The Best Beach Reads Of 2017

August 10, 2017, 9:55 am

≫ Next: LuAnn De Lesseps’ RHONY Marriage Comments Are So Uncomfortable Now

Some of us are beach people. Others are beach reads people. While your friends play frisbee or thrash about in the waves, you're happiest sprawled out on a towel, propped up on your elbows, completely entranced by a book.

Choosing the best beach read is a delicate art. First, you must consider the tone and the subject matter. Do you want to rush through an addictive thriller, or devote a chunk of reading time to Crime and Punishment? Then, there are more material concerns. Do you really want to lug a 500-page hardcover along with all your beach supplies? Or ruin an expensive book with water and sand?

Everyone's idea of fun is different, and so are our ideas of beach reads. So, we've chosen a beach read to suit every desire. While most of the books on this list are from this year, we've snuck in a few tired, true, and everlasting beach reads for your reading pleasure.

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**If your friends are the most interesting people you know**
*Conversations With Friends* by Sally Rooney (2017)
The two 20-something protagonists in Sally Rooney's debut novel are facing adulthood without much direction — but with spectacular wit and conversation. Frances is the cool, calm, detached half of her friendship with the wilder Bobbi (whom she also previously dated). After Frances and Bobbi befriend an older couple, Frances finds herself drawn to the couple's husband, Nick. Just as quickly, she finds herself embroiled in an affair, and the first really messy emotional experience of her life.

**If you've already read every dystopian cult book in the library**
*Gather the Daughters* by Jennie Melamed (2017)
17-year-old Janey Solomon doesn't want to become a woman, and if you were a part of her post-apocalyptic society, you might not, either. Janey lives on a desolate island controlled by the Wanderers, a group of men who have descended from the island's original founders. Only they have any contact with the outside world.
The rest, like Janey, live according to a strict reproduction calendar. Upon reaching puberty, the daughters of the Wanderers get married and begin having children. In the summer season, while adults are busy reproducing, the children of the island run free — to some devastating results.
At 17, Janey's not convinced that this is the right way to live. She starves herself to stave off her period, and attempts to incite an uprising of the island's girls.

**If you like epic books that build up to a sweeping crescendo of coincidences**
*All the Light We Cannot See* by Anthony Doerr (2014)
In short, alternating chapters, Doerr weaves together the lives of two children coming of age under the shadow of WWII. Before the war, the blind Marie-Laure spends her days exploring her father's workplace, the Museum of Natural History, and learning to navigate Paris. When she and her father have to flee for the coastal town of Saint-Malo with a precious jewel in tow, she feels entirely trapped in an unfamiliar setting.
For the brilliant orphan Werner, the German war effort gives him an opportunity to leave his orphanage and escape from a life working in the mines. He lands a spot at the academy for Hitler Youth, a place far more brutal than he could've known. His journey, like Marie-Laure's, ends in Saint-Malo.

**If you should be so lucky to have problems like these**
*Rich People Problems* by Kevin Kwan (2017)
In the third installment of Kwan's wickedly fun books, family members gather around the deathbed of the family matriarch not to offer support, but to nab a spot on her will.
If this romp about an extremely wealthy Singaporean family isn't sufficiently packed with intrigue, larger-than-life characters, and and wild affairs, then you're in luck — there are *two* other books in the series to go back on.

**If you're living at home**
*Goodbye, Vitamin* by Rachel Khong (2017)
After her fiancé discards her like a used towel, 30-year-old Ruth quits her job and moves home. But she's not returning to the life of her childhood. Her father is losing his memory, and Ruth and her mother, Annie, are forced to watch him change into a different man before their eyes. While a bleak premise, this novel of family and love and grief (aka, the stuff of life) manages to inject humor and tenderness amidst all the sad stuff. This quirky novel is a must-read for anyone who's looking to start over in her own life.

**If you like your historical novels so alive they practically hiss**
*The Essex Serpent* by Sarah Perry (2017)
It's the tail end of the 19th-century, and rumors of mythical serpents plaguing English marshes are alive and well. Cora Seaborne, a famous naturalist, is determined to hunt out the so-called "serpent," hoping that it's actually proof of a new species. When she moves to the Essex town of Aldwinter, Cora finds herself drawn to the local vicar, whose reaction to the serpent rumors isn't one of fascination but rather of panic. He's concerned that his parish is succumbing to fear.
This Victorian-era love story is detailed, rich, and will have you looking for serpents when you go swimming.

**If you're a fiend for true crime**
*See What I Have Done* by Sarah Schmidt (2017)
On August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden may or may not have murdered her father and stepmother with an ax. In this gory, addictive novel, Schmidt brings to life one of the most unexpected and fascinating crimes in American history.

**If you're a mother by day, budding criminal mastermind by night**
*The Misfortune of Marion Palm* by Emily Culliton (2017)
Marion Palm has a problem, but it's not her two kids in an expensive Brooklyn private school, or her crumbling apartment, or her husband's laziness. Marion Palm's problem is that she has embezzled $180,000 from her children's school, and an auditor has begun to sniff around. Told through the perspectives of Marion and her family members, *The Misfortunes of Marion Palm* features the sly, wily woman antihero you'll be rooting for all summer.

**If you want to cry behind your sunglasses**
*The Salt House* by Lisa Duffy (2017)
Exactly one year ago, Hope Kelly's daughter took a nap and never woke up. Life has gone on in Hope's Maine coastal town since the tragic event, but her family's lives haven't. Told in alternating perspectives, we see how grief has radically shifted the world of Hope, Jack, and their two kids. When Jack's rival encroaches upon his fishing territory, the Kelly family will be forced to make another big change — this time, though, perhaps it'll be towards a new start.

**If you’re aching to relive your college years**
*The Idiot* by Elif Batuman (2017)
Over the course of her first year at Harvard, Selin scrambles through heady coursework, has deep and aimless conversations with friends, and is consumed by endless existential quandaries. Most of the novel focuses on Selin's semi-romance with Ivan, an evasive senior studying mathematics. It's 1995, so Selin and Ivan's "romance" is carried out through a strange new technology: Email.
Odds are, Selin's serious, curious and rambling mind will remind you of your younger self, in the best way.
Courtesy of Penguin Press

**If you have a poetic sensibility and/or are a Lena Dunham groupie**
*Sour Heart* by Jenny Zhang (2017)
From Lenny, Lena Dunham's imprint at Random House, comes *Sour Heart*, a collection of seven stories narrated by the daughters of Chinese immigrants. Originally a poet, Zhang brings sparkling sentences to these stories of family, history, and makin' it in Flushing, Queens.
Courtesy of Lenny Books

**If you want to revel in the heart’s strange contortions**
*Made for Love* by Alissa Nutting (2017)
After leaving her tech-mogul husband, Hazel moves into a senior home with her father and his lifelike sex doll, Diane. For years, Hazel had been stuck on her husband's secluded compound at Gogol Industries, a Google-esque company intent on integrating technology in daily life. As Hazel acclimates to her new environment, her husband, Byron, becomes more intent on winning her back — and resorts to sinister methods to do so.
This is the raunchy, absurd, intelligent romp you've been looking for.

If you've been shaken by *The Handmaid’s Tale*
*The Book of Joan* by Lidia Yuknavitch (2017)
The surface of the earth is irrevocably scorched. Society's remaining elite orbit the earth aboard the CIEL, a spaceship slowly draining the few remaining resources. On the ground, roving populations struggle to survive. As a result of nuclear fallout and changing atmospheric conditions, people on CIEL and on the earth's bodies have changed, rendering them incapable of fertility. Humanity's only hope is in Joan, a child warrior who's able to communicate with the earth and make things heal. Like Atwood, Yuknavitch has written a feminist dystopia that examines women's bodies in fascinating ways.
Courtesy of HarperCollins

If you’re addicted to Starz’ *American Gods*
*Norse Mythology* by Neil Gaiman (2017)
Many of Neil Gaiman's novels incorporate elements of mythology, like his novel *American Gods*, an exhilarating take of new gods and old gods struggling to make it in America. In *Norse Mythology,* the author ventures to the source of his inspiration: The Norse tales themselves. After each classic myth in *Norse Mythology* passes through the Gaiman Charm Machine, it emerges sharp, witty, and utterly new.
Courtesy of W. W. Norton

**If you want to be swept away**
*The Ministry of Utmost Happiness* by Arundhati Roy
20 years after her debut novel was published to critical acclaim, Roy is finally back with a second novel, expected to be equally epic. In *The Ministry of Utmost Happiness*, Roy weave together the lives of characters set throughout India, from the mountains of Kashmir to the alleys of New Delhi.

**If you want a new American classic**
*Sing, Unburied, Sing* by Jesmyn Warn
Move over, Faulkner. Here's the new epic novel of family bonds in the American South. When her children's father is finally released from prison, Leonie and her kids drive through Mississippi to the State Penitentiary. But the road trip becomes an odyssey when the spirit of a dead inmate, who carries the history of the South with him, joins them in the car. *Sing, Unburied, Sing* is a journey through America's uglier truths.
Courtesy of Scribner

**If you want to get ahead on a book-to-film adaptation**
*Call My By Your Name* by Andre Aciman (2007)
On the Italian Riviera, a budding teenager discovers lust, love, and the aches of the heart when his family hosts a 24-year-old American scholar at their villa. With its descriptions of long Mediterranean days and even longer nights, *Call Me By Your Name* reeks of summer.
The gorgeous film adaptation, starring Armie Hammer, got rave reviews at Sundance. It's set to hit theaters on November 24, 2017, so be sure to read the book by then.
Courtesy of Picador

**If you’re a pop culture junkie**
*All The Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen To Be Famous Strangers* by Alana Massey (2017)
We define who we are by what we like. In this collection of essays, Massey takes an incisive look to the pop culture figures who defined her own sense of self. With essays on violence against women, body image, and romance, this collection especially focuses on the way women are affected by the pop culture machine. Get ready to hear the "Winona vs. Gwyneth" argument verbalized like never before.

**If you’re helplessly plugged in**
*Startup* by Doree Shafrir (2017)
Move over, Silicon Valley. Shafrir's satirical novel is set in the New York tech scene, where a cast of characters are swept into the rise (and viral fall) of a mindfulness app called TakeOff. A tech writer herself, Shafrir makes incisive, astute, and all too real observations on the idiosyncrasies of the industry. This a fun, breezy, utterly millennial read.

**If you wish you could laugh at your family more**
*Priestdaddy: A Memoir* by Patricia Lockwood (2017)
After an unexpected series of financial setbacks, the poet Patricia Lockwood and her husband move back into her childhood home. Very early on, we see Lockwood’s family is something extraordinary. For one, her father is a *married* Catholic priest who lounges in boxers and plays electric guitar. Though she’s used to her crazy family, her husband isn’t — so part of *Priestdaddy’s* charm is watching Lockwood try to create a space of “normalcy” amidst her chaotic and hilarious relatives.
Courtesy of Riverhead

**If you're just starting out**
*The Futures* by Anna Pitoniak (2017)
After graduating from Yale in 2008, Julia and Evan move to New York City to begin their bright life together. After Evan starts working a hedge fund, he's pulled into a secret and glamorous world. Bored at her nonprofit job, Julia feels left out from Evan's life. But it's 2008, so Julia shouldn't worry too much: Everything's about to come crashing once the financial crisis hits.
Lee Boudreaux Books

**If you wished your big city was more like a small town**
*Anything Is Possible* by Elizabeth Strout (2017)
In nine linked stories, Strout peers into the lives of characters in small town America. By the end, the stories have interconnected to form a wholly heartening patchwork. These struggling outcasts all get a shot at redemption. Strout reminds us that there’s always the potential for grace, for love, and for connection.

**If you want to stay up all night reading**
*Before the Fall* by Noah Hawley (2016)
A small plane leaving Martha's Vineyard crashes. There are two survivors: A young boy, and the painter who miraculously swims amidst shark-infested Atlantic water and carries them both to safety. Delving into the stories of each passenger aboard the plane, *Before the Fall* is a story of grief, suspense and bravery. It'll have you hooked.

**If you're tired of online dating**
*The Answers* by Catherine Lacey (2017)
Mary's found a way to solve her financial issues. As part of his "Girlfriend Experiment," famous actor Kurt Sky's Intimacy Team assigns different roles to the many different women in his life, including Anger Girlfriend, Intellectual Girlfriend, and Maternal Girlfriend. Mary's cast to play the part of "Emotional Girlfriend," which has its own set of challenges.
Courtesy of FSG

**If you're searching for a smart literary thriller**
*The Destroyers* by Christopher Bollen (2017)
After his father disinherits him, Ian Bledsoe's only hope is to visit his wealthy childhood friend, Charlie, and ask for help. After Ian arrives to Charlie's island paradise in Patmos, Greece, Charlie's all too eager to lend a hand. But while money can buy luxury, Ian soon finds that Charlie's wealth comes with a few (dangerous) strings attached. Here's the perfect literary thriller set under the Grecian sun.
Courtesy of HarperCollins

**If your "home friends" are your best friends**
*From Rockaway* by Jill Eisenstadt (2017)
Before Alex manages to get into a posh New England college, her life consisted of lifeguarding and drinking beer with her friends on the beach in Rockaway, New York. After a year of school, Alex returns for summer vacation with her old gang with an utterly new perspective. In this bleak '80s landscape, Alex realizes her friends aren't ever going to escape "Rotaway" — will she?
Courtesy of Knopf

**If you love mysteries with "girl" in the title**
*Girl in Snow* by Danya Kukafka (2017)
When high schooler Lucinda Hayes is found murdered, three peers in her Colorado town must look inward to piece together what happened.
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

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LuAnn De Lesseps’ RHONY Marriage Comments Are So Uncomfortable Now

August 10, 2017, 9:55 am

≫ Next: Dakota Johnson's Just Shared The Most Surprising — & Genius — Beauty Trick

≪ Previous: The Best Beach Reads Of 2017

Last week, American’s entire Bravo-watching population smugly said in unison, “I knew it,” as Real Housewives Of New York star LuAnn (de Lesseps) D’Agostino confirmed she had filed for divorce from her husband Tom D’Agostino. The former "Countess" and her "reformed" playboy had been married for just 216 days when the announcement came. Although we all now know the controversial couple’s marriage is currently over, we’re still living in the past when it comes to RHONY season 9, which concluded Wednesday night on Bravo. Namely, we're living in early March 2016, as Instagram photos prove. The massive changes to LuAnn’s life over the last five months make the season finale, "Thank You And Good Night," all the more awkward to watch.

Although LuAnn spends much of her first appearance gushing about her husband — "We’re still in our honeymoon phrase and he’s just added so much to my life! And [he] makes it complete!" — the truly uncomfortable part comes when she starts talking about co-star Ramona Singer’s now-ended marriage with Mario Singer. The scene is built around LuAnn and Tom playing tennis and the pair pretending not to be competitive about the sport, despite the fact they’re placing bets and "playfully" arguing about the score. "It’s not tension like when Ramona and Mario used to have tension when they played tennis," LuAnn swears in a talking head interview. It’s clear the implied statement in here is, "Tom and I are actually compatible on the court and off. Unlike some people." Now that we now both Ramona and LuAnn’s relationships didn’t work out, this kind of unnecessary, and seemingly unprompted, dragging of the Singers looks all the more petty, especially considering the surprise attack Ramona suffered earlier this season over her divorce.

The cognitive dissonance between LuAnn’s real-life and the televised, five-months-old version gets even worse when the former countess and Tom arrive at Tinsley Mortimer’s "Thank You, Sonja" party. The new Mrs. D’Agostino has a surprisingly cordial conversation with Dorinda Medley and Bethenny Frankel where everyone heaps praise on the new marriage. "One thing about Bethenny is she says [it] the way it is, good, bad, or otherwise, okay? She said yesterday, ‘I gotta tell you something, I’m checking the box for LuAnn this time,’" Dorinda tells a beaming LuAnn, who is happy people finally respect her relationship, despite the months of cheating allegations trailing behind it. The trio agrees there’s tons of proof LuAnn’s marriage should work, including the facts she "gave up" her Countess title, now lives in a one-bedroom, and avoids most of her "socialite" obligations. Dorinda finishes, "There’s love here," as LuAnn insists, "That’s right. And very happily … I’m happy to be ‘Mrs.’"

This entire exchange would be lovely if Tom wasn't back to his suspicious behavior in another corner of the party. As LuAnn continues her campaign to prove the legitimacy of her marriage, her husband is saying thinly veiled flirty comments to Missy, his ex-girlfriend and Ramona’s friend, who has been a center of intrigue throughout RHONY season 9. Missy, who apparently has no last name à la Madonna, has claimed she was still dating Tom when he began a relationship with LuAnn. In fact, Ramona’s pal said she ran into Tom at the Regency Hotel and still believed they were an item. However, he was there with LuAnn. Since then, local drama king Harry Dubin insinuated during Ramona’s housewarming party Tom and Missy kissed after the former got engaged to LuAnn. Missy neither confirmed nor denied the story.

Keeping all of that information in mind, Tom’s comments to Missy couldn’t be more inappropriate. When he runs into Missy, he coughs and she asks if he’s sick. "No, no, no, I’m fine," the businessman responds. "I get all choked up when I see you." Missy continues the flirting, saying, "The feeling’s mutual." RHONY gives us short snippets of Tom’s conversation with Missy and friends, revealing she was "walking off" the last time they saw each other. When an unseen friend wants Tom’s "side of the story" about the mysterious encounter, he becomes red-faced and starts laughing uncomfortably. "Alright. I’ve got to unplug this," he says, turning off his mic to tell his tale. Whatever happened the last time Tom and Missy got together, it’s apparently so suspect, the Bravo team can never hear it.

While everything about LuAnn’s relationship in the finale falls somewhere between uncomfortable to cringeworthy — Tom, why are you so inconsiderate towards your wife? — this does give me hope for a new-and-improved Countess for season 10. Most of LuAnn’s season 9 storyline came from her relationship with Tom, which many of the housewives disapproved of due to the string of infidelity rumors that plagued the longtime bachelor. Her first argument with Ramona? About the pinot grigio fan’s instance on finding proof Tom cheated. Her Palm Beach wedding? It basically took up an entire episode and had a New York-set post-party. Even on the ladies’ vacation to Mexico, LuAnn said "Tom," who was in no way present, was the best part of her trip. With LuAnn finally rid of Tom, her tagline doesn't have to be about becoming a "Mrs." Instead, her next storyline can focus on becoming her own woman, free from the trappings of any man.

LuAnn's first Instagram photo post-divorce announcement, a solo photo of herself hiking in Switzerland, proves she's on well on the way to living her best life, single-lady style. If she keeps this up, I just might actually be excited for Real Housewives Of New York season 10.

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Dakota Johnson's Just Shared The Most Surprising — & Genius — Beauty Trick

August 10, 2017, 9:55 am

≫ Next: Here's How You Can Get Sephora's Best-Selling Palettes For 50% Off

≪ Previous: LuAnn De Lesseps’ RHONY Marriage Comments Are So Uncomfortable Now

Dakota Johnson is not known for basking in the Hollywood spotlight. In fact, the last time we heard about the Fifty Shades of Grey actress was when she cut her bangs earlier this summer. Suffice to say, she keeps a low profile, and much like Alison Brie, Kristen Stewart, and Brie Larson, Johnson only comes out of the woodwork for film premieres and small events — which is how we discovered her biggest beauty tips.

Rarely do celebrities offer up any truly useful tips or tricks, but when Glamour recently spoke with Johnson about Gucci's newest perfume, she offered up an interesting answer to the famous "What's your beauty secret?" question. We'll give you some hints: It's not water, you can find it at the drugstore, and you probably left your last eye appointment with 10 samples from your doctor. Yep — it's eye drops.

The Unfit actress told Glamour that she simply can't get enough of the bright-eyed trick, "Hello, I’m Dakota, and I’m addicted to eye drops; the last time I used was 20 minutes ago. Really, I’m addicted to eye drops…. I just love the feeling of them in my eyes. It’s glorious."

It's not just eye drops, either: Johnson also told the publication that she's also stolen a beauty trick from her famous grandmother, Tippi Hedren — and it's legit. Follow the family rule and hold the mirror low — right beneath your face — and look down. This ensures your favorite mascara coats every last lash.

Does this mean we can probably find a bulk of eye drops in Christian Grey's Red Room of Pain? Maybe...

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Here's How You Can Get Sephora's Best-Selling Palettes For 50% Off

August 10, 2017, 10:00 am

≫ Next: This New Drugstore Collection Was Designed To Flatter All Skin Tones

≪ Previous: Dakota Johnson's Just Shared The Most Surprising — & Genius — Beauty Trick

Friday is hands down the best day of the work week... mostly because it signals the end of it. But for beauty enthusiasts, Thursday is about to become a very close second: Sephora debuted its brand-new Weekly Wow sale today, so you might want to consider getting out of bed 15 minutes earlier every Thursday just so you can shop the deals before they're gone — or, at the very least, not hitting the snooze button more than once.

For the first round of the special offer, the beauty megastore has taken a full 50% off five of its best-selling palettes for eyes and face — as in, Tarte, Stila, and Anastasia Beverly Hills for half the usual price.

The discounts will be in effect until the next Weekly Wow release hits the site, but considering it's a strictly while-supplies-last kind of situation, you probably won't want to wait this one out.

Ahead, a look at the highly coveted palettes you can snag at half price right now — and don't forget to check back in a week for the next edition of sweet deals. This is the best thing to happen on a Thursday since, well... taking a Friday off.

The twinkle factor in this highlighting palette is very real, but the tiny micro-shimmer particles create a multidimensional effect that leaves skin looking lit from within rather than over-the-top sparkly. Each shade is just subtle enough when swept on with a fan brush; a damp blending sponge will give you a disco-ball finish in the best way.
**Tarte** Rainforest of the Sea Skin Twinkle Lighting Palette Volume II, $21 (reg. $42), available at Sephora.

