I have a hard time getting hyped about shopping for swimsuits. Maybe it’s because there’s only so many ways to make so little fabric feel exciting year after year. (More cut-outs? More straps? I’d rather keep the same plain one-piece, thanks.) Swimsuit shopping can be fraught for a myriad of reasons, but here are 12 reasons to get excited about it in 2019: These new swimwear brands are doing legitimately innovative stuff and offering pieces that are just plain fun to wear. Some come from familiar names, like Target, Madewell, and Self-Portrait; others you might be learning about just now. But they’ll all inspire you to hit the beach, pond, or pool this summer.
Shop some of our favorite new swimwear brands, ahead.
The second the temperature drops below 50 degrees, my fussy, combination skin gets dry, scaly, and irritated. Despite swapping my lighter products for oils and balms, overnight masking, and upping my water intake, there’s no soothing the dryness. Now I’m fighting acne and dull flakiness, and it feels like the journey to good skin is an uphill battle I’m never going to win.
Enter stage left, the R+R mask, a new pampering mask from the well-loved brand Summer Fridays. Despite only having two products on the market and being less than a year old, the brand has skyrocketed to cult status thanks to its Instagram-friendly aesthetic, influencer backing (it’s founded by Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Gores Ireland), and oh yeah, masks that really, really work.
The arrival of R+R on my desk couldn’t come any sooner, as it promises to revive and nurture dry, dull skin (as mentioned above, I am clearly suffering from both). Most of the mask’s nourishing powers come from the bouquet of oils it’s packed with, including argan, safflower, sesame, avocado, grape seed, and Bulgarian Rose. The oils are rich in fatty acids and antioxidants to deeply moisturize and repair skin.
The mask also contains a form of oil-soluble Vitamin C to help fight dullness and even skin tone. Finally, R+R—like the Overtime Mask—has both physical and chemical exfoliants to really slough off dead skin and jumpstart glow. The physical comes from the crushed rose powder, while the chemical comes from sucrose (a.k.a. sugar), an AHA. While it sounds like a lot, the oil provides a nice cushion, and I found it rather gentle, which is really what sets it apart from Overtime (that one is for more intense exfoliation).
The texture is one of the most unique masks I’ve ever used, it’s a clear jelly that definitely has a very oily, slippery feel to it. It also has rose petals and crushed rose petal powder suspended throughout, which I love as I’m a sucker for anything remotely rosy. As per the instructions, after applying the mask I gently rubbed it in for some light physical exfoliation. It’s a nice scrubby feeling that isn’t too harsh. Then, I let the mask sink in and all the yummy oils go to work.
Me with the R+R Mask on
I’m obsessed with the scent, which can only be described as delightful. It has a light rose smell that isn’t cloying or fake, just luxurious. It makes me feel like the mouse in this picture, but it’s not so over the top that it irritated my sensitive skin.
The brand suggests leaving the mask on for 10 minutes, but I left it on for a little longer both times I tried it. The first time I tested the mask I used it in the morning and thoroughly washed my face in the shower after. My face felt crazy smooth from the exfoliants and nourished from the oils, but not sticky or greasy. The mask doesn’t really sink it while you wear it, it kind of forms a layer that sits on top of your skin, so I was surprised at how deeply moisturized I felt, even after washing it off. I didn’t notice a huge difference in glow, but my skin felt cared for and my makeup went on smoother than usual. The second time I tried R+R, I used it before bed and used a damp washcloth to towel it off, but didn’t follow it with another cleanser. This time it left my face feeling comforted and wrapped in oils (in a good way), and I just put a moisturizer over top and went to bed. I woke up to smooth skin that looked a touch more radiant (Rome wasn’t built in a day people!).
A lot has happened for SNL‘s Pete Davidson since the show’s 43rd season finale back in May: The cast member got engaged to one of the biggest stars on the planet (cough coughAriana Grande) and has consequently been in the limelight quite a bit more often. It’s a chain of events that apparently made him ripe for a little playful ribbing from his fellow cast members during the show’s 44th season premiere on Saturday night.
