Hey, Byrdie!
This is Amanda Montell,
Byrdie’s features editor
and one of our staff’s resident makeup fiends.
One of the more taxing parts of my job on
Byrdie’s edit team
is to try hundreds of makeup products.
It’s really fun, but I also take it pretty
seriously because when I write about products,
I want to make sure that I’m writing about
ones that I really stand by, and even though
I’ve tried so many, I really only use like
5 or 10 all the time,
and the 5 that I have to show you today are the ones that I use almost every day.
So, the first product that I have is a product
I’ve had for like three years,
so you’ll have to bear with me.
The mirror is completely shattered, not at
any fault of the product itself.
It’s that I literally throw this in my suitcase
every time I travel.
It’s Tarte’s In Bloom palette.
It is truly the only eye shadow palette I
use.
It just has the perfect combination of matte
and shimmery shades that you can use to create
an everyday look.
There’s this shade called Funny Girl; it’s
like this warm champagney shade that I’ll
use every day to look really awake and really
bright, but then it’s also got these matte
shades if you want to kind of contour your
eye, and you can use the whole combination
to create like a smoky, sultry look too.
The formulas are really blendable.
There’s a little bit of fallout, but such
is the case with powder eye shadow.
Hasn’t ruined my life yet.
It’s just the most solid palette.
Next up is this Sisley Phyto Lip Twist.
If you’ve read any of my makeup stories
on Byrdie, you are sick of hearing about this
feature as I talk about it every day.
This Sisley tinted lip balm is so expensive.
It’s $50 for one tube of this stuff, and
yet I own three of them and have never regretted
a single purchase.
I wear this stuff every single day.
This is a really hydrating, super-pigmented
lip balm that I particularly love in this
coral shade, but there’s a pink one that
I love and a nude one that I love.
But I don’t just use it on my lips.
I mean, it looks and feel beautiful on the
lips, it stays all day, it is so pigmented,
it feels really comfortable, it yields scores
of compliments.
I’ll also use it as kind of like a cream
eye shadow and put it on my cheeks, which
creates this like really modern, whimsical,
monochromatic look.
It’s kind of a signature, and I love it.
Next, this is a new addition to my rotation
of beauty products that I use all the time.
I’m really obsessed with my brows.
I have this kind of straight-across, thick
caterpillar brow steez happening, which was
difficult back in the early to mid-2000s when
the skinny look was in, but now I feel blessed,
I’ve been redeemed, so I like them to look
as thick and feathered as humanly possible,
and this is the one brow gel that really gets
me there, helps me fulfill my potential.
It’s this brow gel from an Australian brand
called ModelCo.
I use the dark brown shade because it’s
the one that matches the base color of my
hair, but what I love about this brow gel
is that it really, really adheres to your
individual brow hairs without getting all
over your skin, so you look like a mess.
It does not do that, and it holds them in
place, so you get this really model-esque,
feathered brow look.
Shook over this product—love it.
It’s my favorite brow gel ever.
Next up, we have the only foundation I will
agree to use.
I only wear foundation every so often.
I definitely don’t wear it every day, but
when I do, I’m wearing Koh Gen Do’s foundation.
This is kind of a sleeper hit.
I always see it in makeup artist kits, but
I don’t tend to see it in my friends’
bathrooms.
What I love about this foundation is that
it is so unbelievably lightweight.
I heard from someone who works at the brand
that it’s the go-to foundation for a lot
of Japanese makeup artists because on super-super-high-def
TV and film, it’s the one that looks like
human skin, and I find the same result.
I just apply it with my fingers.
I find that that’s the easiest, and I love
the result every time.
It’s the best.
Last product, we have this Kosas sort of cream
contour and highlight palette.
This is also a new favorite of mine, but I’ve
been carrying it in my bag every single day.
It’s a really high-quality compact.
Like, I love the mirror part of it because
if you need to like check your face.
You know how it is: You’re on a date, got
some spinach in your teeth, kale.
I’m not eating kale on a date.
Anyway, I love this product because it’s
got this really blendable cream contour and
highlight formula.
I’ll use it on my eyes; I’ll use it on
my face.
This highlight is super dewy.
It’s not chunky; it’s not literary.
I’ll tap it on the high points of my cheeks.
I’ll tap it on the tip of my nose, Cupid's
bow, in the inner corners of my eyes, just
to look really awake.
It’s blendable.
It’s pretty—it’s not a mistake.
Thank you all so much for watching this makeup
edition of Just Five Things, and let us know
what would you like to see curated in the
next Five Things episode.
Leave your comments below.
See you next time!