These versatile palettes make mixing and matching your shadow looks simple: Each one contains 12 shades in a combination of matte and shimmer finishes, so they really cover all the bases. Plus, the luxurious formula goes on remarkably smooth and silky, never chalky, with amazing lasting power.
**Stila** Eyes Are the Window Shadow Palette in Spirit, $24.50 (reg. $49), available at Sephora.

This insanely popular contouring and highlighting kit is a must-have for sculpting and defining your features. The lighter shades brighten the eye area and make cheekbones pop, while the deeper shades create depth and dimension without looking unnatural — and because the colors are grouped by skin tone, most people should be able to find their perfect fit. (Plus, you can buy separate refills once you’ve hit the pan.)
**Anastasia Beverly Hills** Contour Kit, $20 (orig. $40), available at Sephora.

If you prefer your contour to come in a cream formula, this palette is perfection. Just know that less is more with these blendable shades — they’re crazy pigmented, so you only need a little bit to get the perfect sculpted effect.
**Anastasia Beverly Hills** Contour Cream Kit, $20 (orig. $40), available at Sephora.

There’s a reason this palette is perpetually sold out: With six metallic shades and six mattes in universally flattering neutral-but-better shades of bronze, rose gold, and pewter, it’s pretty much everything you could need to go from day to night.
**Stila** Matte ‘n Metal Eyeshadow Palette, $24.50 (orig. $49), available at Sephora.

Like this post? There's more. Get tons of beauty tips, tutorials, and news on the Refinery29 Beauty Facebook page. Like us on Facebook — we'll see you there!

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This New Drugstore Collection Was Designed To Flatter All Skin Tones

August 10, 2017, 10:00 am

≫ Next: A Week In Rancho Cucamonga, CA, On Unemployment Benefits

≪ Previous: Here's How You Can Get Sephora's Best-Selling Palettes For 50% Off

The end of summer tends to bring up an array of mixed feelings. It marks the slow, chilly descent into fall, the start of a new school year, and the end of summer Fridays. On the bright side, it also signals an onslaught of new drugstore launches — and if this year has been any indication, this month's loot will be legendary.

Ready to start with a bang? Maybelline just dropped a four-piece collection in collaboration with beauty blogger Shayla Mitchell, which the pair shared early exclusively with Refinery29. Mitchell had one all-important goal while creating the collection: That each piece would flatter every single one of her 2 million followers. "When I created this collection I wanted to make sure that it was completely inclusive and that anyone could wear it, no matter their skin tone," Shayla told R29. "Being a woman of color and hearing from my followers every day, I never want anyone to be left out."

This isn't the first time Mitchell has teamed up with the drugstore makeup powerhouse. You might remember her campaign for the brand's The Colossal Big Shot Mascara that launched earlier this year. After falling in love with the mascara, she decided to create three new shades as part of her collection with the brand.

Curious to see the result of Shayla and Maybelline's collaboration? Keep scrolling to peep the entire collection.

We've been fans of Maybelline's The City Mini Palettes since the line dropped earlier this summer — and now we have another reason to fan out. Shayla created her very own version featuring six hand-picked shades. "I went to the Maybelline labs in New York and they said 'Create your color,'" she says. "We literally mixed the shades to get the perfect colors and I had everybody swatch the colors on their hands because I needed it to look good on everyone...Every skin tone needed to be in that room and I wanted everyone's feedback."
**Maybelline** The City Mini Palette x Shayla, $9.99, available at Maybelline.

Shayla picked a host of universally-flattering shades like bronze and brown. "I wanted those neutral tones you can wear every day," she says. "I hate seeing a palette and thinking 'Those aren't colors I'd wear'." Then, to add a pop of color, she threw in a metallic version of her favorite color: purple.
Photo: Courtesy of Mi-Anne Chan.

Continuing with the purple theme, Mitchell created a violet version of her beloved The Colossal Big Shot Mascara. "Purple is my favorite color, it's the color of royalty and I wanted everyone to feel powerful," she says.
**Maybelline** The Colossal Big Shot x Shayla Mascara in Poppin' Purple, $8.49, available at Maybelline.

"Boomin' In Blue is one of my favorite colors to wear on my eyes as mascara because blue really brings out my brown eyes," Shayla tells *R29*.
**Maybelline** The Colossal Big Shot x Shayla Mascara in Boomin' In Blue, $8.49, available at Maybelline.

"I also always have to have the darkest black mascara," she adds. "So I needed a true dark, carbon-black mascara in the mix."
**Maybelline** The Colossal Big Shot x Shayla Mascara in Baddest Black, $8.49, available at Maybelline.

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A Week In Rancho Cucamonga, CA, On Unemployment Benefits

August 10, 2017, 10:00 am

≫ Next: The Steamiest, Sexiest Movies Of All Time

≪ Previous: This New Drugstore Collection Was Designed To Flatter All Skin Tones

Welcome toMoney Diaries , where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we're tracking every last dollar.

Today: a 25-year-old woman who is currently getting unemployment benefits. She spends some of her money this week on a slush from Sonic, and a trip to see the Cubs play the Diamondbacks.

Occupation: Unemployed
Industry: Higher Education
Age: 25
Location: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Salary: $9,325 Unemployment Benefits
Paycheck (Weekly): $373

Monthly Expenses
Housing: None. I've been living with a sibling to save money.
Loan Payments: $179.04

All Other Monthly Expenses
Car Insurance: $100
Food: My sibling graciously lets me eat the food in the house, so unless I eat out, I don't pay for groceries.
Cell Phone: $100
Netflix: None — I use my sibling's account.
Credit Card: $148, varies month to month

7:30 a.m. — I recently informally complained that my work environment was hostile. A week later, I was let go for "lack of fit," after a year on the job. Cue critics who think this millennial should have kept her mouth shut — but I regret nothing. Anyway, I didn't get any unemployment funds for the first week after being let go because there was a waiting period. Today, I receive my first payment for the week, and I have to apply for jobs each week to continue to receive the UI benefits. As far as I can tell, there is no required number of applications to complete, so I have decided to apply for a minimum of 10 jobs a day to fulfill the requirement. I make my monthly student loan payment and make a pot of coffee.
10:45 a.m. — I had an IUD inserted a couple of months ago; I have an appointment to get it checked and make sure that all is well. I need to do that before the insurance from my former job runs out in about a week. I've been having pain for a few months, so it'll be good to discuss that with the doc today. The appointment has a copay. I love eating out and previously went on many trips to Trader Joe's during the work week, but after the appointment, I fight every urge I have to stop for food. I make it all the way home without stopping. Yay me? **$15**
12 p.m. — At home, I make an underwhelming frozen burrito and immediately start working on applications. While I apply for jobs, I do a Garnier Moisture Bomb sheet mask and a deep conditioning hair mask. I haven't done either in ages, and I got them free after making a previous Ulta purchase. I feeling very refreshed after.
5:30 p.m. — I get an email saying that I was not selected for a position I've been interviewing for. I applied for it before I was let go, and I made it to the final round and reference checks. I cry for a while and have a mini-panic attack that my references aren't trustworthy. I wonder if I need to reconsider who I put on that list, and I feel disappointed that this whole unemployment thing will last longer than I expected. I'm not naive; it's fair to be confident that you'll get the job if you make it to reference checks. I eat a Snickers ice cream bar from the freezer, and spend the rest of the evening watching Netflix.
**Daily Total: $15**

9:45 a.m. — I have a chiropractor appointment today. I go often and pay a copay because I have sciatica and chronic neck pain from a snowboarding accident five years ago. After my chiropractor appointment ($35), I feel much better. I stop by Target to buy Tiger Balm ($6.48) for the inevitable return of the pain in my lower back. I fight the urge to buy food while I'm out, but I grab a venti iced green tea at Starbucks because I have a gift card. After, I head back home and make frozen chicken and pasta, and work on applying for jobs. **$41.48**
10:45 p.m. — I've been reading a lot about passive income and e-commerce lately, so on a whim, I start a Shopify account and get to work on a drop-shipping site. It's so fun and easy, and the next thing I know, it's super late and I've got a whole site — a pretty adorable one, I might add — with about 100 items available for purchase. However, I can't go live with any of it unless I pay for Shopify. I decide to do it because, well, why not? The beauty of drop-shipping is that there isn't much of an upfront cost. There's an upfront time investment — but boy, do I have a lot of free time these days. Since I've made it this far, I figure I should also make an Instagram account for the site, too. **$19**
**Daily Total: $60.48**

7:25 a.m. — My boyfriend's birthday is coming up and I've been trying to think of something special to do. Since he's a huge Chicago Cubs fan, I decide to get him an early birthday present of tickets to see the Cubs play the Diamondbacks in Phoenix. Thankfully, Southwest has a ton of cheap flights right now, so I book both of our round-trip flights to Phoenix, and make reservations at the Sheraton downtown for the weekend of the game. I've been planning this for a while, so I pay for the trip from savings. I need to find out where he'll want to sit in the stadium, so I'll wait to buy tickets for the game. **$466**
11:30 a.m. — The verdict is that my pain is not IUD related, so I have a follow-up appointment this morning. There's no copay for the ultrasound of my ovaries, but this a stressful appointment. My mother passed away from ovarian cancer a couple of years ago, so needless to say, I'm stressed. I talk to my doctor about the fact that my insurance is running out because I lost my job, and explain that expedited results would be fab. Because of the discussion, I remember that since I'm not 26 yet so I'm still eligible for insurance through my dad — which means I'll have insurance until November! I'm not aiming to still be unemployed come November — but this is still a HUGE relief!
2:30 p.m. — I spend the rest of the day searching and applying for jobs online. I heat up more frozen chicken and pasta from the fridge and listen to TED Talks.
**Daily Total: $466**

6:45 a.m. — I've been feeling cooped up, so I decide to spend the day with my dad in my hometown, a small mountain town about 1.5 hours away from Rancho Cucamonga. We go to breakfast at Thelma's to catch up. He recently got a new phone, so I spend all of breakfast helping him figure it out. I'm the baby in the family and the only girl, so breakfast is on him. We have eggs, bacon, hash browns, and biscuits and gravy. Yum!
We spend a few hours running errands for him around town, and inevitably run into family friends I haven't seen since I graduated from high school. I get a million questions. Apparently, everyone expects you to be employed and super successful when they know you attended not one, but two super-prestigious universities. LOL — that's cute.
2:30 p.m. — I have a phone interview for a job today at 2:30, but I got a late start heading back down the mountain. I start to worry that I won't have any cell service for the call, so I start rushing. Luckily, I make it down just in time and end up pulling over to conduct the interview. Heaven knows I don't need a ticket! I think it goes really well — fingers crossed.
3 p.m. — A good friend of mine is pregnant and texts me to ask if I can pick up saltine crackers for her. I stop at Target on my way home ($1.88); I also buy Halo Top ice cream ($4.95) and salt and vinegar chips ($1.49). I take great care not to stray from the food section because, let's face it, we all know what happens at Target. I do, however, pop over to the Marshalls next door to browse; I'm not ready to go home just yet. I buy Ole Henriksen Moisturizer ($3.99) and wireless headphones ($8.99). **$21.30**
4:45 p.m. — Back at home, I purchase a newborn-sized onesie for my pregnant friend from a cute little shop online that I found on Instagram. My sibling's partner makes a pizza for dinner. I go for a walk around the neighborhood, and I later do some searching on Pinterest for things to do in Phoenix. **$11.99**
**Daily Total: $33.29**

7:30 a.m. — In the past, I always ordered a venti iced Americano on Fridays on my way to work. Today, I fight the urge to leave my house just to buy coffee, and I make it at home instead. Starbucks or not, a coffee addict still needs her fix. I drink the whole pot throughout the morning and work on job applications. I didn't complete any of them yesterday, so I have to make up for that today.
4 p.m. — My boyfriend recently moved from Colorado to L.A. for work, so now we see each other every weekend. He lives alone, meaning I usually spend weekends with him at his place. It's 110 degrees and it's happy hour at Sonic, so I grab a watermelon slush for the traffic-heavy drive ahead of me. Sonic appears to be hiring. Maybe I should apply? **$3.38**
6:30 p.m. — I haven't eaten anything other than salt and vinegar chips today, so I'm starving. My boyfriend and I make orange chicken and rice with ingredients he has at his place for dinner. We spend the evening discussing a camping trip with my family that's coming up in a few weeks.
**Daily Total: $3.38**

8:30 a.m. — The boyfriend and I make egg burritos and French press coffee at his place for breakfast. We enjoy our food while watching *Fixer Upper* all morning.
1:45 p.m. — My loving BF surprises me with a day-cation for our anniversary. It consists of a couple's massage and a eucalyptus mist sauna at Spa Del Ray. Both are AMAZING. After, we enjoy refreshing glasses of frosé poolside at the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Ray. Best day ever!
6:45 p.m. — We are both too euphoric and relaxed (i.e. lazy) from the day to cook, so we grab PizzaRev for dinner and two Redbox films. Today was an expensive day for the BF, so dinner is on me. We spend the rest of our evening watching movies, drinking wine, and playing with Alexa on the Echo he ordered on Prime Day. **$20.81**
**Daily Total: $20.81**

9 a.m. — I slept like a baby last night from being so relaxed. My boyfriend and I make eggs, bacon, and French press coffee again today, and we marathon watch *Man in the High Castle* until I decide to head home. I stop for gas on the way. Lucky for me, my car is great on gas so I only have to fill up once a week during "normal" weeks. **$32**
3:30 p.m. — There's a lot of posting on Facebook about this loan forgiveness as a result of lost paperwork thing that's been happening. Of course, I read through the article as soon as I see it, but alas, I'm not eligible because I don't have private loans. I doubt the Fed will lose my proof of ownership paperwork any time soon. Ugh — one should be so lucky... I spend the rest of the evening binge-watching *One Tree Hill*, eating salt and vinegar chips, and making a frozen chicken and pasta dish. Apparently, I eat a lot of it.
**Daily Total: $32**

*Money Diaries are meant to reflect individual women's experiences and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29's point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.*
*The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend — to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here.*
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The Steamiest, Sexiest Movies Of All Time

August 10, 2017, 10:00 am

≫ Next: The Best YA Books To Get Excited About

≪ Previous: A Week In Rancho Cucamonga, CA, On Unemployment Benefits

The sexiest movies aren't necessarily lurking in the adults-only section of HBO — or in the deleted archives of one's browser history. Often, the steamiest films are mainstream. Whether a flick actually features a crazy-hot love scene or a more innocent tryst between a forbidden couple, it's perfectly acceptable to find these movies tantalizing. Let's be real: That was totally the filmmaker's point.

As a celebration of the sexiest films to ever grace the big screen, we've rounded up a collection of movies that have a history of encouraging sexy thoughts. While turn-ons are as varied as people are, these movies certainly attempt to evoke certain feelings in all of us.

Is it hot in here? Nope, it's just these movies. Click through to read about the sexiest movies to inspire endless fantasizing.

***In the Mood For Love***(2000)
Two neighbors in Hong Kong find that their lonely lives adhere to a similar schedule. They spark up an intimate friendship, especially after confessing that their spouses are both having an affair. While they feel lust for each other, they want to be better than their cheating spouses. So, *In the Mood For Love* is steeped in unfulfilled and aching sexual tension, which is undeniably its own brand of sexiness.

***Dirty Dancing***(1987)
Rarely are summer flings are productive as the one between Baby (Jennifer Grey) and Johnny (Patrick Swayze). In addition to giving Baby the strength to rise above her judgmental family, she learns to dirty dance. The tangible chemistry between Grey and Swayze spread sex appeal all over the dance floor.

***Titanic***(1997)
In actuality, the iconic love story between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) is chaste, compared to some of the other selections on this list. But the palpable sexual tension, combined with one steamy handprint on a car, makes *Titanic* one of the sexiest (and saddest) movies ever.
20th Century Fox/Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

***Kiss Me***(2011)
Frida goes to her father's wedding with her fiancé, and finds herself thrown for a loop. She's inexplicably, totally, and completely attracted to her soon-to-be stepmother's daughter, Mia. *Kiss Me* should be a fixture in the forbidden love genre.

***The Lover***(1992)
In this film based on the famous novel by Margeurite Duras, a French teenager and a wealthy older Chinese man in 1920s French Indochina carry out an affair in seedy corners of Saigon. The jig's almost up on their forbidden relationship. But when will it end, and how?
Renn/Burrill/Films A2/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

***My Golden Days***(2015)
Of course a film about a middle-aged French anthropologist remembering his first love is going to be steamy. The lush, romantic film is actually a prequel to the 1996 three-hour epic, *My Sex Life or...How I Got Into An Argument,"* which is all about the French academic's present-day life. *My Golden Days* explains how he became such a romantic idealist.

***Adore***(2013)
Robyn Wright and Naomi Watts' characters grow up in idyll on the Australian coast. When they grow up, they raise their beautiful sons in adjacent beautiful homes. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.
And then, the women start sleeping with each others' sons. Still beautiful? Up to you to decide.

***Troy***(2014)
Only Hollywood could take *The Iliad*, strip it of its poetry and literary significance, and make it an excuse for Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, and Brad Pitt to prance around on horseback.

***My Beautiful Laundrette***(1985)
In a rough neighborhood of London, Omar Ali (Gordon Warnecke) inherits a laundromat from his uncle. Then, Omar is beat up by a gang of racist kids — the leader of whom is, surprisingly, Omar's ex-lover, Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis). Despite Johnny's connection to the group, he and Omar rekindle their relationship. This acclaimed, heartening movie about love against the odds features what may be the best ear lick of all time.

***Body Heat***(1981)
Set in Florida during an intense heatwave, this is a movie about passion, heat, crime, and a lot of sweat. Ned Racine (William Hurt), a shy lawyer, starts a passionate affair Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner), the wife of a big shot businessman. Ned teams up with one of his criminal clients to kill Matty's husband, so the two can run off together. Of course, Ned finds himself way over his head. Not even the hottest sex can save him now.
Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock

Boogie Nights (1997)

What else do you expect from a movie about Mark Wahlberg trying to break into the adult film industry?

***Out of Sight***(1998)
What happens when you pit George Clooney's notorious bank robber against J-Lo's Federal Marshal on the hunt? Chemistry, of course. In addition to being steamy, this witty movie received almost universal acclaim from critics.
Universal/REX/Shutterstock

***Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love***(1996)
You'd expect that a movie with the title "Kama Sutra" would be sexy, and trust us — it delivers. Set in 16 century India, *Kama Sutra* is about two childhood friends who become sexual rivals in their womanhood. Tara becomes engaged to the king, and her best friend Maya is groomed into becoming his mistress. This cannot end well, though at least there are drawn-out sex scenes along the way.
Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock

***Carol***(2015)
This gorgeous period piece tells the story of a timid shopgirl who becomes romantically involved with a wealthy housewife. The movie's sexiest moment comes when a couple takes a road trip away from Carol's husband and steam up a motel room. What makes *Carol* a great film, however, are the satisfying journeys of self-discovery that both women embark on.
Wilson Webb/Killer Films/The Weinstein Company/REX/Shutterstock

**Original Sin**
Sure, the movie was slammed by critics. But upturned noses can't take away from the crazy chemistry between leads Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas in this period piece set in Cuba during 19th century Spanish rule.
Lourdes Grobet/MGM/REX/Shutterstock

**Vicky Cristina Barcelona** (2008)
The artist-and-his-muse archetype gets revamped in this Woody Allen flick. The Spanish setting is romantic enough, but all bets (and clothing items) are off when you add in the allure of the painter, his colorful past lover, and the promise of a new one.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

**9 1/2 Weeks** (1986)
If there's anything sexier than Mickey Rourke as a Wall Street mogul having an affair with Kim Basinger, we've yet to find it. This movie upped the ante on what erotic means in Hollywood.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

**Lust, Caution** (2007)
A young, virginal woman is tasked with seducing a most dangerous enemy. Thrilling romance follows.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features.

**I Am Love** (2009)
Visually stunning, *I Am Love* is one of those movies you can't look away from. The veneer of the perfect family, under the guise of bougie Italian culture, is questioned in this battle over old and new. The meal scene is a must.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Magnolia Film.

**Y Tu Mamá También** (2001)
Two teens embark on a road trip when they encounter a stunningly free-spirited woman who helps them discover intimacy and themselves.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of IFC Films.

**House Of Pleasures** (2011)
Instead of submitting to men, the women of this French brothel know how to dominate them.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Haut et Court.

**From Here To Eternity** (1953)
The scene with Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster kissing on the beach is iconic and unforgettable.
Streaming: iTunes
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

**Unfaithful** (2002)
This movie, despite how disastrous Diane Lane's affair is, will make you want to pull your lover into the nearest restaurant bathroom and get it on immediately.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

**Cruel Intentions** (1999)
Ah... young, rich, pretty people galavanting through hedonism and the recklessness of youth.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

**Eyes Wide Shut** (1999)
*Fifty Shades* might be all kinky and whatnot, but Stanley Kubrick's sex party is one for the cinematic ages.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

**Fallen Angels** (1995)
Visually, this movie is the definition of sexy. Story-wise, it'll tear you to pieces.
**Streaming:** Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Kino International.

**Malèna** (2000)
It should go without saying that Monica Bellucci's mere presence amps the sensuality of any film to new heights. But, this coming-of-age tale demystifies the act of growing up and into one's own sexuality.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax Films.

**Bound** (1996)
Whoever said a sexy movie needed a heteronormative seduction story hasn't seen the Wachowskis' crime thriller. Two femme fatales are better than one.
Streaming: Unavailable
Photo: Courtesy of Gramercy Pictures.

**Weekend** (2011)
This movie from *Looking* creator Andrew Haigh is a watershed for queer cinema. Not only does it present an insightful story about a homosexual romance without ostentatious stereotypes, it presents gay sex as perfectly normal.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Selects.

**The Dreamers** (2003)
Though the film treads the incest line, *The Dreamers* prompts audiences to question sex with people outside of their "type." Plus, Eva Green just exudes sexuality.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

**Love & Basketball** (2000)
For once, a movie that focuses on the reactions to sex and sexuality rather than the actual act. *Love & Basketball* made it feel like the first time.
Streaming: iTunes
Photo: Courtesy of New Line Cinema.

