@KhyleyBT I’ve also had that MUFE face palette on my Loves List forseeminglyever. I finally bought it yesterday because who am I to pass up a good discount? 😂 Glad you love yours, and that you get lots of use out of it!
I keep missing the Monthly Favorites threads lately, so this’ll be an October & November roundup:
Boy Smells Violet Ends Eau de Parfum 2.2 oz / 65 mL eau de parfum spray- a repeat monthly fave. I’ve described Violet Ends who knows how many times by now 😅 so I won’t do that again here. But yeah, it might be my all-time favorite smoky violet incense fragrance. It’s definitely my favorite Boy Smells fragrance, excluding their candles. EDIT - here’s my Violet Ends description from an older Monthly Favorites thread:
Spoiler
Boy Smells Violet Ends - the first Boy Smells fragrance I ever bought. On me, it’s a peppery tobacco spiced leather + iris + violet, with some bergamot, a fruity sweetness (probably the rhubarb Boy Smells says is in there), a wood note (not cedar or sandalwood), some olibanum, and a hint of black tea.
It begins as your favorite sassy aunt or uncle, wearing their decades-old leather jacket and filling their tobacco pipe, handing you an open tin of loose leaf bergamot black tea and telling you to take a slice of the freshly baked rhubarb pie on their kitchen table beside a pepper grinder and a vase of violets and irises. It dries down to you and that same relative swapping “remember when" stories while lounging on an old leather sofa in front of a lit fireplace after sunset, warm pipe smoke in the air, more violets and irises on the coffee table, crickets chirping somewhere in the night.
If you’ve ever smelled Boy Smells Hinoki Fantôme Eau de Parfum 2.2 oz / 65 mL eau de parfum spray , I usually call that fragrance Violet Ends’ slightly tamer sister. (I do also love Hinoki Fantôme, especially the candle.) Violet Ends has more bite, probably from its violet and pepper notes.
Chanel Rouge Allure Liquid Velvet shade 236 Ensorcelante - I’ve had it just 10-15 days and I’m already in love with it. Wearable as a one-coat tint or a two-coat full deep purple. Dries down to a demi-matte finish that’s not really transfer-proof, and I’m fine with that. It’s lightweight and very comfy over my usual base coat of Aquaphor Ointment. This is my first Liquid Velvet and I think I need more of ‘em in my lipstick hoard. Here are my lip swatch photos:
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Top: 1 coat. Bottom: 2.5 coats, around 5 minutes after application.
2 hours after application and frequently drinking water through a straw.
Lisa Eldridge Rouge Experience Refillable Lipstick shade Audrey - a refillable and fully recyclable lipstick. This coral pink shade was a gamble for me, but I wound up loving it. The formula is fantastic: fragrance-free, truly lightweight, moisturizing/non-drying, and medium opaque coverage that’s buildable to full opacity. I’m waiting for an unavailable shade to come in stock so I can buy it as a refill. Might as well share my lip swatch photo of this one, too:
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Why yes, those are half-frame readers sitting on the end of my nose. I can’t read stuff without ‘em. 😄
Lisa Eldridge Liquid Silk Liquid Eyeshadow shade Thalia - the matte version of Lisa’s shimmer liquid shadows. Applies smoothly with a brush or finger, blends out easily (though I do need to work quickly), and sets to a kinda tacky texture that can hold other shadows in place. I’ve used this rosewood shade as a full lid shadow and a base for other shadows.
NARS Total Seduction Eyeshadow Stickshade Fated-a beautiful aubergine shade that needs a primer of some sort, otherwise it creases/transfers a lot. I’ve frequently paired it with a full lid of the LE’s Thalia for a quick and easy smoky purple eye that stays put. I find these updated NARS shadow sticks are well pigmented and very easy to work with—almost too blendable—compared to the brand’s old shadow sticks.
Note: I could’ve also included several palettes and single shadows as monthly faves this time around. But when I really thought about what I’ve used most often on my eyes the last couple months, I drastically narrowed the list. Since September, I’ve used the above liquid and stick shadows with various palettes, eyeliners, and single shadows.
Sonia G. Summer Koi Brush Set - I’ve near-exclusively used these four goat hair eyeshadow brushes for 2 months now. Aside from looking beautiful (and having a maki-e design that’s symbolically special to me), each brush performs amazingly well. I frequently use one of ‘em to blend undereye concealer. The other three (all four, really) have gotten to know my eyelids very well. These are true workhorses, even by Sonia G. standards—and that says a lot, since many of her brushes are daily task managers.
Phytosurgence Skin Spark Blush Balms - Ignite is the shade I’ve used most often, so I won’t include ‘em all in my photo. A little goes a very long way, but I can blend my way out of accidental overapplication. Like my other Phytosurgence blush shades, Ignite has a natural skin finish and lasts all day. My favorite thing about these blushes might be the subtle shade differences: my cheeks are partly hyperpigmented, so I like to use a couple of these blush shades as base color adjusters and use another blush (from this or another brand) on top. I do also wear these blushes solo. It’ll be fun to see how long it takes me to empty a jar.
SEPHORA COLLECTION Essential Brush - 05 Highlighter- what I often use to apply Phytosurgence blushes. I LOVEthe SEPHORA COLLECTION PRO Blush Brush #99for cream blush, but it’s too big to dip into these little jars. The 05 Highlighter is small enough for the job, yet just large enough to stamp + buff on my cheeks. It’s a flat round brush (my favorite shape of cheek brush) that has some splay without being too floppy—perfect for the way I like to apply cream blush in general. I bought a second one during the Holiday Savings Event.
And how about a few skincare faves?
When Abib discontinued their Heartleaf Stone bar cleanser, I scrambled to find a replacement so I wouldn’t have to worry about nursing the heck outta my stockpiled bars. I found 2 winners this fall:
Abib Heartleaf Foam Acne Foam Cleanser - I always used the Heartleaf Stone instead of this cream cleanser because the latter contains wintergreen extract. Mint extracts usually tick my facial skin off. But so far, this cleanser’s played very nice with my skin, hooray! It’s a very thick cream and I need just a very small amount to wash my face and neck. It lathers up and rinses without leaving my skin feeling tight/“squeaky clean” or filmy. Bonus points for having no fragrance.
La Roche-Posay Mela B3 Gel Cleanser - this one does have fragrance, but it’s a very subtle scent that hasn’t sent my skin into tantrum mode. I initially just wanted to test LRP’s marketing claims. I didn’t expect this gel cleanser to be so non-drying, but here it is on my monthly faves list. 😅 It even performs much better for me than LRP’s Lipikar cleanser. I happily alternate between this and the above Abib cleanser.
COSRX The 6 Peptide Skin Booster - not a cleanser but definitely a favorite, especially now that fall weather’s rolled in. This serum’s kinda like a slightly moisturizing/emollient counterpart of The Ordinary Multi-Peptide + HA Serum, one of my skin’s longtime best friends (tangent: I still call it “Buffet”). It leaves my skin feeling hydrated and plushly soft. When temps drop below 20ºF, my skin will appreciate this serum even more.
