Product: Fresh Sugar Plum Tinted Lip Treatment

Cost: $22.50

What they say it does: “Fresh Sugar Plum Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15 offers sheer coverage or buildable color and is the perfect partner to the best-selling Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15. It’s formulated with sugar, a natural humectant that prevents moisture loss, and a superior blend of nourishing oils and protective waxes to soften and smooth dry lips.”

Our review: We’ve been hearing loads about this, as a possible alternative to, say, Benetint or … we don’t know, any of several million other lip glosses at Sephora. We’ll give it this: It bills itself as a “lip treatment,” and it did feel like something other than a lip gloss or stain. (We love Benetint, but it can feel a bit thin, whether in stain or lip balm—just like Korres’s lip butters, which are great, but slide off almost immediately.) This was super, surprisingly heavy—goopy, even. But we found it sat on our lips rather than really moisturizing. Which was a little unappealing. We liked the colors more in theory than on our face, too. Altogether, a little disappointing, and certainly not a replacement for any of the products we mentioned above (Korres Lip Butter, Benetint) that we still prefer.

In short: We’ll stick with what we know.

Our grade: B-

We’re so desperate for Reader Mail that we had to steal one from the comments area, from last week’s celebration of all things Korres.

Do you like the Korres primer better than Smashbox photofinish primer? I’m trying to decide which one to buy.

Unbelievably, we have a wealth of information available regarding this question—because primer is our favorite beauty product, and we own both of these, one Smashbox and the Korres as well. We also have an answer: They are quite different. The Korres feels to us more like a moisturizer, while the Smashbox formulation—at least our bottle of it—is quite dry. (It’s so dry that we’ve actually wondered if our bottle would have failed quality control.) What this means is that the Korres feels really nice going on, but the Smashbox looks like it more successfully evens our skin tone and minimizes pore size.

That said, we still go with the Korres. All Korres products are free of parabens and a grocery list of other synthetic things—Smashbox isn’t, as far as the website reports. We’ll say this: Under make-up, maybe we’d go with Smashbox, since it makes things all nice and even. As a one-step moisturizer/foundation/everything, Korres is our choice.

Smashbox Photo-Finish Color Correcting Primer, $38

Korres Face Primer, $28

We went to our first yoga class in six months on Tuesday, and we can safely say that (a) it destroyed us and (b) we were happy to be there, even if the teacher kept saying “ex” instead of “exhale,” which drove us bananas, and (c) everyone in our class (well, the two women on the mats next to us) was wearing this nail polish—which we believe is from the American Apparel downstairs.

This is another of those products that came out while we were somewhere without Internet access. We’re catching up. Also: What’s up with the font? Ew. Anyway: AA nail polish, $6

We love this song so much it’s ridiculous, and we love the video slightly more. We first heard Marina and the Diamonds last year—February 25, 2009, thank you very much Gmail search function—when we were working very late at the NYLON office, and our very nice editor sent it to us to cheer us up because we’d gone all the way to Rite Aid and forgotten to buy snacks. It was successful. (The cheering-up operation.) That song was not the one above: It was “Obsessions (Golden Panda Remix.” But then we saw this one, and we fell in love all over again—apparently, in both music and other things, we are quite fickle.

Here are some screenshots from the song. We put in a call with the video people to see if we could interview the stylist—wish us luck!

Seeing this makes us think of the new “net-zero climate impact” hairspray from Aveda.

Read rest of story…

Product: Clinique’s famous Black Honey, now in Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss

Cost: $14

What they say it does: “Lip balm with a colourful twist. Luscious, high-gloss shades treat your most undermoisturized skin to soothing shine. Instantly relieve dryness, protect with antioxidants and more.”

Our review: This is one of those big products that came out while we were wandering the desert (read: India, Nepal, and Laos) last year, so we were shocked to see it, in that way we were shocked when someone told us that Adam Lambert lost American Idol. Anyway: love! We never entirely understood why Black Honey was such an icon—it’s no Benetint, if you will—but we get it’s one of those colors that more or less works on everyone. (Though this is amazing in the macro sense, we’re not sure why this makes it a must-have in the micro—like, why would we like a product more because our friend Katie can also wear it? No?) Anyway: the fact is that we are part of “everybody,” so it more or less works on us, too, and Clinique knows how to formulate a lip gloss—unlike stupid Aveda, but we’ll get there next week.