**The Piano Teacher** (2001)
Dark, but moving, *The Piano Teacher* doesn't shy away from the shame that sex can generate. There's something inherently sexy about that kind of rawness.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Kino International.

**Basic Instinct** (1992)
Everyone knows this movie for Sharon Stone's interrogation scene, but the sex scene is also incredible. Even more than that, Stone's entire aura is divinely sexy.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of TriStar Pictures.

**In The Mood For Love** (2000)
Not only is this film a fabulous study of couples seeking other arrangements, but the costume design exudes sex appeal.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of USA Films.

**28 Hotel Rooms** (2012)
This is what happens when your one-night stand turns out to be something more. Enjoy the ride.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.

**Mr. & Mrs. Smith** (2005)
So, their actual marriage has gone to hell. But these two gifted us one of the hottest angry sex scenes, ever. Plus, who doesn't want to watch Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt cinematically get it on?
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

**How Stella Got Her Groove Back** (1998)
Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs gave us all too high of expectations for what shower sex could be.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

**Take This Waltz** (2011)
Michelle Williams has always been subtly sexy, and this scene takes the cake — both artistically and sexually.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

**Elles** (2011)
Juliette Binoche is the definition of French chic. Her portrayal of a woman seeking to rediscover her sexuality through researching prostitutes is as inspiring as it is enticing.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of Memento Films.

**Betty Blue** (1986)
An erotic drama that opens with an in-your-face sex scene, *Betty Blue* presents sex without any gimmicks. The most shocking thing about the sexuality is how not shocking it actually is.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Gaumont.

**Sex, Lies, And Videotape**(1989)
For once, a movie with as many blunt conversations about sex as there are sex scenes.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax Films.

**A Single Man** (2009)
Tom Ford's screen adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel is far and away the most sexed-up title on this list. However, it's sexier than the rest because Tom Ford has his hand in every bit of this film. Everything from the styling, set design, soundtrack, and coloring is sleek. This is eye candy.
Streaming: Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company.

**Breathless** (1960)
Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film is one of the reasons we're all slightly obsessed with the effortlessly cool French look and life.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Rialto Pictures.

**Secretary** (2002)
Let's be real: This is the original *Fifty Shades*. This movie does more than depict sadomasochism, it celebrates it.
Streaming: Amazon
Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate.

**Blue Is The Warmest Color** (2013)
This French film explores a romance between two young women and shows the excitement of experiencing true intimacy for the first time. Check it out for the sweet romance, stay for the sexy, sexy scenes.
Stream: Netflix
Photo: Wild Bunch

**Mulholland Drive** (2001)
Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring find very sexy romance as they attempt to solve a bizarre mystery in David Lynch's steamy neo-noir.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Universal Pictures

**Savages** (2012)
Is it hot in here, or is it just the polyamorous relationship between the three beautiful leads? Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson play marijuana farmers who get tangled up in a Mexican drug cartel — but not before getting tangled up in one another.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Universal Pictures

**Brokeback Mountain** (2005)
Yes, this movie is devastating, but you also can't find two better-looking guys than Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal to hook up in a tent.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Focus Features

**Closer** (2004)
*Closer* isn't filled with sex scenes, but the deep kisses and smoldering looks exchanged between the four gorgeous actors are enough to get anyone hot and bothered.
Buy: Amazon
Photo: Columbia Pictures

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↧

The Best YA Books To Get Excited About

August 10, 2017, 10:05 am

≫ Next: These Detailed Sexual Fantasies Are Better Than Fifty Shades Of Grey

≪ Previous: The Steamiest, Sexiest Movies Of All Time

Photo: Courtesy of Algonquin Young Readers.

If you're shopping for the YA lover in your life (or if you're a YA lover yourself!), it's time to look beyond the adventures of Katniss Everdeen. YA has only gotten more popular in the years since The Hunger Games came out in 2008. Blockbuster adaptations of stand-alone novels and series like The Fault in Our Stars, The Maze Runner, and Divergent have made YA familiar even to those who haven't picked up a book written for teens since they were a teen themselves. But just because the box office is dominated by dystopian landscapes and John Green doesn't mean that's all YA has to offer.

Recent titles destined to become classics represent all sub-genres. There's everything from historical fiction to magical realism and literary fiction. Here are some recent YA titles that should be at the top of your must-read pile. And feel free to ask anyone who tries to mock you for reading "kids' books" how many times they saw Toy Story 3. Anyone and everyone can enjoy YA.

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***The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time***, Mark Haddon
Welcome to the perspective of 15-year old Christopher John Francis Boone. He knows a lot about a lot of things. He can name all the countries of the world and their capitals, and has memorized a whole lot of prime numbers. Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, Christopher is *not* as good at reading emotions, or relating to people.
The action begins when Christopher's neighbor's poodle is killed, and he becomes the prime subject. Christopher applies his logic skills to solving the crime, and ends up uncovering some of the neighborhood's secrets in the process.

***Eleanor & Park***, Rainbow Rowell
Set over the course of the 1986-1987 school year, *Eleanor & Park* tracks the course of "true love" between two high-school misfits. But, as Shakespeare said, it never did run smooth. *Eleanor & Park* captures the frenetic fury of first love, and the realization that love doesn't alway stay.

***Ash***, Malinda Lo
Who can pass up a though-provoking retelling of a fairy tale? In this retelling of Cinderella, a girl escapes from the torment of her stepmother after she meets an alluring fairy, Sidhean, who will grant her wishes — if she submits to his pact. While she sinks deeper in the fairy world, Ash meets the King's Huntress, a woman named Kaisa. She'll have to choose between Sidhean's fairy promises and a true love right here on earth.

***Before I Fall,*** Lauren Oliver
To continue the morbid theme in teen literature (see: *Thirteen Reasons Why*), *Before I Fall* is about a high school Queen Bee trapped in a *Groundhog Day-* esque purgatory after a car crash. She repeats the same day over and over again until she can change her behavior, and escape the cycle.

***Saints and Misfits***, S.K. Ali
She's only a sophomore in high school, but Janna Yusuf is already torn between just about a million communities. Her struggles with her Muslim identity come to a head when a) Jeremy, her non-Muslim crush reciprocates her feelings and b) the boy who assaulted her at a party is also a pious and well-respected member of their community.

***Uglies,*** Scott Westerfeld
Before the dystopia craze swept over the landscape of the YA literary scene, there was *Uglies* by Scott Westerfeld, an unsung hero of science fiction. In this futuristic society, all 16-year-olds are initiated into adulthood through a comprehensive and mandatory surgery that makes them excessively beautiful. Though Tally Youngblood is, at first, eager for the pretty surgery, she gets tied up with a group of people who choose to live on the fringes and abstain from the surgery.

***The Hate U Give***, Angie Thomas
After witnessing the police shooting of her best friend, 16-year-old Starr Carter is awakened to activism. Starr's previously cordoned-off world begin to collide, as the stress of serving as the only witness to Khalil's shooting and attending a private school begin to collide.

**Looking for Alaska**, John Green
John Green is a big name in YA; read any of his books, and you'll understand why. This one, his debut, is about a boy who falls hopelessly in love with the pretty, damaged girl across the hall at boarding school — you know, as you do. But what sets this book apart from many in the genre (and from many of Green's other novels) is that the boy eventually realizes she's a real person, not just an actor in his play, and everything gets more complicated from there.
Photo: Courtesy of **Speak**.

***The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,*** Sherman Alexie
Set on the Spokane Indian Reservation, this classic YA novel tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr., a 14-year-old with dreams of becoming a cartoonist. Junior's life changes when, upon encouragement from a teacher, he decides to attend the all-white public high school in Reardon, Washington, off the reservation. Since the book deals so frankly with the realities of life on the reservation — like alcoholism, poverty, and violence — it's landed on many "banned book" lists. All the more reason to dig in.
Courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

***Falling Into Place,*** Amy Zhang
Liz Emerson intentionally crashes her car into a tree. In a twilight haze in her hospital bed, Liz's nonlinear flashbacks piece together the short, tragic life of Meridian High's Queen Bee. With its inventive, unconventional structure, this book will especially appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver's *Before I Fall*.
Courtesy of Harper Collins

**Paper Towns**, John Green
John Green is a big name in YA; read any of his books, and you'll understand why. This one, which was made into a movie in 2015, perfectly tears down the "manic pixie dream girl" trope.
Photo: Courtesy of **Penguin Young Readers Group.**

**Saving Red,** Sonya Sones
Sones' latest novel in verse follows Molly, a high schooler whose chance meeting with a homeless girl pushes her into action for the first time since suffering a family tragedy a year before. Deftly handling the topic of mental illness, the book also features a sweet romance and plenty of humor.
Photo: Courtesy of **HarperTeen.**

**Still Life With Tornado**, A.S. King
As Sarah deals with the fall-out of broken friends and an even more fractured family, she's visited by her ten-year-old and twenty-three-year-old self.
Photo: Courtesy of **Dutton Books for Young Readers.**

**This One Summer**, Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
This beautifully illustrated graphic novel follows a preteen girl on her family vacation as she tries to make sense of her evolving sense of self, and her subtly shifting family.
Photo: Courtesy of **First Second**.

**If I Was Your Girl**, Meredith Russo
*If I Was Your Girl* tells the story of a young transgender woman who wants a new start at a new school without the burden of her past. But as she starts to make friends, she begins to wonders if she'll ever really be close to anyone she's keeping so many secrets from.
Photo: Courtesy of **Flatiron Books.**

**Will Grayson, Will Grayson**, John Green & David Levithan
Green and Levithan each write the perspective of a teen named Will Grayson. Though the two Wills couldn't be more different, when they finally meet they're able to change each other's lives for the better.
Photo: Courtesy of **Speak.**

**The Sun Is Also A Star**, Nicola Yoon
Yoon's latest novel is already a National Book Award Finalist. The book follows two teenagers who both have believed they don't have the time or inclination to fall in love— until they meet each other.
Photo: Courtesy of **Delacorte Press**.

**Shadowshaper**, Daniel Jose Older
Sierra Santiago loves to create murals. But when she notices something very strange happening to the street art in her community, she learns her family history is more complicated, and magical, than she could have ever believed.
Photo: Courtesy of **Scholastic**.

**The Strange And Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender**, Leslye Walton
The William C. Morris YA Debut Award Finalist explores three generations of women as they find and lose love. It eventually focuses on Ava Lavender, a girl born with wings who was raised apart from so much of the world but still isn't safe from it.
Photo: Courtesy of **Candlewick**.

**Nimona,** Noelle Stevenson
The National Book Award finalist follows the adventures of Nimona, an aspiring supervillain (with magical powers, of course) who finds a very reluctant mentor in Lord Ballister Blackheart, a man with a mysterious past. The story is illustrated by popular webcomic creator Noelle Stevenson.
Photo: Courtesy of **HarperTeen.**

**Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda**, Becky Albertalli
Simon has never had a boyfriend, but he does have a mysterious e-mail pen pal he can't wait to talk to every day. As their messages become more personal, Simon begins to wonder what a real-life meet-up could lead to.
Photo: Courtesy of **Balzer + Bray**.

**Fangirl,** Rainbow Rowell
As Cath goes through her first year of college, the one comforting constant is her fan fiction. Even as her sister pulls away, her relationship with her parents gets more complicated, and her love life becomes, well, suddenly existent, she knows she can go back to the characters she loves. But what happens when her story ends?
Photo: Courtsey of **St. Martin's Griffin**.

**Extraordinary Means**, Robyn Schneider
In a not so distant future, drug-resistant TB has become a health crisis — and teens suffering from the illness live in sanatoriums meant to help them recover, and keep them separate from the general population. When Lane first arrives at the Latham House all he can think about is getting better and getting out — until he finds a group of friends that makes him feel like he belongs.
Photo: Courtesy of **Katherine Tegen Books**.

**Unbecoming**, Jenny Downham
This multi-generational story explores what it means to do what is expected of you, how relationships can form out of need as well as out of love, and the power of forgiveness.
Photo: Courtesy of **David Fickling Books.**

**The Great American Whatever**, Tim Federle
When Quinn's sister was alive, the two were a filmmaking team. They had big dreams and works in progress. With summer winding down, Quinn has to decide if he'll make the most of it, with minor adventures and crushes and maybe returning to screenwriting. Most importantly, he grapples to come to terms with how his sister died and who he'll become without her.
Photo: Courtesy of **Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers**.

**Highly Illogical Behavior,** John Corey Whaley
This novel by Printz Award-winning author John Corey Whaley follows Lisa, a teen so determined to get into a good college, she's willing to drag a fellow teen, unaware, into the psych test study that will serve as her admission essay. The teen in question, Solomon, has stayed home for three years because of his debilitating panic attacks. At first, when a "new friend" shows up on his door, he's suspicious. But as their friendship grows, so does his interest in the outside world.
Photo: Courtesy of **Dial Books**.

**Anna and the Swallow Man,** Gavriel Savit
This magical realism novel imagines Poland during World War II through the eyes of a young girl who barely has time to grasp the loss of her father when a new father figure appears — the Swallow Man. While he's not someone she quite understands, she puts her trust in him. And so they set out on a years-long walk and attempt to avoid the constant violence and danger of war.
Photo: Courtesy of **Knopf Books for Young Readers**.

**Exit, Pursued by a Bear,** E.K. Johnston
This haunting book about a teenage girl, Hermione, learning to live her life after she's drugged and sexually assaulted, is riveting. A departure from novels like *Speak*, which follows a young woman who deals with the aftermath of her rape in isolation, Hermione navigates with (almost) never-ending support from all those around her, but she still has to deal with the fear and self-doubt in the wake of her attack.
Photo: Courtesy of **Penguin Books**.

**Denton Little's Death Date**, Lance Rubin
Denton Little always knew he was going to die before his high school graduation — in his world, learning your death date is just a part of growing up. He doesn't know how he'll die, but he begins to get an idea when he starts turning purple the day before. However, that turns out to be one of the more normal things to happen to him on the day of his traditional pre-death funeral.
Photo: Courtesy of **Knopf Books for Young Readers**.

**The Truth About Alice**, Jennifer Mathieu
A book about a teenager named Alice told from multiple perspectives, this novel offers a truly fascinating look at projecting your issues on someone else and how a teenager's reputation can be completely destroyed by a mob mentality.
Photo: Courtesy of **Square Fish**.

**If I Lie**, Corrine Jackson
Quinn has become an outcast in her town overnight for a perceived wrong she didn't actually commit. But a deep friendship and love keeps her from clearing her name, so instead, she has to learn to adapt to living in a community that no longer wants her.
Photo: Courtesy of **Simon Pulse**.

**If You Could Be Mine**, Sara Farizan
This is a love story between two teen girls in Iran who always knew they couldn't be together — but always thought, deep down, they could never be separated. As a wedding draws near for one of the teens, her lifelong best friend considers drastic measures to stop it in a country where being gay can get you thrown in jail — or worse.
Photo: Courtesy of **Algonquin Young Readers**.

**Through The Woods**, Emily Carroll
A collection of chilling horror stories that focus more on human monsters than creatures with fangs (though there are some fanged creatures — and they will haunt your dreams).
Photo: Courtesy of **Margaret K. McElderry Books**.

**Jasper Jones**, Craig Silvey
A 2012 Printz Award Honor book, *Jasper Jones* is a mystery told from the perspective of a loner teen that is suddenly pulled into the private life of the town outsider.
Photo: Courtesy of **Ember**.

**Paper Valentine**, Brenna Yovanoff
Part ghost story, part murder mystery, part love story, the core of *Paper Valentine* is a lifelong friendship that couldn't end, even in death.
Photo: Courtesy of **Razorbill**.

**Gone, Gone, Gone**, Hannah Moskowitz
Moskowitz manages to incorporate the fear in the midst of the D.C. sniper into a story about the aftermath of 9/11 and multiple love stories.
Photo: Courtesy of **Simon Pulse**.

**More Happy Than Not**, Adam Silvera
In the future described in *More Happy Than Not*, you can chose to erase the memories that are too painful to live with. Silvera's teen protagonist believes not even erasing the memory of his father's suicide is worth the possible side effects of the procedure — until he's faced with living with heartbreak.
Photo: Courtesy of **Soho Press**.

**The Diviners**, Libba Bray
There is a lot going on in 600-plus page novel by Printz Award-winning author Libba Bray. Set in New York City in the '20s, it introduces you to a teen with supernatural abilities, a flapper with a troubled past, and a boy with a secret even he doesn't fully understand.
Photo: Courtesy of **Little, Brown Books for Young Readers**.

**Everything, Everything**, Nicola Yoon
A teen with a rare illness that compromises her immune system has spent her whole life in her house, with only her mother and her nurse for company. But when a boy moves in next door, she beings to question if her future has to have the same constraints as her past.
Photo: Courtesy of **Delacorte Press**.

**Grasshopper Jungle**, Andrew Smith
Read the book before you see the movie. The story of a teen struggling to figure out his sexuality in the midst of a giant-bug apocalypse is getting a film adaptation from Sony Pictures.
Photo: Courtesy of **Speak**.

**The Cure For Dreaming**, Cat Winters
Set in the early 1900s, when American women were still fighting for the right to vote and an independent woman could be seen as a dangerous thing, Olivia tries her best to hide her feminist efforts from her controlling father. A mix of historical fiction and magical realism, Winters creates a believably terrifying portrait of what it meant to be a woman at the turn of the 20th century.
Photo: Courtesy of **Harry N. Abrams**.

**Only Ever Yours**, Louise O'Neill
A haunting dystopian novel for fans of *The Handmaid's Tale*. In a society where girls are raised to be wives, prostitutes, or celibate caregivers, beauty is everything and there's no real romance or love. But there is friendship.
Photo: Courtesy of **Quercus**.

**Dead to Me**, Mary McCoy
A Hollywood noir in the same vein as a Raymond Chandler — except that it essentially takes the misogyny of those classic books as its subject. In McCoy's twisty debut, an aspiring girl detective finds her once-disappeared sister in a coma and sets out to find the man who put her there.
Photo: Courtesy of **Disney-Hyperion**.

**Boy Meets Boy**, David Levithan
The high school in this book is like a dream land — everybody's free to express themselves however they like, no one judges, the cheerleaders ride motorcycles. The quarterback is also the homecoming queen, and his name is Infinite Darlene. What does it say that a novel about a high school without intolerance feels like magical realism? Well, at the very least it says: Read it. Grown-up life is hard and this novel is the perfect idealized world to escape into when our real one is just too bleak.
Photo: Courtesy of **Knopf**.

**Unteachable**, Leah Raeder
The plot is delicious, if easily recognizable: A tough girl accidentally sleeps with her teacher the summer before she realizes he's her teacher. They can't control themselves, rumors begin to spread — you know the rest. But what really elevates this novel (and makes it worthwhile for any adult reader) is the prose. It's so well written, so lyric, and so electrifying that every line will give you a thrill.
Photo: Courtesy of **Atria**.

**We Were Liars**, E. Lockhart
A bunch of privileged kids bring a less-privileged friend to their family's private island — and something happens. Things begin to not add up. This book is about inheritance, death, amnesia, and its gripping plot will have you whipping through the pages. Pick up this plot-heavy book along with Lockhart’s *The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks* (which is all about eponymous Frankie, who tries to break into her boyfriend’s all-male secret society), and you've pretty much got a perfect weekend of reading.
Photo: Courtesy of **Delacorte Press**.

**Monster**, Walter Dean Myers
This affecting and all too relevant novel is written as a movie script playing out in an African-American teenager's mind while he's on trial and incarcerated. "Monster" is what the prosecution calls him, but Steven is about as human (flaws and all) as it gets.
Photo: Courtesy of **Amistad**.

**Sabriel**, Garth Nix
If you love *Game of Thrones*, read this. It has as many disturbing themes, and also, it's better. The eponymous character is an 18-year-old necromancer on a quest to rescue her father from the other realm. Nix just finally came out with a new book in the series last year, so there's no better time.
Photo: Courtesy of **HarperTeen**.

**Playlist for the Dead**, Michelle Falkoff
Want another *The* *Perks of Being a Wallflower*? Try this, a compelling contemporary novel that manages to incorporate online gaming and communication in a way that feels natural, real, and very, very relevant to anyone living in the modern world. Plus, Falkoff's a lawyer, so you know she's smart; and she went to the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, so you know the prose is good, too.
Photo: Courtesy of **HarperTeen**.

**American Born Chinese**, Gene Luen Yang
This powerful and funny graphic novel follows three stories: one of aching outsider Jin Wang; another of popular kid Danny, whose stereotypical Chinese cousin totally ruins his reputation; and er, one about the Monkey King. In the end, it's all about feeling comfortable in your own skin — which is always a good reminder.
Photo: Courtesy of **Square Fish**.

**All the Bright Places**, Jennifer Niven
When this book came out, Elle Fanning immediately bought the film rights, if that tells you anything. It features two narrators, one who has undiagnosed bipolar disorder, the other dealing with the death of her sister. The ending is a little too moral, but the writing is so good that you'll want to visit Indiana, which is saying something.
Photo: Courtesy of **Knopf**.

**Beauty Queens**, Libba Bray
Okay: A plane containing the 50 Miss Teen Dream Pageant contestants crashes on a deserted island, which turns out to be not exactly deserted. Sound mega campy? Well, it is — in the best way. It's also a crazy, funny, satirical, feminist, Wonderland-mirror version of *Lord of the Flies* that will entertain you and also (gasp!) leave you thinking.
Photo: Courtesy of **Scholastic**.

**Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe**, Benjamin Alire Sáenz
A book about being 15, queer, and of color in the '80s. Not a barn burner like some of the others on this list, but a delicate, lyrical investigation of character, sexuality, and one very important relationship unfolding over one long summer that will stick with you for years.
Photo: Courtesy of **Simon & Schuster**.