In a pre-recorded sketch, Davidson’s fellow cast mate Kyle Mooney laments that he thought 2018 would be his year to become one of the most recognizable names on SNL, but then, he says, “this summer happens.” Much to Mooney’s frustration, Davidson has suddenly become best friends with the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, and walks around studio 8H like he owns the place.
“I feel like this year I’ve gotta make a statement, so I’m gonna change things up a bit,” Mooney confesses to the camera, before going in for a full Davidson-inspired makeover.
He shows up to the first day of work an entirely new man, complete with a blond dye job, a wardrobe of graphic sweatshirts, and a pet pig.
“I love this, bro,” Mooney tells the camera. “People are finally starting to take me seriously. Now all I need is a hot celebrity girlfriend, and that’s fine by me.” He then shows up in the writers room with a list of demands and guest star Wendy Williams on his arm.
Davidson confronts Mooney about his copycat transformation—and it looks like there’s only room for one Pete Davidson on the show. The pair challenge each other to a Gladiator-style duel (in which episode host Adam Driver also becomes an unintended casualty) that ends with Davidson impaling Mooney with a sword.
Though Davidson came out the victor in this particular sketch, things for him weren’t all positive during the season’s premiere episode: During his turn on “Weekend Update,” he made a joke about replacing Ariana Grande‘s birth control with Tic Tacs, which many fans felt was “tone deaf” and “insensitive.”
You can watch the whole video of Mooney morphing into Davidson (and the gruesome aftermath) below:
As a beauty editor, I get an obscene amount of DMs asking me about what products actually work and what’s worth the money. But if I had to narrow down one brand I’ve gotten more questions about in the past year, it’s Summer Fridays. The brand has all the makings of Instagram gold: a sleek metal tube that looks perfectly “lived-in” as you use it; a pastel color palette; and it’s backed by two influencers honestly deserving of the title, Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Gores Ireland.
This month, it released its second product: the Overtime Mask, a clarifying mask made with pumpkin and apricot seed powder. Where competitors (ahem, Glossier) are leaning in heavily on acids, Overtime uses gentle fruit enzymes and traditional good old scrubby bits to slough off dead skin. The way Hewitt does it? “I like to use it at night, right after I cleanse my skin,” she told me at the launch party for the mask. “I rub it in at the beginning to activate it on my skin. Then I’ll leave it on for 10 minutes, rinse, and follow it up with the Jet Lag Mask. That way the ingredients really get into your skin and do their magic.”
So, is it actually worth your hard-earned $44 for a tube? I asked five Glamour editors put it to the test. Here’s how it fared against over-exfoliated, acne-prone, and sensitive skin.
Maureen Choi, beauty contributor
I’ll admit it: I’m addicted to the good glow regular exfoliation brings. But over the years, I’ve self-inflicted enough rosacea-level redness on my sensitive skin to know that my sloughing sweet spot is once a week—and done with a chemical formula involving some sort of AHA like glycolic or lactic acid. For any scrub that comes across my desk, it’s a hard pass since they’re usually too gritty for my temperamental face.
But since I’m a sucker for scent and couldn’t resist the pumpkin pie vibes of the Overtime Mask, which utilizes apricot powder to unglue all the gunk, I took it home and gave it a whirl. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It decongested my poor little pores and made my skin brighter, smoother, and a whole lot happier after just one use. Apart from the fact that it smells amazing, it also delivered a lot of hydration, which isn’t something exfoliators normally do. One thing, though: The instructions say to rub the honeylicious goo in for a minute before letting it sit on your skin for 10 more. If you’re sensitive or dealing with current breakouts, do it ever-so-lightly for like five seconds and stop—because the shells can be a touch too rough. I don’t think it’s going to replace my go-to peel pads, but I like the idea of using it as a monthly skin reset.
