There are few more basic joys than clicking on a lighted makeup mirror when you’re getting ready in the morning—except for maybe coffee. Sure, you can do your makeup just fine under the fluorescent lights in your bathroom or on the selfie camera of your phone, but why would you want to? Not to mention, having a back-up mirror all to yourself comes in incredibly handy on days when you’re scrambling to get to work, but your partner or roommate calls first dibs on the bathroom.
Nowadays, there’s no shortage of options if you’re looking to find the best lighted makeup mirror—no matter how technologically advanced you want to get. There are mirrors with built-in phone chargers and USB ports, ones that’ll tell you the weather (yes, really), and others that’ll let you easily check emails so you can do the most before leaving the house. We tested lighted makeup mirrors with all these bells and whistles and more.
Whether you’re looking for a tabletop vanity mirror with big light fixtures, or one to get up close and personal with 10x magnification (useful when applying lashes, but maybe a little dangerous when you start trying to squeeze out blackheads), you don’t need to be a pro to have one. Ahead, Glamour editors weigh in on the best lighted makeup mirror in their arsenal.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Asking a beauty professional—whether it’s a celebrity hairstylist, makeup artist, or Instagram influencer (hi, 2019)—for advice is always a safe bet. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find there are plenty of other women out there who are legitimate authorities in their own right. In our column, Unlikely Experts, they’ll give real reviews and recommendations. Whether it’s surfers on the best conditioners, bikers on the best cleansers, or ballerinas on the best foot creams, it’s fair to say these women know best.
Every Halloween around 3 million Americans willingly pay money to be scared shitless at a haunted house. No longer just a Halloween hobby, haunted attractions have evolved into a million-dollar industry and full-on experiences, including covering guests in blood, strapping them to hospital beds, or promising $20,000 to those who survive. While I personally will never understand handing over your hard-earned cash in exchange for being traumatized, there’s certainly an art to creating a truly terrifying experience. The set and scenery play a crucial role in creating the environment, of course, but the real scare factor is courtesy of the actors doing the lurking, grabbing, and spooking, all with a face of makeup that’s the stuff nightmares are made of.
Creating a successful monster goes beyond simply creating a horrifying look (although that’s definitely a huge part of it), but the makeup also must last through several hours of sweating and screaming, and be easy enough to remove at the end of the night. While some scare actors (as they’re called in the biz) do their own makeup, most large haunts have a whole team dedicated to creating dripping wounds, rotting flesh, and terrifying teeth night after night.
While scrolling through Instagram is a great way to get inspired, if you want to know what products really get the job done, turn to haunted houses. We spoke to six scare actors and makeup artists from the best haunted attractions in the country on the products they rely on season after season.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Courtesy of Aryn Fox
“This a classic exorcist meets ghoul face that is the base of a lot of our more human looks,” says Aryn Fox, makeup manager and actor at The Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati, OH. Fox is a self-taught makeup artist who got her start playing with special effect makeup as a goth kid, but has being doing makeup at the Schoolhouse for 10 years now. For the above look, she uses Mehron Celebre Cream Color in alabaster for a “ghoulish base,” and she loves that it stays on through heavy sweating. For the veins and texture she mixes the European Body Art SFX Alcohol Palette with 99% alcohol, and to create the black drip she mixes Ben Nye Character Powder in charcoal with the alcohol to “mimic black ooze and blood.” To finish off the look she adds colored contacts and tooth color, “nothing makes me more ready to scare than some added tooth rot!”
These days it’s nearly impossible to know what women are spending on the way they look. Someone with Instagram-flawless contouring might have honed her craft using the finest from the drugstore aisles, and the utterly makeup-free type might be spending thousands on laser treatments and serums. Enter our series What It Costs to Be Me, in which we’re asking interesting women for radical transparency.