**All the Rage**, Courtney Summers
The protagonist of this novel is a little like Veronica Mars — an outsider whose truth-telling has cost her everything — except, er, sort of without all of V's redeeming qualities. A searing novel about rape culture with an extremely complicated female character at its heart? Not just good for grown-ups, but necessary.
Photo: Courtesy of **St. Martin's Griffin**.

**The Walls Around Us**, Nova Ren Suma
This powerful psychological thriller goes places few YA novels go — a juvenile detention facility, for one, where girls convicted of murder unravel the truth of their pasts. The writing in this one is on fire.
Photo: Courtesy of **Algonquin Young Readers**.

**The Raven Boys**, Maggie Stiefvater
The story of a girl born to a family of psychics and destined to kill her true love with a kiss. Based on ancient legends, yet unique in its field, this novel is atmospheric, complex, and (for those of you who like to sink into a series) only the first book in *The Raven Cycle*. Side note: Stiefvater has about the most fun Twitter feed on the planet.
Photo: Courtesy of **Scholastic**.

**The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian**, Sherman Alexie
Alexie excels at just about everything: YA, fiction for adults, poetry, even screenplays. This novel, based in part on Alexie's own experiences in an otherwise all-white school, is powerful and often hilarious. It'll make you want to read everything Alexie's ever written, which wouldn't be a bad thing.
Photo: Courtesy of **Little, Brown Books for Young Readers**.

**Weetzie Bat**, Francesca Lia Block
A classic of the genre, but not in the boring sense — classic in that this wackadoo story is required reading for everyone. It's a love letter to L.A., youth, and the bizarre, a postmodern fairy tale that will make all your dreams seem sparkly and spit-shined.
Photo: Courtesy of **HarperTeen**.

**I Capture the Castle**, Dodie Smith
An understated work of brilliance narrated by a 16-year-old aspiring writer and her family living in poverty — but in a castle. Very British, mannered, and witty, but with a bittersweet core you won't soon forget.
Photo: Courtesy of St. Martin's Griffin.

**Legend**, Marie Lu
This novel, the first in a trilogy, is at the top of the post-apocalyptic thriller heap. Great writing, compelling characters, gripping action —anyone with a pulse will find theirs quickened.
Photo: Courtesy of **Speak**.

**Ship Breaker**, Paolo Bacigalupi
Bacigalupi is quickly becoming a household name in adult sci-fi, and he should be a household name in YA sci-fi, too (not that the two are all that different). In this vivid novel, a scavenger searching for usable metals in shipwrecks on the future Gulf Coast finds a survivor in the wreckage who purports to be able to change his life — if he helps her.
Photo: Courtesy of **Little, Brown Books for Young Readers**.

**The Book Thief**, Markus Zusak
An impressively profound, deliciously lyric Holocaust novel about a young girl who comforts herself during wartime by stealing books. Oh, right, and it's narrated by Death — but that's not as twee as it sounds.
Photo: Courtesy of **Knopf**.

**Silhouette of a Sparrow**, Molly Beth Griffin
In this acclaimed novel set in the 1920s, a 16-year-old girl who aspires to be an ornithologist is sent to live with distant family at a resort in Minnesota. She meets a beautiful young flapper and they begin a secret affair. This book is gorgeous inside and out.
Photo: Courtesy of **Milkweed Editions**.

**A Wrinkle in Time**, Madeleine L'Engle
To be fair, this novel was published before we used terms like "YA" and "adult" to refer to novels, but it's pretty regularly classified as YA now. That said, it should definitely be read by everyone. Brilliant, flawed characters questing through time and space! A nerdy girl who wins the day! Puns! It's great.
Photo: Courtesy of **Time Quintet**.

**How I Live Now**, Meg Rosoff
In this riveting novel, a teenage girl from present-day Manhattan goes to spend the summer with her cousins at their farmhouse in the English countryside. It's strange and idyllic for a while, with no adults around. But then, an unnamed force attacks and occupies England — and suddenly, it's not so great to be alone anymore.
Photo: Courtesy of **Wendy Lamb Books**.

**Akata Witch**, Nnedi Okorafor
This fantasy novel follows a young girl with albinism born in America, but now living in her parents' homeland of Nigeria. After feeling like a constant outsider, finds she has secret powers — she is one of the Leopard People. The framework is familiar enough, but the treatment, writing, and West African myths at play elevate this story into something truly special.
Photo: Courtesy of **Viking Books for Young Readers**.

**I'll Give You the Sun**, Jandy Nelson
The two halves of this novel are narrated by estranged fraternal twins Noah and Jude, artists and dreamers and seekers both, who must come to grips with the dissolution of their family — or find a way to mend it. Unique, charming, and lyric, it's no wonder this book is a much-lauded best seller.
Photo: Courtesy of **Dial Books**.

**Jellicoe Road**, Melissa Marchetta
Three school factions battle it out every year in a small Australian town — the Cadets, the Townies, and the Jellicoe School kids, whose leader, Taylor Markham, is not only out to secure her territory, but to crack the mystery of the mother who abandoned her. And really, that's the pleasure of this novel — the unraveling of a story complex enough to keep any adult interested.
Photo: Courtesy of **HarperTeen**.

**Bone Gap**, Laura Ruby
Original and revelatory, this novel uses multiple perspectives to tell the story of a girl's abduction from the small town of Bone Gap, IL — where everyone knows to stay out of the otherworldly "gaps." In this novel, reality lies down next to fantasy and something else gets up. You'll want to see that something else.
Photo: Courtesy of **Blazer + Bray**.

**Anna Dressed in Blood**, Kendare Blake
Cas kills ghosts — but only the ones who are murderous themselves. That is, until he encounters a ghost who captivates him, despite her violence. Gory, scary, and totally unlike anything else out there, this is a must-read for any horror lover.
Photo: Courtesy of **Tor Teen**.

**The Madman's Daughter**, **Megan Shepherd**
Like H. G. Wells? Pick up this novel, told from the perspective of the 16-year-old daughter of Dr. Moreau, who, six years after her father was banished to a remote island for his uncanny experiments, goes off to find him. Strange science, the boundaries of insanity, and yes, a love triangle, ensue.
Photo: Courtesy of **Blazer + Bray**.

**Glory O'Brien's History of the Future**, A. S. King
Never has a book about accidentally drinking a petrified bat offered such a frightening, yet believable, account of what the future might bring if people in power continue to try to take rights away from women.
Photo: Courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Reader.

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These Detailed Sexual Fantasies Are Better Than Fifty Shades Of Grey

August 11, 2017, 5:30 am

≫ Next: How To Contour For Every Skin Tone

≪ Previous: The Best YA Books To Get Excited About

Even if you think you’re not kinky, there’s a chance your brain might be. And when it comes to getting turned on and orgasming, our brains deserve more credit than they often get.

Not only are sexual fantasies totally normal, but they allow us to explore our sexuality in a space that’s super safe: our imaginations. For couples in long-term relationships, sharing sexual fantasies with one another can renew excitement, writes certified sex therapist Marty Klein in an article about erotic role-playing. But whether they’re shared with a partner or kept in mind for solo pleasure, sexual fantasies can be pretty fantastic.

While some fantasies — such as having sex in a romantic or unexpected location — are fairly common, others are completely random or personal. Whatever your sexual fantasy is, though, it’s probably not as out-of-the-ordinary as you might think.

To give you a peek into what actual people are fantasizing about (because who isn’t wondering, right?), we asked readers and R29 staffers to anonymously share their go-to sexual fantasy. So read on and dream on, y’all.

“Not exactly deep and dark, but I would like to do a full BDSM scene: tied, restrained, in nipple clamps or sticks; being flogged, cropped, sexually teased and orgasm controlled.” – Kit4000 via Reddit

“My S.O. and I (haven't been together too long, so we are still exploring) recently discovered that we are both really turned on by the idea of pegging. I've never been interested in being a dominant, but he brings it out in me — oh my god, does that ever do it for me. A bit of slapping, nails, bossing him around, telling him what to do, bending him into some compromising positions, spanking, role reversal, maybe some dress up, and some solid pounding (him receiving) to finish it off. We are slowly starting to integrate all these into our sex life. I'm a happy camper. I love thinking about it, does it for me every time.”– ForgetThePlan via Reddit

“I always imagine the same thing, that I'm some sort of sex goddess that's come to Earth to enslave it. It starts with one guy in a filthy alley, but every time a guy comes, I drain his strength and become more powerful. Then I'm in a shopping center and I'm with a guy in a clothing store, then I'm with several guys at a gym (first the owner, then his brother, then a guy in the gym with the rest of the people there watching and masturbating). After that I usually head into a newsroom and hijack the live feed, having sex with the news anchor, and having more and more people tune in, masturbate, and orgasm to make me stronger. There's a lot more details to it; every guy is a different body type, though I don't really see faces. Every time I imagine one of them cumming inside me I also imagine myself growing stronger and I feel a sort of rush.” –throwaway08525 via Reddit

“I'd love to be completely dominated. There are many ideas about it, but mostly it starts the same. He comes into the room, his sleeves rolled up, he has a watch around his wrist. I am sitting on my knees on the ground. He holds a rope (or belt, depends) in his hand and I close my eyes as I kiss it. Whatever he does, my fantasies always include choking/hard spankings/control/biting. I like it when I have no power. It makes me feel so free.” – Anonymous via Reddit

“I really want to have sex in a high rise window. Like at least 50 floors up.” – mynameistoast via Reddit

“A guy crying hard as I comfort him, make it all better, and then fuck him while his tears are still drying.” – Juliet11 on Reddit

“To get railed by my married college professor after class one day. I wanna get picked up and THROWN on his desk (or bent over it). I want papers and pencils to go flying everywhere, all my clothes ripped off, etc. Then I want to spend the rest of the semester sitting in the front of the classroom with a smirk on my face as I eye-fuck him while he's trying to teach.” – Anonymous on Reddit

"Someone walks in while I'm blowing a guy sitting behind his desk, and he's stuck just trying to talk normally while hoping that person doesn't realize he's getting his dick sucked. Or a surprise blow job while he's on the phone making an important phone call. Or a blow job while he's gaming and trying not to fuck up, while his team members are all wondering what the fuck is going on with him." – Bankergoesrawrr on Reddit

"For me, it's the perfect BDSM encounter, in which my partner somehow knows all the things I want that day, and in what order, and with what intensity, and does all of them. My husband is happy to indulge my kink and kind of enjoys it, but he has a hard time thinking of things to do and quite understandably can't read my mind to see what specific thing I'm in the mood for that time. It would be really fun to have someone do it all perfectly without direction." –Laidymondegreen on Reddit

"I like oil. Like, body oil, quite a bit. I wanted to slather my girlfriend in it [oil] and well, make sweet love to her. She accepted, saying it would be interesting. I bought the oil. I came home one day, and the living room of our apartment was covered in a tarp. Greatest hour and a half of my life." – Cynical_asshole_ on Reddit

"Being pushed up against a wall. Not necessarily to have sex, just shoved up against a wall and made out with. Out of passion, not anger. A little bit of kink. Maybe some handcuffs, a little bit of rope, some extra language." – Flaminglegosinthesky on Reddit

"To have a girl eat me out while my boyfriend fucks her. They are in doggy-style while I am on my back watching." – Alanna420 on Reddit

"I want to have sex in a two-way mirror box in a busy public place, so that me and my partner can see outwards, but everybody else just sees a mirrored box." – Berichicken on Reddit

"I'm training in the gym with a group of people, doing some kickboxing, stuff like that. The teacher and I stay back while everyone leaves and he tells me how to fix my technique (mind you we've spent months of flirting, quick looks during stretches, him praising my improvement and so on). Then suddenly we start sparring. It kind of turns into wrestling, maybe some judo stuff comes into it and he tries to pin me on the floor but I fight him. Eventually he overpowers me so I can't even move and he just holds me there. Stuck under him. He starts teasing me. Tickling me all over, which is torture because I can't escape. Then after he's had his fun he kisses me and cue any sex scene from True Blood and I'll be happy." – Anonymous on Reddit

"Have sex in a forest, in the middle of a field, on a secluded riverbank, skinny dipping. Standard outdoors sexy stuff." – Jarjar_head on Reddit

"I used to work at a movie theater, and always fantasized about a manager or security guard forcing me into the janitor closet and having their way with me. Forcing me into the locked room, pushing me up against a wall, holding me down and not letting me struggle. Not the most romantic of places, but the idea of being dominated by someone with authority over me in a public place really gets me going." – pikichan on Reddit.

"I'm at a hotel with a nightclub with my husband, dressed up, drinking, and dancing. Teasing each other a bit on the dance floor until we decide we have to have each other and head to our room. We have to take the elevator up many floors and we start making out in the elevator. He whispers in my ear all of the dirty things he wants to do to me when we get to the room, and I practically cum right there in the elevator. We reach our floor and race to our room, barely refraining from ripping each other's clothes off in the hall, then we fuck like animals until we['ve done] every one of those dirty things he whispered in my ear..." – onmymind42 on Reddit

"I don't necessarily want to be dominated, I want to be on all fours while my mate 'inspects' me. Spreading, poking, investigating every crevasse of my body. Inserting things, vibrating when I'm not expecting it. Being tied up would be a nice touch, I guess, but I've never imagined it that way. I am now..." – smurfee123 on Reddit

"I'd like my hands tied together and bound to the bed, and have my S.O. tease me and do whatever he wants. However, there's a very specific way I’d like to be bound. A bed with rungs in the headboard so my hands are both together and above my head are a huge part of this for me. My current bed has no headboard; it's really unfortunate in relation to my fantasy. The straps that are under the mattress strap my hands down at either side; it just doesn't do it for me." – Rosieco on Reddit

"A really tight button-down shirt showing off the maximum amount of cleavage possible. A skirt, tight and form fitting. The shorter the better. Put some red lipstick on and put your hair up. High heels. Lick your lips a lot, stroke a ruler, and threaten him with detention. Tell him his grades are slipping and he needs to stay after class for extra credit." — MrClease on Reddit.
Illustrated by: Anna Sudit

"Guess I'm like most of the women. I'd love to be completely dominated. There are many ideas about it, but mostly it starts the same. He comes into the room, his sleeves rolled up, he has a watch around his wrist. I am sitting on my knees on the ground. He holds a rope (or belt, depends) in his hand, and I close my eyes as I kiss it. Whatever he does, my fantasies always include choking/hard spankings/control/biting. I like it when I have no power. It makes me feel so free."
— Anonymous Reddit user
Illustrated by: Anna Sudit

"One is with my girlfriend. We're cuddling in bed and making out. The whole time, we're laughing and just having fun. The other is where I'm tied up with no control, she's everything I need, using toys and whatever she wants (would be fun reversed, too)."
— Christine, 16

"One of my most common sexual fantasies is that I imagine being with a girl and I'm touching her with my fingers in her vagina, and she keeps telling me she wants me deeper in her, and when I get four fingers in I find a spot that makes her feel really good and she is moaning and really into it, and I tell her I love her while I am massaging the spots that make her feel best. I fantasize about different people but it's always someone that I care about a lot." — Logan, 34
Illustrated by: Ivy Liu.

"I'm in this fancy apartment. I imagine I'm with a hot friend of my ex's, or with an older guy that treats me so good that my ex's girlfriend gets jealous. It starts with me...giving him a lap dance, before he literally rips off all of my clothes."
Illustrated by: Ivy Liu.

"To be at an extravagant affair. A ball, a masquerade, or an awards show with champagne on the tables. A jazz band playing on the stage.
Being led around [by] my partner, greeting his friends, then towards the middle of the night, he takes my hand and leads me to a private, silent area where we can kiss. Then, he can slip his hand up my gown and guide me to his groin." — Ginge

"We're in a big, red truck, and while he's driving me around his childhood hometown and fields, a small smile forms at the edge of his lips. In his eyes, I see the reflection of the empty road and open pastures ahead, but I can see that he's looking and seeing something else. Maybe what he used to see while driving down this road, in his childhood.
"He looks over at me and asks, 'What?' I smile, and his smile widens... 'What??' I shake my head and say nothing. That innocent light in his eyes somehow flicks off, and is replaced by another light... A small fire. 'What are you thinking?'
"I know that look, and suddenly my mood shifts. I look into his eyes, but then look down as I blush. He puts his hand on my leg, but I take it off. He seems a little thrown off, but then I put my hand on his belt buckle and start undoing his pants. I've done this many times before, but this time, he lets out a small whimper and I start to throw myself on him, suddenly fueled by that vulnerability that comes out sparingly from this big man who thinks much too much of himself. There's hot air coming in from the windows, and we're already sweating, but we both never cared about that. The car goes off the road a bit, but he recovers, only to completely get off the road and onto a field.
"Now I'm fully straddling him, and he's getting touchy, and we eventually toss and tumble our way into the back seat between laughs, and then through the window onto the bed of the truck, in the back. The sun has set, and the sky is a million colors and hues of orange, red, pink, and a weird purple on the edges. The air is warm, but there is a breeze. We go until the sky is a velvet dark-blue and we're both on our backs, watching the stars and giggling here and there about some of the things we've done in the past, innocent memories and then some not so innocent. I feel safe and warm, even though the night's chill has started to settle in. He pulls me in closer to him, and we go once more under the light of the full moon, more serious than with the light of day, more eye contact, and I feel every single part of my skin he touches like a shock of electricity. Eventually, I lay my head on his chest, and he wraps his arm around me, and we both fall asleep."

"I'm in some office, probably in a high up in a building, and the windows are just glass, so people can clearly see in, but the only way into the room itself is a door. It's usually just a guy I find attractive, and he's usually wearing a suit and looks very high-powered. I'm usually wearing nothing or some form of lingerie that has a lot of lace. It's sort of like I'm in his office for the day, and my role is to do basically as he says. Often, I'm on my hands and knees as a foot stool, and there's usually a part where I'll be sitting on his desk with my legs spread wide open and he is working ignoring me and it drives me mad as I ache for him, but if I'm *good*, he'll fuck me (roughly). It always follows the same sort of lines; sometimes, it's in a more public place, but mainly, it's about relinquishing control to someone and being told what to do and when."
— R.J., 20.

"Tom Felton. In Hogwarts. I'm a Ravenclaw and he's a Slytherin. Forbidden romance. He's a selfish lover, but I don't even mind. The sex is *magical*." — Tara, 20.

"Having a threesome with my ex-boyfriend and our mutual best friend in my bedroom, all of us tipsy — but not too drunk — on quality red wine, and laughing about it all along." — Adrian, 21

"I always have a fantasy of me and a male friend going [and] hanging out with a couple in their living room. The couple dares us to kiss, undress, etc. with each dare becoming more sexual until we have sex on the couch in front of them. It's a rush of both adrenaline and arousal — it's taboo, yet safe. It works EVERY time — to be honest, I'm getting a little warm just typing it out." — Melania, 19

"I always thought crushing on your trainer was reserved for middle-aged women living in the suburbs. Then I met my trainer, on what became the most motivated summer break of my entire life. On the days I had sessions, I'd try to contain myself each time he adjusted an arm or a leg, and especially when he made me do a plank while using his hand to put pressure on the small of my back. On the days I wasn't scheduled to see him, I'd make sure he saw me in my sweaty glow, doing squats and stretching out. In a perfect world, he'd shut down the gym one night, lead me upstairs, and fuck me on every piece of exercise equipment he could, giving me commands and counting down my reps like he did in my sessions. Then, we'd cool off in the locker room and do it again in the shower, hot bodies pressed against the cold tiles. Maybe finish off with a smoothie downstairs and a 'See you for our next session, miss' to end the night." — Missy, 20

"I don't know if I'd ever like this in a role play, but I like to read medical play fanfiction usually involving two men, even though I'm a heterosexual woman. I really like the act of one person being examined and the other one in control of that." — Em, 18

“I'm doing laundry in my building's basement and a hot neighbor I've been eyeing for a while sneaks up behind me and starts kissing my neck. I turn around, and it feels amazing. He lifts me up onto the washing machine, and we have sex right then and there — with the vibrations from the machine pulsating through my body.” — Lulu, 23

“[My fantasy is] serving a few girls at a party — being the server, wearing only the apron and nothing else, doing whatever the girls tell me to do. Eventually, I’m doing the housework naked and entertaining the girls.” — Nantes, 22

“[I fantasize] that the dad of the family I babysit brings me into his bedroom after the kids are asleep and asks if I want to earn a little extra money. Then he puts me on the bed and undresses me and kisses and touches my body and breasts (but not my mouth, which I'm just now realizing) and gives me oral sex. But I never touch him. He does all the work and he also remains clothed. I'm gay (a gay woman) and I don't want anything to do with touching him or seeing him naked. I think the reason it turns me on so much is because he's a man, and so I feel no emotional connection or like it's actually real. Sex or intimacy with girls is really stressful for me, because I fear being judged because it actually matters to me, but since I don't feel any attachment to men, I don't care what they think of me. I feel like this is pretty weird, but I think about it when I masturbate pretty often and it always really works.” — Nanny, 20

“My sexual fantasies tend to surface in my dreams. I have vivid dreams, and I usually remember them, so I'll recount one. I once dreamt that a girl was pressing her body into me. The pressure was amazing. She stimulated my clit and covered every inch of my body with hers. I woke up and honestly thought I'd had sex with someone the night before. It felt like a warm summer glow, where you close your eyelids and see only the light pink and yellow of sunshine when your eyes are closed. It was definitely hot. And wet.” — Girl Dreamer, 18

“I love to fantasize about having sex with my boyfriend and his brother. I imagine it playing out like this... My boyfriend (I'm just going to call him S.O.) is in the other room visiting with his brother from the navy who has come to stay with us for a couple of days. I'm in the kitchen doing the dishes, and the next thing I know, I feel S.O.'s hands wrap around my arms. He pulls me into the back room and I don't see his brother immediately, because he is behind the door. From there S.O. turns to me and says, ‘We would like to fuck you. It's something we have been wanting for a while,’ and his brother whips out his cock while S.O. ties me to the futon after I eagerly agree. Then, they gently punish me switching between double penetration and the boys taking turns eating me out. They don't finish until I cum... This is something I've been fantasizing about for YEARS. Sometimes there are slight variations, or I like to add their father to the mix. I mean, how could I not dream about getting fucked by the both of them? They love each other more than anything, and I've never met a better team of siblings... I guess there is something about their family that just gets me...” — Mickey, 21

“My mind keeps returning to the fantasy of sharing a hotel room with my thirtysomething...soccer coach the night before a game. The idea of being ‘chosen’ by an older authority figure (especially one that is hypermasculine), me being ‘special’ enough for him to want me, is more of an emotional fantasy, rather than a sexual one. Taking place in a hotel room is just another layer of being ‘chosen.’ Every time my mind wanders into this fantasy, the sex aspect takes somewhat of a backseat in favor of the emotional fulfilment it gives me. Imagining the sex doesn’t evoke strong images, but rather sensations: My breath gets caught in the back of my throat, my ears and the small of my back get warm, my forearm starts getting tingly, and I imagine our legs being intertwined under the sheets. The emotional fantasy gives me a sense of accomplishment: I was able to get him to want me, therefore I must have done something right. Also, my coach was really hot, so that probably had something to do with it.” — Neck, 19

“For a while now, I've wondered what it would be like to have sex with a woman (I'm a woman in a committed heterosexual relationship). I imagine that I'm with a friend, someone I know well, and after talking about these feelings, she agrees to experiment with me. Or better yet, she teaches me, because she's already experienced. I want to feel the soft, gentle touch of a woman. I also want to go down on a woman. I've woken up from dreams like this, where I'm eating out a girl, and it's always so hot. But I feel I could never tell my boyfriend; I told him that I had drunkenly kissed a girl friend in college six years ago, and then he got upset about it when I went to hang out with her the next weekend.” — Mandy, 23

“[My fantasy is] being submissive, but specifically being submissive by using a butt plug. I'm a very loud, dominant woman, and I like switching it in the bedroom.” — Jane, 18

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Amanda Seales On The Politics Of Sex

Does A Happy Ending Massage Count As Cheating?