Ana Colón, digital fashion editor
Truth be told, I’m not very consistent with my exfoliating routine. I do, however, wash my face every day with cleanser (Burt’s Bees Brightening Daily Facial Cleanser) and do a mask at least once a week (usually L’Oréal’s Pure Clay Mask.) So I was excited to try this product, since it combined one part of my skin care routine with another I should really, really be doing in the first place.
I washed my face with my regular old cleanser, then applied the Summer Fridays mask. First thought: This smells incredible—like fresh-baked pumpkin bread. (I even went up to my partner and was like, “SMELL MY FACE.”) It burned a little for those 10 minutes and doesn’t really harden, but by the time I washed it off, my skin felt really fresh. And that just-did-a-mask feeling, where your skin feels light (and almost tight?) lasted well into the next morning. This is definitely a product I could do once a week, though maybe not as regularly as recommended on the packaging, because the exfoliating is pretty…effective.
Rachel Nussbaum, beauty writer
I’ll always love my beta hydroxy acids, but when my derm told me a few months ago that I was over-exfoliating, I relinquished them with claw hands. Physical exfoliants can be more gentle, though, and I consider that a loophole. The texture was grittier than I was expecting, so I massaged about a dime-sized amount of the mask onto my forehead and T-zone, while avoiding the active pimples on my jawline. After 15 minutes, I washed it off. I can’t say I noticed a difference, but it did remind me how much I like the tingle of my other pumpkin fave, MyChelle Incredible Pumpkin Peel. I won’t use this again, but if your skin likes a gritty physical scrub, this is a seasonal way to get there—and make Spring Breakers voice Summer Fridays forever.
Azadeh Valanejad, video producer
The day I turned 28, my skin decided to revert back to my high school days, and I’ve been struggling with adult acne for the last year. My first step was to change my long overdue skin care routine and after reading about how tough face scrubs can be on your skin, I stopped completely. I tried a couple exfoliating acids, but they still weren’t helping, so I gave up altogether. My skin saw a lot of improvement with Summer Friday’s Jet Lag mask (which I use every day!), so when I heard the brand was releasing an exfoliator I knew I had to try it.
I was a little worried the Overtime mask would be rough, but the apricot bits are crushed finely. If you rub it gently, it’s an extremely mild scrub. I followed the instructions and rubbed it onto my face in circular motions for 60 seconds before letting it do it’s thing for 10 minutes. Once I washed it off, my skin was fresh. I think I’ll have to use it a couple more times before I see how glowy my skin will become, but it hasn’t make me breakout, so that’s already a great sign it’s working in my favor. Best part? It smells like a pumpkin spice latte.
Khaliha Hawkins, digital assistant
I already use and love Summer Friday’s Jet Lag mask, so I was pumped to try this—especially since the packaging is as glorious as the original. I was worried it would have heavy pumpkin smell, but it’s actually really light and pleasant, which to me is its best attribute. If I did have to give it a gripe, it’d be about the apricot seed powder—it’s really thick and gritty. When I first started rubbing it in, I was tempted to rinse it off immediately. It feels like something that’ll irritate your skin at first. But I didn’t seem to be having a reaction so I kept going—gently, which the instructions tell you to do. It’s a good thing I did because when I rinsed it off, it left me with an amazing glow. Plus, my face didn’t feel dry or tight afterward. I paired it with my Jet Lag mask as a moisturizer right after and my skin was noticeably softer the next morning. It’s getting permanent residence in my bathroom cabinet. I can’t wait to see what the longterm effect is on my skin.
This summer, the top movies at the box office—Incredibles 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Deadpool 2—share a lot of similarities: They’re all sequels, they all fall in the “action” genre (yes, even the animated Incredibles), and they all were directed by men. Meanwhile, over on Netflix, one of the season’s biggest hits was Like Father, a quiet dramedy about a woman (Kristen Bell) reuniting with her estranged father (Kelsey Grammer) written and directed by Lauren Miller Rogen. “No one wanted to make it. Then Netflix came along,” Miller Rogen tells us. “They were so supportive and didn’t care that I was a first time [director].”