Next up? Lori Taylor Davis, global pro lead artist for Smashbox, 52, from Los Angeles. Her grand total? $9,091
If you’ve ever admired that bronzy, sun-kissed California makeup look celebrated by, well, basically everyone, chances are you’ve got Lori Taylor Davis to thank: the global pro artist for Los Angeles-based Smashbox (and a born and raised Angeleno herself), Davis has been creating her signature glowy, natural looks all around the world for over two decades. She’s also a beauty enthusiast to the core and has been since childhood. “My entrée into makeup was through my two grandmothers. They were my personal beauty influencers,” says Davis. “They both had trays of perfumes, Avon lipsticks…they were full-on glamazons. One of my grandmothers would wear incredible lashes and wigs, like a little Diana Ross. My first makeup came from her. Of course, it was makeup designed for someone much older than me and the colors weren’t right, but I would literally go to school in a full beat.” That beauty curiosity and infectious enthusiasm is instantly apparent when Davis runs through her regimen, whether she’s detailing her handmade Ayurvedic hair oil recipe, her latest Smashbox loves, her treatment splurges, or her “seven layer dip” skin-care routine.
My shower routine: $295
My poor husband has no room for his things in the shower. We have five tiers of products in the shower, and I fill up every shelf! For my body, I use a neem oil soap ($5) that’s super-natural and really moisturizing. For shower gel, I go between Dr. Bronner’s Almond Castile Soap ($11) and a body wash from that new brand Nécessaire ($25). It smells so good: like eucalyptus but not overpowering, and also somehow very fresh and citrusy. I love that scent. Sometimes I use a scrub from Mario Badescu ($26) to exfoliate, and I also like to wash with a natural sea sponge ($10) or a scrubby mitt—I always see the ladies at the Korean spa using them, and I can get a bunch for something like $1 each on eBay.
Because I have naturally curly hair I don’t necessarily shampoo that often, but I do always work in some kind of conditioner every time I shower. For natural hair you always want to have the right amount of moisture, and you want to get a good curl pattern after you wash. My friend is into Ayurvedic skin care, so I have a special custom oil blend that I mix up myself and put into all my conditioners (read my recipe for it below). I add it into every conditioner I own, and sometimes I’ll just apply some of the oil mixture directly onto my roots. That’s my one little secret-secret potion—that oil is like my superhero costume for my hair, and it makes my hair a lot healthier. The conditioner I currently use is Bumble Bb Curl conditioner ($34). It’s not too heavy, but it still manages to do a lot for my curls. I shampoo twice a week at the absolute most—for my hair, the conditioner plus my oil potion sort of is the wash, it’s a co-wash. When I do shampoo every so often, I use Living Proof ($27).
Few Halloween costume ideas are more timeless and easy to put together than Harley Quinn. Not only are her painted pigtails and smudged lipstick ripe for Instagram, they also don’t require the patience or skill needed for most Halloween makeup. Plus, with Joker smashing box office records, going as Gotham’s bad girl this year feels particularly of-the-moment.
So with that in mind, we teamed up with makeup artist Lijha Stewart (also known as the “Queen of Halloween”) to break down all the advice you need to nail Harley Quinn’s makeup. Read on for the full step-by-step tutorial.
How to DIY Harley Quinn Makeup
Level of difficulty: Easy. If you can smudge on some makeup and throw your hair into pigtails second-grade-style, you’ll be able to do this no problem.
Amount of time required: One hour, max.
What you’ll need: -Your favorite matte foundation -A contour stick -Matte, loose powder -Highlighter -A rosy blush -Your brow product of choice -Red and blue eyeshadow -Black and white eyeliner pencils -Red and blue eye glitter (optional) -Scotch tape (optional) -False eyelashes (optional) -Red lipstick -Cotton swabs -Black liquid eyeliner -Red and blue hair chalk or hair paint
Step 1: Contour and highlight
Katie Friedman
Even though Harley’s skin is really pale in the movie, to make it more life-like and wearable, we contoured in a few key areas. Swipe a sculpting stick down your cheekbones, at your hairline, underneath your lips, and on your collar bones. Blend it out with your fingers or a buffing brush.
In an effort to still capture that angsty, washed-out look, set everything with a matte, loose powder and keep the highlighting to a strategic minimum, placing it only in certain places like underneath your brow bone and in the inner corner of your eyes.
For light or scarce brows, “It’s best to start with a brow wax so that any color you put on after sticks,” says Stewart. With a spoolie brush, apply a light coating of the wax and brush hairs upward and outward. Then, with an angled brush, apply your desired shade in light strokes.
