oh my gahhhh. I’m so excited to talk about makeup. Is this okay? Can we talk about makeup for a minute?

january beauty favorites I howsweeteats.com

After some prodding on instagram, pinterest and facebook I decided to give in and be a huge copycat: sharing a post at the end of each month about my favorite beauty stuff. Can I have one day a month to be a product junkie? Okay, good. Thank you. Even better: tomorrow I’m going to share a food, etc favorites post, so if makeup isn’t your thang, see you then.

If you’ve frequented my Crumbs section over here, you sort of know how much I love beauty products. I mean, I LOVE THEM. I have loved them since I was a tween. In my second life, I’d totally be a makeup artist. Except I’m a little skeeved out by touching other people’s faces? It’s true. But I’ve always looked at makeup as an art. I’ve never worn it to disguise or cover anything (thankfully, I realize I am lucky), but more so have worn it as… artwork. On my face. Does that make sense? It also explains why I am fascinated with every color BUT nuetral anything, so there’s that. Trust me, if I found it appropriate (and that my entire family wouldn’t disown me), I would definitely walk around with a face full of makeup like those amazing MAC makeup artists. I wish you could have seen my eyes on New Year’s Eve. I think some of my family actually DID disown me.

Anyway. Here is what I’m currently loving.

korres lip butter in jasmin I howsweeteats.com

This Korres lip butter in Jasmine. AHHH! Out of all products, lip stuff is my favorite. I have more lipgloss, balm, whatever to rival the Rite Aid down the street, but I think I’ve told you that before. I only recently picked one of these up (like around Christmas?) and have to say I’m totally hooked. Not only on the butter itself, but the color! It’s such a pretty pale pink. And it smells amazing. Nothing like jasmine, which I imagine smells florally. Or maybe it does smell like jasmine. What do I know?

MAC candy yum yum, MAC pink pigeon, guerlain I howsweeteats.com

Next up: insanely bright lipsticks. Um, yeah. This is fairly new for me. For years I have preached about how I am not a lipstick person. I’m so much more of a gloss girl. I think it’s because I love to wear crazy (and I do mean !nutso!) colors on my eyes, therefore playing down my lips. But do you see these pinks? ugh. So me. I could not resist and now I’m sold. From left to right, we have MAC Candy Yum Yum, MAC Pink Pigeon (this is currently temporary + sold out) and Guerlain Girly. Uh, we need to talk about Guerlain for a hot sec. So expensive, but I discovered it on my favorite beauty blog ever, Temptalia, and the quality is incredible. I just have to starve for like two weeks in order to afford one of these lipsticks.

faves I howsweeteats.com

Coming from a self-proclaimed mascara snob, I am adoring this loreal voluminous mascara. Last year I wrote about how I was addicted to MAC zoomlash and then later, YSL faux cils in purple. Yes, purple. I still love those two, but decided to try this, ahem, more economical one and ding ding ding – worked! I find myself reaching for it almost exclusively which says a lot.

Next up: eyeliner. For years now I’ve only used Urban Decay 24/7, not only because of how it works but because their crazy colors? Obviously right up my alley. I think I have almost every shade at this point, but my current fave is that sparkly teal-ish one that… has glitter. Shocking, right? It’s called LSD. So appropriate.

Blush I’ve lived on: any and everything Tarte. The above two colors are my most used: exposed is the more neutral color and fantastic is the pink one. I use them both equally depending on what I do with my eyes/lips. Fantastic came in a gift set of four and as of right now, I don’t think it’s a permanent color. These have totally over taken my use of that “favorite” Nars blush which I later decided – is not my favorite at all. It sort of oxidized on my face and turned orangey, and even though I used it for years, I think it always did that and I was just trying to be cool and love it since everyone else did. Over that. I’m growing up.

trader joe's coconut body butter I howsweeteats.com

A given: this is the only body cream I am using at the moment. I want to eat my arm off like every single day.

face! I howsweeteats.com

Face things! First up, I was so excited to see Yes to Carrots come out with grapefruit products. Grapefruit is one of my favorite scents (and fruits) ever. My cousin first introduced me to the vast selection of face wipes and while I use many different ones, I’m currently loving these due to their scent.

Next, this Korres Wild Rose Sleeping Facial. I’ll be honest – this was a big impulse purchase when I grabbed the lip butter above. I always just use that super heavy Cetaphil moisturizing cream at night but was sucked in by the words “advanced brightening.” Um, I love this. A word of warning: it definitely smells like roses or something floraly. It is STRONG. Which makes practically zero sense since I just whined above about how I hate floraly scents, but this… reminds me of my grandma. I don’t know. It just smells like an old lady. It’s comforting or something. Not to mention it is perfectly moisturizing and absorbs quickly. I have slightly dry, slightly sensitive but very normal skin and this is awesome.

Last year I talked about my infatuation with the Smashbox eye brightener, but I have since stumbled upon this Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Brightener. As you can see, it is pink. It is SO brightening. I have pretty pale skin with cool undertones, and this is perfect. I actually wear it alone and love it.

MAC Fix+. Yeah yeah – some people say that spritzing water on your face after you do your makeup will give you the same effect, but I beg to differ. As someone who strives for the “glowy and dewy” skin constantly, this is amazing. It’s one thing that I use daily, no matter what.

bond no. 9 west side perfume I howsweeteats.com

Can I have a favorite out of my favorites? This is it. Last year I mentioned that I had discovered Bond No. 9 West Side, but could not justify the price at ALL. Actually, I didn’t “discover it,” but moreso was accosted in Nordstrom by a sales associate and tricked into smelling a million perfumes until I wanted to gag. I was pretty partial to my longtime favorites though and there was no way I was paying for that perfume. Then. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. For over six months, I sprayed it on myself every time I came across it, hoping to find something similar. I researched perfumes that had similar undertones, hoping to find a cheaper version. Every time I sprayed it, I thought about it for DAYS. I didn’t even want to wear my go-to scents anymore. Luckily, I ended up getting it for Christmas (sort of shocked) and now we have a major problem: I can’t stop wearing it. I spray it on myself even when I spend 12 hours in the kitchen, cooking ALONE. I need to stop. It’s bad.

FYI: I have never gotten so many compliments on a scent before so if you are considering taking the plunge… it’s worth it.

Also: I’m a terrible influence.

(Note: that is an amazon affiliate link; it is considerably cheaper purchasing any Bond No. 9 perfumes from Amazon as opposed to Nordstrom or Saks.)

kenra blow dry spray I howsweeteats.com

Hair stuff: freaking out over this Kenra blow dry spray. I can’t say enough good things about it. !!!!! I have a ton of hair and it takes eons to dry. This not only protects it (I guess?) but it reduces the drying time by a third, maybe more? It is incredible and I’m sort of pissed I haven’t been using it my entire life. If you wash your hair every other day or so, it lasts a long time too.

revlon midnight I howsweeteats.com

Lastly: this Revlon polish in midnight. I’m all for glittery pinks and pastels but realize that I need to not always act like I’m 17, so am trying to drag out the dark colors until February or so. We will see how that goes. Regardless, I wore this all through November and December too. Big heart.

Whew. That was long. Okay party people. Back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Oh but first, tell me what you’re loving right now. Because clearly… I really need MORE products. Oomph.