There’s a new brunch beauty hack we never knew we needed, courtesy of Riverdale star Camila Mendes. An Instagram story posted on Friday by her costar Cole Sprouse captures the actress sitting with a plate of breakfast food at Pop’s Diner on the show’s set—when all of a sudden, she grabs a pancake and uses it to blend out her foundation.
Although we definitely don’t suggest trying it yourself—it seems like a waste of a delicious pancake, to be honest—it’s not the strangest thing people have used to blend their makeup: Ambitious beauty Instagrammers have tried all kinds of makeup sponge alternatives, including socks, tomatoes, and even a bra-insert. At one point, people had also made a thing out of wrapping beauty blenders in condoms.
Still, the video is gold, thanks to just how casual she is about repurposing her breakfast order. There’s no audio in Sprouse’s short clip, but you don’t need it to appreciate how Mendes gives “pancake makeup” a whole new meeting.
Mendes usually charms us with her hilarious social media game of trolling reported Riverdale lovebirds Sprouse and Lili Reinhart (we’re still laughing at her third wheel meme from the movie Ghost). But she’s not the only Riverdale star with a thing for makeup tips: Earlier this year, Glamour had Reinhart weigh in on several online beauty tutorials inspired by her character Betty Cooper’s looks on the show. We’ll have to wait and see if she has anything to say about using pancakes as makeup blenders.
One of my defining characteristics is my love for luxury, especially when it comes to beauty products. I love designer names, gorgeous packaging, and high quality. But, because I contain multitudes, I’m also very practical and love a good bargain. This shines through most clearly in my makeup collection. While I’ve got a Chanel compact or two (or four…), they’re anchored by a core routine of drugstore products. I love treating myself to a fancy lipstick every so often, but I also like knowing that my everyday essentials could be replaced for less than the cost of a pair of headphones if all my makeup were to be left in the back of an Uber (very possible). Plus, I love the hunt and there’s nothing more thrilling than finding a stellar product at the drugstore for a few dollars.
On top of the convenience factor, over the past few years I’ve shifted my attention to my skin care, and spending less on makeup means I can invest more in my skin. The goal, of course, is to have skin so good I can skip makeup entirely, but until then, there’s drugstore foundation. And yes, there are options just as good as the good stuff. Believe me, it took searching but I found them.
Read on for the breakdown of my daily makeup routine, which costs exactly $50 from start to finish.
Before the days of Millennial pink packaging, free sticker sheets, and models embracing a “glowy, simple girl” aesthetic, there was another fail-safe way to bait shoppers into buying beauty: sex. The old Mad Men adage of “sex sells” might finally be waning from car commercials and cigarette ads, but if you look around makeup shelves, it’s—almost shockingly—still prevalent.
Brands like Nars and Too Faced have long made practice of naming their products something tantalizingly provocative. Desire, Deep Throat, Afterglow—at a certain point, you’d think it’d make a girl want a refractory period. But seeing the success of calling a pinky-peach blush “Orgasm” or claiming that a mascara is actually Better Than Sex, brands are continually trying to bank on the hope that a racy name will grab our eyes.
And yet, all the naming innuendos are comically thirsty right now. It’s transcended lipstick and blush, where sexy naming conventions got their start. Now, highlighter, eyeshadow, and even setting spray are bringing the conversation to the bedroom. Mascara names especially wouldn’t sound out of place in an erotic novel. Bad Gal Bang? Maneater? Climax? I haven’t had sex in months, but my makeup bag is raunchy AF.
On the flip side, the argument could be made that there’s nothing wrong about wanting to feel yourself. If having Orgasm on your cheeks puts you in damn good mood, why shouldn’t you partake in that pleasure? So for one week, I put all the sex-themed makeup to work with one question in mind: Does sexy makeup actually make you feel more sexy? Or is it all just a ridiculous marketing ploy to get you to buy more stuff?
Every now and again, something so revolutionary comes along in the beauty world that it makes you re-think your entire getting ready process. The Beautyblender was one of them. When the makeup sponge hit the scene in 2007, it became instantly iconic for its ability to flawlessly buff and blend in foundation—and replaced the need for owning multiple face brushes.
In the past few years, a whole sea of sponges have hit shelves—bringing with them odd designs and different textures, ranging from drugstore prices to designer. It wasn’t until recently when I fell down a rabbit hole of YouTuber reviews that I realized just how many options are out there. A quick Ulta search delivers nearly 150 different sponges. I’ve been so loyal to my Beautyblender, I thought it was time to finally see what I was missing. So I dipped, dabbed, and tested my way through dozens of sponges to narrow down the 13 worth your time and money. Scroll on for the best makeup sponges.
You know witchy makeup when you see it: dark smoky eyes, sharp defined brows, and deep wine red or pitch black lips. And forget glowy skin: Instead of a shimmery highlighter or lively blush, it’s all undead pallor, all the time. It’s a look that’s equal parts sinister and chic, that’s marked an entire era of badass witches from The Craft to American Horror Story: Coven.
In Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, now streaming on Netflix, that same look is apparent on the witches of Greendale—except for its titular witch. Sabrina Spellman, played by Kiernan Shipka, begins her story facing a supernatural choice—whether she will pronounce her loyalty to Satan and become a full-witch in the Church of Night at her “Dark Baptism,” or remain a mortal—in noticeably natural makeup. She wears a creamy lip gloss and a rosy blush. Her eyes are unlined and shadow-free; her brows are combed with clear styling gel. That’s it.
