Forget whipped coffee, whipped strawberry milk is the latest beverage to take the internet by storm.
As most people continue to practice social distancing amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many have turned to cooking, baking lots of banana bread, and whipping up just about any pretty treat that will impress their TikTok followers.
For a few weeks, dalgona coffee was everywhere. It’s a simple drink made from a blend of instant coffee, sugar, and hot water whipped into a cloud-like froth and served over ice and milk. Not to mention, it’s fun to make. Even Lizzo tried (and failed) to make it during her own quarantine.
Now, there’s a new—and very pink—option for those looking for a caffeine-free alternative. The best part? It’s even easier to make. According to one recipe shared by food influencer Valentina Mussi (@sweetportfolio), all you need is two ingredients: 1tbsp of strawberry Nesquik and 4tbsp (1/4 cup) of heavy whipping cream.
Similar to whipped coffee, this colorful version requires lots of mixing and whipping with either an electric mixer or a mixture by hand. Once it’s fluffy, fill your glass with ice and milk before topping it with a few spoonfuls of the cream.
“Mix it until your arm is numb and serve over cold or hot milk,” Mussi explains. If you’re feeling fancy, you can even dust the rim of your glass with powder and add a fresh strawberry on top. Sounds like the perfect drink to pair with your latest batch perfect chocolate chip cookies…Just saying.
If you’re not into strawberry, Mussi also shared recipes for cocoa and Nutella-whipped drinks. Just whisk together 1/2 teaspoon cocoa (or a spoonful of Nutella), 1 teaspoon sugar, and 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream to create your very own—and much more Instagrammable—Starbucks Frappuccino.
People all over Instagram are obviously obsessed with the pink drink.
William Shakespeare may have written King Lear during the plague, but we’re revolutionizing milk. Honestly, I love this journey for us.
A great trip—whether you’re escaping for a weekend or jetting off on a long-haul flight to an unexplored destination—is arguably one of the best parts of the year. However, it can also be a bit of a hassle: We’ve all dealt with suitcases that break on day three of a week-long trip, freezing cold flights in recycled air, or hotels where the walls are just that much too thin to get a good night’s sleep. As a travel writer living in Berlin, I’m usually off somewhere—and because of such, I’m usually the friend everyone comes to for reccs on how to make traveling easier. My secret? I couldn’t live between flights without a lounge pass I snag from LoungeBuddy: An indulgent-but-not-obscene spend (between $30-40 in most cases) yields a restorative shower, a hot, not-fast-food meal (and, often, a free glass or two of wine)—and, most importantly, the sanity that comes from not having to set up camp and search for WiFi and outlets between flights in crowded airport terminals.
For our series “To Me, From Me,” I posed the same question to women who travel almost constantly for work. What’s the one thing they swear by—and aren’t afraid to splash out on—that makes their on-the-go lifestyles a little smoother and a heck of a lot less stressful? Read on for their picks, from a $48 restorative overnight facial you can fall asleep in (hello, jet lag) to a $550 carryon that holds up trip after trip (after trip).
We all know how hard it is to leave Sephora with just one item. You know the feeling when you go in there for just an eyeliner and you walk out with a bag full of products? Yeah, us too. And after a couple trips to the register, it feels good to be rewarded for our irresponsible purchases. Sephora has felt our pain over the years and decided to completely revamp its Beauty Insider Program, which means we’re able to save even more. And in even better news, these changes are happening as soon as this month—August 14 to be exact.
As a little FYI, Sephora’s Beauty Loyalty program is broken down into three forms of membership, which is determined based on how much you spend per year. There’s Insider, which you can become by walking in and making a purchase once; VIB, if you spend $350 or more in a calendar year; and Rogue, if you rack up $1,000 in a year. And if you’re one of the customers who always takes the time to fill out those email surveys about changes you want to see, feel free to thank yourself. These changes were made because of membership feedback. Hello, customer appreciation!
VIB and Rogue members will especially benefit from this makeover. Here are some insights into the changes and how you can get more bang for your buck:
Points Per $1: Now when you check out at the register, your points will have even more value. According to Allure, VIB members will now earn 1.25 points for every dollar spent, while Rouge members will now earn 1.5. (The ratio for Insiders will stay at one to one.)
Profile Access: Keeping track of all these points and rewards will be easier than ever, thanks to streamlined and simplified profiles that make it easy to figure out your status, point totals, and potential rewards.
Birthday Gifts: We all look forward to choosing our birthday gifts and while members across all three levels receive a birthday gift, VIB and Rouge members will be able to choose either a gift or 250 extra points.
Rewards: The Rewards Bazaar (where you can trade in those points for rewards) will now have five times as many rewards at the 750+ point level, including two to three full-size products for VIB and Rouge members. Expect more reward options in general, with choices in color, hair care, skin care, fragrance, and even wellness. Rouge members will now also have the option to redeem 2,500 points for a $100 Rouge Reward to use on their favorite Sephora products.