34 Of The Funniest Things That Have Ever Happened During Sex

↧

How To Contour For Every Skin Tone

August 11, 2017, 5:35 am

≫ Next: 9 Next-Level Oral Sex Tips That Real People Actually Use

≪ Previous: These Detailed Sexual Fantasies Are Better Than Fifty Shades Of Grey

Contouring can, as we've shown before, look scary. But, enhancing your cheekbones or jawline doesn't have to be frightening — or require the skill of a makeup artist. You just need the proper product arsenal to get that subtle, natural-looking sculpt.

There's been an onslaught of contour kits and palettes on the market. To make sense of it all, we decided to poll our favorite makeup artists to see what they love and use most — and then, we divided the tools and cosmetics into easy-to-understand categories. There are winning options here for different skin tones and skill sets: Even the aspiring Kardashian will find something to fall in love with.

Click through to see which ones are right for you, and then leave any questions in the comments below.

**For First-Timers**
“The easiest way to contour is by using two shades of foundation — one that’s matched for the center of the face, the neck, and the high bones, and a second that’s slightly darker to use on the outer perimeter and underneath the cheekbones,” says Pati Dubroff, a makeup artist who works with Charlize Theron and Natalie Portman.
“Cream products are easier to manipulate and erase if you make mistakes,” adds Beau Nelson, whose clients include Kristen Stewart and Nicole Richie. “I’m a big fan of the Bobbi Brown Stick Foundations.”
**Bobbi Brown** Skin Foundation Stick, $46, available at Bobbi Brown.
Photo: Via Bobbi Brown.

This is the perfect tool for those who have resisted the contouring trend until now. The single chubby wields cream contour and highlighter, is easily blended with fingers, and is an affordable way to see if contouring is right for you.
**Maybelline** Facestudio Master Contour V-Shape Duo Stick, $10, available at Walgreens.

This contouring and highlighting duo has a handy face chart that details exactly where to dust each powder. Plus, the contouring shade is sheer and buildable, meaning it's nearly impossible to go overboard.
**L'Oréal** Infallible Pro-Contour Palette, $12.99, available at Ulta Beauty.

Many brands also provide contour sticks in sets of three to make the whole process that much easier. These normally contain a contour shade, a bronzer shade, and a highlight shade. Always use the dark contour shade first along your cheekbone, and add the bronzer hue right above it for dimension. Then, add the highlight to the bridge of your nose, top of the chin, and corners of the eyes — just remember to blend everything well!
**Smashbox** Step-by-Step Contour Stick Trio, $45, available at Sephora.

**For YouTube Dabblers**
If you already know the basic principles of contouring and want to take your game to the next level, investing in a palette is a wise choice. “This kit has great shades to both contour and highlight," says Mario Dedivanovic, makeup artist to stars like Kim Kardashian. "You can experiment with the lighter shades at first, and then build to the deeper shades once you’re comfortable.”
**Anastasia Beverly Hills** Contour Kit, $40, available at Sephora.
Photo: Via Anastasia Beverly Hills.

This four-pan contouring palette contains three sculpting shades and a gorgeous highlighting powder. Plus, it comes with a super-soft angled brush *and* smells like chocolate. What's not to love?
**Too Faced** Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection, $40, available at Too Faced.

Since you’re already comfortable with the basics, try a palette that can really help bring out your cheekbones. Kevyn Aucoin’s The Creamy Glow Sculpting Powder helps to define the face by balancing dark powder with a creamy highlighter.
**Kevyn Aucoin** The Creamy Glow Duo in Candelight/Sculpting, $28, available at Sephora.

Sure, this palette may look like a simple shading and illuminating duo, but it packs a secret punch: the DHA-laced formula actually tans skin while you’re wearing it.
**James Read** Tantour Sculpting Palette, $54, available at Net-a-Porter.

If you're trying to find your shade (and wanting to save a few bucks), test out one of these 10 tones.
**BH Cosmetics** Studio Pro Cream Contour Palette, $14, available at Ulta.

**For Aspiring Makeup Artists**
There’s only one luxury contour product that the pros swear by, but it’s almost too intimidating for at-home use. “You can work this into a foundation application, or apply it underneath so it looks subtle," says beauty guru Nick Barose. "It takes more blending, but once you’ve mastered the technique, it’s totally worth it.”
There are two different shade levels available for purchase, so this works on almost all skin tones. The “illuminate” portion is a pearly highlight that delivers camera-ready levels of glow. Do consider it for special events or photo opps — but have a backup option for daily use.
Photo: Via Tom Ford Beauty.

If you’re an aspiring pro, play around with sculpting shades on a palette. BH Cosmetics’ versatile shades work well for all skin tones, and provide a matte finish for both highlight and contour.
**BH Cosmetics** Contour & Blush Palette, $12, available at BH Cosmetics.

**For Fair Skin Tones**
"Surratt’s blush in Grisaille is a great contour that has no orange tones," says Dubroff. "If you’re fair, and you use something with any warmth at all, it’s like the kiss of contour death. This is perfect because it’s a nice, soft tone."
**Surratt**, $32, available at Barneys New YorkPhoto: Via Surratt.

Smashbox's contour kit is easy to follow for beginners, and comes in two versions: one for fair complexions (seen here) and another for darker ones.
Tip: Dust the cooler shade under your jawline and cheekbones, then use the warmer shade along your hairline.
**Smashbox** Step-By-Step Contour Kit, $45, available at Sephora.

This contour stick blends easily and adds just a small hint of color for those with even the fairest of complexions.
**Benefit Cosmetics** Hoola Cream-to-Powder Quickie Contour Stick, $28, available at Ulta Beauty.

**For Medium Skin Tones**
“Apply Aucoin’s sculpting powder with a small, dome-shaped blush brush under the cheekbones and jawline, and on the temples and bridge of the nose,” says Nelson. This shade is the “just right” of dark-but-not-too-dark for those of us who fall in the middle of the skin spectrum. If you prefer creams, Dubroff recommends Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel Bronzing Makeup Base.
**Kevyn Aucoin**, $44, available at Barneys New YorkPhoto: Via Kevyn Aucoin.

**For Deep Skin Tones**
“I love this particular product for darker skins because it comes with a highlight shade, as well,” says celebrity makeup artist Kirin Bhatty. She also recommends following up with a great liquid luminizer in golden or copper shades, like NARS Hot Sand, to really finish the skin.
**NARS**, $42, available at NARSPhoto: Via NARS.

“If you’re quite dark, like Lupita Nyong’o, for example, you don’t need to contour. It can look a little too harsh,” says Barose. “Instead, add this bronzey highlight to bring out your features more.”
**Giorgio Armani** Fluid Sheer, $62, available at Nordstrom.
Photo: Via Giorgio Armani Beauty.

**For Applying**
If you want to go after that sharper (yet still fine) edge that Dubroff suggests, try Tarte’s Sculpt & Slim Contour Brush, which is made just for that. You can use the fluffy fan brush to contour, highlight, and sculpt cheekbones, and the double-ended brush helps when you’re contouring areas like your nose or browbone.
**Tarte** Tarteist Sculpt & Slim Contour Brush, $34, available at Sephora.

“A clean foundation brush, like this one, is helpful for blending without depositing too much product,” says Dubroff.
**Make Up For Ever** Large Foundation Brush, $36, available at Sephora.
Photo: Via Make Up For Ever.

“If I’m using powders, I prefer to use a fan brush because it creates light layers," says Dubroff. "Plus, since it’s not thick, you can get a sharper (but still very fine) edge under the bones.”
**Japonesque** Kumadori Fan Brush, $19, available at Ulta Beauty.

An angled contour brush makes applying color in the hollows of the cheeks, along the hairline, and under the jaw a breeze — and for $12, you can't beat this editor-favorite brush.
**Circa** Beauty Brush Contour & Blush, $12, available at Walgreens.

**For Blending**
“Especially if you’re using cream contours, I recommend blending with a damp BeautyBlender sponge to diffuse any lines into the skin,” says Dedivanovic. This can also help you soften the intensity of products by buffing them out for a more clean, even finish.
**The Beauty Blender** Pro, $20, available at Sephora.

Sure, you *can* use a regular rounded, dense brush to sweep your contour shade through the hallows of your cheeks. But if you're a total beginner and need some guidance, this double-wedged kabuki brush makes every step foolproof.
**Sigma Beauty** 3DHD Kabuki Makeup Brush, $25, available at Sigma Beauty.

**For Balancing**
It’s not just enough to carve out bone structure using taupes and bronzes. “A pop of color on the apples of the cheeks is important for making the contour look happy, and not just angular,” says Dubroff. This product has the slightest sheen and a sheer color payoff that actually makes blush look believable.
**Charlotte Tilbury**, $40, available at Charlotte TilburyPhoto: Via Charlotte Tilbury.

**For Universal Highlighting**
After you’ve contoured and added your color, it’s time to play with highlights. “Apply a liquid highlighter to the high points of the face, and then blend them out with a damp sponge,” Bhatty says. She loves the varied options from Benefit “depending on your skin tone,” but High Beam is a universal best bet.
**Benefit** High Beam Highlighter, $26, available at Sephora.
Photo: Via Benefit Cosmetics.

**For Correcting**
Spritzing the face — or your sponge — with a floral spray is one of Dubroff’s go-to tricks for sheering out an application. If you work quickly, you can hopefully erase harsh lines by wetting and correcting them.
**Beautycounter**, $35, available at BeautycounterPhoto: Via Beautycounter.

**For Traveling Light**
The creamy consistency of Nyx's double-ended bullets means you can draw directly onto your makeup brush before applying, or right onto your skin if you're more advanced. Then, simply blend and buff to get a seamless finish. There are four hues to choose from, making this a great travel-friendly option for any skin tone and skill level.
**Nyx** Wonder Stick in Light/Medium, $12, available at Nyx Cosmetics.

This double-sided stick from BlackUp makes it easy to contour and highlight on the run. The formula is creamy, long-lasting, and easy to blend with your fingers or a brush.
**BlackUp** Contouring Stick, $42, available at Sephora.

If packing the essentials when on the go means everything but the kitchen sink for you, simply reach for this set of mini contouring sticks instead. Each are the size of a lipstick bullet and cover your shade, highlight, and blush needs.
**TreStiQue** Trebebe Contour Kit, $40, available at TreStiQue.

**For Blending On The Go**
In order to blend well while you’re traveling, stock up on a compact contour brush, like Sephora’s Hide and Sleek Skinny Cheek Contour Brush. The retractable brush has an angled shape to give you a great contour along your cheekbones, with firm yet soft bristles to blend your edges.
**Sephora Collection** Hide and Sleek Skinny Cheek Contour Brush, $16, available at Sephora.

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↧

9 Next-Level Oral Sex Tips That Real People Actually Use

August 11, 2017, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Lena Dunham Posted A Message Of Support For Taylor Swift During Her Trial

≪ Previous: How To Contour For Every Skin Tone

The only thing more satisfying than being on the receiving end of great oral sex is knowing that you did a great job performing it on your partner. To give is to receive, if you will. Every sexual partner has different taste — literally and figuratively — and when you figure out exactly what your partner likes, it can be intensely gratifying.

Having a few go-to tips in your back pocket will make oral sex speed along for those times when you feel like you've been under water for hours. No shade, but giving oral sex is work, and it doesn't make you any less altruistic if you wish it would go by quicker sometimes.

Watching porn can be helpful to research new techniques, but porn is aspirational, so you can't always copy and paste what you see into your own sex life. So we asked people in the R29 community to share their best tips for performing oral on both vaginas and penises that totally work IRL. These innovative strategies might be just the thing to push your partner's buttons. Feel free to go to town and claim all the bragging rights, you cunning linguist.

One reader suggests varying your speed and pressure while giving a blowjob. "I've found that alternating between a steady, rhythmic motion and then going fairly slow is effective," they say. This tip also gives you a little bit of a break if you're tired — win-win.

Spelling the alphabet with your tongue is a tried-and-true classic oral sex tip, but for a good reason: It works. One reader said they like to spell the ABCs with their tongue and "try not to die." Of happiness, perhaps?

A lot of people get stressed receiving oral sex because they're worried their partner isn't enjoying it — but they definitely are. If you act enthusiastic as you give someone head, your partner will feel much more relaxed about it and be even more turned on, one reader says.

One reader says they like it when their partner "puts a finger in my butt." You can also both try wearing butt plugs during the duration of oral sex.

If you're giving a blowjob and your mouth needs a break from sucking, use your tongue to lick your partner's penis. Start at the head of the penis, and lick all the way down to your partner's balls. Then reverse it, starting at the balls and licking up the shaft. Repeat for as many reps as your neck muscles — or partner — can handle.

Use your hands as an extension of your mouth, but don't just go straight up and down on your partner's penis. "I rotate it as I move up and down, in a tiny clockwise circle," one reader says. "That repetitive motion drives them crazy. It's my little twist, pun intended."

If you're performing oral on someone with a penis and testicles, one reader says you shouldn't forget to do something with the person's balls. You can try tea-bagging, squeezing them (gently) with your hands, or licking them as you move your mouth down.

Do double-duty and use your hands while you stimulate your partner's clitoris with your tongue: "I'm queer, so if I'm with someone with a vagina, this means fingering them (usually two pressed up against the anterior wall of the vagina, aiming for that G-spot) while I lick their clit," one reader says.

Using your hands to correspond with your mouth movements isn't cheating — it's resourceful. "Especially for those [who are] seriously packing, this is a great trick to pleasure their entire shaft without choking yourself to death," one reader says. Keep the tip of your partner's penis in your mouth and your hands around the shaft, and then just move up and down in sync. This works for penises of all sizes.

Saliva is your body's favorite natural lube, but there's a potentially untapped resource located in the back of your throat that you can also aim for: mucus. "You only have so much saliva, and it runs out fast," one reader says. "It's much easier to use the mucus in the back of your throat; it's a better lubricant anyway, and when you probe that area with a penis, the throat will produce more. It's a win-win!"

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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↧

Lena Dunham Posted A Message Of Support For Taylor Swift During Her Trial

August 11, 2017, 6:00 am

≫ Next: 19 "Non-Foundations" For No-Makeup Makeup

≪ Previous: 9 Next-Level Oral Sex Tips That Real People Actually Use

Lena Dunham has Taylor Swift 's back.

The Girls star tweeted a message of support for Swift during her trial against a radio host and DJ who allegedly groped her in 2013.

On Thursday, Swift testified against David Mueller, whom she says groped her during a meet-and-greet. Key evidence in the trial includes a photograph that Swift's lawyers say is evidence of the groping.

The "Bad Blood" singer is seeking one dollar in damages as a symbolic gesture. Meanwhile, Mueller wants $3 million in damages from Swift for allegedly ruining his reputation; he sued Swift in 2015. The singer then countersued Mueller.

"Proud of @taylorswift13 for her fierce & cutting testimony & her refusal to settle for being treated like property. Her example is powerful," Dunham tweeted just after midnight on Friday.

Proud of @taylorswift13 for her fierce & cutting testimony & her refusal to settle for being treated like property. Her example is powerful.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) August 11, 2017

Swift and Dunham have been friends for years. In 2015, Swift invited Dunham, along with other members of her legendary squad, on stage during a concert in New Jersey.

BuzzFeed's Claudia Rosenbaum has been reporting live from the courtroom where the Mueller v Swift trial is ongoing. On Thursday, she shared a number of tweets about the events.

Live Updates: Taylor Swift's Mom On Alleged Groping: "I Wanted To Vomit And Cry At The Same Time" https://t.co/OMjHMjpCov via @buzzfeed
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 9, 2017

At one point, Swift's mother, Andrea, took the stand.

Andrea said when she learned someone had touched her daughter "I was upset to the point where I wanted to vomit and cry at the same time." https://t.co/W1KGLleGIc
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 9, 2017

Andrea said if you looked closely at the photo you could tell T's dress was being pushed up -fabric was stiff and T doesn't have hips. https://t.co/U6ZaoU4oLA
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 9, 2017

While Swift was on the stand, she said there was a "definite grab," according to Rosenbaum. She also called the experience "horrifying."

Day 4 of the Trial : Taylor Swift first witness called to the stand. Says "It was a definite grab."
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

Taylor Swift says on stand "he stayed latched on to my bare ass check as I moved away from him visibly uncomfortable." #taylorswifttrial https://t.co/UJATJksSh1
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

“It was a very shocking thing that I have never dealt with before…He grabbed my ass underneath my skirt. It was underneath my skirt" TS https://t.co/ZEDWipDXWL
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

When asked if Mueller touched her at any other point, Swift said he was too busy grabbing her ass under her skirt to touch her anywhere else https://t.co/VrxK4WuZvh
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

Swift said she does not blame her bodyguard for not stopping Mueller bc “It was horrifying, shocking, & we had never experienced it before.” https://t.co/qg259btDb7
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

When asked if she could see the incident directly Swift said she couldn’t see exactly because her “ass in the back of her body.” https://t.co/3hYJySWRzQ
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

Fans also showed support for Swift during the ongoing trial. People apparently spelled out "I knew you were TROUBLE" on the window of a yarn store across the street from the courtroom.

Support from the Swifties across the street for #taylorswift pic.twitter.com/dBcbibNFK5
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) August 10, 2017

Jaime King and Karen Elson also tweeted messages of support for Swift.

.@taylorswift13 is FUCKING BRAVE. ALL deserve justice- to be heard, honored & respected. No matter race, creed, socioeconomic status, gender https://t.co/wwVOayx8lQ
— Jaime King (@Jaime_King) August 11, 2017

I applaud @taylorswift13 for standing up for all women who have been groped. Which is likely most women I know. You're an amazing role model
— Karen Elson (@KarenElson_) August 10, 2017

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19 "Non-Foundations" For No-Makeup Makeup

August 11, 2017, 6:05 am

≫ Next: 5 Necklace Trends That'll Be Everywhere This Year

≪ Previous: Lena Dunham Posted A Message Of Support For Taylor Swift During Her Trial

Ever since our phones stopped auto-deleting the extra "makeup" from "no-makeup makeup," many of us accepted the phrase as not only a much-discussed trend, but also a lifestyle choice. And it's one that most of us fully embrace — if only on rushed mornings.

It makes sense: Skin is always in, but when dealing with the skin on your face, your options for showing your best barefaced look tend to rely on some amount of foundation or concealer, which, as you know, can feel heavy to some and require time to apply. So what are you to do if you hate foundation, or just don't have the time, but still want some coverage?

Lucky for all of us, there is plenty of face makeup out there made by like-minded brands that understand our mutual hatred and frustration with heavy foundation. But the best part of our favorite lightweight face products? They're all able to be applied with your (clean) fingers.

Culled from both the drugstore and luxury beauty counters alike, all in varying degrees of coverage, the options ahead will become staples in your makeup bag. We promise there are no complex techniques to confuse you here, just foolproof makeup that looks like anything but. After all, a truly solid no-makeup makeup routine begins (and basically ends) with the complexion.

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Dewy
Sheer makeup is great, but multi-purpose products are even better. The It Cosmetics CC Cream combines your SPF, moisturizer, and base all in one, so your makeup routine is quick and simple with zero fuss.
**It Cosmetics** Your Skin But Better CC Cream SPF 50+, $38, available at Ulta Beauty.

**Intensity Level:** 2
**Finish:** Satin
Most tinted sunscreens are incredibly sheer, but this one provides a touch more coverage. Plus, that high SPF is #skingoals.
**Avène**, $36, available at Avène

**Intensity Level:** 2
**Finish:** Dewy
This tinted moisturizer has got to be the glossiest finish for a daily hydrator we've ever tried. The tint is *just* enough to cover spots, blemishes, and undereye bags. But the best part is that your complexion is left looking healthy and radiant (Martha Stewart even loves it).
**Amorepacific**, $70, available at Amorepacific

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Dewy
If you love Charlotte Tilbury's Wonder Glow, then you'll absolutely flip for the brand's Light Wonder Foundation. It packs the same radiance, with just enough coverage for every day. In reality, the finish is more like a tinted moisturizer than a foundation, but it's simple to build up when you want more coverage.
**Charlotte Tilbury** Light Wonder Foundation, $45, available at Charlotte Tilbury.