PHOTO: Diyah Pera/Netflix
Of course, that’s no accident. According to Candice Stafford-Bridge, the makeup department head for the show, Sabrina’s natural beauty look sets the stage for her transformation over the first season. Over the course of the show, her makeup—whether light and feathery or, eventually, vamped up with the other witches—is a barometer for her allegiance to the witch’s coven.
So that bare-faced look at the show’s beginning? It’s symbolic of her innocent state: She’s uncertain about leaving her high school life behind for full-time duty in the witching world and dubious of the Satanic goings-on in the Church of Night. “We keep her young and clean-looking,” Stafford-Bridge says. “And that was really, really important: There had to be room for the character to progress, because things happen.” And, oh, do they.
PHOTO: Diyah Pera/Netflix
“I think the thing with making Kiernan less made-up is that before the Dark Baptism, she’s pure and she hasn’t chosen the so-called Dark Side,” she continues.
Then, there’s the lip, a rosy peach balm by Dior. “In the early episodes, her lips are the Dior Lip Glow in 004,” says Stafford-Bridge. “It gives her a really natural glow.”
PHOTO: Courtesy of Netflix
When Sabrina finally swipes on some dark lipstick, though, pay attention: It’s a sign that she’s considering going all-in with the coven. Take a scene in the second episode, for example, where Sabrina calls on the Weird Sisters—a trio of dark witches decked out in Bite lipstick, Anastasia Beverly Hills Eye Palettes, and stacks of false eyelashes—to assist her in pranking a group of boys who bullied her mortal friend at school.
PHOTO: Diyah Pera/Netflix
The witches lead the group of boys down into a mine that almost scares them to death. (We won’t spoil exactly what happens here, but that’s not an exaggeration.) Sabrina says she called on the Weird sisters seeking justice for a friend who was hurt, but her makeup says there’s more to the story. She arrives to hex the bullies in classically witchy makeup, courtesy of Tom Ford’s Bruised Plum purple lipstick and a black powder along her lashline. It’s dramatic, it’s dark, and it matches the Weird Sisters to a T. Her lipstick sends a message: She’s testing her powers and how much bad she’s willing to do.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Netflix
Then, there’s Sabrina’s Dark Baptism (also in episode two), which falls on Halloween and Sabrina’s sixteenth birthday. She arrives at the ceremony in a white dress and a matte red Christian Louboutin Lipstick that Stafford-Bridge calls “sixties inspired.” It’s timeless, but more dressed-up than her everyday look. Here, her lipstick is both a nod to her signature color—red plays heavily in Sabrina’s wardrobe—and a signal that Sabrina may be more converted over to the church than we think. (We won’t give away too much here, but this episode…omg.)
PHOTO: Diyah Pera/Netflix
Sabrina’s interactions with the coven increase over the season, but she’s still a student at Baxter High School by day, and her dark makeup is missing from many of her school-day scenes. “Even when we think that she’s maybe going dark, she still looks like the innocent 16-year-old with her friends in regular high school,” Stafford-Bridges adds.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Netflix
So can we expect to see Sabrina in full-blown witch makeup by the season’s end? “She’s still battling it, so she’ll never look like the Weird Sisters,” Stafford-Bridge hints. “But if that does happen, you will see a change in her makeup.”
I’ll never forget it. I was browsing at my suburban mall’s Bobbi Brown counter one day after high school, when an older woman across from me expertly drew on her eyebrows in three seconds flat. This was the halcyon days of 2009, in a world pre-eyebrow makeup boom. Brows were rarely talked about, much less marketed to, and the amount of help that the internet had to offer was basically none. Stunned, I remember saying, wow, she was so good at that. She brusquely replied that she’d done it enough, she should be. My compliment not received as intended, I was hurt. Nine years later, I get it—because it’s no longer my first rodeo, and I’ve likewise honed my brow makeup tricks.
I’ve gone in-depth about how I lost my brows, then got them back before, but the TL;DR version is that I had an eyebrow transplant while in college after a years-long battle with seborrheic dermatitis and the resulting side effects (OCD, hi). Even with the transplant, I still fill in my brows every day with some sort of eyebrow makeup. I’ve dabbled in pencils, powders, and pomades, and the latter is my longest-running favorite. These days, Lancôme’s Sourcils Gel and Sephora Collection’s Pro Brow Brush are a cemented-in part of my morning routine.
There’s no easy way to say this, but in my experience, it’s hard as hell to find your best brow shape. I followed those precise diagrams of where your arch should hit for years, only to realize in retrospect that it looked unnatural and obvious. In general, I think the best advice is to follow the lead of your natural brow shape. I’ve heard makeup artists say that you should stick to filling in the top of your brows versus the bottom, which can make your brows look heavy, but I don’t even think that’s hard-and-fast true, since sometimes I need to fill out a sparse bit in the bottom of my arch.
But along those lines, I have found one foolproof eyebrow trick. After I fill my brows in every morning, I step away from the mirror and come back with a Q-tip doused in micellar water. Bioderma, Garnier, Simple—the brand doesn’t matter so much as the Q-tip motion. Starting from my brow’s inner bottom edge, I run the Q-tip along my brow, and then slightly up into my arch and out through the tail. It’s similar to how pro makeup artists define celebrities’ brows with concealer, but where that highlights every spare hair I have, the micellar trick works like a brow lift.
Filling in the bottom of my arch is essential for keeping the innermost part flowing into the tail, but it’s hard to sketch in that area without throwing off my arch’s balance. Cleaning it up with a Q-tip from below creates this elegant, open brow shape that looks both natural and full. I only wish I could go back in time and tell my college self. In sum, save yourself.