Courtesy of Sephora
Of course, nothing feels better than getting a deal on top of a deal—which is why we polled our editors for the tricks they use to make the best of their time (and money) at Sephora. Feel free to steal any and all while you put the new perks to use.
Sign up for the Insider Newsletter. “I know—you need another email in your inbox like a hole in your head, but this one is surprisingly worth it. The newsletter often tips you off first when big sales are coming up, and every week, I always look forward to seeing which stuff will be 50 percent off for the Weekly Wow.” —Maureen Choi, beauty contributor
Download the Sephora app. “The last thing any of us need is another app with push notifications, but Sephora’s app is legit. It’ll ping you when good deals are on the horizon and a lot of time they have app-exclusive sales that you wouldn’t otherwise know about.” —Lindsay Schallon, senior beauty editor
Cash in your VIB points in-store. “A little-known fact worth repeating: If you’re a Beauty Insider of any level, you have to make a purchase online in order to cash in points for products. However, this isn’t the case in-store. You can just pop up at the counter, ask to trade them in, and walk out with a free mini haul.” —Sarah Michelson, beauty assistant
Ask for free samples. “Most people think the only place you can get fragrance samples is at department store counters. But if you ask, most of the time they’ll give you those mini tubes at Sephora. Fragrance is so particular, I always want to give it a full test drive before I buy it.” —Tess Kornfeld, editorial assistant
Sign up for a free beauty class or treatment. “Sephora is constantly holding free and free-with-purchase beauty classes where you can master new tricks and get treatments. I recently tried its pore vacuum facial, and let me tell you, the results were insane. You do have to spend $75 in the store to get it, but let’s be real, it’s about what you’d spend on two products anyway. That money goes fast.” —Rachel Nussbaum, beauty writer
Nearly 26 years after Virginia Kase voted in her first election, her voice still rings with the hurt and frustration she felt that day. “I [was] excited. It [was] this great rite of passage [and] I go to the table to register, and I look over and my mom’s having a problem.”
While it was the first time Kase, now 46, had ever set foot in a polling station, her foster mother—originally from Puerto Rico—was a regular voter. Still, Kase said, “Her English wasn’t perfect. Sometimes people didn’t understand her. So I went over to make sure she was okay and able to communicate… They were asking her for proof of residence. And I was horrified.”
Now, in her first interview as the incoming CEO of the League of Women Voters, Kase told Glamour that the memory of feeling powerless to intervene on behalf of her own mother brings a deeply personal dimension to her new mission: Helping as many Americans as possible exercise their right to vote.
“I never want anybody to have to go through what my mom went through,” Kase said during a phone conversation.”She was able to vote that day. She went home, she got a utility bill, she came back, she slammed it on the table, and she made sure that her vote counted… But there are a lot of women who don’t have that same comfort with going back and doing what they need to do.”
Kase comes to the League with a track record of work with organizations focused on immigrant and civil rights. Until mid-July, she’s COO of CASA and CASA in Action, where her responsibilities range from political strategy to collective bargaining. (Her tenure at the League begins July 25.) No stranger to politics, her background also includes years spent with organizations that addressed youth gang violence and fostered career training in her hometown of Hartford, Connecticut.
She joins the nonpartisan League—founded in 1920, the same year American women won the right to vote—in the sprint to November’s crucial midterm elections.
“I think that women are going to do tremendous things this year. It’s a unique time in our history,” Kase said.
“One of the things [that] drew me to the League— in addition to [the] historic significance of this amazing organization that is nearly 100 years old—is this renewed focus on diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said. “Lifting up women of color [and] also bringing more young women into the fold [are] two things that for me are extremely important.”
A wealth of research suggests requiring photo ID or even proof of citizenship can have an outsized impact on minority, young, and low-income voters. The strictest proposals, championed in the name of election integrity, have run into trouble in the courts; President Donald Trump’s own claims of widespread voter fraud remain unproven.
“It’s extraordinarily important that we make voting as easy as possible. We don’t want to create barriers,” Kase said. “It’s unjust, and something that the League will continue to fight against to ensure that everybody is able to exercise their Constitutional right to vote.”
Kase, now herself a mother of two, says her first vote back in 1992 was the moment when she “realized that my perfect English, the way that I look, was different from my mom. [It] really showed me the privilege that existed within me, and that I needed to do something about it.”
The University of Maryland graduate will bring that memory to the new job—along with the backstory of coming up in Hartford at a time when youth violence was so bad that a National Guard-run program for high school dropouts was shut down after being overrun by gangs. “I grew up in a community where people went to jail,” says Kase. That experience shaped her interest in another goal: Restoring voting rights to people who have lost them after a felony conviction.
But, with all the work of engaging women voters and helping them exercise their right ahead of her, does Kase believe American politics can really be changed by the so-called “pink wave?”