**Intensity Level:** 1
**Finish:** Dewy
This sheer, tinted sunscreen offers just enough coverage to tone down redness and discoloration while letting your natural skin show through.
**SkinMedica** Total Defense + Repair SPF 34 Tinted, $68, available at SkinMedica.

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Semi-matte
If you’re going for the no-makeup makeup look, why not pick one cleverly named after the trend? Dr. Perricone’s line of skin care masquerading as makeup offers the ideal product for the skin care obsessed. This serum/makeup hybrid incorporates the brand's go-to anti-aging ingredients, like neuropeptides, alpha lipoic acid, and vitamin C, to help minimize fine lines, correct uneven pigmentation, and nourish your skin with antioxidants, all while cleverly and naturally disguising any uneven tone or dullness as soon as you smear it on. With UV protection, to boot, this easily makes our trapped-on-a-desert-island list.
**Perricone MD**, $60, available at Sephora

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Matte
Sheer and matte don't often go hand-in-hand — until now. Nars' Radiant Tinted Moisturizer and Radiant Concealer are already cult favorites, but now the brand has released a velvet matte skin tint — in a similar spirit as its popular velvet matte lip crayons. The suede-like texture offers medium-to-full coverage, depending on how much you layer it. Oil-free with blurring powders, this skin tint helps control shine all day and gives your skin a pillowy, soft appearance. You’ll rejoice at how it doesn’t feel greasy or cakey like many skin tints with heavier coverage — and you don't even need powder.
**NARS**, $44, available at NARS

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Velvet/Dewy
You may be asking yourself how *one* product can have *eight* benefits, but Maybelline's Skin Perfector actually tops our list of multitasking face products. Why? Smooth it on to blur imperfections, brighten, even skin tone, and hydrate. Consider it makeup for a flawless face on a budget. It offers light coverage that most noticeably serves as a tinted moisturizer, giving your skin a natural fresh finish that reads more velvet than dewy. You can liken it to Maybelline’s Baby Lips, but in the form of a BB cream — which means you can expect hydration and suppleness with just the right amount of dew. We're on board.
**Maybelline**, $8.99, available at Ulta Beauty

**Intensity Level:** 2
**Finish:** Radiant
For the highlighter -obsessed, this illuminating tinted moisturizer brings a natural glow into the day. How? This sheer, buildable tint has micro-particles of shimmer for a luminous, blurred effect that diffuses light to make your skin look like something out of a magazine spread, but still natural in bright light.
Let us explain: When we say micro particles, we mean *micro* — barely visible in the formula, but when applied, you can see the reflective properties that are inexplicably like liquid light, giving you a literal lit-from-within appearance. On first smear, don’t be surprised if you involuntarily utter a “whoa.” We did, too.
**Laura Mercier**, $45, available at Laura Mercier

**Intensity Level:** 2
**Finish:** Slight radiance
A drugstore favorite for sensitive skin, Aveeno’s tinted moisturizer offers SPF 30 in a sheer, brightening formula specked with barely visible light-reflecting minerals that offer a subtle blurring effect. This means your skin still looks like your skin, which is kind of the point, isn’t it? The lightweight coverage is noncomedogenic and hypoallergenic, so you won’t have to fuss in case you’re worried about exacerbating any redness. The best part? Since it’s oil-free, you’re spared the midday shine potentially made doubly blinged-out from its already “light-reflecting” nature.
**Aveeno**, $16.99, available at Drugstore.com

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Natural
This formula is brand-new to the market, but it’s already amassed a huge fan base thanks to its weightless, medium-coverage finish, serum-like feel, and impressive shade range. The silky texture blends like a dream and leaves skin looking totally natural — just… better.
**The Ordinary** Colours Serum Foundation, $6.70, available at The Ordinary.

**Intensity Level:** 4
**Finish:** Natural
A favorite in the BB cushion world, Laneige’s BB Cushion Compact offers a much wider range of shades than many Korean beauty brands, plus it’s easier to find stateside — just go to your local Target, its exclusive U.S. distributor. The light-to-medium coverage is buildable, depending on how much you pat on with the cushion. Like most BB creams, this compact contains skin-care elements to help combat pigmentation, so you can cover up and treat simultaneously. The cushion makes this idiot-proof to apply and reapply throughout the day to control shine or dullness. And with SPF 50, this one offers the most protection of the bunch.
**Laneige** BB Cushion, $34, available at Target.

**Intensity Level:** 1
**Finish:** Dewy
Barely-there makeup isn’t exactly the type of thing we’ve come to expect from MAC (their usual offerings are more along the lines of outrageously bright lipsticks and gloss for your eyelids), but this recent addition is the Platonic ideal of a lightweight, complexion-perfecting foundation that feels more like skin care than makeup.
**MAC** Next To Nothing Face Colour, $31, available at Nordstrom.

**Intensity Level:** 1
**Finish:** Natural
This hydrating tint feels barely-there weightless, but you'll definitely know you're wearing it once you look in the mirror — your skin will have a lit-from-within glow. Since the formula is so sheer, it just kind of evens out skin tone for everyday wear. Sometimes, that's all you need... and SPF 15, of course.
**Bobbi Brown**, $46, available at Bobbi Brown

**Intensity Level:** 1
**Finish:** Dewy
Touted as being even lighter than a tinted moisturizer, this bottle of magic is ideal for those who want sheer, breathable coverage to even out minor tonal variations.
**Glossier**, $26, available at Glossier

**Intensity Level:** 2
**Finish:** Natural Semi-matte
A primer and BB cream in one, this skin tint takes to task the responsibility of evening out your skin tone, protecting your skin from harmful UV rays, *and* setting your canvas for whatever comes next (blush, concealer, or foundation). The fluid-like formula is quite sheer. but its primer-like performance means it masks pores, fills in fine lines, and primes blemishes to be dabbed with concealer. But the best part is you can wear this alone for a light tint, or layer on proper foundation, concealer, and makeup, just in case you ever decide to hate foundation a little less. Since it’s a primer, the way it appears upon application is the way it’ll appear right before you wash your face at night. Translation: It lasts all day.
**bareMinerals**, $27, available at Ulta Beauty

**Intensity Level:** 3
**Finish:** Natural
Tinted moisturizers that adjust to your natural skin tone are perfect for days you can't be bothered with makeup brushes. This new formula from Origins does just that, and leaves behind a sheer wash of color that looks healthy and fresh.
**Origins** SPF 40 Energy-Boosting Tinted Moisturizer, $37, available at Origins.

**Intensity Level:** 1
**Finish:** Dewy
There's a reason Sephora stores can't keep this CC cream stocked: It's the one-shade-fits-all solution for anyone with a lackluster complexion. The formula feels like nothing on skin, but you'll definitely notice that you’re wearing it, since it leaves behind a subtle, filtered glow. Translation: Just what you need for summer.
**Erborian** CC Crème, $44, available at Sephora.

**Intensity Level:** 2
**Finish:** Dewy
From one of our favorite more-natural brands, this under-the-radar formula offers up a feast of complexion-perfecting ingredients wrapped up in one CC cream. The coconut water will keep your skin soft all day long, the SPF will protect, and the light tint provides a wash of skin-evening color.
**Pacifica** Ultra CC Cream Radiant Foundation, $18, available at Ulta Beauty.

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↧

5 Necklace Trends That'll Be Everywhere This Year

August 11, 2017, 6:15 am

≫ Next: The BEST Wines To Buy At Trader Joe's

≪ Previous: 19 "Non-Foundations" For No-Makeup Makeup

If you have one delicate, special necklace you wear every single day (even in the shower), you might not consider how many rotating, clear-cut trends the jewelry category goes through every season. But, one look to the runways and the necks of celebrities, and you'll see just how many different styles enter the zeitgeist. And this year is no exception.

Similar to how we've seen dangling statement earrings rise in popularity this year, necklaces — and not just of the choker variety — are getting big. And in this case, more is definitely more. From fresh takes on personalized jewelry to long, oversized pendants we haven't seen since the early '00s, the pieces bound to be dominating 2017 will be leaving minimalism behind. Regardless of which trends you're planning to embrace, one thing's for sure: You're going to start paying way more attention to what's hanging around your neck. Click on for five styles you should make some room in your crammed jewelry box for.

**New-Wave Personalization**
Beyond the SJP-inspired nameplate (which has at this point been under fire for being cultural appropriation), personalized necklaces are going strong. Bella Hadid's been seen wearing this one on the regular. Whether it's an initialed dog tag or a more minimalist take on the nameplate, you can wear your name proud in 2017.
**Danielle Guizio** Gothic Choker Necklace, $180, available at Danielle Guizio.

**Luna Skye** 14kt Gold and Diamond Initial Mini Dog Tag Necklace, $1,250, available at Luna Skye.

**Ariel Gordon Jewelry** Name It Necklace, $595, available at Ariel Gordon Jewelry.

**Jennifer Meyer** 18-karat Gold, Diamond, & Turquoise Necklace, $1,150, available at Net-A-Porter.

**The M Jewelers** Old English Choker, $185, available at The M Jewelers.

**Frasier Sterling** Custom Star Crossed Lovers Choker, $66, available at Frasier Sterling.

**Hardware-Store Chic**
If you feel like you could DIY a lot of the jewelry you've been seeing lately, well, it's because you sort of can. Heavy chainlink, mixed metals, and an overall punky, hardware-focused vibe is where it's at, meaning you might be able to skip a trip to the department store and instead make your way to your nearest Home Depot. Just wait until you see how good this trend looks with all your graphic long-sleeve tees and fashion hoodies.
**Justine Clenquet x OC** Lenny Choker, $100, available at Opening Ceremony.

**Annelise Michelson** Ellipse Chain Choker, $807, available at Annelise Michelson.

**Them Bones** Clean Chain, $129, available at Them Bones.

**Is That...A Neck Brace?**
One particular Forever 21 choker sent the internet into a frenzy, but the truth is, the next wave of tight neck pieces are wider than ever. Sure, some versions may give the illusion of a turtleneck, while others may look more like a neck brace. Either way, they're much more interesting than those dental-floss-thin numbers so many currently love.
**Ribeyron** Unisex Leather Stapled Choker in Yellow, $ ~~320~~ $128, available at LN-CC. Shop similar here.

**Monki** Wide Stripe Choker, ~~$10~~ $1.18, available at Monki.

**Forever 21** Metallic Choker, $5.90, available at Forever 21.

**Penchant For Pendants**
Thanks to this oversized cat pendant by Loewe that made waves during fashion month, we're predicting the comeback of the long oversized necklace in 2017. Could this be the antidote to the minimalist choker obsession? We're thinking yes. But don't worry, you don't have to go *quite* this large to embrace this look.
**Loewe** Cat Face leather necklace, $555, available at Selfridges & Co.

**Zara** Chain and Choker Pack, $22.90, available at Zara.

**Leigh Miller** Brass Crescent Necklace, $200, available at Leigh Miller.

You never have to worry if a multi-colored necklace goes with your outfit — these happy jewels can spruce up everything from a T-shirt to an evening gown. Plus, you're likely to cheer people up wherever you go just by wearing one.
**Lana Girl By Lana Jewelry** Girls' Mini Open Circle Rainbow Sapphire Pendant Necklace, $890, available at Bergdorf Goodman.

**Susan Alexandra** Lollipop Guild Necklace, $145, available at Susan Alexandra.

**IAM by Ileana Makri** Rainbow Rain Necklace, $340, available at Ylang 23.

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The BEST Wines To Buy At Trader Joe's

August 11, 2017, 6:20 am

≫ Next: The Latest Drugstore Beauty Buys You Need In 2017

≪ Previous: 5 Necklace Trends That'll Be Everywhere This Year

The cat's been out of the bag regarding our feelings on Trader Joe's — and our obsession remains undying. This bargain grocery chain is the stuff that our foodie-on-a-budget life is built atop. Without it we would surely crumble. Whether in the market for an affordable frozen feast, cult-favorite snack, or even just a banana (seriously, they were rated a top product of 2016), TJ's has it all. Leading us to what may be the best part about that "all" — the wine.

This section of our supermarket superhero is not to be overlooked. And if you're in the blessed vicinity of a wine store location, we have three major reasons why you should check it out. First, it's cheap (i.e. the majority of bottles clock in around $10). Second, the selection is refreshingly eclectic (e.g. vineyards hailing across California, France, Hungary, Italy, and more). And last, but not least, the tasting notes are quality — you just need to know which ones to snatch and hoard in your cart. So we've gone ahead and rounded up nine of TJ's finest. From whites to reds and Europe to South America, perfect any occasion you choose. We're ready to pop the cork and sip on these steals.

A combination of Cabernet and Merlot make up this crisp, berry-infused rosé — sweet, dry, and as aromatic as an under $7 summer day.
**Les Portes de Bordeaux** Rosé, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

A Garnacha and Syrah blend come together to create black cherry and raspberry flavor magic — pair this bargain bottle with your next pasta feast.
**Agostón,** Garnacha & Syrah, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's

Splurge on the cheese spread for your next summer evening affair (and not the wine) — this crisp, citrusy, and affordable bottle 0f TJ's rosé will make a mean compliment.
**La Promenade** Rosé, $9.99, available at Trader Joe's.

This cool California chardonnay and packs a major flavor punch of sweet pear and apple.
**Big Churn** Chardonnay, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

If Horse Heaven is anything like the tasting notes of this sauvignon blanc (i.e. grapefruit, melon, lime, orange, AND mango), then we'd all like to go to Horse Heaven.
**Horse Heaven Hills** Petit Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Tobacco, cherry, and black currant make up just a few hints of the unique flavor profile from this affordable TJ's cab sauv — pair a bottle with a plate of steak tacos this weekend.
**Long Live Liberté** Cabernet Sauvignon, $9.99, available at Trader Joe's.

With fruity hints of pineapple, white peach, and banana, this crisp chardonnay gives off some majorly tropical summer vibes.
**Caretaker** Chardonnay Central Coast 2016, $9.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Get your summer water consumption started with this cheap, crisp, and refreshing berry-forward bottle from TJ's — pair it with a cheese spread, some seafood, or just the sunset ( *wink, wink*).
**St. Sagnol** Rosé, $4.99, available at Trader Joe's.

A combo of four French grapes makes this bottle of white stand out from the rest — and with a crisp summery finish, the taste soars high above the price tag.
**La Ferme Julien** Blanc, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Pinot Noirs can be just as easy summer sipping as rosés — pair this budget bottle from Oregon with a juicy cheeseburger at your next cookout.
**Petiole** Pinot Noir, $9.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Made with two separate grapes from Sonoma vineyards, this chardonnay is best sipped before supper.
**TJ's Reserve** Chardonnay Sonoma County 2014, $9.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Sip a chilled bottle of this Californian rosé for just under $5 — it pairs nicely with fresh salads, grilled seafood, and meat (so, summer in a nutshell).
**Loma Negra** Rosé, $4.99, available at Trader Joe's.

This crisp Chilean Sauvignon Blanc has subtle hints of jalapeño, lime, and green apple — sip it solo or with a mean cheese spread.
**Kidia** Sauvignon Blanc, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Pick up a pack of TJ's brand new canned wine in refreshing white or rosé — ideal for all your upcoming fun in the sun.
**Simpler Wines** Canned White & Rosé, $4.99, available at Trader Joe's.
Photo: Via @sararangel86.

TJ's Grifone rosé is crisp and fruity without being overly sweet; the ideal under $5 warm weather refresher.
**Grifone** Rosé, $4.99, available at Trader Joe's.

This dry and bright green-white wine sings in spring with fresh notes of melon and apple — with a bit of bubbly effervescence to boot.
**Espiral** Vinho Verde, $4.49, available at Trader Joe's.

This bold, fruit-forward pinot boasts creamy hints of vanilla and pairs delectably with a cheesy charcuterie spread.
**Sphere** Monterey County Pinot Noir, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

It's officially springtime, y'all — and you know what that means? Rosé-time.
**Josefina** Syrah Rosé, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Pontificis' French white has a delicate finish with fresh floral and fruity notes — ideal for sipping over your upcoming spring suppers.
**Pontificis** Viognier-Roussanne-Marsanne, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

This Chilean Cab-Sauv sips like a true Californian with bold hints of dark fruits layered on top of a creamy vanilla-mocha finish — serve it up at your next steak (or pasta) dinner.
**Denada Cellars** Cabernet Sauvignon, $7.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Having a Friday fish feast? Pick up a bottle (or five) of this balanced Italian Pinot with hints of fruit and crisp citrus.
**Grifone** Organic Pinot Grigio, $4.99, available at Trader Joe's.

TJ's also does rosé all day with this California grenache — sweet and tangy with notes of ripened raspberries and cherries.
**Green Fin** Grenache Rosé, $4.99, available at Trader Joe's.

This California red blend has fresh notes of raspberries and strawberries with hints of toasted oak. For just under $4, it's less than $1 a glass.
**Terrain Vineyards** 2014 Red Blend, $3.99, available at Trader Joe's.

An Italian Pinot Grigio, Villa Sonia's 2013 bottle is light, crisp, and less than that cocktail you bought last night.
**Villa Sonia** Pinot Grigio, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's.

This wine is not *actually* black, it's still a red — but a very dark, rich, red with fruity tasting notes and a spicy finish. Serve it at your next seance.
**Moon X** Black Pinot Noir, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

We're used to seeing bordeaux wines in reds, but leave it to TJ's to deliver us something out of the ordinary. Pick up a bottle of the Chateau de Sequin's white with a light-floral and tart-citrus finish.
**Chateau de Sequin** Sauvignon de Sequin Bordeaux, $6.99, available at Trader Joe's.

A California Pinot, Cherry Blossom is bursting with the taste of rich berries and chocolate — and again, costs less than your morning latte.
**Cherry Blossom** Pinot Noir, $3.99, available at Trader Joe's.

Pacific Grove's Chardonnay is a small-batch, barrel-aged wine with crisp and creamy tasting notes. Serve this up with your favorite shellfish dish.
**Pacific Grove** Chardonnay, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's.

TJ's Petite Reserves are special wines offered at special prices (a.k.a quality for cheap). This Zinfandel boasts a peppery spice with bold raspberry and cherry flavor.
**Paso Robles** Zinfandel, $7.99, available at Trader Joe's.

A Hungarian-hailing Veltliner (we didn't know what that was either), Floriana's bottle is similar in taste to a Sauvignon Blanc — but with a little extra crispness.
**Floriana** Grüner Veltliner, $5.99, available at Trader Joe's.

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↧

The Latest Drugstore Beauty Buys You Need In 2017

August 11, 2017, 6:30 am

≫ Next: Highlighting Tips For Women Of Color

≪ Previous: The BEST Wines To Buy At Trader Joe's

There's something particularly exciting about going into a new year — especially this upcoming one. For starters, it means that 2016 — categorically some of the worst 365 days we've seen — is over. It also signifies the start of something fresh; the beginning of a new chapter — that is, if clichés speak to you.

But in the beauty world, a new year means a treasure trove of game-changing launches — with the best place to find them being right in the drugstore aisles. That's because mass brands save the biggest innovations for January, and this fast-approaching January 1 is no exception. What makes it all even better: Each one is reasonably priced — hey, we understand what the holiday season can do to your wallet — and easy to pick up at your local CVS, Walmart, Target, or Walgreens.

Ahead, we've rounded up the new releases you'll want to get in 2017. If nothing else, consider this list a guide for things to look forward to — because we'll be damned if you don't deserve it. So click through; take a breath. If these finds are any indication, 2017 is going to be a very good year.

Any fan of Cetaphil's derm-approved cleanser wipes will love this new addition: The brand is introducing another version, meant specifically for wiping away makeup — gently, of course.
**Cetaphil** Gentle Makeup Removing Wipes, $7.49, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Finding a liquid eyeliner that truly does it all isn't easy. But we recently discovered that this bold and bright launch from L'Oréal checks all our boxes and we guarantee everyone and their mother will start talking about it very soon. Not only does it last through rain or shine, but the pen is felt and longer than most we've found *anywhere*.
**L'Oréal** Infallible Paints Eyeliner, $9.99, available at Ulta Beauty.

This lotion has all the skin-soothing ingredients of the OG (like colloidal oatmeal), only this formula manages to simultaneously feel both lightweight *and* rich — and soaks into skin in seconds.
Aveeno Skin Relief Moisturizing Lotion, $7.47, available at Wal Mart.

The 10-shade collection of lip glosses from Jane features pigmented formulas that can be tapped onto the lips to create a stain or layered on thick for full-on shine.
**Jane** Lip Gloss, $11, available at Target.

Chances are, you've seen the drying effect shampoos can have (just think of all those times your hair felt stiff or hay-like after a shower). But after 15 years of research, Pantene finally found a way to change all that with its spanking-new technology that injects each strand with tiny lipids to replace the ones you lose when you suds.
**Pantene** Pro-V Daily Moisture Renewal, $3.99, available at drugstores and Pantene.

If we had to pinpoint two of the biggest time-sucks in our beauty routines, they'd be slathering on lotion and self-tanning. Enter this innovation from Jergens, which combines its two best sellers — the Natural Glow and Wet Skin Moisturizers — so you can zip through both processes right in the shower.
**Jergens** Natural Glow Wet Skin Moisturizer, $8.99, available at drugstores in February 2017.

If you've ever dealt with the pain in the arse that is rosacea, you know how frustrating a flare-up can be. But this gentle moisturizer hydrates and calms the area, then leaves behind a subtle tint to minimize any remaining redness.
**Cetaphil** Redness Relieving Daily Facial Moisturizer SPF 20, $17.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Over the summer, the FDA approved this acne treatment to be sold as a once-daily over-the-counter topical gel, and the time has finally come. Now, thanks to a .1% retinoid, you can treat blackheads and whiteheads without visiting a derm.
**Differin** Gel 0.1%, $29.99, available at Walgreens now, with mass distribution in January 2017.