Netflix rarely, if ever, reveals numbers—but, according to a tweet from star (and Miller Rogen’s husband) Seth Rogen, Like Father was the streaming service’s number one movie in over 100 countries on its opening weekend. To date, it has more than 10 million streams. That’s a huge success for a first-time director—so, we asked Miller Rogen to tell us more.
I saw Like Father was Netflix’s number one movie in over 100 countries its opening weekend. Is that true?
Lauren Miller Rogen: Yes, it is! It’s the first time Netflix has released a number about the streaming, which is pretty awesome. The first weekend over 10 million accounts watched it—so if more than one person was sitting there, which likely was the case, it’s even more than that. When you think about [that compared to] a movie in a theater, it’s crazy the amount of people that watched it the first weekend.
It’s massive. How has the reception been? Has it really hit you yet?
LMR: You know, it’s up and downs. It’s like releasing my child into the world and having everyone judge it. Most people have been amazing. It’s very rare to say this, but people have been so nice on Twitter! [Laughs] It’s been so nice to have people say, “I laughed and I cried!” I don’t want to make people cry in a bad way, but I think it’s cry in a cathartic way. That was our goal.
It feels significant that a female director was behind such a big hit. Do you think this will help get more seats at the table?
LMR: I hope so. There are some amazing women filmmakers doing big things, like Wonder Woman and Patty Jenkins. She directed one of the biggest movies last year, and that’s amazing. I just think overall, there’s this amazing energy behind empowering women, hearing their voices, and having them be storytellers, directors, and producers. That in turn creates an authenticity in female characters.
Of course, there have been amazing portrayals of women in the past—but having a female storyteller, a female writer, and a female director telling a story like ours, in which a woman goes through quite an emotional journey, was important to me and Kristen. We [wanted to] use our authentic female voices to put in what we felt like were a real woman’s emotion and anger, which I think makes men uncomfortable sometimes. There’s such an amazing effort to do that in movies and TV these days, and I hope that I continue to be a part of it.
LMR: It’s so weird because now I feel so confident about it. It was similar with acting; it took me a really long time to say I wanted to be an actor. I think I just wasn’t confident in doing something that’s out of the ordinary. I’m from a small town, and it took me a long time to feel comfortable enough to say, “These are the things I want to do.” Plus, the thought of going to a woman who I really admire to direct my story was exciting. [Producer] Anders Bard asked if I wanted to do it, because two of the women we had gone to said, “Why are you sending this to me? You should do it!” When I said yes, he was like, “OK, great. You’re doing it.”
There was never a question of backing down when we faced the many no’s we faced. It was just like, “Let’s do this. I believe in you.” I had directed a number of short projects and had quite a vision for this story, so once we made that decision there was no looking back. I guess I had to go through those years of insecurity in order to get to the other side of it, but I can’t really say there was a reason why—maybe it was a combination of the industry and never having the personal confidence. But now, things are changing. And I’m happy to own it.
It’s amazing that you took this script to other women and they pushed you to do it yourself. You don’t hear that happening often.
LMR: No! I’ve been fortunate that I haven’t faced a lot of sexism, but that’s not to say I haven’t felt doors that weren’t quite as open to me as they maybe were for men in my position. I felt it from women sometimes as well. Now, we’re building each other up. That’s changing too.
It’s nice there can be a seat for everybody, not just one. You mentioned that you had a vision for Like Father. What was it?
LMR: I really wanted to make a movie that felt real and grounded, even if the situation was candy-colored or slightly out of the ordinary. I wanted to make a movie that was warm and funny, but also emotional and sad. That’s what life is, right? I wanted to capture that and set out to make a dramedy. It’s a movie that will make you laugh, but also makes you feel and think.
Was it hard to get this movie made? As you said, it’s a dramedy, but in Hollywood most summer blockbusters are superhero movies and action films.