The trick to getting eyes like Harley Quinn’s isn’t in how you smudge your shadow—it’s about the pigment you use. While regular shadows are great and can sometimes offer intense color payoff, it’s best to opt for a cream here. You can literally smudge it on with your fingers if you’d like, but laying it on with a medium-size eyeshadow brush will do just fine. To get that splattered effect, take whatever color is left on your brush from the initial application and drag it outward and downward. Oh, and don’t forget to use two different brushes for your red and blue. Mixing them will make both colors muddy—not the look you’re aiming for here.
This isn’t the first time Jamil has expressed her love for a quick beauty routine. Just last Friday, Jamil came to the Glamour x Tory Burch Women to Watch lunch looking flawless thanks to her own makeup and hair routine. And in January, she also shared with reporters at the Golden Globes that she got ready all by herself then too.
“I’ve never had a stylist, I don’t have a makeup artist. Hair and makeup doesn’t have to be this, like, 45-minute extravaganza. I can do my makeup in five minutes,” she said.
However, she also noted that she’s not against a made-up face, rather, she’s against it becoming someone’s entire worth.
“I don’t have a problem with a little bit of makeup. David Bowie wore makeup, Bruno Mars definitely wears some makeup, and they’re not reduced to nothing more than just that,” Jamil said. Wearing a bit of makeup just brings attention to what you’ve already got.”
While you might expect the line to be over the top, it’s surprisingly minimal and comprises only four products: Glam Attack Liquid Shimmer Powders, RIP Lip Liners, Le Riot Glosses, and Eye-lie-ner Liquid Eyeliner. The products were mostly inspired by what Gaga and Tanno found to be lacking in the market, as well as some of Gaga’s necessities. And, of course, they were all “Gaga tested” on the star and her dancers during her Enigma shows. If they’re strong enough to withstand that, they should work for us.
We had Glamour editors ranging from casual listeners to super fans put the products to the test to see what’s worth your money. Read on for our honest reviews.
Courtesy of brand
Gaga and Tanno couldn’t find a glitter that stayed put for an entire show yet came off with a single wipe, so they created one. These multi-use pigments can be used all over your face (Gaga likes to use the shade Rose B*tch on her eyes, lips, and cheeks) and don’t budge once set. Tanno likes a brush to apply it, but you can also use your fingers, as long as you shake them before using them.
Bella Cacciatore
“As a huge Gaga stan, I had really high hopes for this collection, and I have to say it was a little caught off guard by how minimal it was when I saw the photos. But, having held it in my hands, the simple black packaging feels special and sophisticated. I patted Legend, a stunning gold, on my lids with a brush, and used Aphrodite, a rose quartz, on my cheeks as a highlighter.
For such shimmery products they have no grit or tackiness, they dry in seconds and feel like I have nothing on. As a highlight I think they’re a little too glittery, or at least for day time, but I really love the gold on my eyes. It looks almost molten, and the shine can be seen from across the room. I’ve been touching my eyes all day and the glitter hasn’t budged or rained down my face. I also used the Lip Liner in En Pointe to overline and fill in my lips, and loved how creamy it was yet still had great definition. Is there anything Gaga can’t do?” —Bella Cacciatore, beauty associate
Lindsay Schallon
“In an actual huge surprise to me, pink shimmery eyeshadow has become a mainstay in my beauty routine summer. I love that it brings out the green in my eyes and it always feels a little more special than a basic neutral. Now I’ve got another to add to my rotation, because this shade is stupid pretty. I love that the applicator is slightly tipped and comes to a point at the end, which makes it easy to brush on without any thought—both on your lids and as underliner. It was a smidge creasy on my oily eyelids by 5 P.M., but nothing a quick swipe of my finger couldn’t fix. I totally get why this one is Gaga’s favorite.” —Lindsay Schallon, senior beauty editor
Brionna Jimerson
“I’ve low-key been waiting for Haus Laboratories to drop so that I could try out a more pigmented eye look a la the Spring 2020 runways. Gaga’s liquid eyeshadow in Dynasty is exactly what I was on the hunt for: a heavily pigmented yet lightweight eyeshadow that’s built for finger application. A little product goes a VERY long way. Not even a full brush-load of this emerald—which was inspired by Gaga’s look at the 2015 Grammy’s—is needed to give ultimate payoff. I’m a fan.” —Brionna Jimerson, associate social media manager
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