This medium-coverage formula is like next-level BB cream: It covers flaws and has SPF 20, but is also infused with DHA — the active ingredient in self-tanner — to leave behind a longer-lasting glow.
**Almay** Healthy Glow Makeup + Gradual Self Tan, $14.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Perfect for cat-eye novices, this liquid eyeliner comes with a ballpoint tip that makes it easy to dot, dot, dot your way to a flawless wing.
**Almay** Pen Eyeliner, $8.49, available at drugstores in January 2017.

There are plenty of reasons to love Dove's OG body wash: It's super-hydrating, gentle, affordable — we could go on. This new iteration has all of the same stuff you love about the first — only with a bubbly foaming element that makes your shower more fun.
**Dove** Shower Foam Body Wash, $5.97, available at drugstores in February 2017.

The brand’s first foray into anti-dandruff territory, this shampoo is formulated with flake-fighting zinc and a crisp mint scent, so it feels slightly less medicinal than regular flake treatments.
**Dove** DermaCare Scalp Invigorating Shampoo, $4.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

This foundation blender has everything you love about the Beautyblender, only with a handle that makes it easier to use (and cleaner, as the makeup stays off your hands). Even better, with the replacement head priced at seven bucks, it's cheaper, too.
**Revlon** Professional Blending Brush, $10.99 (replacement head is $7), available at drugstores in January 2017.

Available in 15 supremely wearable colors — coral, purple, brick, berry — these gel lipsticks glide on easily and leave behind a shiny, balm-like finish.
**Revlon** Ultra HD Gel Lipcolor, $8.99 each, available at drugstores in January 2017.

You know how lip crayons are so easy to use, you don't even need a mirror to apply them? This creamy brow crayon is the same idea — it's almost impossible to mess up filling in sparse zones.
**Revlon** ColorStay Brow Crayon, $9.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

This scrubby treatment mask whisks away even your days-old dry-shampoo buildup, without being harsh on strands. How? The formula has no sulfates, no parabens, no dyes — no kidding.
**L’Oréal** EverFresh Micro-Exfoliating Scrub Rinse-Out Hair Treatment, $9.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Though the brand is releasing a slew of new scents in the New Year, this particular launch is especially exciting: It contains fragrance-release technology that bursts throughout the day, so you stay hibiscus-fresh for up to 12 hours.
**Dial** Hibiscus Water Body Wash, $4.49, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Those who want to dip their toes into the cushion-compact trend — but don't want to overspend — should try this offering from Maybelline. Its sheer, lightweight texture makes it feel just as luxurious as the fancy stuff.
**Maybelline** Dream Cushion Liquid Foundation, $15.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Maybelline is upgrading its best-selling Baby Lips balm into a crayon form, and all six of the new shades have the very same hydrating ingredients you love in the original, only this time they're packed with super-saturated pigment, too.
**Maybelline** Baby Lips Color Balm Crayon, $4.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

The coolest thing about Schwarzkopf's newest Gliss collection: Each product is loaded with hair-strengthening keratin — even its volumizing shampoo and conditioner. (Though, let's be real, you'd never know it by how bouncy your hair feels after using it.)
**Schwarzkopf** Gliss Extra Volume Shampoo, $5.94, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Sure, these Yes To cleansing wipes whisk away dirt and oil on your skin, but the fact that their cloth is made in part from cotton-T-shirt scraps is what makes them even cooler.
**Yes To** Cotton Comforting Facial Wipes, $5.99, available at Ulta Beauty, with mass drugstore distribution in January 2017.

Not only does this scrub have all the pore-purging power of charcoal, but it also comes with a built-in silicone brush and heats up on contact (!), so the exfoliating ingredients can penetrate deeper.
**Yes To** Tomatoes Detoxifying Charcoal Warming Facial Scrub, $9.99, available at Ulta Beauty, with mass distribution in January 2017.

Just like the brand's classic long-wearing shadows, this dual-ended stick comes in every color you could dream of — 12, to be exact — and won't budge all day.
**L'Oréal** Infallible Paints Eye Shadow, $8.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Like we mentioned before, the new Garnier Fructis shampoos and conditioners won't have any parabens, swapping 'em out for vitamins and fruit extracts, so hair looks healthier for the New Year.
**Garnier** **Fructis** Triple Nutrition Shampoo, $6.99, available at Garnier.

This curved wand applicator — meant to match the natural shape of your brows — stole our hearts, but it's the long-lasting, flake-free pigment that kept us coming back.
**CoverGirl** Shape + Define Brow Mascara, $7.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

In addition to its more sustainable packaging, this new body wash from Caress smells like straight-up heaven — if heaven were a sea of patchouli, watermelon, bergamot, and sandalwood, that is.
**Caress** Hypnotic Aura Body Wash, $3.49, available at drugstores in February 2017.

Anyone who's privy to retinol knows the potency of the anti-ager. Only downside: It'll dry you out faster than you can say, "My face is flaking." This formula combines the ingredient with heavy-hitting hydrators, so you can sleep easy knowing you'll never have to worry about flaking skin.
**Neutrogena** Rapid Wrinkle Repair Regenerating Cream, $24.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

It's your full-face kit — highlighter, blush, and bronzer — all in one place. And you can't beat that pigment payoff for the impressive price.
**Physicians Formula** Bronze Booster, $14.95, available at drugstores in March 2017.

This innovative new brow product uses a highly-pigmented powder to fill, define, and line brows, all in one fell swoop. The soft texture makes it beyond easy to apply — all you have to do is shake it up for best results.
**Rimmel** Brow Shake Brow Filling Powder, $3.99, available at Target.

Consider this your cover-up-anything concealer. It's rich and creamy in texture, but the blending sponge helps buff it out to a natural finish.
**Physicians Formula** InstaReady Full Coverage Concealer, $10.95, available at drugstores in March 2017.

Everything about this macadamia-packed body oil *screams* lotion — from its fast-absorbing texture to its dreamy smell — only it goes on in a flash and leaves you hydrated for way longer.
**Nivea** Nourishing Body Oil, $11.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

The brand's OG body wash has been a drugstore cult classic for years, but this new formulation has pro-glycerin to keep skin even smoother as you suds.
**Olay** Ultra Moisture Body Wash, $5.49, available at drugstores in January 2017.

There is one thing everyone needs more of in winter: moisture. In the air, on your skin, and, yep, on your nails. This overnight nail serum from Sally Hansen has a hit of humectants to do exactly that.
**Sally Hansen** Moisture Rehab Strengthener, $9.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

When you want a natural-looking contour, reach for this cushion compact. It's packed with vitamins E and B5 to hydrate, and the velvety finish looks *super* -subtle on skin.
**Wet n Wild** MegaCushion Contour Cream, $5.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

This sudser has plenty of good-for-you antioxidants that protect hair from damage, but it's the sweet scent of berry, patchouli, and caramel that'll have you falling in love.
**Herbal Essences** Arabica Coffee Fruit Shampoo, $5.99, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Soon your lips can get a subtle, glossy sheen with not-so-subtle benefits. Available in six different shades, these tinted oils are each packed with hydrating coconut oil and meadowfoam seed.
**Burt's Bees** Tinted Lip Oil, $9, available at Target, Walmart, and Burt's Bees in January 2017.

Any highlighter aficionado would appreciate this pale-hued, slightly shimmery strobing kit.
**Flower Beauty** Shimmer & Strobe Highlighting Palette, $12.98, available at drugstores in January 2017.

Always have the same tube of lip balm with you at all times? Here's how to make the whole hydration thing a lot more fun: Scoop up these Chapstick orbs, which snap on and off so you mix and match as many of your favorite flavors as you want. (And when you can choose from vanilla, coconut, pineapple, mint, watermelon, and more — the sky is the limit.)
**Chapstick** Duo Refreshing Watermelon Strawberry Kiwi Lip Balm, $3.99, available at Walmart.

We're big fans of color-correcting creams, but this year, Physician's Formula is putting its own twist on two rad trends: cushion compacts and color-correcting concealers. The brand has combined the two into one product that's perfect for prepping your complexion for foundation. The lavender and peach primers here cancel out sallow skin and dark circles, while the green and yellow duo covers acne and inflammation.
**Physician's Formula** Talc-Free Cushion Corrector + Primer Duo SPF 20, $16.99, available at Ulta Beauty.

Looking for a liquid lipstick with long-lasting, highly saturated pigment that won't dry your lips? Here's your champ. The newest matte creation from Maybelline go on like a dream and won't make your mouth flaky.
**Maybelline** SuperStay Matte Ink Lip Color, $9.49, available at Ulta Beauty.

Never worry about unsightly nicks peeking out from under your sundress again: This razor is formulated with shea butter and rash guards to ensure you get the closest, most hydrating shave — sans the burn.
**Schick** Hydro Silk Razor, $8.99, available at Target.

This powder-to-clay formula is so fun, it'll take you back to the days of middle school science experiments. Inside the package, you'll find a paper bowl, tiny spoon, and packet of powder ready to be blended and spread across your skin. Depending on your need, choose from four different kinds of powders: charcoal (for clogged pores), cucumber (for irritated skin), tomato (for breakouts), and coconut (for dry skin).
**Yes To Tomatoes** Detoxifying Charcoal DIY Powder-To-Clay Mask, $3.29, available at Ulta Beauty.

Hairspray seems a little unnecessary if you've got a top-notch dry shampoo or texture spray by your side. That is, until you just spend 30 minutes flat ironing your 'do. This smoothing, hydrating, and strong hold spray is a must for preventing frizz.
**OGX** Smoothing + Shea Sleek Humidity Blocking Hairspray, $8.99, available at Ulta Beauty.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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↧

Highlighting Tips For Women Of Color

August 11, 2017, 6:30 am

≫ Next: Makeup That Actually Makes Your Skin Better

≪ Previous: The Latest Drugstore Beauty Buys You Need In 2017

Strobing, or — as we like to call it — highlighting overload, is poised to take over contouring in the beauty space. And with its rise in popularity has come an avalanche of highlighter products — including powders, creams, and liquids. But many of these pearly-pink and Champagne shades are geared toward fairer complexions, and they can appear chalky or overly sparkly on women with dark skin. (Not exactly the luminous, lit-from-within glow we're aiming for.)

Thankfully, brands are getting privy to the dilemma and releasing illuminating products that look amazing on ladies of color. When it comes to choosing the highlighter of your dreams, you should stray from pinks and frosty whites if you have a dark complexion. “You want to pick a highlighter almost the same way that you would pick a foundation — it should look like a part of your skin, as opposed to, like, a disco ball," says makeup artist Nick Barose. "If you’re darker, then I would go for a bronzy gold, and if you’re deep-dark, like Lupita [Nyong'o], for example, I would go for a copper shade. That way it adds a highlight, but it doesn’t add too much of a contrast, because it’s similar to your skin tone."

Click through to check out the newest highlighters on the market, as well as Barose's tips for wearing them. Then strobe on, pretties.

In the pan, this mosaic highlighter looks bronze but when the colors are swirled together, they create a gorgeous rose-gold hue that's so flattering on.
**ColourPop** SuperShock Highlighter in Iced, $8, available at ColourPop.

This buttery powder highlighter from Dose Of Colors can go two ways. A sheer layer catches the light in a pretty, subtle way — but layer on two or three swipes and you get a mega-watt glow all your favorite Instagrammers would be proud of.
**Dose Of Colors** Supreme Glow Highlighter in Royal Hotness, $28, available at Dose Of Colors.

According to celebrity makeup artist Carola Gonzalez, who works with Kerry Washington, Uzo Aduba, Leona Lewis, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, this highlighter is amazing for dark complexions.
"This liquid illuminator is the bomb!" Gonzalez says. "It comes in three colors, but I recommend the Golden shade because it reflects very nicely on dark skin."
For the perfect application, heed her advice: "After makeup application, at the very end, rub a bit between your fingertips then dab it on cheekbones, the bridge of the nose, the center of the forehead, and center of the chin."
**L’Oreal** True Match Lumi Liquid Glow Illuminator in Golden, $12.99, available at Ulta Beauty.

This baked powder gives a radiant glow that doesn't leave specks of glitter on your cheekbones.
**Urban Decay** Naked Illuminated Shimmering Powder for Face and Body, $32, available at Sephora.

According to our senior beauty editor, this stick is "idiot-proof." "Just swipe a line above your blush and tap, tap, tap it in," she says. The result is a luminous glow that never looks chalky or sparkly.
**Glossier** Haloscope Highlighter in Topaz, $22, available at Glossier.

This shimmering tangerine hue looks flattering on the cheekbones, but even better to strobe your eyelids.
**NARS** The Multiple in Puerto Vallarta, $39, available at Sephora.

If you're a strobing amateur, this golden highlighter is for you. Even if you use too heavy a hand, your cheekbones won't shine as brightly as Jaclyn Hill 's.
**Make Up For Ever** Pro Light Fusion Highlighter in Golden, $39, available at Sephora.

For those of you looking for cheekbones that send messages to space, this golden highlighter will be right up your alley.
**Becca** Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Topaz, $38, available at Sephora.

Flower Beauty's creamy highlighter in Gold Coaster has been dubbed a perfect dupe for Becca's formula by a *few* beauty vloggers — making it's affordable price tag even more alluring.
**Flower Beauty** Glisten Up Highlighter Chubby in Gold Coaster, $9.98, available at Walmart.

Those with dark skin should simply enhance the glow they already have, Barose says. "Sometimes people go crazy on the browbone, the nose, and on the upper lids — but on darker skin, it’s definitely not necessary... It can make you look greasy, which isn't what we want."
**Hourglass** Ambient Lighting Powder in Radiant Light, $45, available at Sephora.com.

This bronze-colored powder from Jay Manuel Beauty doesn't add additional oil and comes with a super-soft brush for a nice, even dusting on the cheekbones.
**Jay Manuel Beauty**, $32, available at Jay Manuel Beauty

Makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury took her beloved Filmstar Bronze & Glow compact and tailored it to those with medium to dark skin. In addition to a darker bronzer, the highlighter has a golden-peachy base (rather than a Champagne one).
Its superfine light reflectors are also key, Barose says. “Avoid anything that has detectable signs of shimmer because, on darker skin, it will show up more. So you want ones that look *luminous*,” he says. “Sparkly is okay as an eyeshadow, but on the skin it gets tricky.”
**Charlotte Tilbury**, $68, available at Charlotte Tilbury

Barose — along with many other beauty pros — loves Armani Fluid Sheer liquid highlighters because they come in a range of different shades. For dark skin, he advises picking up gold (14) or copper (18) and buffing it onto the skin with a Beautyblender.
**Giorgio Armani**, $62, available at Sephora

For those with oily skin, though, Barose always recommends powders over creams. “You should really pick [a highlighter] based on your skin type," he stresses. "If you’re oily, then you might not want to use a cream formula because it will just end up making you look greasy.”
**Make Up For Ever**, $39, available at Sephora

As a woman of color herself, Jessica Alba knows the highlighter struggle well. Her brand Honest Beauty's new luminizers come in three different shades for that exact reason. Dusk Reflection (a soft bronze) is the best bet for those with darker skin tones.
**Honest Beauty**, $25, available at Honest Beauty

SheaMoisture has an especially impressive range of highlighter shades, including Ceylon Cinnamon (a bronzy brown), Boracay Hibiscus (a light chocolate), and Tortola Tan (a golden peach).
**Shea Moisture** Illuminating Mineral Bronzer, $14.99, available online only at Ulta Beauty.

Bobbi Brown's new highlighting powder might look a little intimidating, but Barose has a trick for keeping it subtle: Apply it *before* you sweep on powder foundation. This will give you a pretty sheen without overpowering your face.
**Bobbi Brown**, $46, available at Sephora

You can use that same strategy with a chubby, creamy pencil. Simple buff into the high points of the face before foundation for a lit-from-within glow that is soft and subtle.
**Nyx** Hydra Touch Brightener, $9, available at Nyx.

Barose loves to sweep this highlighter-and-contour stick on the queen herself, Lupita Nyong'o. It's both compact and easy to use — great for highlighting rookies.
**Lancôme**, $36, available at Lancôme

This gilded shade buffs into a muted golden, with no shimmer, so it looks natural, yet dewy, on a wide variety of darker skin tones.
**Cover FX** Enhance Click Highlighter in Gilded, $18, available at Sephora.

R29 staffers swatched the entire collection of glow-getters from this Black-owned brand — and a favorite of the crew's was Heir, a rose gold.
**Koyvoca** The HiLife Highlighter in Heir, $12, available at Koyvoca.

"This palette has three luminous shades that can be worn across the board," Tinashe 's makeup artist Clarissa Luna says. "The blush is subtle and sweet, while the highlight and contour colors can be used as eye shadows as well. The cherry on top is the yummy peach scent!"
**Too Faced** Sweet Peach Glow Peach-Infused Highlighting Palette, $42, available at Sephora.

"Highlighter is very big right now and Nars has a stunning palette," says Anthony Merante, who works with Grace Byers. "The Band De Sable Highlighter Palette is perfection. Three nude shades to flatter any skin tone with a metallic finish. Layer this highlighter over [cream] illuminator for *intense* shine."
**NARS** Banc De Sable Highlighter Palette, $49, available at Sephora.

Barose says to try this formula in Gold (14) or Copper (18) — and apply it with a damp Beautyblender for perfect results.
**Giorgio Armani** Beauty Fluid Sheer, $62, available at Sephora.

"You want to look like you effortlessly have God's favor — that's the goal," Sir John once told us. To achieve that, he likes sweeping this bronzer on the apples of his clients' cheeks.
**Tom Ford** Bronzing Powder, $68, available at Sephora.

"This is my little jam," Sir John reveals. He applies this formula on top of his clients' cheekbones for the perfect glow.
**Cover FX** Custom Enhancer Drops in Candlelight, $42, available at Sephora.

Shimmery formulas that offer a copper sheen are a surefire win to slay your look.
**Anastasia Beverly Hills** Liquid Glow Highlighter, $25, available at Sephora.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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↧

Makeup That Actually Makes Your Skin Better

August 11, 2017, 6:40 am

≫ Next: How To Keep From F-ing Up Your Spray Tan

≪ Previous: Highlighting Tips For Women Of Color

No-makeup makeup is no longer just a fleeting trend — it's one of the biggest beauty staples, and it’s not going anywhere soon. So, of course, there’s a huge demand for cosmetics that make your skin look effortlessly flawless. Unfortunately, the results aren’t always easy to achieve. Proper skin care plays an important part in pulling off the “natural” look, but it’s something many people forget about or don’t have time for. Instead, we rely on makeup to conceal flaws, and natural goes out the window in favor of caked-on foundation.

Luckily, a lot of brands combine skin care and makeup. Your morning routine can become faster and simpler if you use a single BB cream that packs sunscreen, moisturizer, and foundation, and your quixotic quest for dramatic lashes that won’t fall out can end with lash-enhancing mascara. It's a wonder all makeup isn't infused with skin-care benefits.

For now, here are the brands that are ahead of the pack — and which genius products you should be buying from each.

**Clarins**
**The Brand:** Clarins bloomed into the #1 prestige brand in Europe by seeking to advance makeup and skin care using plant ingredients over chemicals whenever it could. Now, the brand is all about its core value: the belief that happiness and self-care are directly linked to all things beauty.
**Try:** Setting sprays are key for oily skin types — or just about anyone looking for a finished, seamless look. The Fix' Make-Up is infused with aloe vera to calm and soothe. Additionally, it energizes your complexion with a burst of grapefruit extract essence and organic rose water.
**Clarins** Fix' Make-Up, $29, available at Nordstrom.

**RMS Beauty**
**The Brand:** When makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift decided to found an organic cosmetics company, she sought to offer products without any harmful chemicals and toxins that she had encountered over decades in the industry. The hero ingredient in the line? Coconut oil, of course.
**Try:** While their famous Un-Cover Up Concealers boasts healthy and natural coverage, this Living Luminizer is their best-seller for a reason. It's the highlighter that everyone mistakes for a natural luminosity, and we can't live without it.
**RMS Beauty** Living Luminizer, $38, available at RMS Beauty.

**Colorescience**
**The Brand:** What started as sun protection company has branched out into color cosmetics in the dozen years since its launch. But the brand has wisely kept SPF and preventive care at the forefront/core of all it does. Lip glosses contain water resistant SPF 35, air-whipped foundations contain a substantial dose of chemical-free SPF and even bronzers, illuminators and color corrector palettes are made with mineral pigments, which sits on top of the skin’s surface and helps scatter UV rays.
**Try:** Dust this luminizing powder over foundation, blush or bronzer to add warmth and a subtle glow. Made with redness (and UV) diffusing mineral pigments, this illuminator is also rich in antioxidants.
**Colorescience** Pressed Mineral Illuminator, $50, available at Colorescience.

**Juice Beauty**
**The Brand:** The (mostly) organic products are free of all the bad chemicals, packed with antioxidants and use plant pigment dyes, so you can feel good about what you're putting on your skin.
**Try:** This foundation has organic grapeseed, goji berry, aloe, and vitamin E to replenish skin while providing full coverage.
**Juice Beauty** Perfecting Foundation, $35, available at Juice Beauty.

**100% Pure**
**The brand:** When Hollywood’s ultimate green beauty purist Shailene Woodley raves about a natural brand, we listen. This cruelty-free hair, skin, and makeup line — born out of a Napa, CA farmhouse — is void of artificial colors (fruit dyes are used as pigment instead), artificial fragrances, and synthetic chemical preservatives.
**Try:** This take on the ubiquitous nude palette includes three eyeshadows, a luminizer, and a blush—all colored from fruit, veggie, flower, and seed pigments.
**100% Pure** Fruit Pigmented Pretty Naked II Palette, $33.75, available at 100% Pure.

**ILIA**
**The brand:** Committed to keeping the organic beauty market honest, ILIA offers botanical ingredients to amp up your complexion while making sure your look is on point with sheer and lightweight formulas.
**Try:** This cream eyeshadow crayon makes creating a shimmery look easy, without any bit of fall-out.
**ILIA** Silken Shadow Stick, $28, available at ILIA.

