Fall Beauty Favorites

I spent the first part of my working years, during college and after, as a beauty consultant at Nordstrom and later doing freelance makeup. I’m still a huge beauty junkie and love to keep up with what is new so I was excited to get to a beauty event at Neiman Marcus in Palo Alto with my friend Jeanne and a other gals a few weeks ago where I learned a new tricks and tried out some very cool products!

Once a year or more, I think it’s important get to a beauty counter and see what’s new and sniff around a bit. With skincare and makeup, things are always being reformulated and improved. As we get older it’s easy to get stuck in a beauty rut, but that can age you. You won’t know what a difference something can make unless you try new things. Fortunately. they make foundations and powders now that give skin a flawless look and reflect light without being heavy. No one should be wearing foundation that cakes or settles into your pores anymore. If you still wear the same foundation you did a few years ago, it’s time to get some samples and see what is new. Most new makeups create a beautiful blur that makes imperfections largely go away.

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Thanks to this beauty event, (that is my cute friends with above all taking notes during this show), I also found a new foundation and a new to me line to love, Chantecaille. I’d been using a tinted moisturizer so I went a step-up in coverage. This is my first time wearing a foundation in a jar, and one that has a peachy tone. I am ruddy because of rosacea, but have yellow undertones. I feel like this doesn’t look like makeup at all on, yet really gives my skin a beautiful glow. I believe the primer/sunscreen may be a factor in this too. I don’t notice my pores, lines and darkness with the two on. This is what I am using..

Chantecaille Future Skin Foundation is creamy, yet oil free. This is adjustable coverage you can layer if you want more. It feels like nothing on the skin and contains botanicals to calm, soothe and protect. This line is all vegan and cruelty free.

Chantecaille Sunscreen Primer. A little goes a long way and I have been loving how this protects my skin, SPF 45 without making it white. It is anti-inflammatory, protects against free-radicals and collagen loss. This, the foundation and all the other beautiful Chantecaille products like their Radiance Gel Bronzer, their Mermaid Eye Color (love this too)- are on sale at Neimans right now during their Beauty Sale and they come with Chantecaille gifts.

Neiman’s now carries the line KohGenDo from Japan. Formulated by a film star who wanted her skin to look perfect, this powder is a perfecter you dust on and it gives a soft glow to the whole face. This is not the heavy old- school powders that set on the skin and can age you. This will soften imperfections, which is what a modern setting powder should do.

Another discovery was Marc Jacob’s Beauty, his new skincare and makeup line and the women were going gaga for it on this beauty event. My friend Jeanne and I both bought the Highliner Gel Eye Crayon. They go on like butter and stay all day. I bought one called Brownout. Right now they are on sale for $21 so I may have to stock up on a few other cool colors like Stonefox, Violet Femme, and Jazzberry. This amazing product won the 2018 InStyle Beauty award for best eye pencil! If you want a smokey look you can smudge it right after applying, or let it set for 15 seconds and it won’t budge. It has 12 hour waterproof wear, yet it’s easy to remove with a regular cleanser.

Marc’s line also makes a wonderful new creme called Youthquake and it feels great and improves hydration and skin texture with pineapple enzymes and other wizardry to create hydrated and smooth skin. I love how pretty my skin looked from it. It’s on sale now too for $50. All of the Marc Jacob’s products are so innovative. The colors and formulations are really fun and have a retro vibe, like something your mom may have used in the 70s, and they are fairly good price points.

At Neiman’s I was given two other samples – a lip oil from Lilah B. a new line with some very lovely dual products that work for lip/cheek and eye. Her line is supposed to simplify and streamline beauty so you have less and I love that idea. All the products are vegan, gluten, synthetic and cruelty free. The lip oil is like gloss but with treatment. I am ordering the tinted lip balm in Savvy , below the perfect fall tone.

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Grown Alchemist is another line we learned about and I am crazy for their cleanser. This line is the creation of skin scientists and nutritionists and is made with high quality performing ingredients. I’d love to try all their skin mists, hand and body cremes too.

The other win from this beauty day was discovering ReVive Moisturizing Night Creme which retexturizers, brightens, firms and renews the skin as you sleep. It feels so good going on and when you wake up, your skin looks radiant. For the cost, I would hope so, but it is on sale also right now.