“I hope so. I think the wave has been coming for a long time. Even since before Donald Trump, women are educating themselves [more] on the issues, and you have organizations like the League [that] are focused on making sure that people have the right information,” she said. “I do hope that people turn out in record numbers this year, [just] as we [are seeing] more women run for office this year than in years before… Certainly, we’re gonna work our butts off to make that happen.”
There’s a special place in my heart for fun, cheap eyeliner markers. Back in the day—pre-Stila and Kat Von D—I could only find bright eyeliner colors in beauty supply stores. Even now that I’ve got options (and access), I can’t really help myself when walking past Sally Beauty. It doesn’t help that I’m eyeshadow illiterate. A crease cut alludes me, but a cat eye is my jam. There’s an obvious downside to cheap eyeliner pens though: most of them are really smudgy. Budge-proof liner comes with a price that I’d rather not pay. Instead, I’ve mastered the art of the touch-up.
Makeup wipes were my go-to for years, but they can be irritating, especially if they get in your eyes, and you almost always lose a layer of foundation or hard-earned highlight when you go the wipe route. Makeup remover swabs are great if you have space in your purse for a box of them, but I’ve found that even the best ones require a bit too much rubbing. This fall, I found a third option that beats out both wipes and fancy Q-tips and works so well that I’ve been rolling in compliments on my “perfect” cat-eye abilities. While it’s nice that people think I’m extra-skilled with eyeliner, the truth is I’m not. I just keep a stash of Lashfood’s Chamomile Makeup Erasers in my makeup bags, totes, and purses.
Here’s how it works: the tip of the pen is made of charcoal. If you’ve ever worn a charcoal face mask you already know it has an uncanny ability to suck up dirt, and the same goes for this little makeup eraser. The formula inside the pen contains a lot of the same ingredients as the hardest working makeup wipes, but it’s infinitely easier to use. It’s more precise, there’s less waste, less mess, and doesn’t leave my eyes feeling irritated thanks to an infusion of chamomile.
It’s also great for when your lipstick feathers or migrates onto your chin after lunch and helps tone down brows if you go too hard when filling them in. It works just as well on bright colors as deep, dark pigments, and while it’s only available on the Lashfood website, for now, it’s well worth the $18 (think about it, that’s like three cheap eyeliners). The best part, honestly, is that these little pens fit right into my life, which is the whole point of beauty tools: they should make makeup easier and let you do you with minimal hassle. With this eraser, consider that mission accomplished.
In theory, contour seems like the dreamweaver of beauty techniques. A dusting of powder under your cheekbones, a slight shadow on the side of your forehead, and if Instagram is to believed, just like that you’re a sculpted piece of artwork with cut-glass features. In reality? No. Contouring: Game of Shadows sounds like a YA franchise, but it’s on the money—this stuff is hard. So when I sat down in a makeup artist’s chair at an Artis event a few weeks ago, I was determined to leave with her most basic, dumbed-down, 100-percent-can’t-mess-up contouring trick. What I learned: contouring’s golden rule is legitimately foolproof.
According to makeup artist Liani Reyes, the trick has actually been in front of us this whole time. Just by force of habit, I used to follow classic Instagram vlogger protocol and suck in my cheeks before dusting contour powder in the hollows (you know, the “fishy face” method). While that helps with general placement, Reyes says the technique actually has most people extending their shadow too far forward, which is how contour veers from believable into the land of, “ah, everyone can see I tried to do this and failed.” You wouldn’t naturally have a shadow fall super far down your face, so when you do, it loses the placement that makes contouring convincing. Not trying to say “we’ve been lied to,” but fishy face: how could you?
The rule Reyes lives by instead is stupid easy. Pull a fishy face again, and ready your contour brush. Then, sweep your powder into the hollow under your cheekbone, but stop blending directly below where your eyebrow ends. Done. It’s just that easy. As Reyes explains, the imaginary eyebrow barrier is like a bowling lane bumper for your contour. And I can confirm: after using the technique for a few weeks, I haven’t looked like I have dirt on my face once. I look like I have cheekbones, and it’s not stressful. It’s incredible.
As for what contouring product you choose, I’m ride or die for Kevyn Aucoin’s The Sculpting Contour Powder, which hits the ideal gray-toned brown to look like a shadow on my cool skin. In general, makeup artists like Sir John say that your contouring product of choice shouldn’t be more than two colors deeper than your skin tone. Light to medium complexions should look for taupe and similar gray brown shades, while women with dark skin tones should go warmer and pick up slightly reddish options like Benefit’s Hoola Cream-to-Powder Quickie Contour Stick.
Deciding between textures, it’s your call. Sheer-leaning powders like the Aucoin are good for beginners, while creams are more dramatic if you’re heading into a night of dim lighting. Whichever product you go with, rest easy: with your eyebrows to guide you, it’s tough to mess up.
