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Health

Renée Rouleau Triple Berry Smoothing Peel Review


The peel contains five acids to exfoliate—mandelic, lactic, salicylic, tartaric, and malic—as well as three different berries to provide antioxidants and soothe your skin. It’s a professional-grade peel (meaning it’s definitely not an everyday thing), and has a mix of BHAs and AHAs to work on two levels to clear pores and smooth your skin’s surface. The laundry list of concerns the brand says it’ll help with include: clearing blemishes and clogged pores, fading post-breakout marks, lifting discoloration, stimulating cellular renewal, smoothing out the texture of your skin.

I’ve been consistency using the mask for about a month (once a week), and I have to say, I’m really impressed. After one use I wasn’t convinced, but after four weeks (two of which were spent traveling to extremely different climates), I’m a believer. Not only does it not aggravate my skin, but I’ve seen a major improvement. While it hasn’t helped with my larger inflamed breakouts, I’ve seen a significant reduction of clogged pores and whiteheads that I’ve been dealing with on my cheeks over time. I like to follow it with Rouleau’s Rapid Response Detox Mask to further fight breakouts while my pores are open from the peel. It’s also helped keep flakes at bay, which is something I always struggle with this time of year, and makes my skin feel smooth as hell.

And then there’s the glow. As someone who has a pretty negative relationship with my skin, I don’t toss around words like “radiant” often, but the day or two after I use this mask, my skin can only be described as such. I look well-rested for once in my life, my skin texture feels much more uniform, and my makeup goes on smoother. The best part is that despite all the different types of acids, it’s not harsh on my sensitive skin. There’s a slight tingle when the mask is on, but as soon as I rinse it off after about seven minutes there’s no stinging or redness.

Not only can I thank this mask for bringing my skin back to life, it’s also restored my faith that sometimes things are worth the hype. You might just need to give them time.

Renée Rouleau Triple Berry Smoothing Peel

Renée Rouleau Triple Berry Smoothing Peel

$88.50

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Bella Cacciatore is the beauty associate at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @bellacacciatore_.





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Augustinus Bader The Cream Review: Why It's Worth Every Cent


The most raved about secret in beauty this year wasn’t a magic facialist or Real Housewife-lauded injection, it was an unassuming moisturizer made by a 60-year-old German scientist who’d never worked in the industry, let alone had an Instagram following. And yet, despite having none of the traditional resources that makes a beauty brand an overnight success—like paid celebrity spokespeople, $1 million ad campaigns, or millennial pink packaging—Augustinus Bader became a sleeper hit purely through word of mouth.

In the nearly two years since it launched, AB’s “miracle cream” has gotten accolades from Ashley Graham, Kate Bosworth, and Victoria Beckham (who’s since launched a moisturizing primer with the brand). Glamour even gave it a Beauty Award for Best Moisturizer, a highly competitive category as you can surely imagine. So before I even uncapped the weighty blue-and-copper tube of its famed The Cream, which costs a cool $265 for 50 mL, I was basically set to fall in love with it—price tag be damned.

But the only kind of hype I pay real attention to is beauty editor hype; if my product-inundated colleagues are raving about it, I figure it has to stand out from the pack. And for weeks, every single editor I knew had told me about the cream in an attitude I can only describe as reverent. I was ready to experience my own Bader-sparked miracle.

Augustinus Bader The Cream

Violet Grey

$265

$215

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Bizarrely, I didn’t immediately fall head over heels for it (don’t worry, a second plot twist will follow shortly). Sure, it was a good face cream. The light texture absorbed quickly and my skin looked decent, but it didn’t exactly wow me. I felt like a thin layer just wasn’t doing much in the moisturizing department—which, apparently, I later learned isn’t even what The Cream claims to do. It’s more of an overall skin rejuvenator. The brand also sells a Rich Cream for dry skin, which contains additions like avocado and argan oil to aide with extra hydration, but I began with the original thinking it’d be enough.

In order to get maximum effectiveness from the active ingredients, I did what a few other friends and makeup artists had advised and skipped all other products, except face wash. The Bader formula is based on TFC8 (Trigger Factor Complex 8), a proprietary cocktail of over 40 different ingredients, including vitamins and amino acids. It’s meant to encourage regeneration and healing—Professor Bader actually discovered the formula while looking for solutions to help burn survivors heal quicker—and TFC8 is supposed to activate your stem cells, which go to work to repair fine lines, dark spots, and visible pores. I had heard that the ingredients within were enough to replace all other skin care, so I devoted myself to a one-step kind of lifestyle and waited for my skin to start looking like I had just walked out of a spa. And then I waited some more…



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Dr. Devgan Lip Plump Review: Best Lip Plumping Gloss


My associations with lip plumper are both numerous and vivid: an overwhelming scent of cinnamon followed immediately by redness, pain, swelling, more pain, and a considerable amount of buyer’s regret. The options I remember trying years ago were packed with stinging agents that instantly set my mouth on fire. Technically speaking, you could say they worked—but the effect was somewhat ruined when tears began streaming rapidly down my face.