In short: A strong recommendation. We churlishly took off a grade because we don’t like the hype.

Our grade: A-

Product: Stila’s One Step Makeup Primecolor

Cost: $22

What they say it does: “Save time and money with this skin-loving makeup that combines the benefits of a primer, foundation, concealer and powder in one luxurious formula.”

Our review: We are filing this one under “too good to be true.” Seriously. People! In particular, Stila makers: We do not necessarily need one product to do a thousand things: common sense tells us that when one thing promises to do many things, it probably fails at all of them. And this is—for the most part—our opinion of Stila’s One Step Makeup. (Mind, it also promises that it “diminishes the look of fine lines and wrinkles,” offers a “velvety, mousse-like formula,” provides a “high-definition, flawless finish,” and “smoothes away imperfections.” (It also promises to be free of parabens and fragrances, and we could not quarrel with that.)

First, we tried the Kitten—a light pink shade—which, we were told, was the best for the blush area. This is our question: primer is something we love, and somewhere we apply basically wherever one needs primer—nose, forehead, chin, etc. But why would we buy a combi-primer-foundation-etc product and just put it where we’d put blush? Why wouldn’t we just use a blush? Confusing. Indeed, Kitten did provide a “velvety, mousse-like formula” that disappeared into our skin about five seconds after it was applied. Not impressed, Stila. Not. Impressed!

We were thinking all sorts of negative things after this, but then we tried the Per Suede on our eyes—since among the many things this product can do, in addition to washing the dishes and mowing the lawn, it can also work as an eye primer. Now this, actually, was surprisingly successful, and for the roughly 15 minutes it was visible, it did a significant proportion of the things it had suggested it might. Then, alas, it was gone. Not, really, what we look for in an eye primer. Disappointed.

In short: Angry hissing.

Our grade: C-

Man, we hate sunscreen, because it gets in the way of our tan, and is just one more thing to forget in the morning, like our keys, and toast. And honestly, it makes us break out for the first three weeks we use it: We spent most of the month of April with these massively volcanic eruptions covering our chin. Now that is an image to begin a morning to.

We spent the last two months traveling with someone who does not wear sunscreen, and who, in fact, says things like, “Why are you putting all those chemicals on your face?” We had no good answer for this, except the mumbling, about the aging. We have been wearing this sunscreen with a ludicrous name: Neutrogena Age Shield + Repair Anti-Aging Sunblock SPF 55 Lotion with Helioplex360. That’s ridiculous. And then there are the active ingredients here: avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, octocrylene, and oxybenzone. Now, we know fuck-all about any of that, but we did find this statement on oxybenzone from the CDC—not, like, the Circus Defense Committee, but the actual Centers for Disease Control—at least, as reported by the Environmental Working Group:

A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that 97% of Americans are contaminated with a widely-used sunscreen ingredient called oxybenzone that has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption, and cell damage.

We totally do not like allergies, hormone disruption, or cell damage. We are wishing we had just worn the freaking hat that everyone said to wear, instead of sunscreen. We found  more interesting information in this report:

Still, dermatologists — even ones who believe the study — are adamant about not overstating the dangers. “It would be terrible to give people the message that sunscreen is bad and you shouldn’t use it,” says Amy B. Lewis, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine. “Right now we have one small, inconclusive study versus huge amounts of data that show that lack of sun protection causes DNA damage, melanoma, basal-cell and squamous cell skin cancer, and horrible deformed moles and wrinkles, and there is great evidence for prolonged use of sunscreen to protect against all of those things.”

We have decided that what this means for us is: sunscreen: yes! Oxy-blah-blah, no. Eh, you do the best you can, with the information you have available at the time. We’re going to go for a mineral sunscreen—like this one, from Skyn Iceland. We know this is in part because we love the packaging. But also, since it’s a mineral (rather than a chemical) sunscreen, it should help us avoid some of the oxy-etc. problems, while not exposing our poor skin to the damaging rays of the sun.

Honestly, we find the whole thing a bit overwhelming. But we’d love to know what other people think about this, and what choices they’ve made.

