Quarantine Beauty Haul: What I've Been Buying

Throughout quarantine many of the posts I’ve seen from popular beauty publications are focused on self-care, wellness, masking, and the whole idea of being “un-done.” It’s not like we have anywhere to go these days other than the grocery store, and even when we hop on Zoom calls with the same people week after week we may be less inclined to slap on much more than a lightweight CC cream or a single coat of mascara. But after a few weeks in sweats and a barely-there face routine I missed makeup. I missed waking up in the morning and listening to a podcast and putting on different variations of my everyday makeup as I did in my pre-Covid reality.

Also, as someone who works as a beauty content creator for a living, it’s rare that you’ll ever see me handing over my credit card at Sephora or Ulta these days since the products I’m sent from brands more than cover my desire to test out the latest and greatest from beauty brands. But since I’ve chosen to spend this lockdown in NJ, I only brought a small supply of makeup products when I first came here since I figured it wasn’t like I was going anywhere anyway. That got old very quickly and I decided to place two orders from Sephora and Ulta to fill some gaps and test out some products from brands that I am not on the PR mailing list for. I’ll go through the beauty products I purchased during lockdown and if you’re looking for some fashion or lifestyle recommendations for what to buy right now my girl Caitlin has you covered in this blog post.

Sephora sale purchases

I have heard so much about Tower28 and really wanted to try one of their products so ultimately settled on this BeachPlease Tinted Lip + Cheek Balm. I was excited about these and the lip glosses so might try the lip glosses as well!

I really love my Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Lip Kit and was curious to try more from the brand. I consulted Jamie Page’s YouTube video with her top five CT products and ultimately decided to go for Hollywood Flawless Filter in Light 2. I love being able to have an illuminating product like Glossier Futuredew under my makeup so this was an easy buy for me.

Foundation shopping online makes me so nervous because of shade matching but thankfully I was able to see on Sephora’s website that I could put in my shade in the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Foundation and get the shade for the Make Up For Ever Reboot Foundation. I saw Katie Jane Hughes use this one on Instagram stories and I was excited to try it for a more medium coverage not super glowy foundation choice. I wear R230 Ivory.

I was following Trend Mood’s Instagram page super closely waiting for updates on the Rihanna cream products launch and finally got my hands on the Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer in Butta Biscuit. I seriously love it and it’s been fun to even mix this one with my Benefit Hoola Bronzer too.

I didn’t bring my Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder home with me so decided to grab the Veil Setting Powder from Hourglass while I was here. Still have to play with it a little more but I’ve been enjoying trying it out so far.

Allana Davison has been raving about the Tom Ford Bad Ass Mascara for a while now and I was waiting for a reason to buy a $48 mascara and the reason was that I could get a few dollars off of it. I’m pretty impressed with the zero-flake formula so far—I’ll have to keep you posted on how it goes long-term.

Ulta Purchases

If you watched my YouTube video from a few weeks back about getting rid of old/expired beauty products you may remember I came across a highlighter from e.l.f. that I was bummed to be getting rid of, so I found a similar one on Ulta! This is the e.l.f. Cosmetics Baked Highlighter and I have to play with it a little more but so far I really like it.

My friend and fellow content creator Olivia Muenter has raved about Weleda’s Skin Food moisturizer before so I figured I had to pick it up and give it a go. It has an interesting smell to it but is super nourishing as advertised so I’m excited to use this more.

Finally, I wanted another eye shadow palette to play with (of course I have like 30 at my apartment but here I am in New Jersey so…) and I figured it was a great time to try Colourpop. They’re known for their colorful, pigmented, affordable color cosmetics and so I went for the Truly, Madly, Deeply palette, which features some of my all-time favorite eye shadow, shades. The glitters are next level.

I also got two brushes from e.l.f. while I was on Ulta including the Blush Brush and the Small Stipple brush, which were both super affordable at $4 each. Plus, two more of my tried and true favorite makeup applicator the Real Techniques beauty sponge.