I’ve heard plenty of times since then that formulas have come along way, a claim I had no desire to test for myself. Having already been down the path of suffering once; I didn’t need to repeat that memorable experience. Naturally, fate had other plans in mind and Glamour‘s senior beauty editor, Lindsay Schallon, knew exactly how to get my attention. When she told me that Dr. Devgan’s Platinum Lip Plump was even better than filler—complete with photo evidence—I felt an inexplicable urge to try it. I’m both endlessly fascinated by injectables and heavily skeptical that any topical product can realistically mimic their effects. If you’re not putting hyaluronic acid in your lips or working detailed makeup artistry with multiple products, can it really be done? (Without a full-blown allergic reaction?)

In the interest of not bursting into hysterical sobs for the second time, I did some research on the ingredients before letting the doe-foot applicator anywhere near my mouth. According to board-certified plastic surgeon and brand founder Lara Devgan, M.D., her new-gen formulation swaps common irritants (chili pepper, menthol, or cinnamon) for niacin (a.k.a. vitamin B3). Her hero ingredient causes a relaxing of tiny superficial blood vessels, which translates to a mild flush and makes your lips look “1 to 2 millimeters larger.” Devgan and fellow beauty editors all assured me the sensation would amount to no more than a slight tingle, levels below what I had previously felt. The product is designed to be gentle, although Devgan adds that you should stay inside your lip line when putting it on.

Armed with this knowledge, I chose an uneventful weekend to finally uncap the shiny silver tube. The first thing I noticed was the lack of eye-watering scent. To my immense relief, the clear formula just smelled faintly of watermelon Jolly Ranchers. The consistency was halfway between a thin balm and gloss, with none of the stickiness associated with the latter.





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Patrick Ta Velvet Blush Review: Best Blush for a Natural Look


Like most things, my mom was right about blush. As soon as I started regularly wearing makeup in high school, my mom would insist that I needed to “put a little color in my cheeks,” and would practically chase me with a blush brush. For some reason, my idea of blush was that it was dated, clowny, and just generally too “done” looking. (I was also a teenager and probably enjoyed the small rebellion.) So I ignored her pleas. But once I picked up a compact of Nars’ Deep Throat my freshman year of college on a whim—it was out of budget but I couldn’t resist the name—I realized my mom was actually on to something.

Since that day, I’ve been hooked on blush, and will always go to bat for it as the most underrated makeup product. I love the way it instantly wakes up my face, and when applied with a heavy hand it can add either a romantic flush (think a rococo cherub) or a disco edge. That being said, every blush I’ve tried, even what I would consider my ride-or-dies, still had a little room for improvement. And then l I tried the Patrick Ta Monochrome Moment Velvet Blush.

You may know Patrick Ta as the makeup artist behind Gigi Hadid’s, Shay Mitchell’s, and Elsa Hosk’s glowiest makeup looks, and last month he expanded his namesake makeup line to include blushes named after his favorite qualities of the women in his life. Like the name suggests, the blushes have a matte finish, except for She’s Adorable, which has a light shimmer. At first swatch, I was a little underwhelmed, but that was actually intentional—they’re designed to be super buildable.

“I love pigment, but with a blush it’s super important to have something that’s not going to put a whole blob of color onto your cheek,” Ta told me when he introduced the collection. “You should be able to build and grow the color, I think blush should look like a diffused cloud.”

The four shades are designed to be universally flattering and are mostly neutral with one bright option. The pigment swipes on evenly, and imparts the prettiest, natural-looking glow. I like to use a heavy hand to get a lot of color, but it never looks old or fake, and the powder melts into my skin thanks to the included moisturizers and specially treatment pigments. I love to use the peachy shade She’s Sincere in leu of bronzer to add all-over warmth and subtly contour, and a pop of the bright pink She’s Passionate on the apples of my cheeks to make it look like I slept more than five hours.

Ta notes that most of his clients are afraid of blush, as I once was, and recommends starting slow. While I like to go full force with a fluffy brush, he says to apply it with a brush, but then stamp over it with a Beautyblender. “If you use too much blush, this really blends it into your skin and melts the powder for a seamless look,” he says. He also likes to blend a little bit of blush into the crease of your eye to pull a look together.

Bella Cacciatore 

While the seamless application is a plus, for me the biggest perk of this blush is that it actually stays on all day. Despite not having oily skin, I have a face that eats makeup, and most face products don’t last more than a few hours on me (although Urban Decay’s setting spray has been helping), but the first time I tried this one, I was shocked to look in the mirror at the end of the day and see my flush was still in tact.

I’ve barely looked at my other blushes since acquiring the Patrick Ta, which is saying something because I have at least 100 to choose from. The only downside? Every time I swipe it on, I’m reminded that my mom was right.