Above: Skyn Iceland Antidote Mineral Sunscreen, $55 (ridiculously expensive)

So a few weeks ago we were in the Korres store in London, and the gave us all these amazing samples. Like Halloween candy, we have been hoarding them. Unlike Halloween candy, they are suitable for the hair. One of the samples was "conditioner acacia milk," which we recently wrote about here, because we love it. It says it is "for dry hair." Now. Apparently we have not been thinking straight lately. Because there is dry (opposite of oily) and there is dry (opposite of wet.) We chose to interpret "dry" as the latter. Now we are thinking this was an idiotic choice. Now that we're thinking about it, we have used plenty of regular conditioners, and a number of leave-in conditioners, and a few dry shampoos, like from Lush—but all the "for dry hair" conditioners we've ever used did not involve putting conditioner on dry hair.

We think we might go to the Korres store and ask. And because we're almost out of sample—because, after all, this is the only product we've ever used that has actually dealt successfully with our frizzy hair.

We just showed the acacia conditioner a few days ago, so the photo above is of the lip butter. We are obsessed with this—the wild rose is like Benetint, but without that slightly oily sheen you can sometimes get with Benetint. So it's better, and the perfect color. We would have bought it on the spot yesterday, but we left our Sephora gift card at home and—hey, recession. We'll get it tomorrow, though. And! Under $10! Wild Rose lip butter, $9

In today's Reader Mail!

Great thread on eco-friendly cleaning products. I have been trying to do the organic/no crap makeup/hair/skin care as well. It is hard! I would love to know what people have tried and liked. It is hard to know because there are now SO many things to avoid. I wonder if in 25 years we will be laughing at ourselves, sort of like how I laugh at my mom who insisted on putting bran in EVERYTHING for a year when I was a kid, because it was the cure-all.

L.

We're convinced one day someone will discover that sunscreen gives you exactly the sort of ailment it is supposed to prevent. (Er, don't listen to us—we're just bitter because we always forget to wear it.) Anyway: indeed, and still, we go along with it, at least in aspiring to eco-friendly beauty products. But we're easily swayed (we're pretty sure we think of Philosophy as being organic because its packaging is black type on a plain background and that's it.)

We thought we'd point out here that Sephora now has a "natural & organic" tab that features, among many other products, this Juice Beauty Green Apple Antioxidant Moisturizer: "This nutrient-rich moisturizer combines a brightening complex of organic apple, lemon, and grape juices." Sounds delicious, no? And now that we have about $150 in gift cards at Sephora (thanks to their amazingly liberal return policy—never change, Sephora!), maybe we'll try it out.

We'd love to hear from people who are using organic make-up and hair or skincare. Fill us in on what's working! Or not.

So! After all the discussion of the Sephora return policy, we decided to test it ourselves. We’ve been doing a fairly massive pre-pre-pre-spring clean and since we only got halfway through it before leaving for Sundance (which we’re twittering!), it is quite terrifying to observe the current state of our apartment. (Looks like: frat house at dissolute university.) Anyhoo, we ransacked our medicine cabinet and two plastic bags of random makeup and beauty products for anything we bought (or, er, could have bought) at Sephora. First, we noticed that a lot of what we have needs to be thrown away because it is lame hotel giveaways that we hate. Second, we have a lot of Kiehl’s. Third: hurrah! Plenty of stuff to return. All things we should have returned ages ago but spaced on.

Our first effort: at the Short Hills Mall in NJ. (We couldn’t deal with taking them back in NYC, though now we think that it might even have been less stressful since they’re just busy and have less time to snark.) We returned almost-full bottles of Peter Thomas Roth sunscreen (“it made us breakout”) and Philosophy Hope Is Not Enough (“it just didn’t work.”) We did bring the item numbers, but couldn’t tell if they made us look helpful or like professional returners. The salesgirl asked us if the HINE was part of a set—we said no, and then that we couldn’t remember. (All true.) She gave us credit for both. We bought a Black Honey Clinique lip gloss and a replacement Fibrewig (the best mascara ever created.) Net result: gift card, about $20.

Our second effort! The Bridgewater Commons Mall, also in NJ. Here we took back a high-ticket item (that we cannot name since it was a gift) and something we forget—anyway, for $120! All of gift card. Moving forward, our personal rules:

1: No more than two products at a time

2: No need to concoct fancy excuses

3: Er, refer back to #1. It’s pretty straightforward. We did write down the product numbers from the website—which we think helped the process but also might have made us look a bit too fluent in the whole process. Not sure if we’d do that again.

4. And we definitely wouldn’t take back individual items from gift sets, or anything that wasn’t compelling pretty close to full

Yay, Sephora! They own us lock, stock now. In that vein, we’d love any similar stories of people and their favorite brands….