In other beauty news, Neiman’s is now carrying Borghese here. I thought perhaps that line and it’s wonderful Italian muds was gone forever. Even their cult Crema Saponetta cleanser is in the newly repackaged line, so check it out if you were a fan of their lovely Italian products. My mom swore by the cleanser and the mud and I sold this line for a while a Nordstrom and it always had a huge fan base, due to the results people saw from it.

In the category of very affordable, my other fall must have are the beauty staples from the brand Glossier. Have any of you tried this brand? It has a huge following thanks to its Boy Brow product. I love the small wand and perfect amount of color for brows it leaves.

I also have their Brow Flick pen, so precise in drawing in each little hair of your brow if you want more definition and fullness.

And now..I’m in love with their semi-matte Generation G Lipstick (Like is the most flattering deep pink) that gives your lips the perfect just blotted look. Their Lash Slick Lengthening Mascara gives full fluffy lashes and stays on all day, without smudging and comes off easily. These products are excellent and so affordable. The lipstick and mascara are my daily!

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Going into fall and winter, I use a lot of great products from Europe that are found in pharmacies there and we are now lucky to be able to buy here at home. The EU has much stricter standards for beauty products, so I always feel good using items from there.

My hair really becomes dried out like a haystack once cool weather hits. Highlighting it more often actually helps, but I also cannot live without Phyto 7 Creme from France. This is a leave-in conditioner that I use after my regular shampoo/conditioner. I rub about a nickel size, into the ends of my hair and around the face framing strands in the front when it’s towel dried. This line is all plant based and I’ve been using it since I sold it a Nordstrom ages ago. I have yet to find a similar product as good as this and if you have coarse hair you can try Phyto 9, which is a bit richer. I have fine hair and 7 is perfect for making my hair shine and look healthy without weighing it down. Their Rum Shampoo is another wonderful product I will occasionally splurge on. Phyto products are all made in France and botanical based and I usually buy them at Nordstrom.

While we are on hair, I recently rediscovered Klorane Blonde Highlights Shampoo with Camomile I had used as a teen. Back then, it was so exotic coming from France. It was rare to find an imported beauty product back then. I thought I’d give it another try as it’s having it’s 50th anniversary. It still is amazing and is better than any blonde shampoo making your hair look baby shiny and the color fresh. Klorane’s famous Dry Shampoo is also super clean without a smell and lifts the hair as well as making it feel great, not leaving a dirty dry feel some can. Klorane makes all kinds of unique hair items and many can be found at your local Pharmaca store, like ours in Los Gatos, or here. Their brand uses only botanicals it grows, is vegan and cruelty free and a portion of their profits goes to fund school gardens in the U.S.A. through the Budding Botanist Grant.

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Lastly, as I have mentioned before, I cannot live without Weleda Products, from Germany, most importantly their Skinfood. I apply this about zillion times a day to my hands, and before bed to my feet and heels and back of my neck etc. This stuff is amazing, but you have to learn how to use it.

It’s uber thick and has a eucalyptus scent. Start by putting a blob on the back of one hand and rub the two backs together, then take the remainder and work it into your cuticles and between the fingers. Seems simple, but people can be put off by the thickness. If you have dry or old lady looking hands like me – nothing is as good, or fakes young skin like this stuff. This and all Weleda products are super pure, plant based. Skinfood can be used for chapped facial skin too, or as a moisturizer in very dry months. I have heard some like it as a highlighter on the face. I personally take it skiing. I’m super sensitive and have never broken out from it, it’s so pure. I also love their Baby Calendula Face Creme, a lovely pure creme I pack over any treatment products I wear at night. Check out their whole line – amazing plant based products. Find Skin Food at Whole Foods or here.

Lastly this is my autumn fragrance I’ve been loving, Boy from Chanel. I was drawn to it because my life is filled with boys. I also read the Chanel’s Riviera book this summer and this fragrance is inspired by her British boyfriend, Boy Capel, and Chanels’ love of masculine dress. It is the nicest sort of fresh scent with some musky undertones. The website describes it as lavender and geranium with woody notes. Perfect for this season!

I’d love to hear your beauty favorites or discoveries you’ve made lately. Please share below. I always want to hear what works for others as there is just so many choices out there!

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Have a good week. I am especially keeping all those in California in my heart right now and hoping these winds and fires get under control soon. It’s becoming an annual fall tragedy and it isn’t good.

Take care friends,

Kim