I enjoy researching best beauty products and searching to find the latest good beauty buys a couple times a year. I’m sharing my latest best beauty products with you for makeup, skin care, and nails.
Affiliate links: if you make a purchase using these links, I’ll receive a small compensation towards maintaining this blog, at no extra cost to you.
To find information, I look at my favorite Allure’s Best of Beauty or other magazines’ editorial picks for beauty makeup products. I also rely on the book “Don’t go to the cosmetics counter without me” by Paula Begoun. She takes the chemist’s view and supplies information on the ingredients and which drugstore brands are essentially the same as the high-end brands.
Face and lips
Essence pure nude highlighter is a new find that works great in the strobing luminous glimmering face trend. This powder is so subtle in color and light reflection.
Cover Girl Colorlicious Seduce Scarlet lipstick is a gorgeous red that will remind you of the movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s.
For a great lip balm with tropical flavor, try Alba Botanica Hawaiian lip balm Pineapple Quench.
Brows
Anastasia Clear Brow Gel and Anastasia Brow Definer are my favorite brow products right now. I’m on a constant hunt for the best product for my full but aging brows. The definer has a nice long spoolie brush for brushing up or down. The pencil is a wedge shape which works so well for outlining or filling in sparse areas. I don’t like the brush on the brow gel as much as some other products, but the gel itself is outstanding.
Eyeliner
The Flick Stick 8 mm mini is my favorite for making winged eyes. The box comes with two “felt tip” pens which have a stamp for right and left eyes. Just line it up with your eyelids and stamp, then use the other end to draw in the rest of the line. My tip is to make dots along your lash line, then connect the dots. 
Covergirl Get in Line Active is a liquid liner (little paintbrush inside) that is sweat proof! It is supposed to stay on for 24 hours.
Eyeshadow and mascara
I love using an eyeshadow palette and Maybelline Lemonade Craze is a nice fresh one. Unfortunately, it does not come with any kind of applicator. But having three looks explained on the back make it a lot of fun with its shimmery and matte colors.
Revlon Volumazing is a good choice if you want volume for your lashes.
Nails
A great pick for adding health to your nails is Sally Hansen Color Therapy Oceans Away. There is argon oil in the formula. The brush is a surprising small size but is easy to use for good coverage. Oceans Away is a great grayish blue to add to your collection.
VAGA glass nail file comes with a nice little plastic case. Glass files are the best to use for your home manicures.
Face masks
My Beauty Diary face masks are from Japan and feature different “flavors” for different effects on your face. Open the paper mask and carefully apply to your face, lining up the eye holes with your eyes. After 10 minutes or so, take it off and rub the remaining lotion into your face. Be sure to read the directions, and remove immediately if you feel any excessive tingling.
St. Ives oatmeal Soothing face mask has oatmeal for a soothing experience.
Resource links for beauty products
- https://www.beautypedia.com
- Paula Begoun’s Beautypedia
- Glitter strobing makeup from Real Techniques
Related posts
| Nail care picks | Makeup palette picks | Arbonne beauty must-haves |
Top post of the year is the 
I wrote several posts this summer about the 
Readers enjoyed the guest post 
This year my top Hawai’i post is 
Fun yarn lei made with a straw
To end this roundup of the year, the top recipe is 
. She takes the chemist’s view and supplies information on the ingredients and which drugstore brands are essentially the same as the high-end brands.
The Real Techniques miracle complexion sponge
has lots of crazy planes and angles on it. It turns out that is perfect for blending on all the planes and angles of your face! The sisters behind Real Techniques have lots of videos online showing how to use the products, and clean them.
feel amazing for the price. I like that they’ve colored the bristles to help you when washing the brushes.
is formulated specially for cleaning brushes.
target specific things your face might need. It’s so handy to have one application in a little pod.
because you never know what size eye or lip pencil you might have to sharpen!
is my favorite everyday product. It comes in different very light tints with different flavors. They come with and without SPF for day and night.
is a nice way to try the matte lip trend. Very bright and nice nude colors are available.
after seeing a wild dance on Dancing with the Stars. The blues and purples are fun and vibrant and gave me a good challenge to be brave and wear it!
has pretty packaging and a cool silicone brush.
is pretty easy to apply as long as you dab it on with little dashes.
is my most favorite eyeliner right now. It comes in all sorts of colors (green! aqua!) and glides on very smoothly. You do have to sharpen it pretty regularly, but it’s worth it for the consistency.
is my latest nude palette. Maybelline has done a great job with these. Just choose 4 colors at a time to do your whole eye. They blend beautifully.
is a new product for a smudgy smoky look.
helps keep your brows in place.
gives you two coordinating colors in one tube for highlighting or concealing and sculpting.
is a somewhat hard pencil stick that comes in colors matched to the Trublend line.
has got lots of the beauty webs raving. Some folks suggest using two colors to get an exact skin match.
is one of the new gel nail polishes that does not require a special light. The polish goes on almost like a plastic and gives a vibrant color and pretty long lasting manicure.
is another gel polish that does not need a light. This line has some of the famous essie light colors (I always think ballerinas and weddings) and a really nice dark navy.