Patrick Ta Monochrome Moment Velvet Blush

Patrick Ta Monochrome Moment Velvet Blush

$32

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Bella Cacciatore is the beauty associate at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @bellacacciatore_.





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'The Knight Before Christmas' Review: There's a Reason This Holiday Rom-Com Is So Satisfying


Vanessa Hudgens won Christmas last year with her Netflix rom-com, The Princess Switch. The film was a viral sensation, filled to the brim with the feel-good, low-stakes hijinks we’ve come to expect from our holiday movies. A sequel to that now classic is coming in 2020, but while we wait, Hudgens has another holiday flick for us: The Knight Before Christmas. And I’m pleased to report it’s very, very good.

The plot of the movie is delightfully bonkers: A knight from 1334, Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse), time travels to present day Ohio and meets a science teacher, Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens), after she accidentally hits him with her car. The doctors think Sir Cole has a head injury, which is why they aren’t fazed when he says he’s from medieval times. They think his memory will return in time and he’ll be back to “normal.” But days go by, and Sir Cole still contests he’s a knight. Brooke starts to wonder if he’s telling the truth, until—spoiler alert—she realizes he very much is, and they live happily ever after.

Much like Amy Adams’s character in Enchanted, the humor in The Knight Before Christmas stems from Sir Cole attempting to navigate the modern world. He pulls out a sword to fight Brooke’s ex-boyfriend, calls cars “steel steeds,” is enamored with televisions (a.k.a “magic boxes that make merry”), and thinks neckties are tiny torture devices. Brooke finds Sir Cole’s naiveté endearing, though, and romance blossoms. Not much about The Knight Before Christmas is realistic, but that’s the point. It’s pure, unabashed escapism in the best way possible.

Josh Whitehouse and Vanessa Hudgens in The Knight Before Christmas.

Brooke Palmer/Netflix

“I think all rom-coms, on some level, are fairy tales, and I liked dropping the pretense and just owning it,” Monika Mitchell, the director of The Knight Before Christmas, tells Glamour.

Finding pure joy in 2019 is hard, after all, which is probably why rom-coms have become a booming business again. “I guess we all need to believe in magic a little bit more now than before,” Mitchell says. “These movies are entertainment, and that’s OK. They’re art, but they’re commercial art. They’re designed to be entertaining to the entire family so that a group of loved ones can sit together. Everyone has something in there that they can hold on to. Watching something that makes you happy is legitimate. To be happy at the end of something you invest an hour and a half of your life in is completely legitimate.”



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Westman Atelier Highlighter Review: The Perfect Dewy Glow


It was foolish of me to think I knew better than Jennifer Aniston’s long-time makeup pro, Gucci Westman. But when she approached me at the launch event for her new line, Westman Atelier, with a makeup brush and what appeared to be a mauve cream blush in hand, I bristled—no pun intended. No way was that color going to suit my super-fair complexion.

Well, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Westman proceeded to sweep the pigment across my cheeks, leaving behind a flush that looked so natural and warm, I wondered if I’d just been sipping on a mimosa instead of an orange juice. Most magical of all, the shade somehow managed to do the same for the wide range of skin tones represented in the room.

That was more than a year ago. And almost every day since, I’ve used what I now know is Westman Atelier Super Loaded Tinted Highlight in Peau de Peche. It’s a tough product to categorize, but as its name implies, its closest to a tinted highlighter. Think less sparkly and more pearlescent for that dreamy, lit-from-within look every single celebrity Westman touches seems to have—Jennifer Aniston, yes, but also Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Lawrence, and Anne Hathaway. The pink tint itself is browner than anything I’d normally use, but I suspect it’s the peach undertones that make it so darn flattering on everyone.

Another reason why it looks so natural? The creamy formula melts into your skin as if it were a moisturizer. That’s probably because it’s formulated with ingredients typically used in skin care, like nourishing jojoba oil and everyone’s favorite hydrator, hyaluronic acid.

The glisten it gives doesn’t exactly come cheap—the palm-sized compact costs $75—but a little goes a long way. And because I love the dewy warmth it imparts so much, I use it as blush, bronzer, highlighter, and even eyeshadow. If you add up the cost of all four products it’s replaced, Westman Atelier’s Super Loaded Tinted Highlight actually saves me $60. (And by the way, I apply it with a $6 blush brush by Real Techniques. It’s a real winner of a high/low combination.)

As I prepare to descend from my soapbox, I’ll just say this: Of the hundreds of products I’ve tried, no other has made my complexion look as healthy and glowy as quickly as this. If $75 is the price of saving time and feeling pulled-together, count me in.

Westman Atelier Super Loaded Tinted Highlight

Violet Grey

$75

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Dianna Mazzone is a beauty writer in New York. Follow her on Instagram @diannamazzone.





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