**It Cosmetics**
**The brand:** As a former rosacea sufferer, cofounder of It Cosmetics Jamie Kern Lima decided to create her own makeup line, which would cover and enhance her features while nourishing her skin. The brand now works with plastic surgeons to formulate products that do just that.
**Try:** It Cosmetics' CC cream is one of the few alphabet creams that we can actually use in lieu of moisturizer. But hydration isn't the only A-plus quality this buttery cream possesses. It also boasts buildable coverage; a beautiful dewy finish; and skin-loving ingredients like hyaluronic acid, algae, peptides, and vitamins A, C, B, and E.
**It Cosmetics** Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream with SPF 50+, $38, available at It Cosmetics.

**Clinique**
**The Brand:** While Clinique offers up some of the best gentle skin-care options out there, their makeup range promises the same longterm benefits. When it first hit the market in 1968, it was known as the first allergy-tested line, backed by dermatologists and formulated without fragrances. Nearly 50 years later, we're still hunting down the newest and most innovative offerings from this iconic brand.
**Try:** This no-makeup makeup base is created with broad spectrum SPF and boasts benefits like improved clarity, fewer signs of aging, and a brighter complexion within 4-6 weeks.
**Clinique** Even Better Makeup Broad Spectrum SPF 15, $27, available at Clinique.

**Fresh**
**The brand:** Started in Boston in 1991, Fresh launched Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish in 1998, effectively taking sugar exfoliants into the luxury skin-care world.
**Try:** The Sugar Lip Treatment is the brand’s star product, which everyone and their mother (and their mother’s mother) is obsessed with. It’s so much more than a tinted lip balm, though. The ingredient list includes sugar to prevent moisture loss, oils such as avocado and jojoba to hydrate, and grape-seed polyphenols to act as antioxidants. Finally, the SPF 15 will protect your pout from the sun.
**Fresh**, $22.5, available at Sephora

**Josie Maran**
**The brand:** Josie Maran’s specialty is harnessing the power of argan oil, a super hydrator.
**Try:** Argan oil in the Infinity Lip and Cheek Creamy Oil will moisturize, while the colorful tints are easy to blend and build on. The end result is a dewy, fresh complexion. Best of all, it’s 97% natural and free of petroleum, parabens, and sulfates.
**Josie Maran**, $18, available at Josie Maran

**La Roche-Posay**
**The brand:** One of the most commonly used brands globally for sensitive skin, La Roche-Posay works hand-in-hand with over 25,000 dermatologists to continuously improve and study its products' efficacy and tackle more sensitive-skin issues. In recent years, the brand has expanded to include makeup and hair products.
**Try:** Effaclar BB Blur, La Roche-Posay’s BB, provides both a hint of coverage and a blurring effect, while helping to mattify the skin. It's also safe for those prone to breakouts: It helps to cover blemishes without clogging pores.
**La Roche-Posay** Effaclar BB Blur, $29.99, available at La Roche-Posay.

**Bare Escentuals**
**The brand:** No other brand has such an impressive line of mineral, skin-care-focused makeup. None of its products include fragrance, oil, preservatives, or other harmful chemicals.
**Try:** This complexion starter kit is the perfect introduction to mineral makeup. It includes primer, foundation, concealer, powder, a face brush, and a mini concealer brush. The primer will help with excess dryness and oiliness, as well as fine lines and pores; and the foundation and concealer will help give you that no-makeup-makeup look while protecting skin from the sun.
**bareMinerals** Get Started® Complexion Kit, $49.99, available at bareMinerals.

**Tarte**
**The Brand:** Back in 1999, eco-friendly makeup made with good-for-skin ingredients often lacked the kind of glamour that made you want to pull out your compact in public. Tarte Cosmetics helped change that, made with lust-worthy packaging and naturally-derived star ingredients like Amazonian clay and maracuja oil. Today, the cruelty-free brand makes some of the most beautiful makeup in the game, all while steering clear of questionable additives.
**Try:** This collection of shadows is not only stocked with all-occasion shimmer and matte nudes, but it also taps the brand’s Amazonian clay — which can help mattify oil-prone lids.
**Tarte** Tartlette In Bloom Palette, $45, available at Tarte.

**Caudalíe**
**The brand:** This cult French drugstore brand was founded on the ethos that your skin care should be natural and packed with antioxidants, most of which come from organic grapes and a variety of oils, extracts, and butters.
**Try:** Since the brand released its answer to BB cream, we've been hooked. It goes on smooth and hydrates while imparting light coverage. Oh, and the lip balm is out of this world, too.
**Caudalíe** Vinoperfect Radiance Tinted Moisturizer Broad Spectrum SPF 20, $49, available at Nordstrom.

**Sisley**
**The brand:** Sisley is known for luxurious and effective French skin care, but it also knows that many of us wear makeup every day. When it comes to color cosmetics, the brand strives to create formulas that are do more than just cover, thanks to plant-derived, more-natural ingredients.
**Try:** This tinted moisturizer leaves a natural-looking veil of coverage, plus is packed with a hit of moisture. How? It has vegetable glycerin and mallow extract to infuse hydration into skin and sunflower oil to keep it soft and supple all day long.
**Sisley** Tinted Moisturizer With Botanical Extracts, $120, available at Sisley.

**VMV Hypoallergenics**
**The brand:** For people with rosacea, dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, acne, and sensitive or allergic skin, this brand can be a godsend. Its products are hypoallergenic (as per the name) and noncomedogenic; free of fragrance, dyes, parabens, and animal-testing; and have been tested for 76 common allergens.
**Try:** Skin the Bluff Concealer comes in five shades: light, medium, and dark, as well as a yellow hue for undereye circles and a green shade to reduce redness. The nifty glass jar is the perfect size for on-the-go touchups (although we recommend using a concealer brush rather than your fingers when possible to reduce bacteria buildup). It’s great for dry skin because its creamy consistency is easy to blend. And, it’s free of common allergens, fragrances, dyes, and parabens, which is great for those with sensitive or easily irritated skin.
**VMV Hypoallergenics**, $20, available at VMV Hypoallergenics

**Dr. Jart+**
**The brand:** Launched in 2004 by Korean dermatologist Sung-Jae Jung, MD, and his friend Jin-Wook Lee, an entrepreneur, Dr. Jart+ quickly became one of Asia’s top skin-care brands, and has since caught on like wildfire stateside.
**Try:** The famous BB creams are sure to make your morning routine more efficient. Instead of waiting for moisturizer to sink in and then putting on foundation, they combine both steps, along with other treatments that will work all day to benefit your skin. The Premium Beauty Balm has an antioxidant bio-peptide complex for anti-aging benefits, while the Black Label Detox BB Beauty Balm has arbutin for dark spots. Best of all, they all have sunscreen, so you can skip that step, too.
**Dr. Jart+**, $18, available at Sephora

**Perricone MD**
**The brand:** Another doctor who’s brought his expertise to the world of beauty, dermatologist Nicholas Perricone, MD, was one of the first pros on the no-makeup makeup craze with his line No Makeup Skincare. It offers anti-aging ingredients in all of its products, and most of them helpfully contain sunscreen as well.
**Try:** No Foundation Foundation is lightweight, comes in a glass bottle with a handy pump (so no germs or spills), and goes on smoothly with a velvety finish. It has SPF 30 and alpha-lipoic acid to diminish the appearance of wrinkles and pores. We also clearly have strong feelings about the No Concealer Concealer.
**Perricone MD**, $55, available at Sephora

**Philosophy**
**The brand:** Philosophy’s product names have uplifting messages. Happily, you'll *feel* uplifted if you use its products, which contain good-for-you ingredients like retinol, AHAs, and anti-inflammatory plant extracts.
**Try:** The tinted moisturizer with SPF Hope In a Jar is free of oil, fragrance, and parabens, and is instead extremely hydrating for dry skin. It won’t irritate sensitive types, and the creamy consistency blends well to create an even complexion.
**Philosophy**, $39, available at Philosophy

**Peter Thomas Roth**
**The brand:** Skin-care brand Peter Thomas Roth, which launched in 1993, recently extended its offerings to include a small-but-mighty makeup line. It includes lash-enhancing mascara and eyeliner, an anti-aging lip treatment, concealer, and CC cream.
**Try:** Lashes to Die for the Mascara contains nourishing ingredients to condition and moisturize lashes. It also won’t clump, flake, or smudge.
**Peter Thomas Roth**, $22, available at Ulta Beauty

**Lush**
**The brand:** If you haven’t tried Lush’s fresh, handmade products yet, you’re missing out. It uses vegetarian ingredients, promotes packaging recycling (you even get a free face mask if you bring back five empty jars), and is against animal testing.
**Try:** The Feeling Younger Skin Tint is a creamy highlighter that’s unisex, and suitable for all skin types and shades. You can use it along your cheekbones, and above your brows and Cupid’s bow for highlighting, or even mix it with your daily moisturizer or foundation for an all-over glow. Formulated with ingredients such as oatmeal, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, and almond oil, it’ll hydrate and plump up your skin while evening your complexion and giving it a luminous glow.
**Lush**, $18.95, available at Lush

**LashFood**
**The brand:** LashFood started in luxury spas and dermatologists' offices, but is now available to consumers. Its non-irritating formula boasts lash growth in four weeks. Considering strong brows aren't likely to go anywhere soon, you may appreciate the products’ brow-growing properties, too.
**Try:** The Lash Transformation System is for those who want to get their lashes and brows to grow until they touch each other and end up becoming entangled. Okay, fine, that’s a terrifying exaggeration. It’s actually for those who want them to grow without the hassle of a prescription or the fear of irritation. Either way, it works, and it's awesome.
**LashFood**, $98, available at Sephora

**Glossier**
**The brand:** Glossier was getting buzz even before it launched last October. The brainchild of Emily Weiss, founder of beauty blog *Into the Gloss*, it’s all about the intersection of skin care and makeup. The packaging and marketing preaches creeds such as “Skin first. Makeup second. Smile always.” and “Skin is in.”
**Try:** Perfecting Skin Tint is a newcomer to the already crowded market, but a strong contender for your money. It contains diamond powder to blur pores and brighten the complexion, glycerin for retaining moisture, and polymer X for a very subtle facelift. It’s free of fragrance, alcohol, and parabens, and is not tested on animals. Since it’s not a heavy foundation, it won’t cover *all* flaws. It will, however, smooth out redness and pores while letting your skin look like skin — just with extra glow.
**Glossier**, $26, available at Glossier

**Embryolisse**
**The brand:** Created in 1950 by a French dermatologist, it has been one of beauty’s most trusted brands ever since. Its products are paraben-free, not tested on animals, and ideal for hypersensitive skin. Its moisturizers have a cult following — and for good reason.
**Try:** Secret de Maquilleurs BB Cream stands out thanks to its inclusion of hyaluronic acid, which works hard to plump and hydrate. It also contains vitamin E, mineral powders, and light-reflecting pigments to make skin feel silky and look bright.
**Embryolisse**, $39, available at DermStore

**Laneige**
**The brand:** You can pick up Laneige’s luxurious skin-care products at Target while shopping for your weekly throw pillows and handbags. (We mean, groceries.) The brand bases all of its formulas on the benefits of nutrient-rich mineral water. And, you guessed it, there’s a BB cream and it’s awesome.
**Try:** BB Cushion with SPF 50+ goes above and beyond most BB creams’ sun protection. Of course, the real star is the mineral water, which promises to cool and hydrate skin as it provides coverage.
**Laneige**, $34, available at Target

**La Mer**
**The brand:** Luxury skin-care brand La Mer was founded by aerospace physicist Dr. Max Huber, who discovered that kelp helped cure burns that he had suffered in the lab. He harvested the kelp due to its endless ability to regenerate, and with it created the brand’s secret ingredient — miracle broth — and the original product, Creme de la Mer.
**Try:** La Mer has since created makeup, most notably its Reparative SkinTint SPF 30. The product gives an evening touch of color to the face (like a tinted moisturizer or BB cream), while also protecting from the sun. It also, of course, has miracle broth in it, which helps to moisturize and battle both fine lines and deep wrinkles.
**La Mer** The Reparative SkinTint SPF 30, $95, available at La Mer.

**GlamGlow**
**The brand:** GlamGlow is another skin-care company that has slowly dipped its foot into color cosmetics, while staying true to its mission — brightening skin. This translates to products that exfoliate and hydrate to a glowing finish.
**Try:** The brand's new tinted moisturizer has all the things your skin wants: hyaluronic acid for moisture, vitamins and antioxidants for brightness, and illuminating particles to blur imperfections and make skin look all, well, glowy.
**GlamGlow** Glow Starter Mega Illuminating Moisturizer, $49, available at Sephora.

**Algenist**
**The brand:** Algenist uses its star ingredients microalgae and alguronic acid to deliver anti-aging benefits.
**Try:** The brand's new color-correcting drops are not only trendy, but some of the best on the market due to their ability to both conceal imperfections and improve skin over time.
**Algenist** Reveal Concentrated Color Correcting Drops in Apricot, $20, available at Algenist.

**Erborian**
**The brand:** This K-beauty brand combines intelligent technology, specifically utilizing ancient Korean traditions and herbs for the most powerful advantage.
**Try:** The brand's BB cream is unlike most others because of its creamy formula and substantial coverage. With the use of ginseng, the formula moisturizes and smooths skin texture while also packing in SPF 20 for everyday wear.
**Erborian** BB Crème, $39, available at Erborian.

**Neutrogena**
**The brand:** One of the best brands to count on for multi-purpose, protective, and efficient products — without forcing you to shell out a ton of money.
**Try:** This tinted moisturizer is packed with retinol (yes, seriously) and SPF, so you don't have to lose your devotion to skin care while wearing makeup all day long.
**Neutrogena** Healthy Skin Anti-Aging Perfector, $14.09, available at Neutrogena.

**Lune+Aster**
**The brand:** Lune + Aster was created by Marla Beck, the co-founder of Blue Mercury, when she realized a lot of makeup brands on the market were lacking in fresh and natural ingredients. The paraben-free, vitamin-infused line is for every minimalist and natural beauty lover out there.
**Try:** Vitamin E and hyaluronic acid are the key components of this tinted moisturizer, so you won't feel terrible about rocking it for hours.
**Lune + Aster** Cover + Correct Tinted Moisturizer Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $48, available at Lune + Aster.

**CoverGirl**
**The brand:** This drugstore favorite, founded in 1961, has recently entered a new category: makeup that's better for your skin.
**Try:** The brand's new Vitalist Healthy Elixir Foundation contains vitamins and a light hit of SPF — yes, you still need daily SPF unless you're wearing half the bottle — to help protect and brighten your skin.
**CoverGirl** Vitalist Healthy Elixir Foundation, $11.99, available at Ulta.

**Inika Organic**
**The brand:** Every product from this Sydney-born brand is natural and made from ethically-sourced products.
**Try:** Inika's super-rich lipsticks, with Shea butter and jojoba oil, pack plenty of pigment without drying out your lips.
**Inika** Certified Organic Vegan Lipstick, $29, available at Inika.

**Almay**
**The brand:** While the brand is famous for natural-looking, lightweight makeup, it also offers a host of formulas that treat and protect skin.
**Try:** This primer hydrates, lessens dark spots and discoloration, and soothes inflammation.
**Almay** Smart Shade Perfect & Correct Primer, $12.99, available at Ulta Beauty.

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How To Keep From F-ing Up Your Spray Tan

August 11, 2017, 6:40 am

≫ Next: You Probably Already Own These 3 Pro Beauty Tools

≪ Previous: Makeup That Actually Makes Your Skin Better

So you have a big event coming up—maybe it’s a wedding, and you want to show off a polished, full-body, bronze glow to trick your distant cousins into thinking that you have your life together (by virtue of the fact that your skin is perfectly sunkissed). So, you book yourself a spray tan, a seemingly foolproof way to achieve an airbrushed tan without the skin-damaging effects of actually frying under the sun. What starts as a well-intentioned trip to the salon, can turn into a streaky, orange-y mess very quickly, sending you into a whirlwind of regret and frantic exfoliation to repair the damage.

The embarrassing side-effects of a bad spray tan (aka this girl), might make you hesitate to book an appointment. Admittedly, it's a sensitive process that involves some prep and delicate post-spray care. But when you get it right — the result is a subtle, skin radiance that has you feeling yourself.

To get the full scoop on what to do (and what not to do) when spray tanning, we chatted with St. Tropez 's skin-finishing expert, Sophie Evans. She gave us all the tips and tricks to get a flawless spray tan every time — so you can flaunt a streak-free glow, no blotchy ankles allowed.

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**Prep Your Skin**
Evans tells us that the prep before the spray is very important. The better condition your skin is in, the better the tan is going to come out. Evans' advice — come in with no self-tanner on your body. She explains: "If you take off all your self-tanner before you come in, it means we can do a nice, fresh coat and your spray tan is more likely to come out perfect."
In the same vein, exfoliation pre-tan is important. Eight hours before is the recommendation, because that's the time it take for your skin to neutralize. Evans tells us that a spray tan will look better when your skin is in a neutral mode, which usually happens about eight hours after you've washed it.
In terms of shaving and waxing — do not wax 24 hours before a spray tan. If you put a spray tan on top of freshly waxed skin, it will go straight into your pores, causing strange-looking dark dots. Shaving, on the other hand, is not a major problem, because it's actually a form of exfoliation. In fact, Evans explained that shaving after your tan, might actually give you a better finish. She says: "My legs look better if I get a spray tan on stubble-y legs, and then I shave them, but everyone is different."
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

**Go In For A Trial-Run Before A Big Event**
If you want to be 100% sure that you're going to be happy with your color, you should schedule a pre-spray tan patch test. That way you can actually see what shade your skin will go when you actually get the full-body spray down. Evans tells us: "With brides, we always do a trial run, so we know how they develop, and if we need to go darker or lighter — then, if need be, we can adapt and mix solutions to get the desired shade." In the art of spray tanning, and most things in life, practice makes perfect.
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

**Talk To Your Technician**
"One important suggestion for when you go into a spray tan — always give your spray tan technician some information about your skin, because everyone's skin is different," Evans tells us. The pH balance of your skin is what will affect the way that the tan develops. "You could be really dark, and not get much color from a spray tan because your pH balance may be low," Evans explains. "Always give your technician some information about your skin type and how you typically develop when using self-tanner, because it makes it easier for him or her to chose the correct formula for you."
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

**Be Thoughtful With Your Tanning Solution**
St. Tropez, as with most spray tanning salons, offers many different tanning options. Evans likens the different solutions to the natural tan you might get on vacations varying in duration: "We have a darker solution, which is like two weeks vacation, then we have a lighter solution which is like a week's vacation," she says.
Also, it's important to consider your schedule and your level of desired maintenance when choosing your solution. Evans explains that there are express solutions, where you can shower a few hours after the spray, but the color won't last as long as a traditional spray tan. Then there's a classic solution, where you won't see the color start to develop until eight hours post-spray, but the tan will last up to ten days with the correct after-care. Evans tells us that St. Tropez also does a luxury dry oil, it's very hydrating so it can last up to two weeks.
Really, it just depends on your spray-tan goals — and how much you want to spend.
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

**Wear Loose Clothing Post-Tan**
The biggest mistake spray tan rookies often make — putting on tight clothing right after they get sprayed. Evans tells us that her biggest piece of tanning advice is to avoid clingy clothes post-tan. "Always wear loose clothing — and don't put on socks or sneakers or you'll run the risk of splotchy ankles," she says. "Anything that's tight like socks, or a bra, that sticks and rubs, might give you a dark tan line." So always pack your baggy sweats and flip flops to throw on after your tan — who says you can't take caution in comfort?
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

**Avoid Sweat And Chlorine**
It's important to avoid the gym and pool if you want to keep your tan at its max darkness. "Sweat and chlorine will take your spray tan off quickly," Evans admits. But if you can't forgo your workout, there are still options to keep your spray tan intact. Evans advises: "If you go to the gym or you go swimming, you should apply a gradual tanner after you get out of the shower to maintain the tan as best you can."
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

**Use A Gradual Self-Tanner On Your Face**
After a spray tan the face and hands will lose color the quickest. It makes sense as the pores of your face and hands are constantly opening and closing, so it's unavoidable. Evans advises buying a facial self-tanner and moisturizing your face and hands liberally every day following your spray — that way your tan will last and will fade evenly.
Illustration by **Louisa Cannell**

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You Probably Already Own These 3 Pro Beauty Tools

August 11, 2017, 7:00 am

≫ Next: The All-Time Best Brunch Spots in L.A.

≪ Previous: How To Keep From F-ing Up Your Spray Tan

No lie: It can be pretty hard to resist the temptation of dropping serious cash in Sephora's pro tools section (we're looking at you, Artis makeup brushes). But if you're like us — and rarely have a spare $165 to blow — there's another solution. Some of our favorite beauty tools are probably already lying around your apartment, assuming you've got a spoon, a spare bottle cap, and dental floss. (Let's hope you at least have the last one.) Yep, these humble tools may not look super glamorous, but we're not arguing with their results. Check out the video below to see how to step up your mascara, cat eye, and eyeshadow techniques with just a few key product hacks.

We're particularly into the idea of using the handheld dental flosser as a guide when styling a signature liquid-lined cat eye — a process that even the most steady-handed beauty pros sometimes struggle with. Just paint the liner right onto the floss, and press it against your eye. Be sure to use plain floss; the minty or cinnamon flavored ones can cause irritation. And only draw the liner on half the floss if you want a smaller flick.

Another great trick? Grabbing a spare bottle cap to help you with your cut crease. Be sure to flip it upside down to avoid tearing your skin, then gently press it against your eye and fill your shadow in around it. You can use a neutral color for a smoky eye, or a brighter shade for a more modern look.

And if you always get mascara smears on your lids, try picking up a spoon. You can use it as a shield for messy formulas. Or, pop it in the fridge and use it to de-puff your undereyes.

What household beauty tools do you swear by? Let us know in the comments below.

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