LMR: Yeah, it was. [Laughs] As you touched on, studios aren’t in the risk-taking business. That’s why we have all these sequels and superhero movies, which I love, don’t get me wrong. But they don’t take chances on first timers, and comedies these days are much harder to get made, especially when you don’t have cast attached. We didn’t. We had me and my script. I met with so many people who all loved the script, but no one wanted to make it. Then Netflix came along. They were so supportive of me as a director and didn’t care that I was a first timer; it never was a question. They cared that I had a good script. They became really good partners who believed in me, which is more than I can say for anyone else.
PHOTO: Emily Aragones
Well, you obviously got a great cast eventually with Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer. How did they come on board?
LMR: We were in the process of sending it around, and I happened to be on the set of Neighbors 2, where Kelsey plays Chloë Grace Moretz’s dad. He was so funny. And I was like, “Oh, maybe he’s Harry!” When it was time to cast Harry, I sat down with Kelsey, and he cried in the first five minutes while talking about one of the scenes. I was like, “OK, we’re done! This is Harry.” It’s amazing. He’s funny, he’s emotional, and he had a personal story where one of his daughters wasn’t in his life for a long time. He was so sincere in how he talked about the character and his relationship to it.
As for Kristen, we have a mutual friend and we had met…kind of. So when we sent the script to her, I called our mutual friend and was like, “Hey, can you tell her I’m a normal human being? And she should please read my script?” Someone like Kristen gets scripts all the time, you know? Everyone wants her in their things!
I was fortunate that my friend made this call, and Kristen and I instantly clicked. It was like, let’s be two women who have found balance between our careers and personal lives and know what it’s like to work for that. Let’s create a character who feels real and authentic to us. That’s what we bonded over immediately. It was exactly who I wanted to find in my Rachel. She’s very three-dimensional—she’s angry and sad, but also funny and forgives and learns. Kristen’s really smart and hardworking. She just dove right in and brought so much of herself, her real self, to it.
Was there a favorite moment you had filming?
LMR: We shot in such an extraordinary places and such extraordinary ways, so shooting this did feel very special and magical. My favorite/hardest scene was on the top of a waterfall, the first time Kristen and Kelsey’s characters really connect with each other. It was very slippery, so there was a lot of falling, and we had to get all of our equipment across a waterfall on a pulley system. It was hot and humid; and while it looked beautiful, the conditions were not great. However, it was the most extraordinary day ever because we were in this place that was so crazy beautiful doing this thing with people who were so good at their jobs.
And Kelsey and Kristen, in this environment full of distractions and insanity, delivered this performance that’s so real and moving, so heartbreaking and beautiful. I was so proud. It was a really special experience. I can still remember so clearly sitting on this rock, holding my monitor, just crying and being so grateful this was happening. I was so moved by what they were doing and what everyone was doing. It was magical.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The end of summer is still another month or so away, but Blake Lively is apparently ready for fall fashion.
The actress was photographed on Friday in New York—mid-August, where the temperature is a balmy 87 degrees—wearing a blue velvet pantsuit. But that’s not all: Rather than pop on a shirt underneath, Lively layered another velvet blazer on top, this one, by Brunello Cucinelli, in a rich red color. She finished off the outfit with a dark blue leather back, hoop earrings, and spiked nude heels by Christian Louboutin. It’s an outfit that would look perfectly at home on Serena van der Woodsen, or maybe Cate Blanchett’s character in Ocean’s 8.
Check it out.
PHOTO: KEVY/Backgrid
You know this look is all Lively because the actress doesn’t use a stylist. In an interview with WWD from May, she joked: “Probably because I have control issues and a big ego—that’s probably the honest answer.
“I love design and I love fashion, and it’s a way to be creative,” Lively continued. “In my job I get to be creative, but it’s over a period of time and so many other people are involved, whereas this is a beginning, middle, and end, and I get to be creative and there’s an end date in the near future.”
PHOTO: KEVY/Backgrid
“The hard part is going through all the fashion shows and screenshotting all the looks you like and calling them in,” she added to WWD. “I have an assistant who helps in calling in the looks. But a lot of it is I have relationships with the designers.” We’d love to see who the style inspo was for this look.
How she deals with the profuse sweating that comes with wearing velvet in August is still unclear, though.
.jpg)
