a time I struggle with reactive skin! It's a little like the chicken and the egg, and I'm never quite sure which comes first.

Some of my favorite products this month are helping me transition into fall a little early, while managing my complex skin:

• Eos lip balm - great to keep my smacker supple and keep flakes and dryness at bay.

• No.7 nude lip liner - a recent find. It's a perfect soft rose pink that suits my natural coloring just fine. I don't find a lip liner that does this often.

• Sephora Collection Colorful Palette in Almost Nude 09 - all great colors. Palettes are REALLY hot right now. They inspire, help look pulled together, and can fit in your travel plans well.

• Flat synthetic eye brush to push eyeshadow or gel eyeliner into the eyelash roots. Boosts eye look and makes eyelashes look thicker. Great with black or brown eyeshadow, or with a sparkly special eyeshadow for an evening out.

• A good eyebrow shape. Getting your brows done professionally a couple of times a year may be just enough to remind me to keep them tidy with pencils, powder, brushes, and tweezers the rest of the year.
• Revlon Colorstay Foundation is a must for long days, strange skin splotches that need hiding behind a skillful brushstroke, and to help look smooth and polished all day long.

• Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel (!) which I just discovered at Target. Great colors, smaller bottle so you could potentially go through it more often and try different colors? Maybe you''ll end up using less because it lasts longer. It promises gel-like shine. So far so good. I bought Cayenne (such a versatile orangey pink), Calla Lily (a perfect shimmering white), and Vintage Rose. Both the Cayenne and Vintage Rose look great with a layer of Calla Lily on top!

• Benzoyl Peroxide and a concealer or eyeliner brush. A must to spot-treat in a hygienic, non-irritating way. 

• The back of my hand has proven to be a trusty ally in my blotting, testing, and mixing of various colors, concealers, and other assorted face products. Flick, tick, and dab all your applicators and brushes before touching them to your face with any product. You'll be sure you'll be light handed and you can always build up versus not always being able to take product off!

• A few E.L.F. brushes to see whether there's a world of brushes out there for me to test besides MAC, Ulta, and Studio Gear.

• CeraVe Moisturizing face wash, to help reactive skin pacify and treat flakiness, without weighing it down with moisturizers and creams.

• L'Oreal Paris EverStyle Curl Defining Gel; EverSleek finishing cream and leave-in creme. Great products to mix and match depending on the weather and my sometimes wavy/sometimes knotty hair's condition at any particular time.